What is the one thing that would change everything for you as a writer?

What I mean is when you think about what you really want and you think about where you are now, what is the change that you could make that would make a difference?

Let me tell you what I mean.

When I would go to monthly meetings with the romance writers and I would see everyone writing and publishing.

And I'd feel frustrated.

They had what I wanted: getting published, writing for their readers, bringing in an income from their heartfelt stories.

I hadn't even published a romance yet.

Plus, it had taken me 13 years to publish my YA fantasy trilogy.

I finally asked myself:

What is it that they're doing that I'm not doing?

I knew I was a good writer now, after working hard on my fiction for over 10 years.

But there was a gap.

I wanted what they had.

I wanted to be writing and publishing, but I wasn't.

What was going on?

So, I chatted with people and listened to people's stories, and watched how they behaved.

Then -- boom -- the answer hit me over the head; it was so simple.

They were sitting down, doing the work, and then putting out their books at a fairly rapid cadence.

I could sit down and get writing faster than I had been, too.

But I knew their cadence wouldn't be sustainable for me.

I needed to figure out how I could write and publish faster, to rinse and repeat more quickly.

I'd taken 13 years to write and publish my first three novels (my YA fantasy series, Henrietta The Dragon Slayer), and now I was hungry for a faster pace.

But not their pace of three to four books a year.

So I thought, okay, I gotta find a way to just write quicker.

Fast forward a bit, an opportunity came up to write a novella with two other writers, my critique partners in a short amount of time. (I can't remember how long that was! Maybe 2-3 months?)

A group challenge! So fun!

And boom, Touchstone of Love was born.

All in all, I wrote and published 5 sweet paranormal romance novellas in 2 years.

Learned a ton in the process and satisfied my need to be writing more, more often.

I was able to apply what I learned to my next series.

And now when I'm stuck, I still focus on the one thing that will make the difference,

Now it's your turn.

What is it that you want as a writer?

Be curious about where you are now and where you'd like to be.

Be curious about the gap.

You don't have to have the answer right away.

Be curious and let all the parts of you that knows how to figure out problems and knows how to find solutions to problems, to find the answer for you.

You may be really surprised.

Prompts to ask yourself:

• Where am I now with my writing?

• Where do I want to be?

• How can I have it be the way I want it in a way that works for me?

Be curious about what comes up and explore lots of ideas as an adventurer.

Let me know what happens!

Be sure to write me.

I would love to hear about this experiment.

Here's the NLP question to play with:

Meaning -- how can you create the change that you want in a way that works for you?

You got this, courageous explorer!

❤️