The Writing and Marketing Show
The Writing and Marketing Show
Embracing the Unfamiliar: A Journey of Resilience and Creative Exploration with Wendy H Jones
Life has a way of tossing curveballs that can either strike us out or propel us to new heights. When my home was devastated by a flood, it felt like a heart-wrenching setback, but that experience became a catalyst for growth and new opportunities in my writing and work. Embrace change with me, Wendy H Jones, as I recount the resilience it took to rebuild and how this unexpected twist led to inspiring roles like managing a crime anthology and pioneering the Sisters in Crime presence on TikTok.
This episode isn't just about overcoming personal adversity; it's a testament to the power of venturing into uncharted territories. I take you along on my journey into historical fiction, sharing the trepidation and anticipation of awaiting feedback from my agent. Discover the joys of fostering creative spirits through a writing retreat in Scotland and leading a vibrant Facebook group for women writers. Together, we'll explore the importance of extending beyond familiar confines, whether it's trying your hand at flash fiction or supporting fellow authors to flourish in their craft. Join me as I reveal how embracing the unknown can unlock a world of exhilarating possibilities for any writer willing to step out and seize them.
Hi and welcome to the Writing and Marketing Show brought to you by author Wendy H Jones. This show does exactly what it says on the tin. It's jam-packed with interviews, advice, hints, tips and news to help you with the business of writing. It's all wrapped up in one lively podcast. So it's time to get on with the show. And welcome to episode 193 of the Writing and Marketing Show with author entrepreneur Wendy H Jones.
Speaker 1:Today, I'm going to be talking about stepping out of your comfort zone, because that is something that I am thinking about at the moment and I think it's something that we can all learn from as authors. But before that, I need to start the show with an apology. I'm apologising because I haven't been around for a while since the end of October in fact and there is a reason for that. Unfortunately, as I was finishing up my book tour of the States, I got word that my house in the UK had been flooded. It was just a few days before I was due to go back, so I went back at the normal time and I have had to deal with all the issues to do with flooding. So, before you think things were too bad, my office was completely flooded, as was my garage and my utility room. So everything has gone from them, including a lot of my writing books and a lot of other things, a lot of books. My computer was safe, thank goodness, but I have had to move out my house while they sort things out and it has meant a lot of time dealing with insurance companies. My car was also flooded and written off and I have had to spend hours and hours and hours on the phone dealing with insurance companies.
Speaker 1:I'm not complaining too much because I'm better off than a lot of people in the world. I'm safe, I'm warned. My insurance company moved me into a towel for a a few weeks and then I have moved in with a relative and I'm very fortunate that he has given me his office. So I have an office and I can start doing podcasts and getting on with writing and work again, but I'm still out of my house and it has taken up a lot of emotional energy. You cannot believe how much emotional and physical energy is taken up dealing with insurance companies. My house insurance has been brilliant. The car insurance, well, that's another matter altogether, but we won't go down that route because I'm not here to slag any organisations off, but I have found that a difficult process. I now have a new car, my house will get fixed, I will move back into it and everything will be good. So I'm very fortunate and no one was hurt in my street. It was just that we've all had to have repairs done and, as I say, I'm safe, I'm warm, I've got a roof over my head, I've got food to eat, so I'm not complaining.
Speaker 1:It's not a complaint, it's just an explanation as to why I've been missing. As you can tell, I'm not feeling so well today either. I sound a bit croaky. That's because I have a chest infection and an extremely sore throat. But I didn't want to leave it any longer because I wanted to make sure that I brought the podcast back and I apologise for the delay To all those who are supporting me on Patreon.
Speaker 1:I apologise that I haven't been around. You're not getting your money's worth and I'm really sorry about that, but it will be back, it will be regular and we'll be here every week and you will get your money's worth again. So if you would like to support me on Patreon, trust me, I would be extremely grateful at the moment because, as you can imagine, with a flood, there's a lot of money having to be paid out for various things, but you know so. But I know times are hard for everyone. But if you would like to support me on Patreon, you can do so by going to patreoncom forward slash wendahachjounds, and you can support me for as little as three dollars a month and I would be very grateful. It would mean that you're glad I'm back and doing the show and it would mean that you would like me to continue, because I really would like to continue. In the normal scheme of things, it would have been four years since I started the show and in fact, it is four years since I started the show, but it's not four years worth of episodes because of the few that I missed because of the flooding.
Speaker 1:So what of today? Well, today I've been thinking, because it's a new year. Very often we think about goals. We think about, you know, actions we can take to get to the goals, and I've been thinking about that, like everyone else. But I've also been thinking about stepping out of your comfort zone. There's a couple of things that I'm going to be doing this year which are different to my normal you know, normal work. I am going to be hopefully managing an anthology, and I know I've done this before, I have done several before, but this is slightly different. I can't say too much at the moment until it's all announced, but I'm going to be the person who manages and publishes the anthology and I'm very excited about that. It's going to be a crime anthology and it will be out in about a year's time, hopefully. So I'm definitely stepping out of my comfort zone with that one because I'm going to be heading it up and that is exciting.
Speaker 1:The other thing that I'm stepping out of my comfort zone with I know I love TikTok and I've told you before that I love TikTok, but I am taking over as the TikTok lead for the Sisters in Crime organisation and I am loving that. Now it launches officially on the 4th of January 2024, if you're listening to this in the future. So when you listen to this, if you're listening to it, when the date it comes out on the 3rd of January 2024, then the Sisters in Crime TikTok channel will be officially launched on the 4th. We've already done a bit of a soft launch so we can get some videos up, but we're going to be doing a proper launch on the 4th and I'm very excited about taking on the lead and managing that on behalf of Sisters in Crime. If you go over to TikTok, you can find us on Sync National that's S-I-N-C National, and you can follow us on TikTok and I would be very grateful because we'd like to get to a thousand followers so we can start to do TikTok lives and give everyone over on TikTok value for the money that they don't pay on TikTok. We'd like to give them value from the channel and, as I say, I'm very excited about doing this.
Speaker 1:And so that's the second thing that I'm stepping out of my comfort zone. With those of you who have been following my journey of my historical fiction, then I've been writing up a storm with that and I need to get that into my editor and that's definitely stepping out of my editor to my editor and my agent. That's definitely stepping out of my comfort zone because the agent will be giving me feedback on what I can do to improve it. I will be working on that and I will be hopefully she'll be pitching it to publishers for me. So that's definitely out of my comfort zone at the moment, but I'm enjoying it, I'm loving it. So I'm really on a lot of fronts. I'm thinking that we should be stepping out of our comfort zone, because when you step out of your comfort zone it challenges you, it makes you think in different ways, it makes you look at your writing in different ways, it makes you look at your author business in different ways, and that is always a good thing, because we get into a rut.
Speaker 1:I'm a crime writer on the whole, although I do write non-fiction as well, but on the whole I'm a crime writer, so I tend to just stick to mystery crime, cosy mystery, things like that. I'm also a novel writer. I like full length books. I like to have a lot of words to say things in. Listen, you're probably saying, yes, we know, wendy, you do like a lot of words to say things in. But I'm very excited about doing anthologies as well, because it's not just sticking outside your genre. So I'm moving away from just crime writing to this historical fiction. But I'm also looking to do more flash fiction and short stories this year as well. So I will be looking for anthologies. I will definitely be pitching to anthologies in the hope that I will get some accepted for publication. So that's another thing. I'm stepping out of my comfort zone. With the other thing I'm going to be stepping out of my comfort zone with is I am going to be writing retreats now. I have run conferences in the past. I've been involved in retreats, but this is the first time I'll be running one. I'm running one in Scotland in February with my new business, oscot publishing in retreats, and that is something you could think about stepping out of your comfort zone with.
Speaker 1:Have you thought about helping others with their writing journey? And you can do that in a lot of different ways. I do it by being a writing couch. I do it by doing this podcast, that's to help people with the writing journeys. I do it through my retreats. I do it through speaking at conferences. I do it through editing. I love helping other people. I also do it through my Facebook group, which is called Women Writers, editors, agents and Publishers. Now, before everybody thinks, oh, why have you stuck to women? I inherited the group about two years ago 18 months ago and it had that title. So I've basically taken it over with that title and I've grown it in the last 18 months from 6,000 members to almost 100,000 members and I never thought I would be doing a group like that.
Speaker 1:So have you thought about running a Facebook group to help other writers, or you know, think differently. Think how you can help others. Think how you can change what you're doing. Now you may think well, all I want to do is write fantasy, or all I want to do is write crime, or all I want to do is write historical fiction. I absolutely 100% would back you on that, because you should do what you want to do as a writer. It's what makes you happy and it is what you enjoy.
Speaker 1:However, I really do believe that writing in other genres can help us as well, as well as reading in other genres, because it exposes us to different styles of writing and different styles of writing can help you be a better writer. So, reading in other genres and actually writing in other genres helps us to hone our craft, and I think that's a good thing as well. And again, as I say, you can try. Why not try poetry? Now, I would not consider myself a poet, but I did do some rhyming picture books and I find my surprise that I enjoyed doing them. So why not try doing something like that? Now, nobody says any of this has to be published. I'm not saying you have to go down the publishing route with it, but trying it is different.
Speaker 1:But one of the other things you can do to step out of your comfort zone is you can actually, even if you don't want to move away from your established genre, you can try writing in the sub-genres of that. So, for example, if you're a crime thriller writer, try writing cozy mysteries or writing what else can you do? Think of my brain spry because of this chest infection, I have to say. So you can try writing cozy mysteries. Or you could try writing a psychological thriller. Or you could write a crime short story or historical crime fiction. There's lots of different ways you can stretch yourself without moving outside your genre. If that's not what you want to do. Or you could try doing why not do a narrative poem that's based on crime, or performance poetry based on crime? I would love to try that. I'm not a poet, but I really, really want to try performance poetry, so I'm going to give it a go.
Speaker 1:Entering competitions is another way you can step out of your comfort zone. Now, I don't tend to enter competitions, but I decided last year to enter some in much to my amazement, I actually got a first in one of the competitions and I was given highly commended not highly commended, sorry second and third places for others. So I actually, you know, I stepped outside my comfort zone because I don't really like to enter competitions, but I did it and I was pleasantly surprised. Now there were other things that I got nowhere on, but because I'd stepped out of my comfort zone and done that, I got really good feedback, feedback that will help me improve, help me improve as a writer, help me to improve my craft, and that's what it's all about. Now you might be listening to this and saying but I'm a publisher, not a writer.
Speaker 1:There must be ways that you can think about stepping outside of your comfort zone. Now that might be a bit more difficult because obviously it's your business, but there may be things that you can do that will help you, help your business grow. And you never know, explore other possibilities, because when you explore possibilities, magic happens. When you step out of your comfort zone, magic happens. Comfort zones are actually the place where people learn. They're the not comfort zone sorry. Outside the comfort zone are places where people learn. They're places where people can push the boundaries, push the envelope, so to speak. They can, they can see how far they can go and what they can actually do.
Speaker 1:Let's face it we all stepped out of our comfort zone the very first time that we sat down and wrote the very first word of our very first manuscript or short story novel, non-fiction book. We all did that and yet we we somehow fear it. Once we have several publications out, we fear it. We think, well, we can't do that, because what will happen? Push past that fear. If you push past the fear, then you're going to get to the place where you can explore and the universe may be open to you.
Speaker 1:I know people that write in numerous genres. They do it with different pen names, but they're excellent at it and they would never have known if they hadn't pushed past that fear, the niggling doubt that says I can't do this, I don't want to move out of my comfort zone because I'm safe here. Safety, safety is great, but sometimes you need to push safety to one side. And when I say push safety to one side, I'm talking in a psychological sense here, heaven's guys, I'm not telling you to push safety one side and throw yourself off a cliff, but sometimes you need to push past the fear, push safety to one side and just try it, because you never know what will happen. So I wanted to start this year off by encouraging you to step outside of your comfort zone, by encouraging you to push past your fear and by encouraging you to open yourself up to new possibilities, and I will be helping you to do that through this podcast throughout the year until I come back and do another podcast, which will be next week and I hope I'm less croaky. I'm glad I got through this without coughing, which would have seemed a bit difficult earlier on, but I did, and thank you for joining me again this week and I look very much forward to seeing you again next week. Take care and until then, keep reading and keep writing.
Speaker 1:That brings us to the end of another show. It was really good to have you on the show with me today. I'm Wendy H Jones and you can find me at wendahjjonescom. You can also find me on Patreon, where you can support me for as little as $3 a month, which is less than the price of a tea or coffee. You go to patreoncom forward slash wendahjjones. I'm also Wendy H Jones on Facebook, twitter, instagram and Pinterest. Thank you for joining me today and I hope you found it both useful and interesting. Join me next week when I will have another cracking guest for you. Until then, have a good week and keep writing, keep reading and keep learning.