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Stacy @ ProWritingAid: Hmm.

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Stacy @ ProWritingAid: See me?

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Stacy @ ProWritingAid: Okay, Andy. Okay, Hello, everyone.

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Stacy @ ProWritingAid: Hi, I'm Stacy from providing aid. Thank you so much for joining us today. If you can hear and see me. Please drop your name and location in the chat, and I'll go ahead and share some links there for you. As well.

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Stacy @ ProWritingAid: See. Oh, Canada, California, Texas. I'm in Texas, too.

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Stacy @ ProWritingAid: Lots, California, Hawaii, Kansas, England.

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Stacy @ ProWritingAid: d. From Maryland.

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Stacy @ ProWritingAid: Washington. Fool! Y'all are just coming in now. Can't keep up

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Stacy @ ProWritingAid: Belgium. Oh, that's awesome. Tokyo.

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Stacy @ ProWritingAid: Canada, lots of Canada. Okay.

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Stacy @ ProWritingAid: right? We go ahead and share those links for us.

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Stacy @ ProWritingAid: Awesome.

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Stacy @ ProWritingAid: Okay? So before we get started, we just have a few housekeeping items. Let me go ahead and share my screen.

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Stacy @ ProWritingAid: Okay?

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Stacy @ ProWritingAid: So first, you can access your fantasy week replays by going to the Hub page replays for Monday through Thursday. Sessions are available for everyone on the hub. As soon as they're done processing by zoom they will also be posted to our community page for all members to view by May third

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Stacy @ ProWritingAid: premium day details. Friday is our premium day for premium and premium pro members only. If you are a premium or premium pro user. You will receive an email on Friday morning with instructions for accessing those sessions.

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Stacy @ ProWritingAid: If you're interested in upgrading so that you can attend premium day. We have an offer for attendees this week for 25% off yearly pro writing a premium and premium pro subscriptions. You can upgrade by Friday morning to receive access to the Premium Day sessions.

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Stacy @ ProWritingAid: If you like to keep the fantasy writing conversation going, we'd love to have you in our private online writing community joining is easy. You simply visit the link below and then log in with your providing aid account information.

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Stacy @ ProWritingAid: Then you can hop over to the live event, chat, to talk to other attendees.

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Stacy @ ProWritingAid: and lastly, just a few reminders for today. If you have a question for our speaker. Please use the Q&A box. You can find that info or the the button in the center of your zoom screen.

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Stacy @ ProWritingAid: and if you'd like to chat with other viewers. Please use the chat and be sure to select everyone. Otherwise your messages will just come to the host and the panelists. Links to your offers from providing aid, and all of our speakers from this week will be available on the Fantasy week. Hub.

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Stacy @ ProWritingAid: So with that being said, I believe we're ready to begin. I'm going to stop sharing

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Stacy @ ProWritingAid: alright. So today we are joined by the magnificent Isabel Sterling. Hi, Isabel!

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Stacy @ ProWritingAid: Isabel is a master certified coach, and the founder of the competent author Academy, where she helps novelists create sustainable burnout, free authors, careers. A traditionally published author herself, Isabelle writes twisty paranormal thrillers about magical, queer girls who find love after heartbreak. Her novels include these witches. Don't burn this coven won't break, and the coldest touch.

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Stacy @ ProWritingAid: So let's go ahead and get started, Isabelle. Please feel free

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Stacy @ ProWritingAid: way.

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Isabel Sterling: Yeah, let's do

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Isabel Sterling: some stuff. Alright. Everybody can see the video I'm hoping, or the slide

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Isabel Sterling: and assume, that's a yes, beautiful. Thank you. All right. We are going to dive right in, so welcome to beyond burnout how to stay in love with writing and build a sustainable author career.

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Isabel Sterling: There have been so many outstanding workshops this week already on the craft and business of writing.

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Isabel Sterling: providing and selling fantasy novels for this presentation. We're going to take a step back from craft and look at you, the author, your brain, your emotions, how you can thrive

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Isabel Sterling: as a writer.

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Isabel Sterling: how to really protect your love of writing how to keep yourself from burning out.

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Isabel Sterling: We're going to talk about. How do you have the energy and the stamina to actually implement all of the brilliant things that you learned this week.

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Isabel Sterling: I'm also just gonna there we go, PIN that there. Now, I can see what I'm doing. Beautiful. Okay? And also, with all of this it doesn't matter whether you're planning to go traditional publishing or Indie publishing, or if you're planning to take a hybrid approach.

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Isabel Sterling: I believe that all publishing paths are valid.

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Isabel Sterling: They all have pros and cons, and all of them have a tendency to push authors into burnout.

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Isabel Sterling: So what you're going to learn today is going to work for whatever type of book you write, whatever type of fantasy you're into, and however you intend to publish

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Isabel Sterling: so a little bit more about me. Who the heck am I? These are my books. So as as was shared, I write twisty paranormal, more thrillers about magical, queer girls. My first 3 books were published by Razor Bill, which is part of Penguin Random House, and since my debut came out in 2019.

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Isabel Sterling: My books have been translated into 3 different languages, and have sold over a hundred 1,000 copies.

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Isabel Sterling: and relevant to this particular topic, I experienced massive burnout from about 2018 to 2020. That was right. As I was gearing up for my debut, I was doing edits. I was trying to write Book 2, and through that experience of being so burnt out of writing truly getting to a place where it wasn't fun anymore.

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Isabel Sterling: I did a lot of work to find that fun again to get that joy back. And through that process

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Isabel Sterling: I became a master certified life coach and founded the confident Author Academy.

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Isabel Sterling: So I've made it my mission to help authors not go through what I went through to actually continue to enjoy this thing that we love. We get into publishing and writing because we love it.

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Isabel Sterling: and we deserve to continue to love it. So I help authors at every stage, from pre-published to debut authors, to authors who have 10 plus books published, and I help them end their burnout, increase their confidence, and fall back in love with writing. And the reason I do this. The reason that I have made this my life's mission is because what we do as writers and as storytellers matters deeply.

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Isabel Sterling: stories, matter.

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Isabel Sterling: and in particular.

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Isabel Sterling: I think fantasy stories matter. They change the way we see the world and our place within it. If you were here earlier in the week, and you saw Danny Abernathy's talk on world-changing role building was like chef kiss. So good. I was like, absolutely. Yes, what we do as fantasy writers can change the world.

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Isabel Sterling: Now.

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Isabel Sterling: despite books being so important, the publishing industry is not set up with our mental health, or are the like the longevity of our careers in mind.

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Isabel Sterling: Very often authors are treated like we're disposable

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Isabel Sterling: and like, we can just be replaced by somebody else at any time.

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Isabel Sterling: And those issues and all of the pressures of combining art and commerce, pushes so many writers into burnout, and then they ultimately leave publishing.

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Isabel Sterling: and they quit, not because they're not good enough, but because it.

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Isabel Sterling: The toll of being in this industry starts to feel too hard.

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Isabel Sterling: and every person here deserves a long, successful fun author career.

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Isabel Sterling: and I hope you agree. So I'm going to teach you how to do that today.

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Isabel Sterling: So what we're going to go over, we're going to start with the root cause of burnout.

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Isabel Sterling: why it happens

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Isabel Sterling: what is like, what is really the reason why writing starts to feel so hard, why we start to question if we should keep going.

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Isabel Sterling: We're going to talk about the solution for burnout.

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Isabel Sterling: which is going to include reducing

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Isabel Sterling: the unnecessary parts of effort

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Isabel Sterling: and increasing our internal sense of reward.

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Isabel Sterling: And then I'm also gonna leave you with practical tools, things that you can start doing today, your very next writing session that are gonna help you stay in love with writing so specifically what to do. We'll talk about the long term cumulative effects of doing this work.

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Isabel Sterling: and you will also have a downloadable worksheet. So some of you've already got this. If you don't it's Isabelle australian.com slash burnout. You can use this QR code. It's gonna be sprinkled throughout the presentation. I believe it might be in the chat at some point. But that is where you can get the worksheet that will go through later. You don't have to do it until afterwards, so you don't need it right this minute, but if you want it you can get it.

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Isabel Sterling: Alright.

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Isabel Sterling: Let's talk about the root cause of author burnout.

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Isabel Sterling: Why does it happen? Where does it come from

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Isabel Sterling: now? Overall?

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Isabel Sterling: I would say that we are experiencing an epidemic of author Burnout.

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Isabel Sterling: So many authors

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Isabel Sterling: are losing weeks and months of writing time after deadlines. They're feeling creatively stuck. They're starting to question whether it's even worth it to keep going.

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Isabel Sterling: And this happens at every stage. This happens where people are just trying to get agents for the first time, or they're trying to finish their first book, and it feels like it's taking too long. And it happens with authors who have 2, 3, 4, 10 books already published

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Isabel Sterling: right

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Isabel Sterling: so, and many debuts, authors who are publishing their first book, after putting all of the effort into doing that.

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Isabel Sterling: all of the oftentime years of work. They never go on to sell another book.

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Isabel Sterling: And like I said, it's not because people aren't good enough.

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Isabel Sterling: It's because this industry and the way it's set up is

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Isabel Sterling: unfortunately pretty much designed to crush your creativity.

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Isabel Sterling: But it's not all doom and gloom.

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Isabel Sterling: It's really not. We can absolutely feel better about writing. We can navigate this industry in a way that feels good, and we can have confidence, and we can

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Isabel Sterling: protect the love of writing.

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Isabel Sterling: So we don't have to end up in this place where we are overwhelmed and staring at our book, wondering if we should even keep going or not

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Isabel Sterling: so ideally.

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Isabel Sterling: We want to spot burnout.

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Isabel Sterling: We want to spot that. It's coming towards us before we get all the way there, and like need some serious intervention to feel better.

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Isabel Sterling: So I want to go through some of the signs that you might see that burnout is coming for you.

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Isabel Sterling: so you can catch it early.

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Isabel Sterling: So I've broken this up into 3 categories of ways that you can tell. So it's you can look for the things that you're thinking, the things that you're feeling or the actions that you're taking.

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Isabel Sterling: So some signs that you might be headed toward Burnout.

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Isabel Sterling: or when you catch yourself thinking things like.

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Isabel Sterling: why do I even bother working so hard.

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Isabel Sterling: No one knows about my book. The stupid plot is not working.

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Isabel Sterling: I am so far behind. I am never going to get this

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Isabel Sterling: right? So those kind of thoughts

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Isabel Sterling: can be a sign that Bernard might be creeping in.

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Isabel Sterling: and everybody, I will say everybody has doubts sometimes if but if these are to become your most often thought

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Isabel Sterling: sentences in your head about your writing. That's when you want to worry about it.

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Isabel Sterling: All right.

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Isabel Sterling: The feeling side.

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Isabel Sterling: What do you feel when you write again most of the time?

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Isabel Sterling: Is it pressure?

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Isabel Sterling: Do you feel dread?

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Isabel Sterling: It's anxiety, and just like blocked. And you're just really tense whenever you think about getting to the page.

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Isabel Sterling: Or is it this sense of apathy, of like, I don't know doesn't even matter

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Isabel Sterling: like why bother

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Isabel Sterling: for me. Personally, apathy is my biggest red flag. If I don't feel like I care about what I'm doing, it's usually because

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Isabel Sterling: something's going on that has me tipping towards burnout.

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Isabel Sterling: Now, if you aren't really catching or noticing the thoughts or the feelings, you might notice it more might be more evident to you in the actions that you take.

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Isabel Sterling: So this is things like doom scrolling on social media and just being stuck there.

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Isabel Sterling: avoiding your book.

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Isabel Sterling: you have writing it on your calendar, and it's the first thing that you are always pushing to do literally anything else

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Isabel Sterling: could also show up in writing and rewriting and rewriting the same chapter over and over and over, or it might look like jumping from product to project and never actually finishing.

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Isabel Sterling: So these are.

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Isabel Sterling: you know, it's going to be individual to you. But these are some of the things that you can look for.

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Isabel Sterling: Now let's talk about what is actually causing this like, what is the thing?

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Isabel Sterling: That is causing your burnout? And so you've got this person who is like jumping off the edge of a cliff, and

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Isabel Sterling: I like to think about burnout as being a a disconnect, or too big of a gap

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Isabel Sterling: between 2 things.

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Isabel Sterling: the first being your effort.

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Isabel Sterling: So you're putting in a lot of effort to write. So maybe you have long writing sessions. You're sacrificing social plans, you you're collecting these piles of rejections.

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Isabel Sterling: That you know, really sting.

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Isabel Sterling: And so you've got that going. And then on the other side, way, far away.

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Isabel Sterling: super far away. The super long jump you have to make

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Isabel Sterling: is the reward. The book deal, the good sales, numbers, the amazing reviews.

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Isabel Sterling: and what happens is if

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Isabel Sterling: the gap between effort and reward gets to be too far apart.

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Isabel Sterling: You fall

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Isabel Sterling: and you fall into burnout. It's that pit of despair.

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Isabel Sterling: Now

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Isabel Sterling: we cannot create books without some effort. Right? Books take time.

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Isabel Sterling: especially, you know, writing a novel at all, writing multiple novels and building the skill sets. You need to

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Isabel Sterling: bright books that are publishable like that takes time. It takes work.

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Isabel Sterling: But

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Isabel Sterling: when we are only looking at reward as these external pieces of validation.

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Isabel Sterling: it's like that takes a long time to wait for. And so as this distance grows, it gets harder and harder and harder to stay in love with writing and to feel motivated and inspired.

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Isabel Sterling: So what we need to do to solve for this burnout

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Isabel Sterling: is we have to start to balance the scales

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Isabel Sterling: right? We need to start to shrink that gap.

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Isabel Sterling: and you can do that one of 3 ways

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Isabel Sterling: you can reduce the effort that you spend.

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Isabel Sterling: you can increase the reward

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Isabel Sterling: or my personal recommendation, and which is what I'm going to teach today is you do both

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Isabel Sterling: now before you panic and leave. I am not saying that you stop working hard.

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Isabel Sterling: There is a difference between putting in effort and working hard and

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Isabel Sterling: putting in a lot of unnecessary

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Isabel Sterling: extra effort.

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Isabel Sterling: So when you reduce effort, you might do things like

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Isabel Sterling: planning a day off every now and then

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Isabel Sterling: setting some work boundaries.

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Isabel Sterling: deciding. You know what? I'm gonna work really hard towards this project. But I'm gonna make sure I get my 7 h of sleep every night. That might be a boundary you set

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Isabel Sterling: having to unlearn perfectionism

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Isabel Sterling: alright, and then part of reducing effort is reducing the pain of the effort.

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Isabel Sterling: and that is looking at. How do you talk to yourself

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Isabel Sterling: about what you do? And we'll go into all of these in more detail in a minute.

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Isabel Sterling: We're also gonna look at like, how do you separate out

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Isabel Sterling: the way you see yourself and your skills and yourself worth and having that be separate from your book and separate from rejection.

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Isabel Sterling: which can be really tricky

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Isabel Sterling: when you write things that are very personal to you.

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Isabel Sterling: and things that are

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Isabel Sterling: important to you, and you put a lot of time and effort into them.

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Isabel Sterling: So we want to reduce the effort.

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Isabel Sterling: and we want to increase the reward

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Isabel Sterling: right?

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Isabel Sterling: So increasing reward.

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Isabel Sterling: I have 3 main things for you.

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Isabel Sterling: and they are

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Isabel Sterling: to celebrate.

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Isabel Sterling: celebrate.

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Isabel Sterling: celebrate.

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Isabel Sterling: There are lots of things you can do to increase the reward.

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Isabel Sterling: But this is so important and so easily skipped that that's all we're going to talk about. Because if you do this one thing.

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Isabel Sterling: if you reduce the effort and then to increase rewards, you just celebrate better.

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Isabel Sterling: And I'm gonna teach you exactly how to do that. You will have a better writing life.

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Isabel Sterling: And that's important because you need that motivation to keep going. It takes a lot of work even to write a bad novel.

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Isabel Sterling: right? It takes a lot of work to get better and better and better, and to become a masterful storyteller, so that you can have books in bookstores or have books in, you know, in Amazon it takes hard work.

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Isabel Sterling: but it doesn't have to be painful.

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Isabel Sterling: Alright. So how do we do this?

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Isabel Sterling: I'm going to try to keep an eye on time, so that we have time for queuing at the end, too.

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Isabel Sterling: If I start to go too fast, someone let me know.

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Isabel Sterling: All right? So we need to reduce our effort.

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Isabel Sterling: What does that mean? What does it not mean? Because, again.

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Isabel Sterling: writing is going to take effort? We can't just sit on a couch and have a novel pop from your brain. Just is not a thing

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Isabel Sterling: so

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Isabel Sterling: first off. Why

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Isabel Sterling: like? Why, what makes the effort painful?

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Isabel Sterling: Right like, why.

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Isabel Sterling: why do so many of us push ourselves to a place where it starts to not be fun? And this is because of the

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Isabel Sterling: pressure we have to be productive. And the way we've been trained to use emotions like pressure and shame to try to motivate us.

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Isabel Sterling: and we believe that the more pressure we put on ourselves, the more likely we are to get work done.

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Isabel Sterling: So we talk to ourselves in terms of like I have to, or I should, or I need to get myself together. I'm never going to make it work

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Isabel Sterling: right. So we we think things like, if I can't write for at least 2 h like what's the point?

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Isabel Sterling: I should talk to an author once who told herself that if she couldn't put in a full 8 h like writing day. It wasn't worth it.

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Isabel Sterling: That's a lot of pressure.

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Isabel Sterling: you know. I need to write at least 1,000 words a day or 2 K. Or 5 k. Or 500, whatever your thing that you think you need to do.

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Isabel Sterling: No, I've been at this for years already, and it's still not paying the bills. Something's wrong with me. I'm not doing it right.

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Isabel Sterling: or this is one. I see this from a friend of mine, and I'm always having to yell at her.

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Isabel Sterling: She'll say things like, well, I wrote 5,000 words today, but I still have to do X and Y and Z. And I meant to do 7,000. And so I'm just never going to catch up, and nothing's ever good enough.

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Isabel Sterling: right? Or if you're already published. Well, you know, being this author debuted at the same time. Our first book came out the same year, and she already has twice as many books out as I do like. I'm so behind I'm never going to catch up. I'm never going to have the career I want

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Isabel Sterling: unless I push and push and push and push.

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Isabel Sterling: you know, or I have to stop being lazy, that my book would be done if I wasn't so lazy

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Isabel Sterling: like. We talk to ourselves like jerks.

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Isabel Sterling: like we are so mean to ourselves

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Isabel Sterling: and some of us. It's we heard these things growing up, and we just internalize them.

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Isabel Sterling: Or we have in the past

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Isabel Sterling: done. Okay.

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Isabel Sterling: gotten some things done by pressuring ourselves.

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Isabel Sterling: But I want you to think about how this actually feels in your body.

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Isabel Sterling: So actually, like, just for a second. Pick

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Isabel Sterling: the sentence on here that is the most relevant to you, the one that you say the most, or whatever your version of pressure is.

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Isabel Sterling: and just see

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Isabel Sterling: how it feels in your body

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Isabel Sterling: like I have been at this like for me. I've been at this for 11 years.

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Isabel Sterling: and writing alone does not pay all of my bills.

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Isabel Sterling: and if I focus on that like, I've been doing this for 11 years

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Isabel Sterling: like, why am I so working so hard

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Isabel Sterling: like that would feel really tense and tight and disempowering.

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Isabel Sterling: But we are taught to to treat ourselves this way, and we think this is useful and effective.

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Isabel Sterling: But it's not.

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Isabel Sterling: And that's because it is.

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Isabel Sterling: It does not tap into how your brain actually works.

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Isabel Sterling: So your brain

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Isabel Sterling: has this thing we call the motivational triad. So this is what your brain is consistently looking to do

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Isabel Sterling: to motivate you, because your brain just wants to keep you alive like this unconscious sort of part of your brain to the back half part of your brain. It's really focused on making sure that you live another day, and so to do that it has 3 things it's looking for.

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Isabel Sterling: So it is looking to conserve energy.

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Isabel Sterling: avoid a pain

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Isabel Sterling: and seek pleasure.

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Isabel Sterling: because if you are doing those 3 things. You're probably going to stay alive

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Isabel Sterling: as far as your brain is concerned.

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Isabel Sterling: and this also

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Isabel Sterling: includes, like a general dislike for doing anything different. This is why change is so hard.

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Isabel Sterling: because your brain's like, I don't know. That might be dangerous if we do something a little different.

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Isabel Sterling: And so when this comes to writing.

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Isabel Sterling: whether or not we show up for our writing sessions, and how easy it is to show up for our writing sessions has to do with whether or not we are working with or against this triad.

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Isabel Sterling: So when you are planning these massive writing days

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Isabel Sterling: where you're like, I need to write for 3 h, or it's not even worth showing up. Or you set your best writing day as what your average should be.

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Isabel Sterling: That takes a lot of energy, and your brain will do whatever it can. It'll pull out all of the tricks, though. Let's you know. Let's get on social media, though. Let's clean the kitchen like it'll pull out all of the stops to keep you from doing that, because it's a lot of energy.

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Isabel Sterling: Now, you can absolutely

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Isabel Sterling: have long writing days

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Isabel Sterling: like you can totally do that. But you've got to use and work with the other sides of the triangle.

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Isabel Sterling: Now, why, it's the conserve energy. One is where I let oftentimes will start with my clients if they're skipping all their writing sessions, and then they're trying to go from that to like 2 h.

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Isabel Sterling: we go. Okay, let's go small

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Isabel Sterling: and just plan 20 min.

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Isabel Sterling: Because then you can show your brain. Look, it's not that much energy. It's really going to be okay.

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Isabel Sterling: We wanna as much as possible use all 3. So when it comes to avoiding pain.

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Isabel Sterling: this is where

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Isabel Sterling: how you talk to yourself really comes into play.

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Isabel Sterling: So if you are somebody who finishes a writing session, and no matter how good you did, you tell yourself you should have done more.

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Isabel Sterling: or you point out well. I wrote 2,000 words, but the words are garbage like, when you have that conversation.

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Isabel Sterling: writing becomes painful.

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Isabel Sterling: like your brain thinks that when you do this work that takes a lot of energy.

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Isabel Sterling: your reward is going to be being like you're going to be mean to yourself, and call yourself names and feel bad about yourself?

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Isabel Sterling: And why would your brain want to do that

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Isabel Sterling: right? Would not?

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Isabel Sterling: And then, on the seek pleasure side of things like

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Isabel Sterling: I would say, most writers probably can be like, Oh, yeah, I like

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Isabel Sterling: at least having written like I like when I'm done, but the writing itself is hard and sucks, but like, when I'm done, then it feels good.

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Isabel Sterling: But then we circumvent that by saying it wasn't good enough.

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Isabel Sterling: So we want to teach the brain

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Isabel Sterling: that writing feels good.

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Isabel Sterling: right? You want to teach your brain that it's fun being actively engaged in the process of writing

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Isabel Sterling: right right now, most of you, your brain doesn't think of writing as a pleasurable activity anymore.

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Isabel Sterling: So you want to bring that back.

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Isabel Sterling: So here's how we work with our brain in order to reduce the effort

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Isabel Sterling: again. You might still be writing the same number of hours a week, but it's going to feel easier when you're not fighting the way that your brain is wired.

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Isabel Sterling: So we're going to work with our brain

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Isabel Sterling: so to conserve energy.

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Isabel Sterling: I teach my clients something called the minimum enoughness measure.

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Isabel Sterling: So what this is

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Isabel Sterling: and what this means is that you need to set

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Isabel Sterling: the smallest possible increment of progress

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Isabel Sterling: that allows you to feel like you're making like you're creating momentum in your story something that is so easy to do. You can do it on your hardest days.

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Isabel Sterling: So for a lot of my clients like it's 15 min or 10 min like I can do a 10 min sprint. Even on the days I feel terrible

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Isabel Sterling: right? So you're not asking your brain

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Isabel Sterling: to jump to a 2 h session

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Isabel Sterling: like it's just 10 min.

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Isabel Sterling: And then when you get those 10 min down.

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Isabel Sterling: There's a good chance. You're gonna feel excited and motivated. And like, okay, yeah, I can do this.

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Isabel Sterling: We're getting over that inertia.

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Isabel Sterling: Getting started is always the hardest part. It takes the most energy.

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Isabel Sterling: It takes way more energy to go from not writing to writing for 10 min

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Isabel Sterling: than it does to go from 10 min to an hour.

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Isabel Sterling: So when you tell yourself that 10 min is enough.

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Isabel Sterling: it makes it that much easier to show up, because your brain's not thinking about the whole hour. It's just those 10 min.

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Isabel Sterling: and then, once you're going, it's much easier to keep going

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Isabel Sterling: now in order to avoid pain.

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Isabel Sterling: We need to be very mindful of how you speak to yourself

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Isabel Sterling: about your writing.

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Isabel Sterling: both before, during and after.

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Isabel Sterling: So you want to watch for like, are you saying things like I have to get this done? I have to meet this deadline

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Isabel Sterling: right thinking about how that feels in your body, the pressure. That is there

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Isabel Sterling: versus like, Hey, I get to explore this scene today. Or I get to play around with this character dynamic today

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Isabel Sterling: group taking down like the the temperature of what the session is going to feel like.

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Isabel Sterling: Right. It's also the difference between saying I am so behind.

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Isabel Sterling: I am so behind on this deadline

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Isabel Sterling: versus

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Isabel Sterling: asking yourself, Okay.

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Isabel Sterling: what's doable for today? Like, what could I realistically get done?

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Isabel Sterling: And those little subtle shifts when you are making them every day, over and over.

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Isabel Sterling: like they start to add up. And writing doesn't feel like this super stressful thing anymore.

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Isabel Sterling: And then for seeking pleasure.

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Isabel Sterling: you want to think about. Okay, what is exciting about this scene that you're going to write

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Isabel Sterling: like, why do you love writing like? What is your favorite part?

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Isabel Sterling: Now, what am I looking forward to?

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Isabel Sterling: So for me like this is really easy to do when I'm in revision, because I am a nerd and I love revision, and I could do that all day, every day. So when I am in a stage where I am revising super easy to be excited about things when I'm drafting, which is the less fun part for me.

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Isabel Sterling: I sometimes have to really think about okay, like, what is exciting about this scene? What character thing am I looking forward to? What little plot twists am I looking forward to? And sometimes it's Hey, I'm really looking forward to?

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Isabel Sterling: You know the scene where the characters like have their like, you know, first almost kiss. And that's 2 scenes away. So I'm excited to write this next one, so I can get there

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Isabel Sterling: sometimes. That's okay.

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Isabel Sterling: And then

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Isabel Sterling: you're going to reinforce the pleasure of writing with the celebration that we're going to talk about in a minute.

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Isabel Sterling: So you want to evaluate

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Isabel Sterling: how much effort that you are giving

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Isabel Sterling: to writing

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Isabel Sterling: because we are, we need to decrease the effort as we increase the reward in order to bridge that gap between the 2. So we're not tumbling in to this pit of burnout.

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Isabel Sterling: but we are still going to make effort.

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Isabel Sterling: There's this. There's no 0 effort in a book. It takes effort, but we want to evaluate the kind of effort that we're spending.

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Isabel Sterling: So I have this beautiful little pocket watch.

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Isabel Sterling: And so you want to think about, okay, what is the time that I actually spend right now

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Isabel Sterling: on the actual writing?

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Isabel Sterling: And I for writing. I include things like brainstorming, drafting, revising problem, solving, like all of the things that it take to write a good story

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Isabel Sterling: like today, I spent 90 min figuring out

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Isabel Sterling: like the 3 main leads in the book that I'm working on now, like kind of roughly kind of who they are. And then it's a love triangle. So how do I? And I really want to make

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Isabel Sterling: the book being a place where

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Isabel Sterling: readers are going to ship in all 3 directions and like argue about who should actually be together. So I have to make each individual relationship really compelling and different. So I spent 90 min figuring that out, and that's part of my writing time. I didn't put words on the page.

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Isabel Sterling: but I figured out something essential for my story.

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Isabel Sterling: And so this is the effort, the time that you want to protect, that you want to continue to put in to your book.

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Isabel Sterling: And then you want to look at right now. How much time are you spending

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Isabel Sterling: on things that stress you out

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Isabel Sterling: things like doom scrolling

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Isabel Sterling: and seeing what everybody else is posting about, and that that writer wrote more words than me today.

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Isabel Sterling: like, how much time goes there?

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Isabel Sterling: How much time do you spend feeling behind

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Isabel Sterling: and being stressed out about how much further you should be, or you thought how much further you thought you'd be by now

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Isabel Sterling: the time you spend stressed out about the algorithms and social media. And how do you promote your work?

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Isabel Sterling: How much time do you lose? Pressuring yourself to do more, getting overwhelmed, and then just binge watching your favorite show on TV.

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Isabel Sterling: That's the effort.

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Isabel Sterling: That's the the emotional time suck that we want to get rid of.

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Isabel Sterling: We don't want to be spending our time there.

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Isabel Sterling: And so when you are

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Isabel Sterling: spending more of your time focused on making writing more fun.

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Isabel Sterling: and

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Isabel Sterling: you know, talking to yourself better

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Isabel Sterling: and celebrating, and all of that

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Isabel Sterling: naturally the stress and anxiety starts to come down.

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Isabel Sterling: I must check my notes. I didn't miss anything important.

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Isabel Sterling: Oh, yeah, I did wanna make one note about social media and about like promoting your books.

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Isabel Sterling: I see so many people getting so so, so stressed

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Isabel Sterling: about self promotion.

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Isabel Sterling: Now, if you were at a stage where you don't have a book ready to promote yet.

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Isabel Sterling: One, I would say, don't worry about it

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Isabel Sterling: like.

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Isabel Sterling: and that might go against some of the advice you've gotten from other people. But don't let stressing about future promotion keep you from writing the book today.

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Isabel Sterling: but if you are in a place where you are promoting something.

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Isabel Sterling: I want to

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Isabel Sterling: encourage you

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Isabel Sterling: to

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Isabel Sterling: really think about how much time you're willing to spend there.

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Isabel Sterling: And

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Isabel Sterling: don't let social media be the thing that burns you out of your author career.

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Isabel Sterling: It is not worth

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Isabel Sterling: leaving, writing and quitting, being an author because you couldn't figure out how to do Tiktok well enough like it's not worth it. You want to protect your writing above all else, because if you stop writing there then becomes nothing else to promote.

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Isabel Sterling: I see so many people who

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Isabel Sterling: like so

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Isabel Sterling: start to slow down on their deadlines and stop writing because they are staying up too late making tiktoks, that is, that's a little backwards in my personal opinion. If you love

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Isabel Sterling: doing the Tiktok stuff

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Isabel Sterling: absolutely go for it.

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Isabel Sterling: But if it is the thing that's making you hate writing, and it's a thing that's making you feel too burnt out to write.

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Isabel Sterling: Let it go

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Isabel Sterling: alright.

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Isabel Sterling: So when you've really gotten a sense of like. Here's the time I'm spending that's writing that's productive and useful in getting me towards my goals. And here's the time that is

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Isabel Sterling: like me, just panicking and

373
00:33:45.160 --> 00:33:49.199
Isabel Sterling: feeling like nothing's good enough, and we care to pull that down.

374
00:33:49.480 --> 00:33:52.500
Isabel Sterling: And part of how we do that is reconnecting

375
00:33:52.670 --> 00:33:55.699
Isabel Sterling: to why, we're doing this. In the first place.

376
00:33:56.720 --> 00:33:58.850
Isabel Sterling: like, why did you even start?

377
00:33:59.610 --> 00:34:01.370
Isabel Sterling: And why do you write?

378
00:34:02.030 --> 00:34:06.390
Isabel Sterling: Why is the hard work worth worth it? Because there will be hard work

379
00:34:06.840 --> 00:34:08.429
Isabel Sterling: writing is not.

380
00:34:09.179 --> 00:34:11.589
Isabel Sterling: It's not a simple process.

381
00:34:12.020 --> 00:34:22.049
Isabel Sterling: There's character to juggle and world-building, and you know character arcs, and in different plots, and like there's so much to juggle and the actual sentence level. And there's a lot

382
00:34:22.150 --> 00:34:25.240
Isabel Sterling: that is involved in telling a good story.

383
00:34:25.380 --> 00:34:28.249
Isabel Sterling: So why is that work worth it?

384
00:34:28.540 --> 00:34:30.740
Isabel Sterling: Reminded yourself of that.

385
00:34:30.880 --> 00:34:36.389
Isabel Sterling: And why is it still worth it? Even if this particular book doesn't sell

386
00:34:37.580 --> 00:34:39.449
Isabel Sterling: or doesn't sell as well as you wanted.

387
00:34:39.639 --> 00:34:42.070
Isabel Sterling: why is it still worth it.

388
00:34:42.600 --> 00:34:44.869
Isabel Sterling: What do you love about writing?

389
00:34:46.070 --> 00:34:48.820
Isabel Sterling: And you can have multiple? Y's

390
00:34:49.090 --> 00:34:52.360
Isabel Sterling: nothing is too big, nothing is too small.

391
00:34:52.909 --> 00:34:58.349
Isabel Sterling: There is nothing too shallow and nothing too deep. You can have as many eyes as you want.

392
00:34:58.810 --> 00:35:00.099
Isabel Sterling: so for me.

393
00:35:00.790 --> 00:35:04.939
Isabel Sterling: it feels so good when I can nail a revision

394
00:35:04.990 --> 00:35:08.419
Isabel Sterling: and have somebody be like, oh, that was so good like that for me

395
00:35:08.430 --> 00:35:12.139
Isabel Sterling: like that feels amazing and is a good. Why, if I need to write.

396
00:35:12.460 --> 00:35:20.949
Isabel Sterling: it's also amazing to connect with readers, to be a mirror for part of the human experience, to hear from readers, and how much my work impacts them

397
00:35:21.070 --> 00:35:23.740
Isabel Sterling: like that is a fuel that I can hang on to.

398
00:35:25.030 --> 00:35:29.280
Isabel Sterling: I also like one of the things for me that just lights me up

399
00:35:29.300 --> 00:35:31.290
Isabel Sterling: is learning new things.

400
00:35:31.330 --> 00:35:33.220
Isabel Sterling: and writing is

401
00:35:33.480 --> 00:35:36.949
Isabel Sterling: a profession where you can always be learning new things.

402
00:35:37.100 --> 00:35:45.719
Isabel Sterling: And so for me, that's fun of like leveling up my skills and the the inner pride of like, Wow, like. So I've got 3 books that are published traditionally.

403
00:35:46.050 --> 00:35:50.640
Isabel Sterling: technically, 4 of you include a prequel Novella, but we'll call it 3. And my third book

404
00:35:50.810 --> 00:36:07.359
Isabel Sterling: is leaps and Bounds better than my first 2, and just the pride of knowing like I grew so much as an author as a storyteller through the process of publishing those books like just that growth for me is a why I keep doing this because it feels so good to grow and get better.

405
00:36:08.270 --> 00:36:11.539
Isabel Sterling: And so I want you to spend more time

406
00:36:11.920 --> 00:36:15.529
Isabel Sterling: using the positive fuel of this Y

407
00:36:15.940 --> 00:36:27.339
Isabel Sterling: instead of using pressure and shame and telling yourself you're too slow, or needing your money, your books, to make money right away to be worth it like that part of it is what makes it feel so hard

408
00:36:27.770 --> 00:36:31.040
Isabel Sterling: when nothing's good enough, it's taking too long

409
00:36:31.650 --> 00:36:32.810
Isabel Sterling: versus like.

410
00:36:33.810 --> 00:36:36.459
Isabel Sterling: So for an example, I have a book on submission right now

411
00:36:36.680 --> 00:36:39.579
Isabel Sterling: to editors, and even if that book doesn't sell.

412
00:36:39.600 --> 00:36:42.390
Isabel Sterling: which I think it will cause, it's really freaking good.

413
00:36:42.570 --> 00:36:48.050
Isabel Sterling: But if it doesn't, it will still have been worth it to write it because the process of writing it was so fun.

414
00:36:48.670 --> 00:36:52.099
Isabel Sterling: and your fun, your enjoyment, your joy

415
00:36:52.240 --> 00:36:53.740
Isabel Sterling: that is important.

416
00:36:55.450 --> 00:36:58.920
Isabel Sterling: Alright, let's talk about how to increase the reward.

417
00:36:59.310 --> 00:37:01.179
Isabel Sterling: So we've decreased the effort.

418
00:37:01.360 --> 00:37:02.810
Isabel Sterling: But there's still effort.

419
00:37:03.130 --> 00:37:10.899
Isabel Sterling: So we need to increase the reward so that we are not making this huge like leap from one to the other and falling into that cliff.

420
00:37:12.210 --> 00:37:14.539
Isabel Sterling: And we want to work on bringing

421
00:37:14.580 --> 00:37:25.950
Isabel Sterling: that reward instead of it being this external thing, like the book deal, or the Starred Review. If you're in tread, or, you know, getting on a list like a bestseller list, we want to bring some of the reward.

422
00:37:26.220 --> 00:37:28.850
Isabel Sterling: A lot of the reward internal.

423
00:37:30.150 --> 00:37:33.950
Isabel Sterling: So to understand why the internal reward is so important.

424
00:37:34.030 --> 00:37:37.629
Isabel Sterling: we need to talk about publishing's biggest lie.

425
00:37:39.020 --> 00:37:44.039
Isabel Sterling: and that is that achieving success of getting, you know, X number of books published

426
00:37:44.260 --> 00:37:46.600
Isabel Sterling: is going to make you feel happy.

427
00:37:47.070 --> 00:37:50.230
Isabel Sterling: or is going to make you feel like a real author.

428
00:37:50.730 --> 00:38:02.480
Isabel Sterling: or that once you, you know, get 5 books traditionally published, they used to say, I don't know if they still do, but it used to be that, you know you get your first 5 books in publishing. You're pretty much guaranteed to have a sustainable career.

429
00:38:02.660 --> 00:38:14.179
Isabel Sterling: or I think, in India, they used to say, and they might still no, you get 20 books published. You're looking at, you know. That's what it takes to make about 50 KA year like we used to just think, okay, if I can just hit this external

430
00:38:14.610 --> 00:38:15.710
Isabel Sterling: marker.

431
00:38:16.010 --> 00:38:23.210
Isabel Sterling: then I'm gonna be happy. Then I'm gonna feel real. Then this is gonna be viable. But this is not how the human brain works.

432
00:38:23.600 --> 00:38:25.539
Isabel Sterling: Now we are taught this

433
00:38:25.650 --> 00:38:28.090
Isabel Sterling: this sort of like arrival fallacy.

434
00:38:28.400 --> 00:38:32.399
Isabel Sterling: I like to call it the greener effect. And this is where we believe

435
00:38:32.640 --> 00:38:34.579
Isabel Sterling: that the grass is going to be greener

436
00:38:34.630 --> 00:38:36.480
Isabel Sterling: at the next milestone.

437
00:38:37.290 --> 00:38:50.199
Isabel Sterling: So when you are a brand new writer like, well, I'll feel like a real author or feel writer, a real writer when I finish my first book, like when I actually finish the first one get all the way to the end, then I'll believe it myself.

438
00:38:50.770 --> 00:38:52.059
Isabel Sterling: But then you do that.

439
00:38:52.440 --> 00:38:55.379
Isabel Sterling: and you're like, well, I still don't believe myself, so

440
00:38:55.400 --> 00:39:01.119
Isabel Sterling: it must be. Once I get an agent, then I feel like a real writer

441
00:39:01.590 --> 00:39:04.080
Isabel Sterling: and get the agent, and you're still like hmm!

442
00:39:04.110 --> 00:39:14.470
Isabel Sterling: I still don't feel like I am like valid, or that I am like good enough. Well, once I get the book deal, then I'll be happy. Then I'll I'll feel settled.

443
00:39:14.970 --> 00:39:17.840
Isabel Sterling: Get the book deal, and you're like happy or

444
00:39:18.310 --> 00:39:19.240
Isabel Sterling: a day.

445
00:39:19.830 --> 00:39:22.370
Isabel Sterling: And then it's like, Oh, but what if the book doesn't sell? Well.

446
00:39:22.460 --> 00:39:29.300
Isabel Sterling: I need to. I need to know that the book is going to sell well, or that I can handle these revisions from my editor. I need to know that before I can feel okay.

447
00:39:29.310 --> 00:39:31.390
Isabel Sterling: and we constantly push it

448
00:39:31.450 --> 00:39:35.219
Isabel Sterling: further and further and further away. It's never good enough.

449
00:39:35.930 --> 00:39:37.730
Isabel Sterling: And the reason for that

450
00:39:38.010 --> 00:39:42.229
Isabel Sterling: is because the circumstances of our life do not create our emotions.

451
00:39:42.670 --> 00:39:46.130
Isabel Sterling: It's how we think about those things. So if you feel.

452
00:39:46.480 --> 00:39:52.829
Isabel Sterling: do you have like imposter syndrome? Now, if you feel like what you're doing, you know, doesn't really count, or isn't quite good enough.

453
00:39:53.540 --> 00:40:01.719
Isabel Sterling: When you have more success, you just feel like a bigger imposter unless you are doing the internal work

454
00:40:01.830 --> 00:40:04.040
Isabel Sterling: to believe in what you're doing.

455
00:40:04.170 --> 00:40:07.280
Isabel Sterling: and to understand that you are a real writer.

456
00:40:08.730 --> 00:40:19.560
Isabel Sterling: Right? So we have to let go of this greener effect. We have to stop believing that these external measures are going to be the thing that fixes whatever doubts we have.

457
00:40:20.250 --> 00:40:21.860
Isabel Sterling: and to do that.

458
00:40:22.170 --> 00:40:25.009
Isabel Sterling: we need to redefine what success means.

459
00:40:25.310 --> 00:40:29.539
Isabel Sterling: We had to stop making success so externally focused

460
00:40:29.750 --> 00:40:31.630
Isabel Sterling: and then constantly pushing that

461
00:40:31.990 --> 00:40:34.879
Isabel Sterling: that end goal further and further away.

462
00:40:35.380 --> 00:40:39.280
Isabel Sterling: So you can still want industry, success. Absolutely

463
00:40:39.780 --> 00:40:42.600
Isabel Sterling: right. We. We have these big goals.

464
00:40:42.660 --> 00:40:48.000
Isabel Sterling: So you can want the book deal that can be a part of what success looks like.

465
00:40:48.590 --> 00:40:54.469
Isabel Sterling: But you want to have success all along the way. You want to break it up into these smaller pieces

466
00:40:55.000 --> 00:40:58.040
Isabel Sterling: that you're getting to feel successful

467
00:40:58.100 --> 00:40:59.310
Isabel Sterling: often.

468
00:40:59.950 --> 00:41:06.559
Isabel Sterling: like I think about like from the idea of a book to it being on bookstores shelves. If you're going the trad route.

469
00:41:06.630 --> 00:41:09.319
Isabel Sterling: that's minimum 2 to 3 years.

470
00:41:09.340 --> 00:41:12.650
Isabel Sterling: You don't want to be working for 3 years

471
00:41:13.100 --> 00:41:15.680
Isabel Sterling: without having any chance. You feel successful.

472
00:41:15.860 --> 00:41:22.929
Isabel Sterling: So other things you might look to are things like, Hey, my agent believes that this book is ready to go. That is a success.

473
00:41:23.660 --> 00:41:34.060
Isabel Sterling: or Hey, editors are reading this book right now, like I worked on this, I created it. It came from my brain, and I put in the effort, and I made it really good. And now actual editors

474
00:41:34.090 --> 00:41:36.340
Isabel Sterling: in New York City are reading this book.

475
00:41:36.350 --> 00:41:37.570
Isabel Sterling: That's cool.

476
00:41:37.970 --> 00:41:42.010
Isabel Sterling: right, or positive rejection like, if you're starting to get compliments.

477
00:41:42.020 --> 00:41:52.769
Isabel Sterling: editors who want to see your next project, or you're getting those super, you know, subjective passes like you could see that as a form of success, as part of your path to getting where you want.

478
00:41:53.670 --> 00:41:56.649
Isabel Sterling: You can also focus on the success of the story.

479
00:41:57.030 --> 00:41:59.969
Isabel Sterling: Having a book that is that you've decided

480
00:42:00.010 --> 00:42:01.450
Isabel Sterling: is query ready?

481
00:42:02.890 --> 00:42:05.429
Isabel Sterling: That could be part of the success that you're looking for

482
00:42:05.450 --> 00:42:11.940
Isabel Sterling: and so to break that even smaller might be like, hey? I finally nailed that emotional arc. The emotional arc is working.

483
00:42:12.420 --> 00:42:15.640
Isabel Sterling: or the world building finally makes sense.

484
00:42:15.660 --> 00:42:18.809
Isabel Sterling: Hooray like that can be part of your success.

485
00:42:19.050 --> 00:42:25.550
Isabel Sterling: or the mystery component of this is super compelling, like there's still stuff to fix. But this part's solid.

486
00:42:25.820 --> 00:42:27.520
Isabel Sterling: You want to find that

487
00:42:27.580 --> 00:42:30.290
Isabel Sterling: you want to focus on your growth.

488
00:42:30.330 --> 00:42:38.060
Isabel Sterling: So there is. If I can give you a book recommendation. It is the gap in the game which is by Dan Sullivan and Dr. Benjamin Hardy.

489
00:42:38.180 --> 00:42:45.509
Isabel Sterling: It is a short read, and it really looks at this concept of focusing on your growth

490
00:42:45.680 --> 00:42:49.040
Isabel Sterling: instead of how far left you have to go.

491
00:42:49.840 --> 00:42:51.330
Isabel Sterling: So imagine

492
00:42:51.740 --> 00:42:57.769
Isabel Sterling: if your book, like your book, deal, or like your whatever your like

493
00:42:57.950 --> 00:43:06.119
Isabel Sterling: in the future, like magical idea of success, is, you know, New York Times. Bestseller. Your books become a movie, whatever your version of that is.

494
00:43:06.410 --> 00:43:08.720
Isabel Sterling: and that is like a huge giant tree.

495
00:43:09.960 --> 00:43:15.530
Isabel Sterling: And then you say to the tree, you're not allowed to be considered good enough while you're a seed

496
00:43:15.650 --> 00:43:17.190
Isabel Sterling: while you're a sapling

497
00:43:17.240 --> 00:43:20.550
Isabel Sterling: while you're you know, knee high. None of that counts.

498
00:43:20.590 --> 00:43:22.100
Isabel Sterling: And if you are

499
00:43:22.130 --> 00:43:24.120
Isabel Sterling: tearing down that tree

500
00:43:24.300 --> 00:43:29.429
Isabel Sterling: because it's not a full grown thing. It's never gonna get there

501
00:43:29.780 --> 00:43:33.030
Isabel Sterling: that you have to celebrate the progress like. Look how much it's grown!

502
00:43:33.320 --> 00:43:35.459
Isabel Sterling: Look how much you have grown!

503
00:43:36.870 --> 00:43:38.950
Isabel Sterling: I also like to think about it as

504
00:43:39.310 --> 00:43:40.150
Isabel Sterling: leg.

505
00:43:40.870 --> 00:43:50.019
Isabel Sterling: There's always any ups and downs in anything publishing in particular, too, and you can look at it as I am either winning, or I'm learning.

506
00:43:50.760 --> 00:43:59.840
Isabel Sterling: And I love that way of looking at it because every failure is a chance to learn either to increase your skills or to just learn what you don't actually want.

507
00:44:00.930 --> 00:44:02.970
Isabel Sterling: All right. So I want you to take a second

508
00:44:03.250 --> 00:44:04.830
Isabel Sterling: and think about like

509
00:44:05.520 --> 00:44:07.030
Isabel Sterling: who you were

510
00:44:07.140 --> 00:44:10.020
Isabel Sterling: as a writer like 12 months ago

511
00:44:10.110 --> 00:44:11.780
Isabel Sterling: or 5 years ago.

512
00:44:12.140 --> 00:44:15.909
Isabel Sterling: Maybe, being a writer wasn't even on your mind 5 years ago.

513
00:44:16.160 --> 00:44:18.299
Isabel Sterling: And look at how far you've come.

514
00:44:18.370 --> 00:44:20.290
Isabel Sterling: You carved out time

515
00:44:20.340 --> 00:44:31.219
Isabel Sterling: out of your schedule to attend workshops this week. You're here right now, either live or in the replay. You've made time to learn how to not burn out so that you can do this forever.

516
00:44:31.650 --> 00:44:36.220
Isabel Sterling: and have the thought of writing for the next 20 years be exciting instead of terrifying

517
00:44:37.900 --> 00:44:39.919
Isabel Sterling: right? So you want to teach yourself

518
00:44:40.380 --> 00:44:42.529
Isabel Sterling: that you are constantly succeeding.

519
00:44:42.680 --> 00:44:44.899
Isabel Sterling: You want to constantly be celebrating.

520
00:44:46.130 --> 00:44:47.700
Isabel Sterling: Alright. So there are

521
00:44:47.960 --> 00:44:55.690
Isabel Sterling: 3 main ways to celebrate, and I recommend they're all great. They all have different benefits to them.

522
00:44:56.854 --> 00:45:04.129
Isabel Sterling: But the last one I'm going to talk about is the one that if you only do, one is the one I want you doing so. First, there is social celebration.

523
00:45:04.590 --> 00:45:08.459
Isabel Sterling: So this could be like sharing your wins on social media.

524
00:45:08.780 --> 00:45:19.410
Isabel Sterling: Maybe if you have a bigger. Maybe you finish a draft and you go out to dinner with a loved one. Maybe it's texting your writer besties and saying like, Oh, I finally cracked the thing. Actually.

525
00:45:19.760 --> 00:45:23.739
Isabel Sterling: I did this today. So I was working on that love triangle I mentioned.

526
00:45:24.140 --> 00:45:27.869
Isabel Sterling: and I texted my friends. And I was like, look what I made.

527
00:45:27.910 --> 00:45:33.880
Isabel Sterling: and I like made this little like graph thing, and I texted it to them to celebrate with them like that is

528
00:45:34.120 --> 00:45:37.299
Isabel Sterling: celebration. And that helps show your brain

529
00:45:37.480 --> 00:45:39.099
Isabel Sterling: that writing is fun.

530
00:45:39.930 --> 00:45:42.700
Isabel Sterling: So what I want you to do, I'm going to open the chat for the first time.

531
00:45:42.970 --> 00:45:46.480
Isabel Sterling: I want you to, most likely won't be here in 20 years. So

532
00:45:46.930 --> 00:45:56.370
Isabel Sterling: for as long as you can be writing I want you to put in the chat right now I've got it open. I want to see what you're celebrating. So what is something you're proud of, that you've done in the last like 3 days.

533
00:45:57.000 --> 00:45:58.190
Isabel Sterling: Put them in there.

534
00:46:01.070 --> 00:46:03.899
Isabel Sterling: and if you feel like Oh, I don't want to celebrate publicly.

535
00:46:03.960 --> 00:46:05.719
Isabel Sterling: That's extra reason to do it.

536
00:46:06.340 --> 00:46:21.510
Isabel Sterling: Alright. Here we go cracked the work in progress. I've been working on since September. I did an outline for a new story. I finished chapter 4 weeks ahead of Deadline. I plotted a trilogy, got my proof copy of my self-published book today. That's coming out in 2 weeks. Woo woo congratulations.

537
00:46:21.530 --> 00:46:26.730
Isabel Sterling: decided to go all into my writing career attending the Webinars, shared work with a writing group.

538
00:46:26.790 --> 00:46:28.700
Isabel Sterling: started a third novel.

539
00:46:29.721 --> 00:46:33.069
Isabel Sterling: worked on a prologue, wrote 1,200 words today

540
00:46:33.290 --> 00:46:37.150
Isabel Sterling: attending these webinars to re-spark my drive. Yeah.

541
00:46:37.290 --> 00:46:40.269
Isabel Sterling: Shared the first 20 chapters with my family.

542
00:46:40.320 --> 00:46:43.490
Isabel Sterling: Very brave good luck.

543
00:46:44.020 --> 00:46:46.749
Isabel Sterling: Figured out my novel's a series, yeah.

544
00:46:47.040 --> 00:46:50.590
Isabel Sterling: Created my first ad got inspiration.

545
00:46:51.128 --> 00:46:56.060
Isabel Sterling: We're at the beginning of a novella. Figured out my plot, joined a critique group.

546
00:46:56.847 --> 00:46:58.730
Isabel Sterling: Hit 20 K.

547
00:46:58.740 --> 00:47:07.330
Isabel Sterling: Made my 4 crossroads decisions which saved my climax. I have not watched that that web, that workshop yet, but it looked good. So I'm going to go back and check that one out.

548
00:47:07.864 --> 00:47:16.850
Isabel Sterling: We wrote 3 big scenes like, yeah, crushing. Okay, there's too many community, all of them. But yes, amazing. Yeah. And so sharing that

549
00:47:17.560 --> 00:47:23.600
Isabel Sterling: publicly, either with like on your social in groups like this, with your friends. Super, helpful.

550
00:47:23.970 --> 00:47:26.859
Isabel Sterling: alright. The next type of celebration

551
00:47:26.880 --> 00:47:34.329
Isabel Sterling: is what I call trophy celebration. And so this is when you get yourself something physical to commemorate

552
00:47:34.850 --> 00:47:37.870
Isabel Sterling: reaching usually a bigger milestone. Let me use this, for

553
00:47:37.950 --> 00:47:45.119
Isabel Sterling: so this does not have to be expensive. It could be something as small as a cute sticker for your laptop or a new planner.

554
00:47:45.320 --> 00:47:53.910
Isabel Sterling: or it can be big, like a computer or character art, or whatever, so it could be things like character, art for your office.

555
00:47:54.220 --> 00:48:05.423
Isabel Sterling: I see some folks will go like commission, character, art, and use it as like their desktop like screen to like. Inspire them as the writing you could get a tattoo. I'm on a tattoo when my first book came out.

556
00:48:06.670 --> 00:48:08.769
Isabel Sterling: You could get just like a new book. I,

557
00:48:09.090 --> 00:48:36.260
Isabel Sterling: George, anything I do that's good. I will buy myself a new book to read, or a new notebook, because I am that person. You know, whatever jewelry, whatever. Literally the house that I'm in right now. I'm in my basement working. I bought this house. The down payment was the advance on my like queer vampire book, like, How cool is that whenever I am like frustrated with my career, I'm like this house exists because I wrote about vampires like that's

558
00:48:36.320 --> 00:48:37.370
Isabel Sterling: awesome.

559
00:48:37.460 --> 00:48:41.779
Isabel Sterling: And that's like a reminder of like, Yeah, I am doing some cool stuff with this career, like it, is pretty neat.

560
00:48:42.630 --> 00:48:52.929
Isabel Sterling: alright. Those 2 like trophies in particular, tend to be more sporadic for bigger things. The one I want you doing every day, or at least every time you write

561
00:48:53.040 --> 00:48:55.130
Isabel Sterling: is internal celebration.

562
00:48:55.420 --> 00:48:58.800
Isabel Sterling: So this is how you talk to yourself. After you write.

563
00:48:59.200 --> 00:49:14.149
Isabel Sterling: you wanna resist the urge to downplay or diminish. I've got a friend if I mentioned earlier, like every time she puts these like wild like 5 K. Days, and she's like, Oh, but I didn't reach all my goals today. I wanna just like shake her. But like you.

564
00:49:14.270 --> 00:49:16.599
Isabel Sterling: the more you downplay what you do

565
00:49:16.860 --> 00:49:19.999
Isabel Sterling: the more you're going to burn out. You've got to give yourself credit.

566
00:49:20.420 --> 00:49:36.920
Isabel Sterling: You wanna write down your celebration, the worksheet that use a lot of you've already downloaded. That is a easy way for you to be writing down your celebrations. You wanna notice how you feel emotionally in your body. You wanna name that emotion

567
00:49:37.080 --> 00:49:46.779
Isabel Sterling: and then experience it for 30 s, and the reason you need to experience it, excuse me for 30 s is because so your your body and your nervous system

568
00:49:46.910 --> 00:49:50.620
Isabel Sterling: is designed so that way. When something dangerous happens.

569
00:49:50.960 --> 00:50:03.309
Isabel Sterling: you hold on to it immediately, you know you are. If you're out alone at night, and you hear like a stick snap. And you're like, what was that like? You react instantly, and it's very visceral. And it's very like in your body.

570
00:50:04.200 --> 00:50:05.870
Isabel Sterling: Positive emotions

571
00:50:06.270 --> 00:50:07.730
Isabel Sterling: aren't so fast.

572
00:50:07.880 --> 00:50:26.609
Isabel Sterling: and they don't have to be, because those aren't the things that are keeping you alive. So if you want to really train your body, that writing feels good. You gotta let the the pride, the self love, the whatever that emotion is, you gotta let it really sink into your body for a full 30 s in order for your body to remember it.

573
00:50:27.270 --> 00:50:29.680
Isabel Sterling: Okay, so how do we do this?

574
00:50:31.175 --> 00:50:35.430
Isabel Sterling: And how do you really like integrate it into as a daily thing that you do.

575
00:50:36.270 --> 00:50:38.409
Isabel Sterling: So you you cannot wait

576
00:50:38.570 --> 00:50:40.789
Isabel Sterling: until you finish a draft to celebrate

577
00:50:41.180 --> 00:50:43.460
Isabel Sterling: like that is way too long.

578
00:50:43.990 --> 00:50:47.970
Isabel Sterling: Right? You want to be celebrating every single writing session.

579
00:50:48.330 --> 00:50:56.769
Isabel Sterling: including the ones that don't feel like they went that well, like, even if it was one that was like Oh, that was not my best work. You still want to celebrate that you showed up.

580
00:50:57.140 --> 00:50:58.649
Isabel Sterling: So how do we do this?

581
00:50:59.090 --> 00:51:01.180
Isabel Sterling: Really simple, and write it down?

582
00:51:01.700 --> 00:51:02.950
Isabel Sterling: Put it on paper.

583
00:51:03.320 --> 00:51:12.879
Isabel Sterling: And so this is what your worksheet looks like. You can scan that QR code to get it. It's also Isabel shrellen.com slash burnout. You can also get it there.

584
00:51:14.280 --> 00:51:18.280
Isabel Sterling: super simple. You just write down. Here's what I did.

585
00:51:18.470 --> 00:51:24.579
Isabel Sterling: and here's like what I what was the most fun. Here's what I'm celebrating. Here's what I'm proud of.

586
00:51:24.890 --> 00:51:27.110
Isabel Sterling: You. Pick one of those that you write that down.

587
00:51:27.770 --> 00:51:30.830
Isabel Sterling: and you savor the positive emotion.

588
00:51:31.560 --> 00:51:33.680
Isabel Sterling: You let it fill your body.

589
00:51:34.490 --> 00:51:42.080
Isabel Sterling: So I want you to think about like as you were sharing your thing you were celebrating. If you think about that thing again. And just how does it feel when you're like,

590
00:51:42.790 --> 00:51:49.020
Isabel Sterling: like, I wrote X number of words today where I figured out this really key part of my novel.

591
00:51:49.923 --> 00:51:51.010
Isabel Sterling: like today.

592
00:51:51.210 --> 00:51:53.130
Isabel Sterling: I I did that

593
00:51:53.636 --> 00:51:55.620
Isabel Sterling: like romance arc stuff.

594
00:51:55.670 --> 00:52:03.680
Isabel Sterling: And I when I think about that, I feel excited, I feel this burst of creativity of like wanting to get back into that world.

595
00:52:05.120 --> 00:52:14.129
Isabel Sterling: I feel really grateful that I, 2 years ago, was brave enough to quit my day job so that I had the flexibility to write and coach on my own schedule

596
00:52:14.390 --> 00:52:19.379
Isabel Sterling: like, and I can like sink into those feelings, and that like. That's part of what makes me want to write again tomorrow.

597
00:52:20.470 --> 00:52:21.240
Isabel Sterling: right?

598
00:52:21.530 --> 00:52:24.780
Isabel Sterling: And if you're still like, I don't know about the celebration thing.

599
00:52:24.980 --> 00:52:27.310
Isabel Sterling: I don't know if this, if this is for me.

600
00:52:27.450 --> 00:52:37.209
Isabel Sterling: One celebration does not have to be public. It does not have to be the social, the. It's why I really emphasize, like the internal celebration. It's for you, first and foremost.

601
00:52:37.600 --> 00:52:38.620
Isabel Sterling: So

602
00:52:38.660 --> 00:52:42.849
Isabel Sterling: there's that part of it. And celebration is a revolutionary act

603
00:52:42.960 --> 00:52:56.379
Isabel Sterling: in a world where think about what we're taught to value. I guess this is gonna I know people from all over the world. So this is gonna vary based on your sort of cultural upbringing. But a lot of us were told and taught to value

604
00:52:56.420 --> 00:53:00.849
Isabel Sterling: things like humility and humbleness of not tooting your own horn.

605
00:53:01.070 --> 00:53:04.369
Isabel Sterling: We're taught to value hard work and sacrifice.

606
00:53:04.570 --> 00:53:10.700
Isabel Sterling: So when you can celebrate the little things like that is in a lot of ways countercultural, depending on your cultural upbringing.

607
00:53:11.140 --> 00:53:19.170
Isabel Sterling: Right? There's also a lot of fear around celebration of like. Well, if I get too excited, something bad will happen, or and I don't want to get my hopes up and then be disappointed.

608
00:53:19.370 --> 00:53:24.580
Isabel Sterling: But when you celebrate over and over and over you start to teach yourself that it's okay to celebrate.

609
00:53:25.400 --> 00:53:28.220
Isabel Sterling: And if you're really struggling with burnout.

610
00:53:28.440 --> 00:53:35.110
Isabel Sterling: if you're really having a hard time loving your writing process like, what do you have to lose by celebrating

611
00:53:35.400 --> 00:53:38.019
Isabel Sterling: like it can get worse, not going to make it worse.

612
00:53:38.050 --> 00:53:39.380
Isabel Sterling: It's like, try it.

613
00:53:39.470 --> 00:53:44.620
Isabel Sterling: Commit to 30 days of like regular celebration and just see what is different.

614
00:53:45.770 --> 00:53:55.090
Isabel Sterling: I'm gonna go quick for these last one. So there's time for questions. So we want to close that gap. So if we remember from beginning, this was where a lot of us start. There's this high effort.

615
00:53:55.240 --> 00:54:01.249
Isabel Sterling: real low reward. There's a big gap between the 2, and we're falling into into burnout.

616
00:54:02.130 --> 00:54:13.740
Isabel Sterling: So instead, we want to redefine the effort instead of effort being, you know, all this sacrifice and all this hard work. It's intentional time that you are dedicated to growing your craft, and you're doing that

617
00:54:13.960 --> 00:54:27.569
Isabel Sterling: by managing the way your brain wants to work. So you're making sure it's pleasurable. You're reducing how painful it is, and you are giving yourself an easy in with that minimum amount of writing so that you aren't afraid to spend a ton of energy.

618
00:54:27.970 --> 00:54:30.199
Isabel Sterling: And we're increasing the reward.

619
00:54:30.270 --> 00:54:43.370
Isabel Sterling: Right? So we're having daily celebration. We're really, you know, making a big deal of every little bit of progress. And we're also celebrating the big milestones, too. And when you bring those things closer together, you get to be on the other side and be all happy.

620
00:54:43.750 --> 00:54:46.250
Isabel Sterling: So putting this into practice.

621
00:54:46.769 --> 00:54:58.909
Isabel Sterling: the way I want you to do this? Or, if you want, like a very specific, how do I do this before you write? Spend 2 min and write down. What do you want to get done in the time that you have allowed yourself.

622
00:54:58.970 --> 00:55:02.229
Isabel Sterling: Make sure that it's not something that's going to freak you out.

623
00:55:02.380 --> 00:55:06.849
Isabel Sterling: So if you're like, I need to write this whole chapter, and you can feel yourself wanting to procrastinate.

624
00:55:06.900 --> 00:55:15.440
Isabel Sterling: But okay, okay, I'm going to draft for 10 min instead. Make it super easy. Get over that hurdle of getting started, and then you can keep writing for as long as it's fun.

625
00:55:15.740 --> 00:55:18.469
Isabel Sterling: and remind yourself what you're excited about

626
00:55:18.800 --> 00:55:20.555
Isabel Sterling: again. There's the

627
00:55:21.150 --> 00:55:29.879
Isabel Sterling: the QR code and the and the yeah. URL, like, what is fun like? Why are you excited to write? Remind yourself that every time before you write

628
00:55:30.230 --> 00:55:33.800
Isabel Sterling: that is going to help teach your brain that writing feels good.

629
00:55:34.270 --> 00:55:37.119
Isabel Sterling: takes 2 min, maybe even one, if you're quick.

630
00:55:37.460 --> 00:55:41.130
Isabel Sterling: and then when you're done writing. Spend another 2 to 3 min.

631
00:55:41.170 --> 00:55:43.070
Isabel Sterling: and you're going to collect your data.

632
00:55:43.410 --> 00:55:50.258
Isabel Sterling: So just write down, what did you do during the session? Was it X number of words. Was it? I figured out?

633
00:55:50.590 --> 00:55:53.780
Isabel Sterling: how the world building works? Or I figured out my

634
00:55:54.190 --> 00:56:00.659
Isabel Sterling: like 4 key essentials. I figured out the the what the climax is going to be, whatever the thing was.

635
00:56:01.160 --> 00:56:04.169
Isabel Sterling: And then what was the most fun? What are you celebrating?

636
00:56:04.270 --> 00:56:15.640
Isabel Sterling: Write it down because you will forget you totally, will forget. Write it down, and then let yourself for 30 s just feel that feeling of like oh, I did it! I'm so proud of myself. That was so much fun.

637
00:56:16.090 --> 00:56:25.099
Isabel Sterling: Feel the feeling 30 s. And then that last box on your worksheet. You can list any challenges, reminders for what you want to do next time you can skip that box

638
00:56:25.140 --> 00:56:29.290
Isabel Sterling: that's just there as a catch-all. If you need it. You are short on time. You can skip it.

639
00:56:29.940 --> 00:56:41.429
Isabel Sterling: Not real. Briefly, I want to walk you through. So I've been doing this for a year. I created this worksheet a little over a year ago. I've been doing this process of internal celebration for a year, and this is what has changed for me.

640
00:56:42.080 --> 00:56:44.960
Isabel Sterling: I am willing to count more activities as writing.

641
00:56:45.330 --> 00:56:50.239
Isabel Sterling: so brainstorming, deeper character work, etc, which is leading to me writing better books.

642
00:56:51.043 --> 00:57:03.499
Isabel Sterling: I is much quicker, and it's much easier for me to problem solve when something isn't working, and I can tell the difference between the procrastination of I don't want to do this, and something's wrong with the story that I need to fix.

643
00:57:03.930 --> 00:57:12.330
Isabel Sterling: I can spot, diagnose, and solve for procrastination. So I show up to probably 90% or more of all of my writing sessions that are planned.

644
00:57:12.480 --> 00:57:17.849
Isabel Sterling: and I refine my process. I tell better stories, and I write them faster because I celebrate

645
00:57:18.430 --> 00:57:31.179
Isabel Sterling: and doing. That is what leads to a sustainable career where you are telling more stories. You were getting them out in the world. And this was just my I recently finished a revision. My agent loved it.

646
00:57:31.430 --> 00:57:35.704
Isabel Sterling: and I don't have time for the full story. So we're just gonna keep moving.

647
00:57:36.600 --> 00:57:51.940
Isabel Sterling: so burnout support. So some ways you can continue to get support for this. So if you are a podcast. Listener, I have a podcast. That releases every Wednesday, it's called the author burnout cure. I'm gonna pop it in the Q&A Nope into the chat. There we go.

648
00:57:52.550 --> 00:58:00.660
Isabel Sterling: real quick because I did not. There's the link for that but anywhere you listen to. Podcast just go look for it. There's 117 episodes

649
00:58:00.970 --> 00:58:19.880
Isabel Sterling: already. Everything on professional jealousy. Why, reading reviews is so hard to avoid. Imposter syndrome juggling multiple deadlines all that good stuff again. You've got your worksheet, you can go grab that, and then, if you want the most personalized in-depth support that is inside the confident author academy.

650
00:58:20.180 --> 00:58:32.120
Isabel Sterling: So that is an online course with weekly private coaching. And it helps you create a burnout free author career. So you can sign up for a free consult to see if that something is right for you.

651
00:58:32.554 --> 00:58:40.470
Isabel Sterling: I think that's all the things, and I know we've got like 2 min. I'm gonna just take a take a peep into the QA.

652
00:58:42.820 --> 00:58:52.020
Isabel Sterling: Let's see best advice you can give when someone has a busy life and only time to write is late at night, from one A. M. To 5 a. M. And then have to be working by 9.

653
00:58:52.490 --> 00:58:58.569
Isabel Sterling: Yeah. So you need to decide like, so my advice would be is like, figure out like, what is the smallest amount that you can do

654
00:58:58.760 --> 00:59:04.350
Isabel Sterling: and so feel good. So this might be. You don't write every day. I have one client who literally writes one day a week.

655
00:59:04.440 --> 00:59:10.669
Isabel Sterling: and is making fantastic progress because they really protect that one day.

656
00:59:11.638 --> 00:59:14.190
Isabel Sterling: And you only, I mean, if you write

657
00:59:14.360 --> 00:59:15.970
Isabel Sterling: 20 min a day

658
00:59:16.920 --> 00:59:19.350
Isabel Sterling: like that is going to stack up over time.

659
00:59:22.616 --> 00:59:24.550
Isabel Sterling: Link says Page was moved

660
00:59:25.020 --> 00:59:26.520
Isabel Sterling: hopefully. That got fixed.

661
00:59:27.699 --> 00:59:44.539
Isabel Sterling: Writing is both what I want to do for my job, and it's my hobby. Think personal projects, journaling, etc. Do you have any advice on how to balance this without burnout? Taking a break from writing often makes me feel worse. But obviously can't just write 24, 7, yeah. And so this is gonna come to learning to listen to your body.

662
00:59:44.790 --> 00:59:58.088
Isabel Sterling: So celebrating, especially when it's for like, if you're working on a novel, celebrate, celebrate, celebrate. But if you are just like I also journal a lot, I have so many journals. To me that doesn't

663
00:59:58.580 --> 01:00:23.789
Isabel Sterling: to me it feels it just feels different enough. It's something that I do for my own personal like wellbeing and growth. But like, I know, like, if I have a really big work day, I can feel when my brain is just fried, and on the days my brain is for ride. I just don't. I also use you right first thing in the morning. For, like my actual like novels, just because I'm the most fresh then. But yeah, when I'm fried, I take a day off

664
01:00:24.130 --> 01:00:25.579
Isabel Sterling: like that's allowed.

665
01:00:27.000 --> 01:00:29.020
Isabel Sterling: Alright, I'm just sort of

666
01:00:29.180 --> 01:00:39.549
Isabel Sterling: what's your opinion on the pressure for India to publish a new book every 6 months to say relevant, I say anything that stresses you out. Don't listen to it. There are a Bajillion different experts.

667
01:00:39.840 --> 01:00:44.379
Isabel Sterling: And what I want you to do is find examples of people who have success

668
01:00:44.620 --> 01:00:47.310
Isabel Sterling: publishing it in a way that you want to publish.

669
01:00:47.920 --> 01:00:52.350
Isabel Sterling: So if you're like, I want to publish once a year or once every 2 years.

670
01:00:52.440 --> 01:00:57.480
Isabel Sterling: and I want to do it. Indie, go find people who do that and who are successful.

671
01:00:57.750 --> 01:01:00.970
Isabel Sterling: And look at really defining, what does success mean to you?

672
01:01:02.090 --> 01:01:07.029
Isabel Sterling: Like, yeah, the even in traditional. It's like you've got to publish every 12 months to be relevant.

673
01:01:07.050 --> 01:01:09.409
Isabel Sterling: My last book came out in 2021,

674
01:01:09.510 --> 01:01:11.210
Isabel Sterling: and I'm not worried about it

675
01:01:11.230 --> 01:01:13.959
Isabel Sterling: because I write amazing books.

676
01:01:14.400 --> 01:01:18.989
Isabel Sterling: and like I just worrying about it's not going to help me. So why would I spend my time there?

677
01:01:20.440 --> 01:01:25.640
Isabel Sterling: Alright? I enjoy writing. I love editing. I go to writing groups.

678
01:01:26.210 --> 01:01:44.590
Isabel Sterling: I celebrate all the little things, including being brave and putting myself out there. It's the query trenches. I've never received any positive response from an agent, not one. I hired an excellent editor to help with my query package. She thought it was amazing. How can I remain positive about things that are beyond my control. Yeah, that is a great question.

679
01:01:44.750 --> 01:01:48.759
Isabel Sterling: And so this is where you want to think about. Okay.

680
01:01:49.180 --> 01:01:53.240
Isabel Sterling: what are the different parts of success, even within the querying

681
01:01:53.360 --> 01:01:56.119
Isabel Sterling: trenches, like even within the Korean process.

682
01:01:56.350 --> 01:02:00.899
Isabel Sterling: we don't want the success to only be getting like a full request.

683
01:02:01.370 --> 01:02:17.210
Isabel Sterling: and this is where falling in love with your next project is really helpful. It took me 4 books before I could get an agent. It just took time for me to to get good enough. I know people who took 10 books. It can take time to build that skill, and every time you write a new book

684
01:02:17.240 --> 01:02:19.219
Isabel Sterling: you are going to get better.

685
01:02:19.587 --> 01:02:22.799
Isabel Sterling: So if this one book like, I wouldn't make

686
01:02:23.020 --> 01:02:28.120
Isabel Sterling: your success depended on this particular book giving an agent

687
01:02:28.380 --> 01:02:33.950
Isabel Sterling: like work on the next one like you take all the skills you have now, and write an even better book.

688
01:02:34.610 --> 01:02:36.969
Isabel Sterling: And then, when you're creating that write an even better book

689
01:02:38.010 --> 01:02:39.379
Isabel Sterling: like you are like

690
01:02:39.630 --> 01:02:42.209
Isabel Sterling: the author that you're going to be in 10 years

691
01:02:42.570 --> 01:02:48.770
Isabel Sterling: like that is going to come down to your willingness to write the next thing, and to get better with each book more than anything else.

692
01:02:51.463 --> 01:03:03.550
Isabel Sterling: I don't know. We're a little bit over time, too, so if if I need to be cut off, you can cut me off but I'll just keep going until until I get cut off any advice for the revision phase. It feels like it takes me longer than developing the draft.

693
01:03:04.320 --> 01:03:07.589
Isabel Sterling: Yeah, so what if it takes longer? That's okay.

694
01:03:08.160 --> 01:03:10.500
Isabel Sterling: like, how can you find the parts of that that are fun?

695
01:03:12.580 --> 01:03:16.050
Isabel Sterling: How do you balance reading books that you love versus writing a book yourself?

696
01:03:16.600 --> 01:03:18.490
Isabel Sterling: This is a great question. So

697
01:03:18.560 --> 01:03:19.770
Isabel Sterling: there are

698
01:03:20.150 --> 01:03:27.929
Isabel Sterling: lots of different schools of thought on this, and I have cycled through them. So there have been times where I have had very limited time.

699
01:03:28.100 --> 01:03:55.268
Isabel Sterling: and so I didn't really have much bandwidth to do both to read and write. So I would go through phases where I would be focused on a draft for a few months, and then, when I finish that, I would like Binge read for 2 weeks, and then I would go back to writing, and then I would binge read these days I have a little bit more time flexibility, so I I don't know. I read a ton recently. So I just have. This is my time for writing, and then extra time in the evening becomes for reading.

700
01:03:55.700 --> 01:04:01.709
Isabel Sterling: I think wherever you're telling yourself that you're doing it wrong, or you should be doing it differently. Question that.

701
01:04:01.820 --> 01:04:05.760
Isabel Sterling: And it's addressed. How could it be easy to do both? Do I even want to do both.

702
01:04:05.810 --> 01:04:11.429
Isabel Sterling: I know some people who don't like to read while they're actively drafting because they don't want that interference.

703
01:04:12.870 --> 01:04:18.880
Isabel Sterling: Alright financial pressure of publishing, with everything increasing and making me want to quit. What can I do?

704
01:04:20.190 --> 01:04:36.926
Isabel Sterling: I'm not sure exactly what you mean by financial pressures. I know that means different things in Trata versus Indie. If you wanna re put your question in and be more specific about what you mean. I know there's some stuff about like, well, if you have to spend X amount on covers or editors.

705
01:04:40.120 --> 01:04:46.240
Isabel Sterling: anytime, you think you have to do something, or all of the experts say you have to do it this way to be successful.

706
01:04:46.280 --> 01:04:50.039
Isabel Sterling: If that advice makes you miserable, ignore it.

707
01:04:50.500 --> 01:04:53.540
Isabel Sterling: There's a million ways to succeed in this industry.

708
01:04:53.860 --> 01:04:57.410
Isabel Sterling: and the most important thing is that you stay in it and you keep trying.

709
01:04:57.600 --> 01:05:00.320
Isabel Sterling: So if people are telling you well, you have to invest

710
01:05:00.690 --> 01:05:06.060
Isabel Sterling: whatever amount of money to get started, and if that feels suffocating, don't

711
01:05:06.720 --> 01:05:10.669
Isabel Sterling: like, think about it like, how else could you get your work out there

712
01:05:10.800 --> 01:05:12.169
Isabel Sterling: without doing it that way.

713
01:05:13.100 --> 01:05:26.329
Isabel Sterling: Alright! How do you deal with toxic family members who aid Burnout? Now that I'm agented congratulations, I'm getting ready for submission. The same family. Members who told me to quit writing are now texting me every week, asking why my book isn't published yet?

714
01:05:27.940 --> 01:05:32.627
Isabel Sterling: yeah. So family stuff can be tricky. I actually have a podcast episode about this.

715
01:05:33.440 --> 01:05:51.760
Isabel Sterling: it's like something about like what to say. When people like ask about your book over the holidays. I would check that out. I have a lot of detailed answers about dealing with 2 episodes, I think, on that but the short version. Since we are short on time, I would say, you don't owe anybody updates.

716
01:05:52.140 --> 01:05:56.109
Isabel Sterling: So they're texting you, asking about your book, you get to say, like nothing yet.

717
01:05:56.940 --> 01:06:02.489
Isabel Sterling: or you could say, and then let that be enough. You don't. You don't owe them a detailed answer.

718
01:06:02.937 --> 01:06:05.020
Isabel Sterling: Or you know I'll let you know.

719
01:06:05.190 --> 01:06:13.479
Isabel Sterling: or and depending on your relationship, it might be like, Hey, when you ask about this, it's trusted me out. Did you? Can we like have a moratorium on asking for the next 6 months

720
01:06:13.970 --> 01:06:20.550
Isabel Sterling: depends on your family, of course, but that's the kind of stuff I actually do with my clients and coaching as we work through some of those kind of issues.

721
01:06:21.390 --> 01:06:24.617
Isabel Sterling: How would you suggest someone avoid burnout from the overwhelming

722
01:06:25.000 --> 01:06:36.600
Isabel Sterling: sorry from the overwhelm and intimidation of seeking an editor for the first time, the first time showing the work to others. What would you suggest to keep the clarity in focus? Yeah. So this will be getting back to like. Why, you're writing.

723
01:06:36.620 --> 01:06:42.039
Isabel Sterling: Why you love this story, and then, if I was coaching you, I would want to know, like

724
01:06:42.060 --> 01:06:45.809
Isabel Sterling: what you are afraid they're gonna say.

725
01:06:46.480 --> 01:06:49.339
Isabel Sterling: and what you will make it mean about you if they say it.

726
01:06:49.550 --> 01:06:53.029
Isabel Sterling: So if you get feedback from an editor, and they're like your book sucks.

727
01:06:53.370 --> 01:06:57.040
Isabel Sterling: And you're good thing. It's gonna think, oh, they're right. I should quit.

728
01:06:57.220 --> 01:06:59.619
Isabel Sterling: That's what we would look at more than anything else.

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01:07:00.480 --> 01:07:04.950
Isabel Sterling: Because here's I say this in a lot of my presentations, and I

730
01:07:05.110 --> 01:07:08.339
Isabel Sterling: sometimes I think people get a little bit worried about it. But

731
01:07:08.660 --> 01:07:12.459
Isabel Sterling: if you're writing your first, second, or third book, you might still suck.

732
01:07:12.540 --> 01:07:20.589
Isabel Sterling: And that's okay. My first book sucked. Everybody's first book sucks. It doesn't mean anything about how good you're gonna get

733
01:07:21.130 --> 01:07:27.819
Isabel Sterling: like my! If I took my first book that I wrote, and I was like, this is who I am as a writer. This is all I'll ever be.

734
01:07:28.110 --> 01:07:30.150
Isabel Sterling: I would never be where I am today.

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01:07:30.300 --> 01:07:33.609
Isabel Sterling: The kind of books I'm writing now, like the book I'm working on right now

736
01:07:33.810 --> 01:07:36.630
Isabel Sterling: is legions better than my debut.

737
01:07:36.970 --> 01:07:40.259
Isabel Sterling: You get better. It's okay. If your first book isn't good

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01:07:40.900 --> 01:07:45.560
Isabel Sterling: and that might be like weird advice. But it's okay, really is okay. You're gonna get better.

739
01:07:46.637 --> 01:07:51.720
Isabel Sterling: How do you think different writing challenges, Nana Rimo. A 100 K in a hundred days.

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01:07:52.130 --> 01:08:20.270
Isabel Sterling: Milwor. And what that is, and whatnot affect writers when it comes to burnout. Do these challenges feed into the mindset of having to write certain amounts of words every day it can. I think there's a lot of things in our society that put this pressure on like consistency and productivity, and like doing these, you know, emphasizing word, count over other parts of the writing process. But I think there is a way to have a healthy mindset around any of them. So if you love Nano, like I actually started writing.

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Isabel Sterling: The first book I ever wrote was in Nanorimo of 2012

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01:08:25.620 --> 01:08:33.419
Isabel Sterling: And that was really good for me, because it was like a fun challenge, and if I hadn't met the word count goal I wouldn't have like cared.

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01:08:33.460 --> 01:08:41.619
Isabel Sterling: So it depends how you come to it more than the actual challenge themselves. But if like, if you know, if you do those challenges and you feel awful, stop doing them.

744
01:08:42.189 --> 01:08:43.780
Isabel Sterling: you can just opt out.

745
01:08:45.712 --> 01:08:57.849
Isabel Sterling: Okay, I will have scenes in my head, but the moment I sit to write it's all blank. What if the burnout has you literally stared at the screen, unable to think of anything. It's like, it's just not there anymore. Yes, okay.

746
01:08:58.180 --> 01:09:05.009
Isabel Sterling: So in this case there can be a couple of things going on, it's hard to know without getting to talk to you.

747
01:09:05.210 --> 01:09:07.380
Isabel Sterling: But off the top of my head I think

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01:09:09.420 --> 01:09:11.450
Isabel Sterling: something that can be useful.

749
01:09:11.890 --> 01:09:17.449
Isabel Sterling: and what can kind of block people from getting started. Is this idea of wanting it to be good?

750
01:09:18.340 --> 01:09:21.249
Isabel Sterling: Or even just like subconsciously thinking it should be good.

751
01:09:21.580 --> 01:09:27.830
Isabel Sterling: So what I will have clients do is right on the top of the page. This scene is intentionally bad.

752
01:09:28.439 --> 01:09:32.139
Isabel Sterling: and just having that written can free up the like.

753
01:09:33.920 --> 01:09:36.230
Isabel Sterling: the desire to

754
01:09:38.630 --> 01:09:53.649
Isabel Sterling: like it can make it. You can make it feel more free of like, yeah, this is allowed to be bad. A lot of times, too, when I'm writing. If I'm feeling stuck I will just start to ask myself questions, and I'll type as I go. I'll be like, why isn't this working? You know? Where do I want to start? And I'll as I type those questions.

755
01:09:54.029 --> 01:09:57.330
Isabel Sterling: It like unlocks the like muscle memory of writing for me.

756
01:09:58.090 --> 01:10:05.470
Isabel Sterling: But that was something, too, that I would like would coach on somebody and figure out, okay, what's actually happening? Like, what is the emotion you feel in your body when it all goes blank.

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01:10:07.470 --> 01:10:29.890
Isabel Sterling: Alright! What work? How do you otherwise have you done since the release of your last book in 2021 to keep financially afloat. So I had a day job for part of it, and I coach and I get royalties. My books earned out. So I keep getting royalties in. That said my books are not the sole income for my household. I had a partner who had a job for a while. I still have that partner. But

758
01:10:31.080 --> 01:10:39.850
Isabel Sterling: life stuff. Yeah. So I do both. I coach and I. I get royalty 6, 6 every 6 months. And that helps too.

759
01:10:40.390 --> 01:10:41.440
Isabel Sterling: Good question.

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01:10:41.960 --> 01:11:04.429
Isabel Sterling: do you self publish? So I do have some books that are self published. So the ones behind me on the shelf. All of my young adult novels were. Those were all traditionally published. Through Ping and Random House, and then I have some books that I self publish under the name Charlotte Page in the adult space. So if you go to my website and you click over into the book section, you'll be able to see the books I've self published, too.

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Isabel Sterling: Okay, alright. I think I also got all the questions, and I know we're over time. So I'm going to stop, share, and see if there's anything else that anybody has, or and, Stacy, if you have anything you want to wrap us up.

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Stacy @ ProWritingAid: Sure that was amazing. Thank you so so so much. And I, personally, will be using that worksheet.

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Isabel Sterling: I literally let me.

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Isabel Sterling: I print it out, and I've used it for a year like I.

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01:11:34.450 --> 01:11:37.969
Stacy @ ProWritingAid: That is all like seriously, this is great.

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Stacy @ ProWritingAid: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much. Let's all give a big another. Thank you forever. Thanks, so, Isabelle Sterling, for generous, generously spending your time with us today and for all of you you could find the replays to this session and the other sessions in the fantasy writers. Week Hub and you can also find the links in the chat. So we hope that you will join us all for our next session, and we'll catch you next time.

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Stacy @ ProWritingAid: Thank you as well.