Author and Digital Strategist
I loved getting to do a setting critique for Brenda Drake‘s blog!
If you’re wondering how I would critique as a #PitchWars mentor this year, check it out!
http://www.brenda-drake.com/2016/06/day-9-june-setting-workshop-pitch-wars-mentor-destiny-cole/
Sometimes I think I have a weird personality for a writer.
I’m not emotional enough.
Not artistic enough.
Not introverted enough.
Instead, I’m a Type-A personality. Driven. Focused. Blunt. Organized. Business minded.
I set goals quarterly and focus on the future and have professional goals outside of publishing.
Because of this, people often discount the creative in me. They are surprised that I write. They are surprised that I struggle with depression. They are surprised that I feel things on so many levels at the same time. Surprised that I internalize my emotions.
“Oh, I wouldn’t have guessed that about you,” is something I hear often.
And it’s been that way my entire life.
I used to think that writing was just what everyone’s go-to outlet was. That it was normal that I obsessively wrote in my journals as a teen. That it was normal I penned poems on scraps of paper and then threw them away in between class. That everyone needed to write out their emotions in some weird poem or story to understand what exactly they were feeling.
But I wasn’t a writer.
I was going to be a lawyer. A businesswoman. A politician.
I wasn’t creative enough to write.
And so that’s what I believed for years and years.
Until I grew so tired of telling myself I wasn’t a writer that it forced me to realize that being a writer was all I ever was.
So maybe I’m not the classic “writer type.”
Maybe I’m not traditionally creative and maybe marketing comes easier than beautiful prose.
But I’m still a writer.
I write to explore the world around me.
I write as an answer to the stereotypes that push against me.
I write to discover who I am outside of labels and categories and expectations and fears.
I write because that’s how I answer my own questions about faith and love and forgiveness and pain and bigotry and motherhood and so much more.
I write for me. I write for you.
I write.
I consider myself to be a very organized person, especially in my professional life. Running social media and digital marketing for a large entity, it’s kind of a must.
That organization flows over into parts of my personal life (though I’m NOT a cleaner, so get that out of your head) I have 3 elementary-aged kids who all play sports, and well let me tell you. It’s either be organized or suck as a mom.
So naturally, when it comes to writing, I’m more of a plotter. That is, until I actually sit down to write. I never understood what writers meant when they said, “the characters tell me what the story is about” until I got serious about writing. Now, instead of thinking of those people like dramatic overly creative hippies, I find that it’s actually quite true.
Thoughts and ideas come to you when you’re engaged in the act of creating. Twists and turns you could have never thought of when plotting, all of sudden pour out of your mind and you struggle to keep up and catch it all onto paper.
So is that to say you shouldn’t plot?
No way!
Plotting is essential for me. It helps keep my pacing on pace. It helps me know where I’m going. It helps me make sure I’m not just meandering around the plot and filling the page with pretty words.
What does an outline look like for me? Something a little like this (this is obviously made up and not a book I’m working on):
So as you can see, it’s basically just bullet points that guides me on my writing journey. WHO KNOWS what would actually happen if I wrote this story because, like I said above, these are just loose outlines and the story evolves.
That’s my favorite part about writing actually. The evolution of a story idea.
Writing is tangible magic and I get to be the wizard who wields it.
How do you like to outline?
I LOVED this article from Mark Manson on “Screw Finding Your Passion.”
You need to read the whole thing, but the line that jumped out at me was…
It’s right there in front of you, you’re just avoiding it. For whatever reason, you’re avoiding it. You’re telling yourself, “Oh well, yeah, I love comic books but that doesn’t count. You can’t make money with comic books.”
Fuck you, have you even tried?
The problem is not a lack of passion for something. The problem is productivity. The problem is perception. The problem is acceptance.
I love that (and pardon the language if it offends you), but most of us know what our passions are, we just don’t pursue them. Instead we keep them on the back burner and say, “if I ever have the extra time” or “when things slow down” or “if I’m ever independently wealthy.”
I call bull shit!
If you’re not pursuing it now, then you won’t pursue it when you have all the time and money in the world. Success — even if it involves something you’re passionate about — requires hard work, thick skin, and determination. Anything worth living for is never easy.
“I meet so many people like him. He doesn’t need to find his passion. His passion already found him. He’s just ignoring it. He just refuses to believe it’s viable. He is just afraid of giving it an honest-to-god try.”
Because aren’t we all? Isn’t that the scariest thing about pursuing your passions? Because once you really try, you run the risk of failing… and if you fail then you can never say, “Well ____ is what I’d really love to do.” But here’s the thing… what if you succeed?
If you’re there today, I say take a chance. Make a move. Swallow your pride. Embrace the possibility of rejection. Do the thing that scares you.
You’ll never regret it.
This past weekend I did something I’ve been wanting to do for the better part of a year… I left on a personal writing weekend!
Getting large chunks of uninterrupted writing time is pretty much nonexistent in my world these days and I REALLY wanted those large chunks and also just some “me” time. Most days I feel like an introvert trapped in the body of an extrovert where I’m all… STOP.
This was my weekend to STOP. It was my weekend to unplug and let my imagination go… My weekend to have no one need me.
And let me tell you… it was heavenly.
The weather was perfection.
The Writing Barn was more than I had hoped for.
The silence was soothing.
I’m so grateful to have gotten away (and grateful to have a husband who encouraged it, even though it was over Valentine’s Day).
Taking a writing retreat once a quarter was on my 2016 Goals and I must say it was a really fabulous idea that I highly recommend! I got a ton of writing done and plowed through some plot holes.
Destiny Cole 
