Change needn't overwhelm when approached sustainably (in writing and in life)
Newsletter for February 2025
Hey, you!
February in Vermont means bitter winds, lots of snow, and standing dates with my snow boots and shovel. Y’all 👀
By mid-February, I am one-hundred percent ready to say ‘goodbye’ to winter and welcome spring. Imbolc is, then, a fun half-holiday for me, a quick nod to my pagan ancestors, an acknowledgement that we’re finally closer to spring than winter, that the light will return, the cold will taper off and vanish, and warmth will descend over the land once again.
Sure, the winter solstice — having passed — means we’re getting more daylight than we did a month ago, but light without heat just feels cruel. Yet, I venture into the cold sunlight on purpose: To connect with Mother Nature, to charge my body batteries, to exercise (snow is heavy, y’all!), to bolster my body against the seasonal chill, to be human.
Being outside in Vermont in February offers a fantastic (and chilling, literally) reminder of just how fragile humanity is, just how quickly many would perish without modern conveniences we’ve come to accept — even expect — as standards of living, just how quickly humans want to divorce themselves from the realities of being human animals on a spinning ball in space time. Being outside in February is a stark reminder of just how important Mother Nature’s work truly is.
I’m not one to anthropomorphize Mother Nature. She isn’t biting into my flesh with icicle teeth, or forcing cold winds up my frozen nostrils, or hexxing me so I’m overcome by the chatters and shakes. In the same way I don’t believe there’s a white-bearded dude sitting on a high cloud watching over humanity, I don’t believe there’s some mysterious nymphlike earth-dwelling woman watching over Earth’s flora and fauna.
Mother Nature isn’t a person, earthly or otherwise; Mother Nature is the name I give to planetary evolutionary forces, broadly. And though, like Punxsutawney Phil, I’m not ready to leave my cozy hole just yet, I know the wheel of time is moving, that change is coming. I can smell it on the freezing wind and see it in the shadows of birds passing my office window.
In the spirit of post-Imbolc February, this newsletter is all about change:
Changing the way you generate story ideas
Changing your approach to manuscript development
Changing your language choices for a more powerful effect
Changing how you communicate your social missions through writing
Changing your outlook on marketing (and finally understanding what “find your people” means)
Change, in life as in stories, can be difficult, emotional, and overwhelming, but it doesn’t have to be. The key here is sustainability.
Yes, it’s okay to change just one thing at a time before moving onto the next change. In fact, the one-thing-at-a-time approach to managing changes is the method I most often recommend because it keeps the impetus of control within our grasp rather than in some external philosophical bubble above our heads and focuses our creative energenies on the work rather than the process.
Here are some change-focused writerly treats:
Writing Craft Articles & Videos
Generate Story Ideas with Tarot (Here’s How)
Tarot cards offer powerful ways for creative people to generate story ideas and work through storytelling issues, including character development and problem-solving challenges.
Unsticking a Stuck Manuscript
Facing a stuck manuscript and unsure how you’re going to unstick the story and finish?
Line Edit Like a Pro (Here’s How)
Line editors look at the structure of your writing, including your meaning, syntax, concision, and word choices. Pull it off like a pro this way.
Writing Humanity In the Digital Age
The best stories live on the edges of movements, as if the authors who pen them take up silent calls to action and then rally their readerly troops for battle.
On Allowing Yourself The Space to Change
As I shared last month, when living our standard day-to-day lives, it’s rather easy to devolve into automatons, living substantially the same day over and over:
Hit snooze
Roll out of bed
Drink (too much) coffee
Zone out while sitting in traffic
Perform eight hours of meaningless work
Zone out while sitting in traffic again
Throw something in the oven
Argue with your partner
Binge a TV show
Pass out
Sameness day in and day out leads to monotony, which depresses creativity and spirituality, divorces the human being from the awesome power of natural cycles, and effectively stops growth and self-development projects in their tracks.
Life is fuggin hard, and building creative time into an already packed day can feel, at times, insurmountable, like piling one more scoop onto a thin, cracked plate. Building creative time into your day sustainably is less about adding and more about subtracting.
It’s okay to let the sinkful of dirty dishes wait until the morning.
It’s okay to put the laundry off another day.
It’s okay to delay that grocery trip,
or decline that invitation,
or say ‘no.’
Not only is it okay, it’s imperative.
You must subtract that which deflates you, that which diminishes your creative capacities, that which threatens your personal growth, that which would stop you from changing and, thus, stop you from changing the world.
Because stepping into your full and creative self is a radical act of socio-cultural change, and I’m here to celebrate the coming New Renaissance. Let go of that which doesn’t serve your creativity and open space for personal growth and change.
Rethinking Marketing: What “find your people” actually means
If you’re on any social media platform for marketing, you’ve likely heard some guru somewhere talk about “finding your people.” Attracting your ideal readers or clients. Connecting with your tribe. Whatever terminology or phrasing you use, social media for business is all about connecting with people who are well suited to you and your work. Even if those folks never buy anything from you directly, they’ll likely help you spread the word about your work to reach folks you may never have discovered on your own.
But . . .
I’m no longer using the term “marketing” to describe what I do on socials. As I recently shared on LinkedIn, if I were to start over as a freelance story developer today with no clients, I'd forget about marketing entirely.
"Marketing" has an icky, corporate vibe to it, like you're assaulting the unsuspecting with persuasion tactics and FOMO so they buy shit they don't need with money they don't have. Happy consumerist joy, right?
Yes, if you're freelancing, you need clients; if you’re an author, you need readers to buy your stories and books. That's a no-brainer. But having to "market" feels as yucky and mysterious as those green-and-fuzzy leftovers from 2022 you found in the back of the fridge. Nobody, including me, wants to open that container.
Instead of marketing, I'm sharing why I got into freelance work, what kinds of books bring me joy, how I ingite my creativity outside of books, how being a homeschool and homestead mom affects my work, and other interesting insights I've learned from the books I've read.
I know, I know: "Semantics, Fallon. All of this is 'marketing!'"
Yes, sure. But mindset and framing are important. You don't need to swallow moldy mystery marketing meat to find your people. You just need to talk like a fuggin person. Be cool. Let your freak flag fly, maybe get a little weird. When you let loose, your people find you.
And my people?
Well, if you’re reading this . . .
So, will you stop marketing and start sharing like a real person instead?
Fancy a bagel with your book?
The other day, as I was standing over a pot of boiling water into which I dropped freshly made bagels before baking . . .
Are you interested in a Books & Bagels workshop? We’ll talk story development while making bagels together. I’ll share both the story-development and the bagel-making ingredients lists ahead of time? You’ll bring your hands, curiosity, and story questions. We’ll both make a mess and wear some flour.
Please reply to this email (it’s really me on the other side!) and let me know. Bonus points if you tell me your favorite kind of bagel.
I’m an “everything” person myself.
Until next month!
