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“One of the most important things I learned from Heather was how to define and develop my personal writing process and then trust it. ”
Julie Angeli’s writing has appeared in SPIDER Magazine as well as ONCE UPON A TIME. Most recently, she co-wrote a picture book, THE CLUBHOUSE CONUNDRUM, for the local chapter of the Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. The purpose of the book was to educate children about the Sisters and the “green” renovations recently completed on their motherhouse. She is a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators and a graduate of the Institute of Children’s Literature. Julie lives in Bloomfield Township, Michigan with her husband, children, and four cats.
Twitter: @JAngeliwrites
Julie Angeli
When I first started working with Heather, I felt like a fraud. I’d been working at writing for a while, but I didn’t have an educational background in writing or the confidence to work at it consistently and treat it as a profession. I tried to work from outlines, but my plots always became too complicated, and my ideas were all over the place.
Heather helped me to look at things differently, so that what I considered weaknesses became strengths.
My tendency to get distracted became “curiosity,” a good thing for writers. My age (older than many in my genre) could be an advantage because I had more life experience to draw from. She taught me how to use the things that I was experiencing in my day-to-day life to enrich my writing and to deepen my understanding of my characters. Heather tailored our work together to match the person/writer that I am rather than the person/writer that I thought I should be.
Heather introduced me to several side-writing exercises and other techniques to help me to work on my craft or give me more clarity on a particular character or plot point. She also helped me to identify my writing strengths and showed me how to use those strengths to get into a scene when I’m stuck.
She taught me how to learn by reading books by other writers rather than relying on the dozens of craft books collecting dust on my shelf.
This turned out to be super helpful and gave me a wonderful excuse to spend more time reading without feeling guilty about it.
One of the most important things I learned from Heather was how to define and develop my personal writing process and then trust it.
We spent a lot of time looking at my day-to-day life and work habits in order to come up with something that fit. Having a defined process has been huge for me in terms of my writing but has also helped me in other areas of my life.
Towards the end of our time working together, I participated in her mindfulness and meditation course. So many things resonated with me on how this could help not only my writing practice but also in the navigation of the daily ups and downs of life. She showed me how a meditation practice can help me to be more mindful and focused while writing even if my mind wanders a bit while meditating. She taught me that perfection is not the goal, trusting the process is. When I added this practice after lunch every day, I was surprised at how much more productive my afternoons became.
Working with Heather has given me the confidence to pursue my writing by helping me to develop my writing process and to trust that process as I encounter the inevitable bumps and blocks that are part of writing a novel.
I also finished her program with several tools that I continue to use on a regular basis even though I am no longer working with her one-on-one. I am confident that I can finish my novel on my own, but I plan to work with Heather again in the future so that I can learn even more from her as I move forward in my writing career.