Always Be Writing Something New

Planning a new novel plus how to find belonging and friendship, which everyone wants and needs.

It was cold, but I didn’t mind it. A short walk from the ice-swept shores of Lake Huron in a house where we had the fire roaring pretty much from the day we arrived until minutes before we left. I was in Canada recently, just a two-hour drive from my home, to gather with writer-friends for our second annual weekend writing retreat.

Each of us made a meal—Gosh, we ate well, and a lot!—and worked on our own projects. Me, I was planning my next novel, an ambitious dual-timeline story about two women who are best friends in this life but don’t realize their souls were connected in a past life.

Canada writers retreat weekend with great friends, and a celebration for Karen's retirement!

Since the book I plan to write has one present-day timeline and one from an earlier time (1940-1941 in Lwow, Poland, and a journey from there through Nazi-sympathetic countries all the way to Jerusalem), I had a lot to figure out, research, and find a way to write. Since obviously I can’t go back there or even visit what is now Lviv, Ukraine, at least not now.

So I dove into research, learning so much that the story’s journey changed to better match history. It’s so much fun imagining what is possible, cooking up a story that has never been written. Daunting, too. But I love a challenge. I’m excited to see where it goes once I start writing, because it never quite follows the plan.

But even as I was imagining this next book, another idea popped into my head. A character based on someone my son used to know. And then I thought wouldn’t it be fun to dig out the manuscript I wrote (twice!) as a book 2 in the Woman of Valor series, but which isn’t quite interesting enough, and make it really good?

So I have my work cut out for me. Which is how I like it.

And then I brought on a new marketing client, the Battle Creek Community Foundation, whom I’ll help tell their story, build relationships with their constituents, and craft a narrative that can be consistent for all employees and clients. The CEO of BCCF, Mary Muliett, is an inspiring, visionary leader and all-around great person whom I’ve known and worked with for more than a decade. It’s an honor to get to work with her again.

This juggle, this is how I do things. Several projects and skills going at once. They feed of each other, and nourish my creativity. My grandmother used to say, “You do too much,” and she might have been somewhat right.

But I’ve gotten better at saying no, and only taking on as much as I can reasonably handle. And, rather than lament that I have to work at more than just novel-writing to pay the bills, I see my marketing endeavors—and my teaching and writing coaching—as allowing me to write novels. As a gift.

So many authors can’t survive on book-writing alone. Most that I know do something else, too, whether writing-related or totally different. I once knew a man who worked all manner of odd jobs before he took an office position as a magazine editor. I think he was a gas station attendant and a fisherman and maybe something else, in different places, and I believe that such varied experiences inform our writing.

Look—nearly every book I’ve written was inspired by somewhere I went or something I did. Woman of Valor, my first novel, came out of my 10 years as an Orthodox Jew. I set it in Skokie, Illinois, because I once had a sister-in-law who lived in the religious community there.

My second novel, Cave of Secrets, was inspired by my month-long writing sabbatical in the Scottish Highlands in 2022. And my third novel, I Love You, Charlie Tanner, due out in June (details to come in the next edition of this newsletter!), takes place partly in Cape Breton and partly in Vermont—I went to graduate school in Vermont and spent a month in 2023 in Nova Scotia.

We are all combinations of experiences and information, influenced or inspired by the people we meet and the places we go.

Global Belonging

I’ve spent much of my life in search of belonging, and one place I’ve found it as an adult is with My Peak Challenge. I was skeptical at first, but as a huge fan of Outlander, (I prefer the books over the TV show, to be honest) I started following its lead actor, Sam Heughan, on social media some years back and he kept posting about MPC, as its known.

When I looked into it, I first thought it was just some Hollywood actor trying to make a buck off his hapless fans. But after looking closer, and joining, I learned what an inspiration it was. There are workouts, yoga, meditation, a cookbook but best of all, ambassador groups from pretty much every place on the planet and also by interest. I’m a part of Peaker Writers, Michigan Peakers, Peakers Who Plant, and so many more.

It’s a way of finding community in what can be a cold and distant world, and where we just want a way to connect with like-minded kind souls who share our interests. In fact, I met a lovely woman in Cape Breton through MPC and when I was there two years ago, I went to visit her gorgeous home on a quiet lake. She had goats and chickens and a sprawling garden, and so when I started writing I LOVE YOU, CHARLIE TANNER, my forthcoming novel, I asked if Maggie and her husband Kit would read the manuscript for accuracy, and to make sure I captured the spirit and culture of Cape Breton.

Great friends make life wonderful! From top...Grace and Dan in New Brunswick, (top middle and right plus middle center pic) friends I met through MPC, (middle right) Elizabeth and Rob, (bottom row) Sarah and Dan, me and Catherine

She’d baked cakes for our visit, and my husband, step-daughter and I sat around her table and drank tea and ate cake and walked through her gardens and saw where she and her husband host their neighbors for homemade oven-fired pizza out in the yard.

The desire to belong is a fundamental part of human nature. In fact, Geoffrey L. Cohen, PhD, of Stanford University, says feeling like an outsider can cause actual harm. Cohen says threats to belonging drive problems as varied as achievement gaps and political polarization.

It sounds simple and maybe naive, but maybe it’s as easy as just being nice to others. Smiling at every person you pass, even if you don’t know them. Expecting the best, giving the benefit of the doubt and all those cliches.

I often think that behavior is reflective, that what I give out is what I will get back. It’s not always easy, especially when someone throws their bad mood or insecurities at you, but knowing they’re a scared, hurt, quaking human behind all the bluster might make it easier to take. And of course there’s always the option to walk away, set boundaries and choose to let in only those who demonstrate that they know how to be kind.

Anyway, I’m digressing here, and I mean to say that I continue to be uplifted by all the many ways I find to belong to something meaningful, and connect with people who are good at the core. It makes a huge difference for me, and I’m sure you, too.

I’m off in a few days to visit overseas with a few of those kind of people. Dan and I are off to England to see three couples we adore—Catherine and John, Elizabeth and Rob and Sarah and Paul, plus my friend Rachel and her family. Two weeks of sharing time with good souls, no rush to be anywhere, just the two of us (no kids!) and time to explore, to think, to breathe, to be.

I’ll write next from there. Until then, thanks as always for reading. All love, Lynne

A Look in the Mirror is Lynne Golodner’s twice-monthly newsletter about the writing life, belonging and identity. If you like what you read here, please consider becoming a paid subscriber to support a working writer and gain access to occasional group coaching calls and discounts on classes, coaching and retreats! And as always, please share if you think someone else will enjoy these words and being part of our community.