I believe in synchronicity. No, not the song by The Police (although it’s a great song). I mean the universe whupping you upside the head enough times that you finally take notice. That the signs are there if you just pay attention, if you open your eyes and be open to the message.
Sometimes it’s hearing a concept phrased a different way, and suddenly that concept makes more sense or just clicks.
Sometimes it’s hearing a piece of advice or information the third time, but you’re finally in the right place to really understand it.
It’s that hallelujah moment. That chorus of angelic voices. Or maybe just a chill up your spine, and for a moment the world fades away, and all you can hear is yourself breathing, “Ohhh…”
Or, ya know, it’s the whiplash of the cosmic two-by-four smacking you across the back of your head.
Those of you who’ve been following along with me for a while know that every year, I choose a Word for the Year. Something I want to bring into my life. I’ve been doing it for about 10 years, I think? Past words have included Dare, Trust, Joy, Create, Focus. I’m forgetting some. Hopefully they burrowed into my subconscious.
The last few years, I get my word at the annual Publishing Master Class on the Oregon Coast, in October. That would give me a couple of months to roll it around on my tongue, roll it around in my brain, refine it.
This year, that didn’t happen. And as the year drew to an end, I found myself feeling edgy, nervous. Where was my Word? A few times I thought I had it, but a day or two later, I would have forgotten it—which meant it wasn’t my Word after all. On top of that, November and December were full of stress and health issues, and not a lot of writing. Usually I’d be looking forward to starting the year with my Word, and not having it added to the stress, which in turn made the Word harder to find, I think.
On New Year’s Day I went to a part at my friend Thorn’s house. Every year (I assume; I’ve only been to two) she and her partners host a Divination Party. Get a Tarot or rune reading, or give one, and eat good food and spend time with smart, creative, inspiring people.
Long story short, I got a Tarot reading. It was a curiously uneven reading, suggesting I’d be dealing with bad as well as good in the coming year. There would be separation. Figuring shit out. But on the other side, positive things. When I explained the reading to Ken, my Word finally flew into my head and heart:
Release
This is my year of letting things go. Shit I don’t need. Habits or practices or stuff that isn’t serving me anymore. Because when you do that, you open up room for new things. Better habits. A fresh outlook. More space to breathe.
Around the same time, I came to recognize, finally, something that’s been holding me back. It’s something I internalized so long ago that I hadn’t realized it was deep down there. It’s not something I’m going to talk about publicly; it’s just something I have to unpack, pick apart, and…let go of. Release.
I mentioned synchronicity above. Figuring out my Word allowed other things to snap into place. First, three books I started reading.
You Are a Badass: How to Stop Doubting Your Greatness and Start Living an Awesome Life
Jen Sincero
What this book is about should be fairly obvious from the title. No idea where I heard about it, but I’d checked it out of the library earlier in the year but didn’t finish it, so in December, when we introduced my mother to the wondrous mecca that is Powell’s Books, I picked up a copy.
I love the energy and attitude in this book—I can feel the author shouting “Boo-yah!” and high-fiving me. I plan to buy this book for a few of my friends who I think could use the boost.
Also, one of the core messages is to love yourself. How can that be bad?
Love yourself. Read the book.
The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results
Gary Keller and Jay Papasan
This one was recommended at the Master Class (which I attend every year, because whoo boy the publishing climate is changing so rapidly). I’m afraid I don’t remember who brought it up, but several people mentioned the concept of 20% of your effort produces 80% of your results, which is a major point of the book.
It’s also about how multitasking doesn’t work, not if you’re focused on a bigger goal. You have to figure out the ONE thing that leads you directly to your goal, and do that ONE thing above everything else.
There’s a lot, lot, lot more than that, and I’m still working my way through. Highly recommended.
Year of Yes: How to Dance It Out, Stand In the Sun and Be Your Own Person
Shonda Rhimes
My above-mentioned friend Thorn recommended this one, when the ebook was $1.99 (sadly, the sale is over). The first couple chapters, she said, was worth it for writers. I considered just downloading the sample, which would have covered those chapters, but then I released being miserly about two-freaking-dollars and just bought it.
Several of my friends have had A Year of Yes in the past, and I confess the concept made me twitch. Promising the universe that you’ll say “yes” to everything sounded like a recipe for disaster. I’ve read waaaay too much mythology and whatnot to know when you put something out there—like when you give your three wishes to that genie you’ve coaxed out of his bottle—you’ve gotta be super-specific.
Thankfully, Shonda explains early on that it was about saying yes to things that scare her—which makes a lot more sense to me. And later, she has a chapter about saying yes to saying “No,” and that killed any lingering objections I still had.
I love Shonda’s voice in this; it’s a quick, almost breathless read. I plowed through it in a couple of days, but I plan to go back and revisit some of the salient points.
Right. So, synchronicity.
Batching
Powerhouse author and marketer Joanna Penn of the Creative Penn (aka JF Penn for fiction) was one of the speakers at the Master Class. Just after the new year, she wrote a blog post about batching, and once again, a little explosion went off in my brain.
The concept of batching is that rather than dividing your day into two hours of A, two hours of B, three hours of C, and so on, you spend one day doing all of the A you need to do for the month, then two days of B, leaving you free to focus on C…and so on. However it works best for your job.
For example, instead of doing two hours max of freelance work each day, why don’t I set Mondays and Tuesdays to do it, and then have the rest of the week for writing?schedule
Astute readers will note this ties back into The ONE Thing. (Boom, crash, pow. Synchronicity.)
So that’s where my head is right now. Release. With a soupçon of synchronicity.
Looking ahead? I’m gearing up for the Anthology Workshop, and hoping that our recent (and gorgeous) snowfall hinders my drive through the mountain pass to the coast. I’m behind on my reading for the workshop, but what else is new?
I’m also working on Shaded, the sequel to Ghosted, and revamping my newsletter, and reading for the Fantasy Workshop in April, and…well, that all probably warrants another blog post.
(Finally, a confession: I lied. The Police’s “Synchronicity” really does cover what I’m talking about here. And it’s awesome.)
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I’ve had a box of office stuff in my writing office since we moved in. I knew it wasn’t crucial stuff, so it sort of sat in front of the antique wardrobe, getting shoved around as we needed to get to the window to put in or take out the AC, etc. The other day, I finally threw up my hands and took everything out of it. We’ve put a small bookcase in the wardrobe (eventually I’d like to have removable shelves that run the whole width), so I figured I could off-load stuff into there.
