Happy Thursday First name / Lovely Reader,
Sometimes we all need a little distraction. Right now, my current diversion is The Resident. I've loved Matt Czuchry since his time on The Gilmore Girls and The Good Wife, both favorite shows of mine. He plays arrogant SO well.
Yesterday I sent out my weekly WriterSpark newsletter (WriterSpark is a website and online academy for new and aspiring writers). In it, I reference a cool learning moment from The Resident. Matt's character, Dr. Conrad Hawkins, tells tells Manish Dayal’s character, Devon (who is also so great), to basically forget everything he learned in medical school. In med school, he says later, they teach you all the ways you can help people. What they don’t teach you is all the ways you can hurt people. You have to learn that along the way.
Trial and error, tricks of the trade, and experience all teach you so much more than you can imagine. Thankfully in writing, we don’t accidentally kill people because we’re learning on the job. We do that intentionally. 😂
This moment from the show made me reflect on my journey as a writer. When I had my first two kids, the majority of my paycheck went to daycare. That's when I decided to stay home. Writing was a way to keep my mind active.
Fast-forward ten years later. My last child was a baby and I was still trying to write. I still didn't really know what I was doing. Now, 26 novels later, I have a pretty good idea how to write a book. 😊 I will always be learning and challenging myself. That's part of who I am as a person. But what I realized recently is how much I've learned over the last 17 years. I know so much that I didn't even realize I knew. This realization came as I created the curriculum and content for the first WriterSpark course--30 Days to Craft Your Novel--and as I've been creating A Field Guide to Writing a Cozy Mystery.
Time and experience teach you when you don't even realize it's happening.
Even my diversions bring moments that resonate. Thank you Matt Czuchry!
In other news, look for an auction sponsored by Kensington Books, the publisher of my Bread Shop mysteries, very soon. All proceeds will benefit relief efforts in Ukraine. There are also other writing-sponsored fundraisers I'll be sharing soon.
