Bethany Henry: Writing & Wellness

Writing is a unique endeavor in many ways. We have ideas, yet we never know exactly what our end product will look like. We plan, yet there is no guarantee when success will show up. We write, but we don’t always see progress. Writing often means waiting to see results. But we’re playing the long game here, and we know we won’t need to be waiting forever. Right now it’s cold here in New England. Winter is definitely here and I’m trying to stay warm by drinking copious amounts of tea and hiding under cozy blankets. But even when the winter seems endless, we know it won’t last forever. We can have confidence that spring will come again, even when we can’t see it now. And we can have confidence in our writing, even when we don’t see success yet. Our writing may not produce results (finished drafts, publishing deals, etc) as quickly as we’d like, in the same way that cold of winter can sometimes outstay its welcome. Sometimes we get excited for that first really warm day- maybe spring ...

The last few chapters of my drafts consistently take me way way longer than they should. Is it because the exciting conclusion is just so exciting I don’t want to leave? (That can’t be a bad thing, right?) But there’s more to it than that. A lot of why I struggle to finish my drafts has nothing to do with my story and everything to do with fear. The War of Art  by  Steven Pressfield  calls our fears “resistance” and talks about how they try to hold us back from writing in many different ways. For me, one recurring fear is a fear of finishing my work. Maybe your fear hits hardest before you even start writing a single word. Maybe the fears show up every single day. Whatever the fears are- you’re definitely not alone! These fears and resistance take a lot of different forms. They can be sneaky, which is why I’m taking a bit of time to call a few of them out today. Once we’ve spotted them it’s a lot easier to face them head on. 5 Reasons I Fear Finishing My Story Fear 1- I’m...

Ever thought about setting up your own website? Daydreamed of writing your own blog? Maybe put off both of the above because it just seemed like a lot of work? Today we’re looking at both why you should have your own website (yes, you really should) and why it’s easier than you think. We’ll also cover some brainstorming to get started. First of all: Today it is more important than ever to have some sort of online presence. Pretty much everyone is online to some degree these days, which means if we *aren’t* online we’re missing out on a huge way of connecting with our readers, customers, and various resources. Having our own website: gives us credibility connects us with readers/customers can be a fun creative outlet is an avenue to make money connects us with other professionals/chances to network shows we take our work seriously tells people how to contact us I’d recommend everyone have a website if they have any interest in self entrepreneurship, which includes publishing a book. Qui...