Category: Episode

On this episode of Diving into Writing, Mariëlle and Lucinda talk about values and whether or not it’s important your written work reflects your most inner values.

Here are some of the topics that came up:

• Should your values influence your writing?
• How do you bring your values into your writing?
• Mariëlle and Lucinda share some examples of the values they’ve written into their worlds and how, for example, by making it part of their world-building, the way their plots evolve, or the kinds of characters they let inhabit their worlds. 

Here’s the exercise from Mariëlle’s 99 Writing Prompts and Journal Exercises: 

According to Stephen King, ‘serious ideas must always serve your story, not the other way around. I repeat: if you want to preach, get a soapbox.’ 

What serious ideas underline your work? What are you challenging or shaking up? 

Set your timer. For the next fifteen minutes, write down your answer to those questions. When you’re done, set your timer to five minutes and ask yourself, ‘Why this?’    

You can find her book here: https://mswordsmith.nl/99writingprompts

The other book Mariëlle mentioned during the episode, 7 Figure Fiction: How to Use Universal Fantasy to SELL Your Books to ANYONE by T. Taylor, can be found here: https://7figurefiction.com

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After having gone most of the year without many concrete goals, during this episode of Diving into Writing, Mariëlle and Lucinda set some goals for the rest of 2023.   

Here are some of the topics that came up:

• While Mariëlle did have some main goals for 2023, she realised she forgot about everything else she wanted to achieve and complete this year because she never actually wrote those other goals down. 
• Lucinda realised during the episode that she can’t just keep adding things on to her day and wants to try alternating certain things so she can get everything else done.
• When our lives change, our writing habits might have to change along. When Mariëlle was still teaching, writing every day wasn’t a possibility, but it is now. Lucinda used to write every day, but, with her current responsibilities, wishing for that back can only lead to disappointment, so she’s going to try to use her annual leave to schedule blocks of writing time instead.

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During this episode of Diving into Writing, which was recorded at the beginning of July, Mariëlle and Lucinda check in with each other about their goals for the next six months.  

Here are some of the topics that came up:

• That goal setting is a very personal practice and might take some trial and error to get right.
• Mariëlle, who strayed far off the goal-setting path, realises during the episode that breaking her big goals into mini goals she then gets to check off one by one might be giving her the energy she’s been lacking over the last six months. 
• That Lucinda is much better at goal setting when it’s about her dogs and training they need than when it’s about her day job (where she does set goals) and her writing (where she hasn’t set any goals lately). 
• That both Mariëlle and Lucinda’s main goal is to start setting writing goals again. 

And here’s a link to the sticky bookmarks Lucinda was gushing over during the episode: https://www.amazon.co.uk/smatime-Bookmark-Self-Stick-Stationery-Annotation/dp/B09FF6KGRY

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During this episode of Diving into Writing, Mariëlle and Lucinda update each other on how their writing is going and end up talking about the joy of writing once again. 

Here are some of the topics that came up:

• Mariëlle’s switching between two fiction projects at the moment, which is not something she’s ever done before. 
• Lucinda wrote a new scene after recording the last episode and finally feels ready to invest in a new journal for this specific novel.
• How vision boards play in role in both their writing and how they can bring both inspiration and joy to the writing process.

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During this episode of Diving into Writing, Mariëlle – kindly – bitch-slaps Lucinda until they uncover why Lucinda is still struggling to continue writing her next book. 

Here are some of the topics that came up:

• How Lucinda got on after the Akashic Records reading Mariëlle did for her during the previous episode
• Whether there is a distinction between meaningful and meaningless writing
• Why writing outlines isn’t for everyone, and why that is more than OK

Here’s the link to Heartfulness: https://heartfulness.org

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During this episode of Diving into Writing, Mariëlle explains what the Akashic Records are and how they can help writers and does an Akashic Records reading for Lucinda to help her through some her writing-related blocks.

For those who want to get their own Akashic Records reading, Mariëlle offers a limited number of free readings until the end of the year. To claim your spot, please follow the link:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1MFIY2B3fp7y3XNBiyOEoN6TYkrtDcbYTUe6-xW-mbkY/edit?usp=sharing

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On this episode of Diving into Writing, Mariëlle and Lucinda talk about their writing journeys and how they kept coming back to it over the years.

Here are some of the topics that came up:

• How Lucinda always knew she was going to write but didn’t actually start writing until she was in her early forties. It took her another year before she started taking her writing seriously.
• Mariëlle started writing much younger but kept it a secret until she was twenty-eight. Only after learning about indie publishing did she start to take her writing utterly seriously. 
• Mariëlle learning about Lucinda’s published fan fiction and why that excites her to no end.

You can find Lucinda’s dive into fan fiction here: https://www.amazon.com/Tales-Oriceran-Universe-Fans-Write/dp/1642021296

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

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After three weeks of not speaking to each other, Mariëlle and Lucinda catch up on their lives in this episode and talk about the balance between belonging to community and staying true to yourself.

Here are some of the topics that came up:

• How Mariëlle and Lucinda are both struggling with time flying by
• The delicate dance between allowing yourself grace and kicking yourself in the arse
• How Lucinda is still struggling to make space for her writing and Mariëlle with doing the same for her mental health
• How becoming and being part of any community is so much easier when you’re aware of your own needs and are confident about how you see things first

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

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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

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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

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