You can find many on-line resources about the creative process, how to hone your craft, and even how to promote and market your work. But good resources for living your life as an artist are also available, and I’ve been making a little bedside pile. All came to me at dark or confusing points in my own writerly life. I’d like to share three of those guides with you today.

BookLife: Strategies and Survival Tips for the Twenty-First Century Writer (2009, Tachyon Publications) by Jeff Vandermeer

BookLife is a widely referenced manual on how creatives are supposed to do all the things (write, edit, publish, promote, market, wage job, personal life, etc.) that our industry demands of us. The short answer: we can’t—priorities and boundaries are key. 

The narrative is upbeat and supportive, and the voice authoritative. As well it should be. Jeff Vandermeer is a seasoned professional writer with impressive awards and a New York Times bestseller who came up through the ranks of indie publishing.  

I found the book was most useful when it challenged me to consider what I really want from my life as a storyteller and the choices I need to make to reach those goals. 

Published in 2009, BookLife is ripe for a new edition. Much has changed in the social media landscape over the last fifteen years. However, the sections about shaping your personal book life, balanced and self-supporting, are evergreen. 

Consistent Creative Content: A Guide to Authoring and Blogging in the Social Media Age (2021) by Lee Hall

You’ll find recent information on the promotional side of being a writer in Consistent Creative Content by Lee Hall, who has made a science of understanding Twitter and other social media forums. This book is also a wonderfully supportive friend in the trenches. “I did it this way,” the book shares, “and you can make it through, too.” The message woven through the book and Hall’s social media presence is that writers can and should support each other. It’s not a competition.

The public’s hunger for consistent creative content is ever-growing. Consistent Creative Content is full of good info for those of us slogging through the self-promotion required of a creative. Yet at the same time it encouraging us to stay imaginative. There are lots of great insights into the inscrutable ways of social media. It reminded me of the message of BookLife—write and create, but also take care of yourself for the long haul.

How to Write When Everything Goes Wrong (2017, AdventureStarts Press) by Allie Pleiter

I imagine writing this very personal guide was painful for the author; its origin story is how she kept her writing business on track while her child had a serious, protracted illness. A generous impulse to share these hard-won insights must have guided her. The book is both comforting and realistic.

One of my “ah-ha” moments with this guide is when it explained how creative brains are simply different than other people. We can’t just power through, using busyness to hide from the emotional work, stress, and physical exhaustion that comes with the hard times of life. The energy to survive is the same sort of energy we use to create. The book has a lot of tips and tricks to care for both ourselves and our projects at the same time. Life can’t be the same as usual during the rough patches, but it can still be creative.

If you found these writer self-help books interesting, you might enjoy reading “Creativity in the Tough Times.”

Click here to order The Big Cinch, new supernatural noir novel from Kathy L. Brown. Sean asks the wrong questions about a kidnapped toddler and missing Native American artifacts and becomes a suspect in his lover’s bludgeoning and a tycoon’s murder. Can he master the paranormal abilities he’s rejected for so long in time to protect the innocent and save his own skin?

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Last year the St. Louis Writers Guild published Love Letters to St. Louis. This adorable letter-shaped volume of short stories, poems, essays, and illustrations includes my first science fiction story, “Welcome to Earthport Prime: A Self-Guided Tour.” Profits benefit the guild’s young writers’ program.