When summer hit Phoenix, the first thing Gavin and I did was take a four-day trip up to Prescott, Arizona. We love it there. It’s Gavin’s happy place. He goes gold-panning there! We found a historic blue cottage to stay in. My sister and our five-year-old nephew, plus Huckleberry, came with us.
It was a full house! And all I wanted to do was sit and daydream! We hit the perfect time there. Farmer’s markets, nightly concerts, chilly mornings, and a great breeze in the afternoon.
A few weeks before our trip, I got this wild idea to try my hand at writing an upmarket women’s contemporary book! I tried writing fiction in my 20s but was always told you’re either a nonfiction writer or a fiction writer.
I’ve published five non-fiction books (and an affirmation card deck).
But this fiction project would not leave me alone.
And as soon as I saw the cottage, I knew I had to let my mind settle and create.
Creativity is a really great nervous-system-resetting technique, by the way.
So is daydreaming. When we create the space in our life to create, we’re essentially letting our brains calm down, get present and allow new ideas in.
And that’s what happened.
I relaxed. I exhaled. And I got creativity!
And now, here we are…it’s the start of July, and I have 55,477 words in a brand new story.
My brand new upmarket contemporary women’s fiction story is nearly done!
It’s about four 40-something-year-old women supporting each other through the second half of life. After divorce, love, loss, cancer, and caregiving, these women show up for one another time and time again. It’s really a love story about friendship and the friends we call family. But even after one way of life ends, there is always a new door to walk through. A new chapter to discover.
I’m plugging away at writing and having fun doing it!
The goal is to pitch this to a literary agent once I’ve edited it. And I gave myself a deadline of the end of July to finish it.
What are you working on this summer?! Got a creative project!
Let’s talk!
Xo
Carrie
