How to handle rejection with Sara Letourneau
How to handle rejection with Sara Letourneau
Emma Dhesi:
Well, Sara, thank you so, so much for joining me today. I’m really thrilled to have you on the show.
Sara Letourneau:
Thank you very much for having me. It’s a pleasure to be here.
Emma Dhesi:
One that I always start by asking my guests to share your journey to writing, how did you get started in this wonderful world?
Sara Letourneau:
Oh, gosh, I started writing when I was seven years old, I can still remember sitting at the kitchen island in my, you know, my family’s house. Just with crayons and colored pencils, and paper, and just making up stories. And it would be stories about anything. I mean, I don’t remember specific stories, but I remember little bits and pieces of things like friends going on adventures and talking animals. And at one point, in one of my stories, I was in Hawaii. Beach eating pineapple pancakes. Like I said, I remember a little random things. And actually, at that point, I was also I was hoping to be an author slash illustrator. When I grew up, except as I found out over time, my art skill, my artistic skills are not as I shouldn’t say, they’re not as good as my writing skills. But my writing was a lot stronger than my drawing or sketching by any means. And, but from there, I just kept doing all kinds of writing. I in school, I was on the school newspaper. So I wrote articles. I wrote poetry, I wrote short stories, tried my hand at novel writing several times, and that just carried right up through college and then into my adult life as well. Today, you know, I, and even in my adult life, I’ve done so many different types of writing at one point I was doing, I was writing CD reviews for an online music webzine. I was I did, I wrote T reviews for a book blog. And so the T reviews always had a little bit of a bookish slant where I was asked where I would always recommend books to go with the T’s I was reviewing. And on a couple of occasions, I actually did review some teas that had lived that were influenced by literature. Like there were quite a few. There was one website I found that had all all the T’s were inspired by characters and places from Jane Austen novels.
Emma Dhesi:
How nice oh, my goodness.
Sara Letourneau:
And, you know, and I have done other kinds of writing over time, like blog articles for DIY MFA. And for writers helping writers and, but the one type of writing I always seem to come back to at least for creatively speaking for me is poetry. It’s, it’s where I feel most at home in my writing. And it’s also the one that I’ve had the most success with in terms of getting my work out into the world, which has been amazing to see especially over I would say, the past four years or so. I would never say never to going back to doing fiction, or even trying my hand at some kind of nonfiction. But right now, the poetry in terms of my own writing is what I’m focusing on.
Emma Dhesi:
Wonderful. So it sounds like you’ve been a real you know, a jobbing writer, you’ve been doing all the things you’ve been earning the you know, you’re living through doing the blog posts and doing the paid for articles. And then at the same time doing the passion projects, doing your poetry, and short stories and fiction before you kind of moved into that that one area of poetry. So it sounds like yeah, you’ve had a really varied and career writing wise, which must have given you a real breadth of writing styles and experience and just kind of constructing different types of stories, whether it be as short as 500 words or as long as a full length novel.
Sara Letourneau:
Yeah, absolutely different and like you were saying the different types of writing call for different not skill sets, but for me to hone certain qualities for example with the music reviews that required me to really pay attention to the music and my thoughts on it. You know, the lyrics the vocals and and sort of learning how to shape my opinions about that, you know, on those different aesthetic qualities and music, tea reviews, they’re always paying attention to the senses of taste and smell primarily. And a little bit of touch because sometimes we certainties they have, there’s a certain texture they have, as they’re going through, you know, as they’re passing over your tongue. Sometimes they feel very velvety, or buttery. And, but yeah, that was that was a very interesting experience with learning to hone those senses and how to convey that through writing. And, yeah, certainly between poetry and fiction, there’s a big difference as well, because poetry, it’s all about language and concision. And, you know, yes, in a way you are telling a story, but it’s very compact. Um, you know, really just a matter of a couple 100 words sometimes, and really only, you know, when you read, it only takes can take a couple minutes to read it. Whereas a novel, you know, there’s so much more to consider Plot Characters. worldbuilding, if it’s speculative fiction, which that was, what I was doing back in the day was why a fantasy and I think the last one I was doing was why a magical realism and pacing, and there’s so much your any, any novel writers who are listening to this will know exactly what I’m talking about in terms of how much has to be considered when you are writing any kind of fiction. So yeah, and then with the blog articles, um, that’s a little bit different. Because those were always taking an instructional stance in terms of what advice I was sharing on writing. Sometimes it would be more craft oriented, you know, whether it would be about different plot points, or, you know, conveying character emotion and things like that, or how to write flashbacks effectively. Other times, it would be about the more mindset aspects of writing songs, you know, like, how do you know how to have a better relationship with your inner editor, or, you know, just regaining confidence in your writing, when it’s been, you know, once you feel like you’ve been knocked down for one reason or another. And so depending on what kind of article I was writing, I was either taking a more instructional technical stance, you know, with the craft based articles, or maybe going in sharing my own insights, or what I learned about writing and sort of teaching others how they can apply those same concepts, or ideas or beliefs in for their own writing, so that they feel like they can do it as well.
Emma Dhesi:
Well, we’re definitely going to come back to that a little bit. But I’d love first of all, because I saw on your website, I was fascinated by this that you. You did a GoFundMe project back in 2016. I think it was. And I wondered if you tell us a little bit about what that experience was like, and why you wanted to kind of try that, that method that way?
Sara Letourneau:
Sure. Let me give a little bit of context first. So um, at that time, I was writing a fantasy and I found out about a it’s called the Iceland writers retreat. So it’s an annual retreat that’s held in Reykjavik, Iceland. And of course, there are writing seminars there as well as readings by the author faculty. But it also combined, it combines all of that with cultural immersion. So you also get a day where you go out on a tour of the countryside, a tour of your choice based on what the retreat offers, you get to go out to different couple different restaurants in the cities, you get to try Icelandic food. Some of the author faculty, and sometimes some of the writers who attend are from Iceland, but also there’s also a huge international contingent that comes as well. writers from other parts of Europe, South America, Asia, Australia, other parts of North America, where I’m from, I live in Massachusetts. And I think the draw for me to attend that retreat retreat initially was the novel I was working on part of the fictional world I was creating in terms of the wildlife and the geographical features and so forth.
I was inspired by those of Iceland. And so finding out that I would have the opportunity to go to this country or go to Iceland, to learn about writing and see some of these places that I’d seen only in photographs was a no brainer for me, I knew I needed to go, the only thing was I found out about the retreat about six months before it was happening. And so I really hadn’t saved up any money for it. And so because it was in such a compressed timeline. First, I tried first, I entered a couple of contests to see if I could win some money, you know, for the retreat, which didn’t quite work out. But a friend of mine also suggested, you know, you should try crowdfunding, I’m sure a lot of people would want to help you try to get there. And so I ended up using Go Fund Me for a crowdfunding campaign, I think I raised about two thirds to three quarters of the money that I needed to, you know, that I was hoping to raise which is still really good. It was about and and I think the fun part about it was choosing the different perk levels, in terms of what to do what to offer in return for the different donation level, so to speak.
So some of the different ones were like having your name on a thank you page on the website, having your name on a thank you page of my first book, which I can proudly say I am now I can, I hope to have that done soon. Because I’m my poetry manuscript is now on submission. Hey, I’m coaching sessions, for your writing a critique of the first page of your story, um, I’ve been put together tea blends for the novel I was working on at the time using Adagio tea, which is a, they have, they have a tea blend service for their customers, like if they want to do it’s a lot of them that are done or for fandoms. Like they have like Lord of the Rings, theme teas and Doctor Who and different shows in different movies and other franchises and books and things like that. And so I decided to just do some for teas based on characters on my books. And, or the book I was writing at the time. So there were it was a very creative thing. Oh, I’m sharing photos from my trip using.
I think I was using Flickr at the time, you know, for an online photo album. So there were various things. And you know, different ways of combining different services as well, it was it was a lot of fun to brainstorm, the different services are not surfaces, but the different perk levels for the crowdfunding campaign. Certainly the hardest thing for anyone to do for a crowdfunding campaign, I think spreading the word about it. Um, you know, I do use social media, I perhaps, and not as active user as of other people are and that was the case, then as it is now. I even now I go through periods where I actually forget to go on social media. Just because I get busy or other things that are going on. But um, so I knew that I was going to need to be a little bit more active as I was promoting the campaign.
And also, I think the one thing I was most concerned about was how do I approach this in a way where when I spread the word about the campaign, where I do it in a way that I’m not being overly pushy, or salesy, or that I’m doing it in a way that sounds natural, and I think that’s probably the biggest concern that I think anybody may have, when they tried to do something like this, you know, how did they accomplish that while still sounding like themselves and you know, knowing that it’s okay to ask for help for stuff like this. But during so in a way where it doesn’t make them feel uncomfortable, that they can still have some fun while doing so. And and, and then see where it takes them from there.
Emma Dhesi:
And so it was it sounds like it was overall it was very positive experience. Is it one that you would do again,
Sara Letourneau:
I, I’ve considered I have considered maybe doing like Patreon at some point for people who you know, for my poetry or something like that. I haven’t gotten around to doing it yet just because life and running your own editing and coaching business and other things, but at some point, I may, I may go back to maybe not doing another GoFundMe just because now I keep, you know, I keep him more of a IO for the long term and I can, you know, budget for these things accordingly now, but if I would consider doing something on Patreon, where people could support me in other ways, whether, you know, if they choose, you know, aside from you know, working on harder the story in hiring me as an editor at or writing coach, and especially, I think in terms of supporting my poetry, that might be a nice thing. Yeah. So, when I have when I have when I have some time, which is always a challenge, at some point, yeah, might be a good idea to maybe prioritize that and try to get something for that going.
Emma Dhesi:
Yeah, it’s the Yes, time as always there it as you say, it’s prioritizing as fight deciding what’s the most important thing at this moment, and going for it. So that was really interesting. Thanks for sharing your experience with this, I hope that the trip was a success.
Sara Letourneau:
Oh, my gosh, I loved it. In fact, I went again, two years later, so I’ve gone I went to the retreat in 2017, and 2019. And I would highly recommend it. For anybody who’s considering doing a writing retreat and maybe having an adventure at the same time. You know, it is it’s, it is an investment. But it is a worthwhile one just because of yes, you get your writing benefits from going to a retreat like this. And there are other retreats around the world like this into In fact, I think there’s one in Ireland, but I don’t know a whole lot about it. But but also, in terms of the International contingent to like, the, the years I went, there were people from Canada, Germany, Norway, United Kingdom, Brazil, different parts of Africa, Hong Kong, Australia, New Zealand, it is, and, you know, being able to write with these people, and go to writing classes with these people, and have dinner with them and talk with them about their lives. And it’s, it’s truly an amazing experience. And if anyone has considered taking going on the ice on writer’s retreat in the past, or other retreats in the future. Do it. Don’t hesitate, do it. And if you think you need a little bit of help, see what you know. Be brave and give crowdfunding a try, because more people may be willing to help you than you might think.
Emma Dhesi:
Yeah, yes. So true. Yes. Lovely bit of advice there. Thank you. So you have it seems that it was well worth it. Because you’ve had a lot of success in your career, you’ve had your period in many publications, you’ve won prizes. But I know too, that it hasn’t always been like that, or certainly it’s not always felt like that. Yeah. And you talk on your website about the times when you have received criticism about your work. And then you’ve been hit with bouts of, of deep insecurity. I’m wondering if you wouldn’t mind sharing with our listeners a little bit about that, and the ways that you handled it or kind of worked your way through it?
Sara Letourneau:
Yeah. Um, so in terms of getting my poetry out to the world, um, from the time that I started submitting my poetry, to literary journals and magazines for publication to the time I got my first acceptance was about five years. Okay. So it took it took a while. And over time, I had to adopt the mindset of not once a mindset, it was more or less a mantra that I kept telling myself, whenever I got a rejection, and every time I got a rejection, I would say, You know what, that’s okay. I will find a home for this poem someplace else. And sometimes, yes, that would mean going back to certain poems over time and editing or seeing how I could revamp them. Sometimes it meant retiring pieces altogether, because after realizing that, you know, these are not as strong or as good as some of my other pieces, and continuing to write new work as well. And that that mantra served me well, because I’m not sure I really would have continued writing if I hadn’t or so submitting my work if I hadn’t kept telling myself that each time, and five years is a long time to meet.
But I’m really glad that I stuck with it. Um, and then, you know, the other thing is, I still face rejection today, you know, I see my work. When I’ve said, you know, submitted over the past few years, yes, I’ve gotten a lot of publication credits over the past four years, but that’s not counting the other places that I’ve heard from, or haven’t heard from, that have not published my work that have, you know, sent me form rejections or more personalized rejections, saying, you know, what, we really liked this piece, unfortunately, it was a really close call, and so on. And, you know, have I received criticism for my work? Yes. You know, sometimes people have had interesting comments about blog posts that I’ve written in the past. And, you know, when I’ve written you know, I’ve been through the beta reader process with one of my novels. And gotten, I wouldn’t say, negative feedback, but at least constructive criticism in terms of how to improve on the next draft. Although a couple things I got were a little bit more negative.
So I’ve gotten, you know, I’ve gotten a wide range of feedback on my work, over the years, from different people and in different environments for different types of writing. And, you know, the one thing that there are two things with that one, you always view it as a learning experience, see, if there’s something you can take out of the feedback that you receive, and whether it can be applied to your writing in the future. And to, you know, and to also not take it too personally, which can be really, really hard. Um, but especially if a writer identifies very, you know, very strongly with their work, but the thing is, your writing is not you. And if somebody doesn’t like your writing, that’s not a poor reflection on you at all, it’s just their opinion about something. And sometimes, especially if that opinion does not involve constructive feedback, the best thing to do is to find a way to ignore it, or to focus on the positive in some way. Because the more you focus on the negative, the more it’s going to drag you down over time, and cause self doubt, and perhaps, cause you to consider quitting writing. Please, don’t ever do that, please keep writing. And, you know, instead of focusing on the negative, and what doesn’t appear to be going right, look for, again, ways of turning it into a learning experience and how you can improve on your writing. But also just to remember to focus on the things that are working to, and to know that you know, what, there are things in writing that you do do very well.
And, and perhaps over time, the room, maybe more things in your writing that you can do well, you know, we are never born we are in rubber really born writers we make come, we may come very into writing very early on with a love for it. But when we’re seven years old, like I was, there’s no way that you’re going to know everything that you need to know about writing. You know, it is it is as it is something that you that you learn gradually over time, and you expand your skill set and your knowledge by going to workshops, and writing conferences, and all kinds of things. And I mean, and I’ve done all of that. And I am absolutely proud of where it has taken me up to this point. And I will absolutely continue to do all of that in the future. Because I know that because of the time and effort and some of the money that I’ve invested into my writing has really brought me on my writing to where I am today.
Interview with Sara Letourneau:
Emma Dhesi:
Yeah. You’re a wonderful example, Sara, of persistence of resilience of how you’re in it for the long game. And I think this is something that as writers, we need to be conscious of that it is a long game. And if you hadn’t if you’ve given up in those first five years, you would never have seen the success that you’re having. No. And I think that’s something for new writers to really think about. If you have finished your first manuscript and you are querying, and if you’ve been querying for two three years and not getting anywhere, Saara is a great example of not to give up and to keep going, because it sounds like as well, once you started getting those 123 submissions accepted, it magazine submissions accepted, then it’s it kind of snowballs. And now you’ve got a catalog, you’ve got a repertoire, you’ve got a CV, if you like. And that really helps to build the bigger picture of your career.
Sara Letourneau:
Oh, absolutely. I mean, because the more you stick with writing, and especially like, the type of writing I do, not just poetry, but this, this advice also applies to other people who submit their work to literary magazines, and journals. So short stories, and essays and flash fiction, and anything else that may fall under that umbrella. You know, it’s all about, as you said, building that repertoire and continuing to write and continuing to learn and to, and to know when to let certain pieces go in favor of stronger ones. Last, this number has obviously changed in the past year, but last year, my boyfriend and I sat down because he’s very kind and generous. And he keeps a spreadsheet of all of my poems and whether they’ve been published, and if so, where and when, and, and also, like, I listened to music whenever I write poetry, so he also has columns for the song and the artist that I listened to. Yeah, no, he really wanted to, he really wanted to help out. And we made real as we went through the spreadsheet, to make sure it was up to date, we also saw how many poems of mine that I’ve had written, more or less, more or less, over the past, I would say, three years like since like, 2017, on but there were some pieces from before then that were also in the spreadsheet as well. And I saw that I was at the point where perhaps, after getting a few more acceptances, and writing some more poems, I would be ready to start, you know, to compile a manuscript for a first full length collection. Um, you know, I think there are about that, that manuscript has since been compiled, and is now out on submission. And I want to say there are about 45 poems in that manuscript. And somewhere between two thirds and three quarters of them have been published. That’s, that’s a lot. That’s a lot. And, you know, and I’m, I’ve actually have still written a couple new poems since submitting the manuscript, because they’re not necessarily there. I wouldn’t say they’re for this manuscript. They’re just because you keep I keep getting ideas as time goes on. And I don’t want to let them sit too long. I want to be able to write them, you know, when the time is right, and but yeah, when you build up your repertoire to that point, and you compare your, what you’ve got to what other debut poets or debut short story, collection authors and so on, had in their first books, and you know, that you’ve reached a point where you can really consider where you can really take your work more seriously and say, Okay, what is the next big step for me beyond writing these individual pieces? Okay.
Emma Dhesi:
Now, this is something I know that you do help people with, because this feels that this was the next kind of natural step for you, going through what you’ve been through the experiences that you’ve had, the knowledge now that you’ve got, you’re taking that sort of paying it forward, and now you’re helping new agents coming through to help them write their poetry, write their fiction, develop it improve upon it, because you now have recently was the catalyst for heart of the story, which is your your business. So please do tell us tell us about that.
Sara Letourneau:
Yeah, absolutely. So I’m at through heart of the story, editorial and coaching services. I work as a book editor, and literary coach for writers who want to get their manuscripts out in the world wants to finish or start their projects, especially if they’re looking for a coach and they need that accountability. And just for help with getting there, you know, for making the writing dreams come true. It doesn’t matter whether they want to traditionally publish and try to get an agent afterwards or whether they plan to Self Publish after we work together. I don’t know have a preference in terms of which one or the other or whether the writer doesn’t know how, what kind of publishing Katherine want to take? Yeah. You know, so I work mainly and I do a lot of work in nonfiction, that seems to be the bulk of the work that I do. So, memoir, as well as prescriptive nonfiction. So there I’ve written, I’ve worked on a couple of books about the craft of writing, as well as other more business style books.
But I also do I do work in fiction as well, I, most of my fiction work so far has been in speculative fiction, so fantasy, science fiction, and all the other places in between. Why a fiction, including why a fantasy. And I also enjoy literary fiction, historical fiction, and, and poetry, I know, that I didn’t do I didn’t work as a poetry editor at first, but now that I have compiled my own manuscript, and have experienced with editing client, you know, couple of clients poems, as well as, in my being in a poetry writing group and offering feedback on their work. I’m expanding my editing services to poetry, as well. So and in terms of the types of editing I do, it’s all kinds I do developmental, I do critiques, line editing, copy editing, and proofreading.
So basically, whatever your the author’s needs are, what they’re looking for, chances are, I may be able to help you with that. And especially with poetry manuscripts, the cool thing is not just editing individual poems for, you know, for clarity, flow, word choice, you know, consistency of voice and things like that. But if we’re talking about a full length manuscript, you know, looking at it with a bird’s eye view and saying, Okay, what are some of the potentially best ways of structuring this manuscript? What are some of the common themes and topics that this person writes about? What are the, you know, what are the what is the tone of each poem? And what is the mood that it evokes in the reader? Because those are important things to consider as well? Or does this collection tell a story? And is there a narrative arc in play that needs to be considered. So it really comes down to especially with the editing, it comes down to the specific project and what the author is looking for in terms of editing help.
And then there’s the coaching. And the coaching is right now I’m doing one on one coaching with writers. And that tends to vary based on the author’s and the project’s needs and challenges. One example I can give is a one of my clients, we started working together because she wanted to self publish her wife fantasy book. But in the three years that she had written the first half of the book, which was about 35,000 words, she knew that she needed it, she couldn’t, she knew that she wanted to go at a faster pace, she knew that she needed more accountability to get more done in a shorter amount of time, because otherwise it was going to take her years and years before her book was going to be ready. And she also needed to help with seeing the end of the book too.
And that was where she was struggling at why she was kind of waffling a little bit is because she couldn’t clearly see how the story was going to end. So when we first started working together, we sat down and figured out a possible possible structures for the rest of the book. And then from there, it was mostly she knew what to do from there, it was a matter of using the coaching to hold herself hold her accountable for her progress through the end of draft one. And then the revisions of drafts two, and three. All of which she managed to do over 15 months, which was absolutely amazing. He must have said, Yeah, and you know, and if she had craft questions that came up, we would talk about that, and so on. And she has since gone on to become an editing client. In fact, um, she’s bent.
We’ve been through a couple iterations of the manuscript since the coaching has ended. And I think we’re getting ready to do the last round of editing before she started publishes her book next year, which will be fantastic. Another example is a more recent client who she was actually in the process of revising her novel. And she wanted some feedback in terms of different short excerpts from the book. And in terms of the writing, and the narration, because she keeps going back and forth between narration styles, and she knew that she just needed a little bit of help with it, and other things that she figured she would need help with.
So with her, what I would tend to do is almost like live workshopping, she would send me an x, you know, like a 234 page excerpt of the manuscript in about a week before each meeting. And we would meet once a month. And, you know, I would spend an hour or two looking at it beforehand, take some notes. And then during the call itself is when we would discuss the excerpt between the two of us and I would offer my life feedback, which she found very helpful. So it really depends on what each writer is looking for, and what their specific project needs. And, you know, there are I’ve heard that there are coaching, writing coaching programs out there where they follow a specific program, which can work for some writers, but not all of them. And I think that’s why I’ve kind of stayed away from that. And I’ve just said, you know, what, what do you need, okay, here’s how we can do this. So it tends to be a little bit more flexible and adaptable. And it gives I think, the author and me a lot of freedom to change gears if needed, if something comes up that needs to be addressed. And also just for each writer to go at their own pace, some of my clients meet every other week, some of them meet once a month. So it all kind of depends on what works with their budget in their schedule as well.
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Interview with Sara Letourneau
Emma Dhesi:
Okay, that’s fantastic, lovely that you’re able to offer that flexibility with the different waiters that you have. And it sounds like you work if you work predominantly with with new writers, you know, kind of debut writers, or is it a mix? Um,
Sara Letourneau:
it is with the coaching and this primarily new writers or people who are working writers who are working on their first book. Yes.
Emma Dhesi:
Great. Okay, good. Um, so, what was also going to ask? Yes, I was going to ask about time management, because this is something that comes up again and again and again, for new writers that because it’s quite a conundrum about working out how you can balance during the day job having friends and family and a social life and but also allowing time for writing. And I think when we’re starting out, we we envisaged that we need fast swathes of time to write a book, but my experience actually, you can do it in just 15 minutes a day. But you know, different styles for different people. How do you find in your own life balancing, you know, running your business, having a social life, spending time with friends and family, but then also making sure that you have time for your, your poetry and your writing?
Sara Letourneau:
Yeah, um, I actually tend to worthy use the word juggling instead of bouncing because it feels because sometimes it’s not really in balance. Sometimes you have to focus more on what’s going on with the family or taking care of kids, if you have children, or take, you know, emergencies. You know, those always come up in our lives. And when I used to write for DIY MFA, I’m Gabriela Pereira, the founder of DIY MFA, she still echoes this principle a lot. But one of the things I wrote about a couple of times was the idea of honoring your reality. Yes, you want Yes, you’re a writer and you want time to write, but you’re also you also work, you’ve got a day job. You also have family or a spouse or a partner, children, friends, pets, other responsibilities. And there are going to be certain points in our lives where one is going to need a little bit more attention than the other for one reason or another.
And I think it’s funny that we’re talking about this. Now that the If your holidays are coming up, because this is one of the busiest times of year for everybody, between shopping and parties, and you know, we are starting to do that now that the pandemic is easing, easing and we want it’s obvious it’s never going to full. Yeah, yeah, that’s the easiest way of phrasing it is easing out of it, and people feel more comfortable with getting together again. But anyway, um, you know, we’re never going to have a completely perfect balance of writing and life and all that entails. I mean, I certainly don’t, um, you know, what I like to have a little bit more time for writing, because that’s honestly the part that probably does have to get sidestepped a little bit because I have to meet deadlines, or I have, you know, calls that I have to be on for coaching and things like that. And, yes, I’ve got a boyfriend. You know, my parents, I have a younger brother, I have friends and other commitments.
And so, the way I look at it is, you know, I am a writer, no matter how much time I spend on my writing, I just have to remember to, you know, honor my reality in terms of what needs my attention right now. And what is, you know, what has to be the priority because of schedule or deadlines, things like that, um, you know, and, and then I work in my writing around that I actually was typing up a poem yesterday that I probably wrote a few months ago. And sometimes that’s what happens, and I’m fine with that. Because sometimes, it’s that time between writing the poem by hand, because I always write my poem first drops by hand, and the time that I typed them up. The time away allows for some perspective, because then I look at it, and it’s like, you know, what, I don’t really want to start it this way. Or, Oh, this is a better word to use or things like that.
And, you know, so I’m at a place where what I’m doing works for me, and I have, you know, I have my working hours set aside for her to the story, whether it’s editing projects, coaching calls, or the administrative stuff that we, you know, has to get done, like, you know, emails, or newsletter preparation and things like that. Have an I know when I have my time for other things, and, and for my writing, and I’m okay with that. And I think that’s something that comes with time. And experience and knowing when you do your best writing, and also just understanding, you know, what, a Christmas is not too far away, I’ve got all this stuff to do you know, what if I don’t write until two days after Christmas, I’m fine with? You know, it’s an Yeah, so it’s funny that we’re talking about this topic now. Because it’s almost like this is one of the times of year when people need to honor their realities a little bit more. And give themselves a little bit of grace in case you know, what? They can’t do a lot of writing in December.
Emma Dhesi:
Yeah, yep. Wise words, they’re wise words, it’s just doing the best that we can with with what we have. And we can always be totally in control of our writing time, I do encourage my students to schedule ahead of time and really look at their diary and where they can fit in. But as you say, things happen emergencies happen or we can always be in control of it as much as we want, but we do what we can with the time that we have. So with the time that you do have, and you’ve mentioned it a little bit are you what are you working on at the moment, you’re continuing to sort of add to your your poetry manuscripts, or you’re starting on a new and new collection. Um,
Sara Letourneau:
so I think at this point, as far as I can tell, I have done everything I can with my manuscript I missed out on submission. So I don’t want to make a whole lot of changes. I have made a couple of things since it’s gone out on submission like the random typo that I found. A sometimes editors need editors too, as we like to say. Or so. I mean, I am continuing to send out submissions based on deadlines when submission windows open up for different places and contests and things like that. At some point, excuse me, I a couple of place a couple of places accept poetry manuscripts also want to see things like proposed So even though so that’s something else that I have to do a little bit of homework on. Because it wasn’t something why wasn’t originally planning to do. But now was the time for me to start, you know, thinking about doing that, and how to repurpose that for a poetry book. And I am still working on my own writing to like, if I get new ideas, I’m going to write them down. In fact, I have quite the long list of ideas that are going to be written at some point. And I have some poems that have already been written, they just need to be typed up and brought to the next draft.
And then, in terms of editing work, I don’t mind talking about that either. I start, as of the time we’re taping this, I started a new project tomorrow for an autobiographical fiction. Manuscripts. So that’s really interesting. It’s basically a, it’s not quite a memoir. But it’s taking events that happened in the author’s life, and giving the new characters new names and maybe changing some of the places or, or maybe writing some fictionalized content for it, just to tell the story that needs to be told. So I start that tomorrow, that will be my sort of my last project for the year carrying over a little bit into 2022. I am starting to get inquiries for 2022 projects as well. So if anybody is looking for an editor for their book, and you write in the genres that I mentioned earlier, which are speculative fiction, why a fiction, historical, literary fiction, and no more or other types of nonfiction. And you want to know, you’re looking for an editor for 2022. Feel free to reach out to me, because now is the time to have those conversations. Mm hmm.
Emma Dhesi:
Yeah, we do need to book our editors in advance and make sure we can fit into your diaries. It’s not just ours. Well, Sarah, thank you so much for spending some time with me today. I’ve loved our conversation. And I particularly appreciate the the suggestions, the advice, the encouragement you’ve given to people who are submitting, to not give up to keep going to use those rejections as kind of fuel to take them not personally, but take them constructively to keep moving forward. keep growing, keep improving. So thank you so so much. And I wonder just to round off, but could you let listeners know where they can find out more about you?
Sara Letourneau:
Absolutely. So um, you can find me, you can read more of my writing or my my poetry at Sarah Latino writer.com. Emma’s going to have the show notes, you know, all the links in the show notes. So my last name is a bit long, and so I won’t try spelling it. And having you write it down. So Sarah Turner writer.com. If you’re interested in learning more about my editing and coaching services, you can find me at heart of the story. editorial.com. And you can also find me on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. And on Goodreads. We can’t forget about Goodreads, too, because that’s a great place for bookish people to hang out. And that’s where you can find me. Cool. I
Emma Dhesi:
will absolutely we’ll link to those in the show notes. Sarah, thank you so much. It’s been it’s been great fun. Thank you.
Sara Letourneau:
You’re very welcome. Thank you again for having me on.
If you’ve been working on your novel for years (perhaps even decades) the maybe it's time to consider working with a coach.
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Emma Dhesi
Emma Dhesi is author mindset coach and bestseller author who helps writers let go of perfectionism, self-doubt and writer's block through her signature programme, Unlock Your Creative Block.
She is the host of the YouTube Channel, Emma Dhesi, where she interviews debut and experienced authors alike.
She is a Certified Author Accelerator Book Coach.
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