writing life – Nancy Stohlman

We’ve arrived again at the end of the year! Wow.

In years past, I would be creating my Books By Friends list. However, that list has become 50+ books, and every year I STILL manage to miss someone!

So…it’s a wonderful problem that I’m no longer able to account for every book released by a friend because there are SO MANY books by friends! Basically: my friends rock!

Buy a book by a friend or a friend of a friend this holiday season! We all thank you in advance!

Instead, I decided to share a new and more personal list:

Ten Things I Learned about Writing (and life) in 2024:

in no particular order

1. Sometimes you just need a window.
I’ve struggled to find the “right” space to write in my new home. Even though I have a lovely office, the windows are set up too high (and overlook my neighbor’s yard). It only took me 12 months to try putting a heater in the drafty sunroom and pop! A writer’s studio!
Whew. I’m back.

2. Your creative routines are flexible.
The sunroom breakthrough was also a reminder that yes, creative routines are flexible. I was an afternoon writer in my old house, but I can change. Over my 25-year writing career, I’ve been a morning, afternoon, evening, night time, and even during-the-train-commute writer, after all. It’s good to change things up–even if we resist. We may find ourselves writing unexpected things in new spaces/times.

3. Beware getting too good at something.
If you can do it in your sleep–are you still growing? Maybe. But maybe not? Last month, I said goodbye to both the Fbomb Flash Fiction Reading Series, the 13-year longest running flash fiction reading series in the country (sniff!), AND my 15-year career as a college professor. Sometimes we need to grow in new directions. Releasing is the (often painful) first step.

4. Be a beginner again.
SO hard, especially when you’ve gotten good at a thing (see #3). But when the butterflies of nervous excitement arrive again, they remind you: you’re still alive.

5. Get dirty–in writing and life.
My big breakthrough during our Italy Retreat in September was realizing I wanted to “revise” my work to the finish line, when really I had to get messy again. You can revise and rearrange your sentences all day long. But sometimes you just need new sentences!

6. There’s always a reason you’re avoiding your writing:
(and it’s almost never because you’re lazy or undisciplined or any of the other horrible things you say to yourself). Maybe you’re no longer emotionally connected to the material. Maybe you feel guilty. Or maybe your creative vision will require some daunting inner work or healing. Or maybe you’re afraid to level up and leave behind the old version of yourself. Whatever it is–find the source of the resistance and deal with that. The writing will naturally follow.

7. Follow joy.
And I don’t mean that as a platitude. When you are joyful, the Muse will leave you clues. I talk a lot about “synergy” in The Flash Mastermind–that moment when the story takes over and you experience something akin to falling in love. This is not random!

(at the Italy Retreat)

(7 ½: Joy (also) defeats fear.
I (re)learned this one in the sweat lodge during our retreat in Costa Rica–fear has no power when faced with true joy. Joy is a super power!)

8. Sometimes you have to start over.
That’s okay! How many times have we discovered old paintings lurking under new ones? I talk about “Rewriting from Scratch” in Going Short–sometimes it can be more useful to close your eyes and start over, trusting that all your pre-work and pre-writing will find its way into the new, more effortless draft.Which brings me to #9…

9: Sometimes you have to take your own advice!
No!!! Hahahahaha. Well, 2024 was my year of “taking my own advice”: rearranging my space, rethinking my creative routines, facing my manuscript with honesty, starting over with curiosity, saying goodbye to well-loved identities, trying new things, failing, succeeding, and remembering to hold joy as my litmus test and constant companion.

10. Because it’s always about surrender.
Remember: we are never in charge! We are always in collaboration with our best, our wisest selves. The Muse is a generous co-creator, but she doesn’t enjoy being left out of the credits! Again and again we must surrender to the mystery and answer the creative call with grace and wonder.

And aren’t we lucky to be able to do that?
Aren’t we lucky to be artists in this life?

However you make your art and your life, I’m wishing you a beautiful end to your year. And to everyone who trusted me with their creativity and their work this year: Thank you. I see you!

What was something you learned about your writing/yourself in 2024? I’d love to hear it.

By the way: my word for 2024 was Devotion

My new word for 2025 is: ~Magic~

Let us be the magic we want to see in the world!

Yours in vision and audacity,

Love,

Nancy
(my new studio window)

Dream together in 2025?
Two opportunities to get excited about!

Join me LIVE in January for a Creative Visioncasting Virtual Retreat, where we will dream and envision our new year together.

Creative Visioncasting 2025
a special 2-hour Virtual Retreat
to dream and implement a year of creative clarity, confidence, and courage.
LIVE via Zoom on Friday, January 10 @ 11 am MST50% off until December 31:
$25 for 2025

LEARN MORE AND REGISTER HERE

And…what about a gift for yourself?

2025 Open Your Art Retreats filling up!

If you’re longing for a new creative spark, an adventure to energize your spirit, and camaraderie with your creative community, then join us in 2025!

LET’S RETREAT TOGETHER IN 2025!

Happy Holidays, everyone! See you in 2025!

xoxo Nancy

I’ve said for years there are few things I trust more than the creative process. The sun rises, the sun sets, the tides go in and out, and the creative process ebbs and flows…and ebbs and flows again.

I share this now, at the dawn of spring, because it can be tempting to take a snapshot of the creative process rather than seeing it as a continuum. When we are deep in winter here in Colorado, I take solace knowing that the Earth inevitably turns, and winter will soon be followed by spring. And conversely, when I am deep in the luxury of summer, I try to remember that it, too, will not last.

It can be helpful, if you plan to have a long, creative life, to view your process like this. To roll with the changing seasons of our art. Periods of furious creation are followed by a slowing down as we recuperate. And those fallow periods are followed by new sparks and new creative discoveries…if we remain patient and trust the process. The key in any season is to embrace that cycles come and go. When we are in the creative mania stages, it can be hard to remember winter is coming. And when we are fallow, we may not recognize the new seeds germinating.

The more times you go through this process, the more you will start to trust that every season will retreat…and eventually return.

This cyclical nature is especially important when you are feeling creative FOMO (fear of missing out) or artistic jealousy. Your creativity is turning, always, but so is everyone else’s…on different cycles. Someone might be doing a lot of publishing outwardly, but behind the scenes they’re fallow. Someone else may feel insecure that they haven’t published lately, but they’re writing a masterpiece behind the scenes.

Bottom line: It’s counterproductive to compare July to January. Instead, wherever you are in your creative process, remember you are turning and spinning, facing and retreating from the sun over and over.

If you wait long enough, it will always be summer.

To your beautiful, flowering creativity,

xoxoxo

Nancy

P.S. Speaking of seasons…are you ready for a flash fiction retreat in Iceland’s darkness? Early access to registration opens tomorrow!