Bethany Henry: Writing & Wellness

New year, new goals, fresh starts . What do you want to do this year? Who do you want to be? What do you want to leave behind? I’ve been rethinking goals and priorities and it’s both challenging and refreshing to contemplate changes. What would it look like if we could shape our lives how we wanted to? What would be an ideal situation for our writing and creativity? Throwing pesky things like “real life” aside… what would we do if we could do anything? We don’t need to keep things the same as they’ve been before or try to match certain expectations… while these can provide guidance at times, sometimes it’s valuable to take a step back and brainstorm with a blank page ahead of us. Dreaming and dreaming big is important for helping us realize what we care most about and what we may want to focus on. Obviously real life does exist which is why along with our writing goals we should also keep self-care, time management, and things like boundaries in mind. ...

The end of the year is approaching and I hope we’re all taking a bit of time to rest and reflect. These may be simple practices but they are so important! And they also prepare us for looking forward. There isn’t anything magical about goals that are set on January 1st but it’s a decent time to consider what we’re doing and why. Goals can be powerful ways of identifying our priorities and focusing our attention. With that in mind, today we’re looking at questions to ask when looking back at the past year as well as a few prompts for the year ahead. Reviewing Where We’ve Been 10 questions to ask about the past year: What has gone well? What has gone not-so-well? What have we felt fulfilled by? What or who has encouraged us? What has drained us? What would we like to do better? What do we want more of? What did we not get a chance to do ? What went according to plan? What surprised us? Looking Forward To What’s Next 4 prompts for the year ahead: What 1-3 tasks are the most important thin...

Last week I talked about the importance of reading for writers and the various types of benefits books can have. Which got me to thinking about what I’ve been reading lately and what’s on my to-read list! Hopefully we will all be getting a bit of time over the holidays to do some reading, right? Let’s make this happen! Here are some of my reading lists for you to enjoy and hopefully feel inspired by 🙂 Bethany’s Reading Lists Best of the year: Since 2021 is drawing quickly to a close I suppose it’s the perfect time to look back on a years worth of reading! I was lazy in my record keeping and only counted 67 of the books I read- the real number is higher. Overall I read a wide range of books with a maybe more than average amount of fantasy novels. Based on no specific formula, here were a few of my favorites: The Gifts of Imperfection by Brené Brown I read this book slowly over the entire year- there is so much in here! And every bit of it is gold. This is a book to buy, to wri...

Stephen King has famously said: “If you don’t have time to read, you don’t have the time (or the tools) to write.” And who are we to argue? Sometimes it’s easy to get caught up in the busyness of getting our writing done, the busyness of upcoming holidays, or the general chaos of everyday life. Reading can be seen as a luxury and not very important. Except maybe that’s actually wrong because maybe reading  is  important after all. Very important. Stephen King isn’t the only author to extol the value of reading, after all. Countless writers point to reading as an inescapable part of their lives and their work. William Faulkner put it this way: “Read, read, read. Read everything — trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master.” Reading has many benefits. Reading can be many different things. Reading can be a way to learn. It can also be a way to process and experience the beauty and power of la...

Sometimes we’re totally ready for a new challenge or adventure. Other times… maybe not so much. Getting Started: Ready or Not? I’ve been thinking about challenges as Nanowrimo starts off this week- I have been hemming and hawing about whether or not to sign up because no, I don’t feel ready. I’m reminded that there are times when it is best to hold off on starting, times when it’s best to bide our time, regroup, and make preparations. Times when it may be best to give up entirely if we realize we’re on the wrong path. Sometimes it’s wise to know when we just aren’t ready. But then sometimes it’s best to just go for it. Sometimes we need to step forward even when we aren’t 100% comfortable. As the great E.B White said, “A writer who waits for ideal conditions under which to work will die without putting a word to paper.” Even if we aren’t completely ready, starting forward can give us clarity of focus and can help us gain momentum. It can help us overco...

Fall is solidly here and I’m hearing about all these amazing things that the kids are learning at school. They’re learning new reading and writing strategies, what different dinosaurs ate, taking Chinese language classes, practicing deep breathing and conflict resolution, and figuring out word problems in math. And I’m just so impressed! Gosh, when was the last time I learned some of that stuff? When have I learned about new animals, reviewed some history, or practiced a new meditation strategy? In the interests of broadening our horizons, let’s try some new things today. Even just brushing the surface of a topic we may not think of frequently can enrich our lives and help our minds be a little more flexible. And, of course, continuing to feed our minds can help our creativity grow and flourish! So pick something off this list, come up with your own ideas, or do them all! And let’s see where it takes us 🙂 New Things Challenge: Listen to music in a genre you’re not familiar with (p...

Do you get up before dawn and write first thing in the morning? Do you have a special “writing nook” or space of some sort to work in? Do you write for five minutes at a time or fifty? Writing can look like lots of different things. The tl;dr version is that there is no ONE WAY to write! And yet we’re curious (of course) about how other writers work. How do famous authors operate, and can we somehow steal some of their magic for ourselves? What habits would be helpful to emulate? Here are a few well-known authors and how they write… what do you think? 🙂 Writing Habits of Writers Dan Brown:  Uses an hourglass to track writing time and after every hour takes a break for exercise. Will also hang upside-down in order to “relax” when thinking stories through. This reminds me of the  pomodoro method  of writing, though I’m not sure I’ll adopt the hanging upside-down strategy… Barak Obama:  Wrote his (long!) memoir out longhand on a yellow legal pad. He said typing was too...