Story Magic

85 - Art when the world is falling apart

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Today, Emily & Rachel talk about creating when the world sucks.

What you’ll learn from this episode: 

  • What to do when the world is falling apart
  • Seeking refuge in community
  • Feeling your feelings


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Emily:

Hey, writers. Welcome back to Story Magic, a podcast that will help you write a book you're damn proud of.

Rachel:

I'm Rachel.

Emily:

And I'm Emily.

Rachel:

And today we are talking about creating when the world kind of sucks, when there's things happening and it's hard and the world's falling apart. How do we write? How do we be creative when everything's terrible?

Emily:

Yeah. And should we. I feel like that's a question.

Rachel:

Spoiler.

Emily:

So this isn't a simple answer. Yeah. Guys, this is gonna be. I'm not. Yeah, it's. This is gonna be. It's just the episode. Let's just go.

Rachel:

We're gonna feel our feelings this episode.

Emily:

We're gonna feel super positive.

Rachel:

I know.

Emily:

So we're gonna find. We're gonna find this overlining.

Rachel:

Gosh.

Emily:

Okay, so we're recording this on January 13, 2025. Yes. It is our first episode of the new year. A lot of stuff has happened.

Rachel:

A lot of things are going on in the world.

Emily:

Because we've been on break. We haven't. We haven't recorded an episode since, like, November. And November 2024 was a big time in the United States. A lot of things were going on. Are still going on. Are going to be going on next week.

Rachel:

We are entering a marathon, a new era.

Emily:

And. And right now, LA is on fire. Gosh, LA is on fire. And we had the Asheville disaster not that long ago, and it just. And there's Palestine. There's. I mean, the list goes on and on. Right. Like, there's so much happening in the world. And then also, like, personal life wise, like, it's been a little chaotic. We've had, like, some serious illnesses.

Rachel:

Yeah.

Emily:

Over the last couple of weeks. And it's just, like, sometimes. I don't know, sometimes life just fricking sucks. And it just can feel like the world is ending. Maybe it is. I don't know. But then it's like the last season.

Rachel:

Of the United States. But, like, how will it end?

Emily:

How. But I think the question is. And. And we got this question a lot in tenacious writing.

Rachel:

Yeah.

Emily:

In the tenacious writing community. During. So in November, we ran. For our community members, we ran a writing challenge that was, you know, not NaNoWriMo. It was our own version because we don't subscribe to everybody doing the same thing. Um, so no shame. November was a writing challenge where everybody set their own goals. And we started. And the first week of November was, like, so much energy, so much fun. And then. I'm just gonna be frank. We're gonna get political today. No, we're not. We're not.

Rachel:

But a little.

Emily:

The election happened. The election happened in the United States, and a lot of people in our community really, just all of a sudden it was a hit because a lot of people were like, what's the point? What is the point of writing? And I know that a lot of people are feeling that again right now with the LA fires. It's like when the world is literally on fire.

Rachel:

Yeah.

Emily:

He's like, what's the point? What's the point of writing your silly little fantasy romance? Right? And I say that in air quotes because it's not silly and it's not little. But that's kind of what we're going to talk about today is why that's not silly, why that's not little, why we should. When we should create and when we shouldn't. And it's a complicated question that I feel like has a different answer for every person on. Every day. I don't know.

Rachel:

No, really? Yeah.

Emily:

I.

Rachel:

What I want people to get out of this episode is not necessarily an answer, but. But I. Like, we're gonna hold some space for, like, this is the thing that impacts the writing process. Like, when the world is falling apart. In your perspective, when things are really terrible in your life or things are hard, it impacts your ability to write, and then that creates all sorts of feelings. And like, today I just kind of want to hold space for those feelings. And, like, if you're feeling feelings, feel emotional, Feel the feelings.

Emily:

Yeah.

Rachel:

So I don't. I don't know that I have, like, the answer to solve this dilemma for you today. You know, I feel like a previous.

Emily:

Version of myself wants to be like, your words are so important. You need. We need your stories. We need you to keep showing up to the page. Your. Your book could change the world. Right? Like, that's like, a previous version of me would want to say that. And the current me is like, no, your book doesn't really matter in the grand scheme of the world. Right. Like, it might move some people. It's gonna teach some people some stuff if you want it to. Is it gonna change the world? Probably not. Does that mean you shouldn't do it? Absolutely not.

Rachel:

Yeah, absolutely not.

Emily:

It's so important. And I think the reason it's important is not. We like to have this idea that, like, as a single. And this is me, like, the first. Most of my life, I've been like, I, as a single person can save the world. No, I can't. No, I can't. And I feel like I'm coming to terms with that right now in like a big way because there's only so much impact that I can have on my country on climate change. If you don't know, my previous life was climate justice. So this is like, this is real big and important to me and. But I have seen the impact that people can have, have on the world. But the reality is that you can't. Like, the impact that you can have on your neighbors, on your friends, on your family, what you can give to others who are in need. Right. Like what you have to offer. Like all of that. None of that happens if you're not happy. Like, none of that happens if you, if you're, if you don't feel safe in yourself, if you don't feel loved, if you don't feel rested, if you don't feel right. Like, we can't show up as our best selves for the world around us if we are not taking care of ourselves. And I think that art is one of the biggest ways that we do that. And if, if art is like, if the reason that you show up to write while LA is burning is because it makes you happy, like, that is not something to be ashamed about. That's important because your happiness is important because that allows you to show up for the world. And I think that's the best answer.

Rachel:

I got today, guys. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I think I would take what you just said and the only thing that I would tweak is not even tweak, but like a lot of our books won't change the world, but they will change our world. And that matters. Yeah. Like, I don't know that I'm even writing the books that I'm writing right now to change the world. I'm writing them to like make a sliver of my readers lives happier. Like it makes my life happy and it makes my ideal.

Emily:

That's the most important thing.

Rachel:

Yeah.

Emily:

It makes your life happy.

Rachel:

Yes. And that matters. Like I matter, so. Yeah, that, that matters.

Emily:

Nothing that you do that makes you happy is bad unless it hurts other people.

Rachel:

Yeah.

Emily:

And like it's not shameful and it's not. And I think that that's, that's fundamentally what people were struggling with in November in our community was this idea, right? This idea of like, that you have the luxury to do something that makes you happy right now and that that's bad. And like beating yourself up and like keeping happiness from yourself because other people are suffering does not make the world.

Rachel:

A better place, right? Yeah.

Emily:

And that doesn't allow you to show up better for people who are suffering, whether it's immediate people or people, you know, halfway across the world like that. It doesn't help anybody for you to just be depressed. Like, I just don't, I don't believe in that. And I can see, like, I can, because I've struggled with that, like, you know, the shame and guilt of having privilege that somebody, somebody else doesn't in any given moment. Right. Like that I've experienced that. I know what that feels like and it's real. And I think all you can do with that is channel it into making the world a better place in whatever ways that are available to you. And if beating yourself up is not allowing you to do that, which it probably isn't, then like, I just don't see the point.

Rachel:

I don't see the point. I agree. And I think I was talking to one of my really close writer friends yesterday. There's you before, because we were both feeling. Wildfires are personally very meaningful to me because my husband was a wildland firefighter in Arizona for 10 years. So we've been through the trauma of wildland fires. We've been through fatalities in wildland fires. We've seen devastation. He's worked it, he's been on the front line lanes. So I, I don't have the lived experience that he has as being a firefighter, but they're, they're very meaningful to me and like, seeing it and, and how complicated these situations be and how devastating they are and seeing companies take away insurance at like the last second, like all of that map, like, affects me and even though I don't live there and like, obviously it's not my house that's being burnt down. Right. But like, we lived that for a while when he was doing that job. So anyway, I was talking to one of my really close writer friends a couple days ago of like, it doesn't make me feel happy to write right now. You know, like, what is. Nothing makes me feel happy right now because everything sucks. So, like, that is also a big part of this is what if it doesn't make you feel happy? What if it, what if, like you're. There's no motivation. What if just holding the pain of a hundred thousand people, a million people across the, you know, world from wherever it is that you are. We're not too far away from California, but we're states away. So like, holding that, you know, what's going on with them totally makes Me emotionally less available to writing. And like, when we were talking, my friend and I, the only solution we had is just like, I see you, see you in this pain. Like, this is hard. And I want to expand this take not just like on the fires, but also on like Inauguration day or whatever else is coming up or like whatever respective climate disaster you're facing in your current life war. Like, there are disasters happening everywhere. This is. You weren't there. You weren't there. But this is funny. We were on a right together last week and we had. We have a writer in Australia who was talking about the bushfires and had like a massive bushfire in their. In their national forest in Australia or their national park in Australia. Then we have the fires in la, which we have writers that live in la. So. So one of those writers was on the call and she was like, I can't. I have to wear a mask almost in my own home. Like, the. The sky is orange, the sun is orange. Like, she was talking to us. We had a writer who lives here whose parents were evacuated in California. Then we had writers on the east coast who were like, in a massive snowstorm. And we, we were all just like, okay, I hope everyone survives their respective climate disasters right now. Like, everything was terrible.

Emily:

Snowing in Georgia. Exactly.

Rachel:

We had our writer in Georgia who was like, I don't know, the city shut down for like three inches of snow. I've got like eight inches outside. I'm like going to school in a blizzard.

Emily:

Like, yeah.

Rachel:

Anyway, it was just funny. We were literally all experiencing a separate climate disaster and trying to write together.

Emily:

Yeah.

Rachel:

Trying to show up in community. But I think that's like, really all you can do is just try and then be there for the other people around you. Like, I see you there for her.

Emily:

You can you see me?

Rachel:

This is hard. It sucks. And I don't know about writing today. You know, I don't know that I have the mental energy when, like, all I can really manage is doom scrolling. Not that that's a healthy behavior by any means, but I think that's a reality for a lot of people too. Is. Yeah, maybe it. Maybe it doesn't make you happy right this second, but maybe tomorrow it will.

Emily:

Yeah. Yeah. And I think the reality is, like, there's no reality. What we're. I think we're trying to impress upon everybody this episode is like, there's no right or wrong way to react to whatever is happening in your life or in the world. And, like, you're allowed to do whatever you need to do. Because, like, for me, that week in November when everybody. I had just turned in my draft. That's what happened. I had just turned in my draft to my editor. So I had, like, a week of free time, and I was like, I want to put together. I was like, I'm going to rest. And then. And then the election happened, and then all of a sudden, all I wanted to do was create my new pitches for my agent for my new story. And I. At first, I was like, is this hustle, right? Am I, like, hustling to do this because I feel like I need to get to the next project? And I was like, no, it's not. I'm actually stalking right now. Like, this is how I'm dealing with what's happening in my country is. I just. I'm not. I'm not dealing with it for a huge portion of the day by disappearing into my story, because that is what I need to do right now.

Rachel:

Yeah.

Emily:

And then I would come back out and, like, deal with it, you know? Like, I'm not. I'm not. I'm not advocating for.

Rachel:

That's how you feel.

Emily:

But, like, for me, like, to be able to figure out how I was going to, you know, take care of my community and my neighbors in that moment, I had to, like. I just had to sort. To deal with my own emotions so that I could show up for everybody after the fact and that.

Rachel:

Explain. Explain to everybody what you mean by storking.

Emily:

Storking just, like, disappear. Like. Like putting my head in the stand.

Rachel:

There you go.

Emily:

That's. Yeah. And, like, not. That's not the right word. Storking. What am I thinking? Ostriching. Okay.

Rachel:

I was gonna say. I'm pretty sure it's ostriches that put their head in their hand. Storks breaking.

Emily:

You guys? No. Ostrich. Ostrich. Ostrich thing. Oh, my God, this is so embarrassing. Okay. No, I was ostrich singing, my head in the sand, ignoring everything that was going on. This is my favorite hashtag. Snorking. I lost my train of thought.

Rachel:

That's what you were doing to cope.

Emily:

Yeah. Yeah. And I think that that's okay. Like, we're allowed. It would have been easy for me to look at what everybody was doing, spiraling in the. In the chat and be like, there's something wrong with me that I want to write right now, because all these other people don't and, like, aren't able to, and that's not how they're taking care of themselves. Like, they're all resting. I'm not resting. Like, something's wrong with me. I don't care. Like, I must not care about what's happening in my country. And like, of course, none of that is true. Right? There's no. My point is, like, there's no, there's no should when it comes to how to, how to deal with your writing in the face of things like this. There's just what helps you. And if that's rest, great. If that's disappearing into your story, great. Whatever you gotta do to get yourself to a place where you can show up for. In whatever way you can for those you love.

Rachel:

Community. I mean, Therapy. Like, we are not therapists. We are writers showing up to write. And, like, I have a therapist, so maybe you need a therapist too, to, like, talk through some of this space to learn what is a healthy coping mechanism for you or how do you function in your daily life, not just like your creative life, but in your daily life with some of this stuff. I'm just saying this is a great time to see a therapist if you're particularly struggling with anything.

Emily:

Everybody deserves a therapist.

Rachel:

Yeah, yeah. Like, don't discount, don't discount that. Like, oh, you can tough your way through some of these emotions because it's okay to need help and it's okay to see a professional, even if you just do it one time, to, like, talk through what you're feeling and how you should try to manage how you're feeling. Yeah, yeah. Friends, if. If therapy is not for you, I think it's. I think it's for everybody. But if you're like, I can't afford that or I can't do that for whatever reason. Community. Like, it was, it was really helpful to like, talk to my other writer friend a couple days ago and then to also be like, hey, we're probably going to need to vent a little bit later because it's not. I don't foresee a lot of up and up in the next couple weeks. I kind of feel some down and downs coming. So, like, venting is really helpful, even if, like, I don't think you need to vent to bring about change. Sometimes you just need to vent to, like, get your feelings out. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Emily:

And also, you can show up in Community in other ways. Like, while the fires were happening last week, I, a writer friend and I were like, we're just gonna turn our social media off. Like, we're obsessing and it's not helping anybody for us to obsess and so we're like, we're just gonna turn it to write together. We got on Zoom and we just wrote. And it was like several hours where we just let ourselves be in our stories together in community. Right. And that. That help. That. That means something. So I think this. This episode to start off our 2025.

Rachel:

Welcome to 2025.

Emily:

It's a huge love letter to everybody that, like, this year, there are going to be some really hard times this year, inevitably, there always are. But I. I just feel it. Yeah, it's already happening. It's already hard. And, like, Rachel and I have been sick for two weeks, and we've been so kind to each other and to our writing and to our goals. Right. That's all we can do. Just be kind to each other. If you don't have a community that is supportive to you in your writing, please check out Tenacious Writing, because we have space for you. And. Yeah. And we're going to be talking. Is this a good time to talk about Reclaim the Magic?

Rachel:

Before you do, I want to echo what you just said about kindness. The. I. I live primarily on the Internet, and I spend a lot of time on Instagram, and, like, a lot of the things I see aren't kind. But I. That was living on the Internet is my lifeline. Like, I. I work online. I. My friends are online. You're online. You know, like, yeah, I have basically two friends in real life that I see on, like, a regular basis and my family, obviously. But, like, I feel like that's a pretty usual experience for a lot of us now, is that we are chronically online, and there's not a lot of spaces of kindness online. Um, and it's really, really easy to get looped into those spaces of unkindness. So I don't really give a shit what your political preferences are, and I also don't really give a shit, like, what you believe about why the world is the way that it is, but I do give a shit about kindness. And I do think that, like, if you are particularly struggling, just try to find those pockets of kindness and, like, spread those pockets of kindness, because I think we all need a little bit of kindness and empathy right now. I think we really do. And I. And I also think you're not active on TikTok, and I am not super active on TikTok. TikTok is about to probably be banned from the US and that will be a major impact in the writing world. It really will. Maybe we should. We should do an episode on Booktok at Some point. But like, you were just. You and I just aren't hugely involved in it.

Emily:

But we need a guest calling for TikTok.

Rachel:

Yeah, I know, but like, that is a huge space for writers and for friendships and for community. TikTok, and it's about to go away. So if that's you, if you're like, well, I chronically live on TikTok and it's about to disappear, please find somewhere else where you can find your kindness or find your community or whatever it is. That will be difficult. So on top of the election or the inauguration happening, also TikTok is about to go away and that, that will impact people. So I just, I want to also acknowledge that, like, that's a big thing happening. And I know I make a lot of. I find a lot of readers and I make money from people on TikTok in the way that, like, I'm able to connect with a lot of readers on, on TikTok. And that community that I have there, however small, makes a difference to me. A lot of the writers that I know that are self published make a lot of their income from TikTok too. And so like that going away is really scary because what do you. How are you going to still make the money that you need to make? And not just about the money. Like it's a community. It really is a community. So if you're in that spot too, just I see you this. It's hard. I don't, I don't know what people are going to do to shift Gears or use VPNs or make up for it or do whatever. But like, that will be a vacuum. Prepare for that. And like, I love you through that. We're gonna, you're gonna figure it out. Just, I don't know, let's be kind, empathetic, you know, thing. There will be a lot of change in the next couple weeks. Change is difficult and I'm sorry that it's hard.

Emily:

Yeah, yeah, we're sorry we don't have better answers. No, I think it's a great answer. It's a human answer. Like we. There's all you could do is what you got to do for you. And I think that it's important to realize that you deserve that.

Rachel:

Yeah.

Emily:

And then be kind.

Rachel:

Yeah, be kind. So about Reclaim the Magic.

Emily:

Yeah. So in that vein, in that vein, we are hosting Reclaim the Magic, which is a five day, completely free workshop on how to rediscover the joy in your writing life and rediscover how to build a Writing life that is free of fear and guilt and shame and instead feels like joy and fulfillment and success. And so we are hosting. It's going to be so amazing. It's five days. We're going to teach you about hustle culture, about perfectionism. We're going to help you rewrite some of those voices in your head. We're going to teach you how to set goals that you're actually going to want to meet and therefore will meet. And we're going to write together. We're going to coach you. It's going to be a really, really amazing time. And it's completely free. And there will be recordings. Everybody always asks, yes, there will be recordings. They'll be available until February 15th. So the event is from February 1st to February 5th. You can find information@goldenmayediting.com Reclaim the Magic and we really hope to see you there. It's going to be life changing and I think it's going to be a really. This is just a really good time for everybody to. To go find out how to be kinder to themselves because that's really what it's about.

Rachel:

That's really what it is. It is. Let's let go of some of the judgment, some of the shame and like learn how to self love, learn how.

Emily:

To love ourselves a little bit more. Only when we love ourselves can we show up for those we love. Exactly. In the best way possible. So yeah, it's all connected. It's going to be amazing.

Rachel:

It all connects.

Emily:

We'll see you there.

Rachel:

Yeah. The links are in the show notes. I'm pretty sure there's like an ad going too. And then what's the. I think we did an ad. Well, no, what. I mean, I know the ad is running but like I'm. What I was meaning is I'm pretty sure it puts it at the top of the show notes of all the links. So that's what I mean is like when you look at the show notes, the ad will be there too and it will have the links otherwise. Tenacious writing.com reclaimthemagic.

Emily:

Awesome. We hope to see you guys there. We love you. Hang in there.

Rachel:

We got this.

Emily:

We got this. All right. If you want to build a successful, fulfilling and sustainable writing life that works for you, you've got to get on our email list.

Rachel:

Sign up now to get our free email course, the Magic of Character Arcs. After seven days of email magic, you'll have the power to keep your readers flipping pages all through the night.

Emily:

Link in the show notes. We'll see you there. Bye.