Tag: pandemic

THE OTHER SIDE OF THE PANDEMIC – Part 3

by Jane M. Choate

Now that we’ve looked at what I am doing, let’s examine what I’m not doing.  Have those things, too, helped revitalize my writing?  Maybe.  So what am I spending less time doing?

Cleaning

I’m spending less time cleaning house.  No, I haven’t let the house be condemned by the Board of Health, but I’m realizing more of what is important … and what’s not. Spending less time cleaning house has been great.  Not only do I have more energy and time for life’s important moments, I also haven’t experienced any noticeable change in lifestyle.  Post-pandemic, the house isn’t perfectly clean; that’s a given. 

Cleaning House

But neither was it perfectly clean pre-pandemic.  I was scrubbing, dusting, vacuuming, etc., all for a false sense of self-worth.  Now, I work to keep the house comfortable and semi-decent.  My happiness level shot up, as did my time to daydream about the next book or noodle around with ideas for trying a different genre.

Accumulating

I’m spending less time accumulating more things. Spending less time in accumulation is just practical.  Having a bunch of things means more dusting those things, more re-arranging those things, more trying to find room for those things.  My time is much better spent playing with grandchildren and writing.

worrying

  • I’m spending less time worrying over if I will sell more books. I will do my best in my writing, but I’m not going to obsess over it. Using less emotional energy to worry over if I’ll ever sell another book gives me the courage to take risks in my writing.  Could I add a more in-depth scene to my latest book and would the editor like it?  We’ll see.
Selling More Books
  • I’m spending less time worrying over what others think of me. Spending less time on this has been infinitely freeing.  (How else could I carry off having blue hair for over two years?)  In my seventies now, I realized I had spent far too much of my life anguishing over what others thought of me.  No more.

FINALLY

I have no presumption that what works for me will work for you.  These are just a few of the things I am doing differently now.  Whether they make me a better writer is yet to be seen, but they are making me a better person.

What works for you?

Jane M. Choate dreamed of writing since she was a little girl and entertained her friends with made-up stories about them.  She postponed her dream of writing to get married and have children.  On one particularly hard day when it seemed all she had done was to clean toilets (she had two small boys at the time), she wrote a short story and sent it in to a magazine on a whim.  To her surprise and delight, it was accepted. 

Jane now writes for Love Inspired Suspense where she combines romance, danger, and faith. Jane is the mother of five children, grandmother to ten grandchildren, and great-grandmother to one adorable baby girl. When she is not writing, she can be found trying to keep up with her grandchildren. (The operative word there is “trying.”)

You won’t want to miss Jane’s latest release–Rocky Mountain Vendetta–A must read that spent 2 weeks on the Publishers Weekly Bestseller List!

(c) 2022 by Jane M. Choate

FACT OR FICTION: THE OTHER SIDE OF THE PANDEMIC Part 2

by Jane M. Choate

In Fact or Fiction: The Other Side of the Pandemic, we were introduced to author, Jane M. Choate and her 3-part series. This article will take a look at what Jane has added.

More family

I’m spending more time with my family, especially my grandchildren.  I’m taking more trips, like a recent one to Utah to see a new great-grandbaby.  (Yes, I have a great-grandbaby, and she is beautiful.) 

Spending more time with family and friends has allowed me to watch the interactions between individuals and then to use that, when appropriate, in my writing.  Our family is messy.  The relationships are messy.  And isn’t that what life is about?  Messy relationships that somehow stick.  Our family sticks together, no matter our messiness, no matter what goes on between us.  We may fight, but let someone attack any one of us and we come together, ready to take on any and all who would divide us.  Since I write mainly romantic suspense, the hero and heroine have a “messy” relationship.  Things don’t come easily to either of them.  They argue; they fight.  More importantly, they fight those who would hurt the other.

more purging

I’m spending more time purging, letting go of what I don’t need and don’t want. Letting go or purging possessions that no longer work for the life I want to have has freed not only space in my house but space in my brain as well.  Both are important.

Too many things create clutter.  After forty-six years in the same house, my husband and I have enough clutter to last several lifetimes.  Getting rid of some of it (I’m even letting go of some books) allows me to see white spaces.  We all know that white space is important in the pages of a book.  We gravitate toward that because we know that white space means dialogue.  In a home, white space means freedom from clutter.  White space in the brain is vital as it creates a blank page for my thoughts to take shape.

More joy

I’m spending more time finding joy in the small things.  Practicing finding joy in small things keeps my “glass half full.”  In order to write, I need to recognize unexpected moments of happiness, of laughter, of love. 

This is largely related to spending time with grandchildren. Who can resist a hug from a four-year-old blue-eyed blonde granddaughter who calls me “Meemaw?” These little scraps of joy remind me that the world is full of things to write about.

more fun

I’m spending more time having fun, like dying my hair blue.  Spending more time in having fun and doing silly things, like dyeing my hair and eyebrows blue, has awakened that part of me that used to do such things on a regular basis.  With that, I was able to add bits of humor in my last book, which garnered favorable response.

saying “no” more often

I’m saying “no” to requests upon my time and energy more often.  Saying no to unreasonable requests upon my time and energy has freed up both. 

In our service organization, we practice what we call a ministering program.  It’s a good thing to be able to help others, and I try to do what I can.  However, when my husband and I were assigned to one lady who every week had more and more things for us to do, requested more and more things which required ever-increasing physical and emotional strength than we had to give, we finally asked to be released from that particular assignment.  Though she was a nice enough woman, she had no sense of boundaries.  She took and took, leaving us with little left over for ourselves or anyone else. Post-pandemic, I have found more courage to speak up and say what’s working for me and, also, to say what’s not working.  Reclaiming that energy and time gave me the same to devote to my family and my writing.  For a while, I felt selfish in saying “no,” but then I realized it wasn’t selfish but practical to take care of myself.

What are you doing more of?

Find out what Jane’s NOT doing in the last article in this series. You won’t want to miss it.

Jane M. Choate dreamed of writing since she was a little girl and entertained her friends with made-up stories about them.  She postponed her dream of writing to get married and have children.  On one particularly hard day when it seemed all she had done was to clean toilets (she had two small boys at the time), she wrote a short story and sent it in to a magazine on a whim.  To her surprise and delight, it was accepted. 

Jane now writes for Love Inspired Suspense where she combines romance, danger, and faith. Jane is the mother of five children, grandmother to ten grandchildren, and great-grandmother to one adorable baby girl. When she is not writing, she can be found trying to keep up with her grandchildren. (The operative word there is “trying.”)


You won’t want to miss Jane’s latest release–Rocky Mountain Vendetta–A must read that spent 2 weeks on the Publishers Weekly Bestseller List!

FACT OR FICTION: THE OTHER SIDE OF THE PANDEMIC

In the first Fact or Fiction article, I introduced a new series to reveal how authors use real life characters, places, and events to write fiction. The series was targeted to what was fact and what was fiction in Search Beyond Lies, a romantic suspense thriller inspired by true events.

Search Beyond Lies — Fact or Fiction

I’ve had so much interest from my readers, that I’ve invited some favorite authors to share the inspiration behind their novels and reveal the facts behind their fiction. My plan is to publish the Search Beyond Lies Fact or Fiction series every other week and share guest articles on the alternate weeks. Some weeks 2 articles will be released.

Our first guest is Jane M. Choate, author of 41 romantic suspense novels, the latest being Rocky Mountain Vendetta – a definite must read that spent 2 weeks on the Publishers Weekly Bestseller List.

This article is the introduction, the first in a three-part series by Jane that will look at how the pandemic affected the creative writing process in developing the story, characters, and “Aha” moment.

THE OTHER SIDE OF THE PANDEMIC

BY JANE M. CHOATE

On the Other Side of the Pandemic

We are now on the other side of the pandemic (at least until a new one or another life-altering thing hits).  What do we do now?  If you’re like me, you’ve faltered, may have doubted yourself, even questioned whether you could or should continue writing at all.  We get it.  We’re all feeling our way to a new kind of living, a new kind of dressing (how many of us have pretty much lived in pajama pants over the last couple of years?), and, for the writers among us, a new kind of writing.

Creative Commons License, copyright

How do we find our way back to our writing or forging a new path in that writing? This may be changing genres or it may be developing a new schedule or changing how we look at the world.  It may be letting go of something that fit the you that you were and finding something different that fits the you that you are now. 

In the last two-plus years, I’ve been practicing new life skills, adding some things, subtracting others.  How are any of these things helping with my writing?  Truthfully, I don’t know how much they are helping, but I can see and feel a difference in myself.  They are helping me keep myself in balance.  And that’s important.  For my writing.  For my life.

In the next article, I’ll discuss what I’ve added.

Jane M. Choate dreamed of writing since she was a little girl and entertained her friends with made-up stories about them.  She postponed her dream of writing to get married and have children.  On one particularly hard day when it seemed all she had done was to clean toilets (she had two small boys at the time), she wrote a short story and sent it in to a magazine on a whim.  To her surprise and delight, it was accepted. 

Jane now writes for Love Inspired Suspense where she combines romance, danger, and faith. Jane is the mother of five children, grandmother to ten grandchildren, and great-grandmother to one adorable baby girl. When she is not writing, she can be found trying to keep up with her grandchildren. (The operative word there is “trying.”)