Hitting Cement Walls and an Industry of Burnout
M&D#172
1. Latest News from the Desk of Sooz:
March 2022 —
There is so much tragedy happening in the world right now. I know many of you are feeling the weight of it all. I absolute hated having to reveal a cover only days after Russia invaded Ukraine. I still hate feeling like I have to promote my books when all I really want to do is scream my rage at Putin / anti-trans law(s) / the unvaccinated who continue to put my daughter in danger where I live / then Putin again.
But I also know it is important for us to cling to some semblance of normalcy and find relief where we can.
For me, the relief and escape have come in my writing. (And let's be real, in Horizon Forbidden West too.)
I hope maybe my newsletter can offer you some relief and escape—and that the beautiful cover for The Luminaries does as well, for those of you who have not yet seen it.
Hug your loved ones. Donate where you can. And try to find peace in the moments of quiet throughout your day.Â
2. Writing Prompts:
STORY PROMPT
A woman's voice mysteriously vanishes mere minutes before she is set to perform in a singing contest. What can she do?!
JOURNALING PROMPT
This is a very simple prompt, and one that I think most of us know we ought to regularly do...yet rarely commit to. So here you are: what are five things you're grateful for right now? Big, small, doesn't matter. Just write them out and explain to yourself why they matter and why you feel grateful.
3. For the Daydreamers: Cement Walls and an Industry of Burnout
On my birthday three weeks ago, I hit a cement wall.
Not literally, but that is what it felt like. Luminaries 2 was going really well; I was super excited about it and the twisty twists I was finally getting to build on from book 1...
And then out of what felt like nowhere, I just crashed. Physically, emotionally, mentally, spiritually, any word with an -ally at the end. Every meaning of the word "crash," I felt tp.
Maybe it was because my parents came to visit for my birthday, and for the first time in a long time, I could finally offload some childcare onto them...so my the adrenaline that had kept me going for so long just switched off.
 Or maybe it was because the months of waking up at 5AM to work before Cricket was awake were finally getting to me (I know I need to go to bed earlier, but IT IS HARD, OKAY)...
Or maybe I was just finally sapped dry in Luminaries 2...
Whatever the reason, I crashed and spent almost the entire long weekend of that parental visit sleeping. I had planned to get so much work done in Luminaries 2, but nope. My body and brain simply could not cooperate.
So I waved the white flag and accepted that it was time to pause.
This is a BIG step forward for me! Past Sooz would have forced herself to keep on pushing, keep on digging, keep on scraping for water in a well that was totally dry. Then in a month or so, my body would have started a full-on rebellion, and burn out would have hit.
Remember Witchshadow? Remember how IÂ gave myself SHINGLES because I refused to stop working on Witchshadow despite nearly dying and having a newborn to take care of?
It was not a time in my life I am proud of. But...such is the reality for life as a paid creative. There will always be another author ready to replace me if I cannot keep up with the deadlines, and that is a scary fact of this career.
I have seen my books tank and vanish. I have had publishers pass because my sales are not good enough. I have watched as no one showed up at my signing(s) so me and the librarians/booksellers ate whole boxes of pizza alone. It makes me so, so grateful for all the success I have had since those days (and so grateful to my publishing team who have made it happen!).
Still, even with some success behind me, I am keenly aware how easy it is to cycle back the other way. No one can stay on top forever! And that fear of backsliding, of vanishing, of losing all you worked never goes away because it is always there. All authors are only one womp-womp book release away from never selling another book again.
WOW, that sounds bleak.
Far bleaker than I intended it to be! Because, despite that grim reality, there is freedom in embracing the truth.
Much as Oliver Burkeman discusses in Four Thousand Weeks, knowing the truth of our limited time on this planet and our inability to ever make life pass as we would like allows you to give up control.
The same is true for publishing and being an author. I have twice pushed myself into burnout—the physical, wrecks-you-long-term burnout that requires extensive healing and (in my case) some professional therapy to claw yourself back out of.
I am, again, not proud to have driven myself into burnout. There is no way I will ever look back and think, "Oh boy, I am so glad I freaked out and stressed and pushed my body to the physical limits right after nearly dying and giving birth—all for the sake of a book!"
I mean, it's laughable when you see it written there. Yet...I am hardly the only person pushing herself to the edge. Authors everywhere do it;Â people everywhere do it and for a product that is simply not life-or-death for anyone.
And I see the same thing happening behind the scenes at publishers. My colleagues on the other side of the curtain who transform the words I write into beautiful books are also pushing themselves in to deep wells of mental and physical misery for a book.
Don't get me wrong: books are truly important and truly transformative for so many people, myself included. But no book is ever worth breaking your health or brain for. AND, no time is saved by pushing ourselves to the our limits!
With Witchshadow, the work I produced wasn't good and we ended up delaying the book anyway. In other words, I could have taken more time to start and not sickened myself in the process or lost precious time with my brand new baby girl.
And there is no easy solution here.
I won't pretend there is. We all need to get paid. We all need our health insurance. We all need to provide for our families and continue to maintain our careers.
But one thing I think we can do is to have a little grace for each other. I do not mean you, dear readers—you all are lovely, and I know that 99% of you are content to wait as long as it takes to get books from the authors you love.
But grace for our working selves, grace for our colleagues in the same (if slightly differently shaped) boat as we are.
The pandemic revealed unsustainable systems in so many industries, including publishing. Yet we are all doing the best we can. Truly. It might not feel like it, but we are.
And YOU are too. You are doing the best you can, and when you hit that cement wall as I did two weeks ago, please do what you must to find space and time to heal—before it turns into full on shingles-inducing burnout.
And if you meet resistance, email me. I'll write you a permission slip so you can log off Zoom a little early or skip a few morning writing sessions in favor of lost sleep.
We have to support each other when the cement walls appear. We have to support ourselves.
I know not everyone has the luxury of carving out healing time or sleeping a little more, but your right to exist does not hinge upon how many books you write or how quickly you write them, how many books you acquire or how many you edit, how many marketing plans you execute or media outlets you pitch to...
You exist and that is enough.
Treat the one body you have with some kindness, please, and stop buying into this idea that crashing into cement walls like the Kool-Aid man is some "feat of wild twenty-first century hustle!"
The cement walls are breaking us, one burnout at a time, and we all deserve better. In this industry and beyond.
4. Something Extra: Fundamentals of Design
Author Erin Bowman has a new workshop I want to recommend for those of you who also make most of your own graphics or want to learn for future promotional days in your career:Â Fundamentals of Design.
This is not a course that walks you through creating a graphic so much as a course that teaches you what makes a good graphic -- specifically for authors! It covers topics like how to arrange information, how to include calls to action, how to coordinate colors, etc.
In other words, the fundamentals of design.
I found it really educational, and I only ever promote things I personally learned from and think are worth the price. This course is definitely one of those things, check it out!
Have you enjoyed what you read here? Then please considering subscribing or sharing! Or better yet, buy my books. 😉