Episode 111 – Don’t give up your day job

In this week’s episode, Mariëlle and Lucinda talk about the many reasons NOT to quit your day job as a writer.

Here are some of the topics that came up:

  • Why Mariëlle and Lucinda are both keen on keeping their day jobs
  • Why having and keeping a day job can be beneficial to your writing
  • Plenty of known authors had day jobs while already being published, and some continued to keep some sort of day job even after becoming successful 
  • Many authors have multiple income streams based on their writing, meaning they don’t ‘just write’ the whole day either

You can find Marielle’s upcoming Kickstarter campaign here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mswordsmith/tarotforentrepreneurs

Episode 110 – Spring Venting

In this week’s episode, Mariëlle and Lucinda each have a little vent about how they’ve been doing since the last time they recorded. 

Here are some of the topics that came up:

  • Lucinda has started playing around with her writing again, which has led to new ideas and bursts of inspiration
  • Mariëlle’s been feeling overwhelmed for different reasons and she’s still in the ‘no one’s waiting for this’ phase; but, she IS writing daily and she’s – for the first time in her life – set on writing 50k words by the end of Camp NaNoWriMo April
  • Both Lucinda and Mariëlle set the intention to keep on having as much fun as they can with whatever they’re working on right now

You can find Marielle’s upcoming Kickstarter campaign here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mswordsmith/tarotforentrepreneurs

Episode 109 – How to Deal with Overwhelm

In this week’s episode, Mariëlle and Lucinda talk about overwhelm and how they (try to) deal with it.

Here are some of the topics that came up:

  • The differences between dealing with overwhelm at the day job and in your writing life
  • The importance of to-do lists and prioritising the items on said list
  • That Lucinda and Mariëlle relate to time differently, and how they both end up overwhelmed by it
  • Mariëlle having found her limit when it comes to the length of her to-do lists
  • How they both handle wanting to do to much at the same time
  • Why it’s necessary to remind yourself why you’ve put an item on your to-do list to begin with

You can find Marielle’s upcoming Kickstarter campaign here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mswordsmith/tarotforentrepreneurs

Episode 108 – The one where Lucinda and Mariëlle try to talk about fear

The topic picked for this week’s episode was ‘fears around being unique’. As you will hear, this turned out to be a particularly hard topic to talk about—both Lucinda and Marielle kept circling the topic, talking about anything and everything related to this particular fear without actually facing the topic directly 😉

You can find Marielle’s upcoming Kickstarter campaign here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mswordsmith/tarotforentrepreneurs

Episode 107 – How to Keep Going

In this week’s episode, Mariëlle and Lucinda talk about how to keep going when the going gets tough.

Here are some of the topics that came up:

  • Lucinda’s been struggling to prioritise her writing time – but talking about it reminded her how much she loves writing, and how much it is a part of her
  • Mariëlle’s currently in the ‘no one’s waiting for this’ phase of both her novel and non-fiction project, and she realised while recording just how deep-seated her imposter syndrome really is
  • That habits can be both a blessing and a curse, and that we need to remain somewhat flexible around them.

You can find Marielle’s upcoming Kickstarter campaign here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mswordsmith/tarotforentrepreneurs

Episode 105 – Finding the Courage to Collaborate

In this week’s episode, Lucinda and Mariëlle talk about their experiences (and fears!) around collaborating with others.

Here are some of the topics that came up:

  • Mariëlle’s fears around collaboration and where she thinks these may be coming from
  • That Lucinda has been very ‘lucky’ in her picking of collaborators because she’s never had a bad experience
  • Collaborating with friends
  • The importance of making sure you gel with someone before you start collaborating
  • Why making up contracts, even when collaborating with a friend, can be highly useful
  • That, sometimes, you just have to take the chance and see where you end up

During the recording, Mariëlle kept feeling she was talking in circles, but right after we stopped recording, she had a major revelation about her current fear around collaboration and where it came from exactly! It goes to show that, sometimes, you just need to talk through something, prod at it from different angles, to arrive at that vital aha! moment 😉

 

Episode 104 – How to Deal with being Stuck

In this week’s episode, Lucinda and Mariëlle talk about being stuck and how they get out of it.

Here are some of the topics that came up:

  • Before you act on your being stuck, it’s always good to try to figure out WHY it is you’re stuck—how did you get here?
  • That while Mariëlle’s writing lots these days, and is definitely not stuck on her current project, she has to admit she’s actually a little stuck on her other project, which is why she put it in a drawer for now and allows herself to focus on her current WIP
  • When Lucinda gets stuck, she steps away from the computer and allows herself to get messy by writing long-hand, which activates a different part of the brain than typing on a keyboard does
  • That, when all else fails, a new notebook might do the trick, since the breath of fresh air that new notebooks bring along might help you in finding a different perspective (in case you needed another excuse to get yourself a new notebook 😉 )

Episode 103 – Levelling up as a Writer

In this week’s episode, Lucinda and Mariëlle talk about levelling up as a writer, and whether or not they’re ready for that.

Here are some of the topics that came up:

  • Lately, Lucinda’s focus has been less on the writing and more on other aspects of her life, and that’s OK.
  • After recognising and then working through some deep-seated patterns in her life, Mariëlle feels about ready to seriously level up and do the things she knows she’s here to do.
  • That you can’t see your writing life as separate from the rest of your life, and that what happens regarding the one automatically affects the other.
  • How, in Lucinda’s case, her personal transformation might very well affect her writing in the long run.
  • That not all things might happen for a reason, but that doesn’t mean we cannot give them at least some level of purpose after the fact.

 

 

 

Episode 102 – Steady Bravery

After pulling the Knight of Swords for this episode, Lucinda and Mariëlle talk about steady bravery and what that means for their creative lives.

That was the intention, at least. They ended up talking about a LOT more than just that.

Here are some of the topics that came up:

  • Tarotly speaking, 2023 is the year of the Chariot, which means it’s the perfect year to move forwards with your goal.
  • How the Knight of Swords fits the Chariot perfectly, since they both warn against pushing forward too hard and ending up burned out and hurt.
  • What bravery means exactly, and that it can mean something different for everyone.
  • Whether we need that nasty little voice in side our heads to get us moving or whether there’s another reason for ‘lazy’ or avoidant behaviour.
  • Where Lucinda’s fear around social media might be coming from.
  • Why learning how to properly rest terrifies Mariëlle like nothing else.

 

Mariëlle also promised to dig up a link to Derek Murphy’s talk on how to create an author brand, which he gave in Edinburgh, but it’s unfortunately not available online.