Welcome to Around the Writer’s Table 1st Year Anniversary Episode! We started this podcast in February of last year, and the airing of this episode marks a full turn of the seasons! We started with spring and slowly worked our way through the five seasons as explained in Melody’s book, Soul of the Seasons, in ways that relate to writers and the creative process.

Rounding out the year, we start with part one of “Winter,” a time quiet “underground” creation, conservation, contemplation, and sometimes even grief. We talk about putting stories “under the mattress” and what it means to trust your intuition. Join us for this very special series!

Resources

Melody’s blog posts about Winter at her website

Ep.14: Seasons of Writing: Winter (pt. 1) – TRANSCRIPT

Dave Hogan, Gina’s Pop
0:02
Welcome to Around the Writer’s Table, a podcast focusing on the crossroads of creativity, craft, and conscious living for writers of all ages and backgrounds. Your hosts are Gina, Melody, and KimBoo, three close friends and women of a certain age, who bring to the table their eclectic backgrounds and unique perspectives on the trials, tribulations, and the joys of writing. So pull up a chair and get comfortable here around the writer’s table.

Gina Hogan Edwards
0:42
Hello, listeners. Welcome to another episode of Around the Writer’s Table. I am one of your co-hosts, Gina Hogan Edwards. And I wanted to welcome you to this episode on the season of Winter. We’ve been using the framework of Melody, A Scout’s book for our podcast episodes. And before we dive into that, we’re going to introduce ourselves. As I said, I’m Gina and my passion is about creating emotionally and psychologically safe spaces for women, such as women’s circles, writing retreats, so that women can reclaim their voices. And I’m here with Melody and KimBoo. And I will let KimBoo introduce herself to you first.

KimBoo York
1:29
Good morning. Yeah, I am here. I am full up with tea and caffeine and ready to record an awesome podcast. I am a romance novelist. And I am also a former project manager. I work with both writers and women solopreneurs on project-managing their lives so they can find the time, the mojo, and the motivation to write. And I’m always happy to be here with my co-hosts. How about you, Melody? How are you doing today?

Melody, A Scout
2:00
I have landed. The mothership is landed. Welcome to the podcast. I am Melody, A Scout, and I help my clients find their sense of home by restoring balance and harmony to their lives through  plant spirit medicine and my book Soul of the Seasons.

Gina
2:19
So on our episode today–thank you ladies–we’re going to be talking about Winter. As I said, we’ve been using Melody’s book of Soul of the Seasons as our framework for these podcasts that we’ve been bringing to you. And we’re touching on each one of these… you know, we cover craft and creativity and conscious living, sort of wrapped around the structure of the five seasons and the elements. So, Melody, I’m gonna let you give us an overview of what we’re going to be talking about today in the season of Winter.

Melody
2:53
Thanks, Gina. So the season of Winter, in the natural world, is all about a season of rest, hibernation, quiet. It’s a season of death and pulling within, going within. It’s a time for contemplation, concentration, conservation, regeneration, and creative gestation. Now that sounds like a lot, doesn’t it? Since it’s a season of quiet and hibernation.

KimBoo
3:27
Yeah. Just a little.

Melody
3:31
Does it? Well, that’s the thing about this season, and that is that, as a culture, we are pushed for productivity all the time. Work, work, work, produce, produce produce. But a lot happens when we rest. You know, just like sleep is essential to regenerate and a lot of things go on beyond our consciousness that couldn’t get done any other time. The body regenerates, the mind regenerates and refreshes. And the same thing happens in our writing process. 

This is a very difficult season to sink into for a lot of people, myself included, I should be doing something or why is nothing happening here? Something should be happening. Make something happen. Have those little Gremlins going on. And just as the seed lays in the ground all Winter, we cannot see in the Spring that a lot has gone on. And the sprout has begun to grow. A lot happens underground before we even get to see the evidence of it. And this can translate over into a writing life, as well.

Gina
4:51
When you talk about the challenge of this season. Oh, man can I relate to that. You know, we are so ingrained in the doing, doing, doing. And when I have an opportunity to not do. My husband and I have often talked about this, it’s like we go on vacation and the first three to four days are the unwinding, because we can’t relax. We don’t know how to relax. We’re out of practice. And it takes us that time to get to the place where we actually can give ourselves permission to rest.

Melody
5:29
I get sort of itchy and rashy and fidgety and bored. And I’ve learned, you know, certainly through the writing of the book, but I’ve also learned to incorporate this into my life more. But when I have been GO, GO, going, it does take time for us to unwind and settle in. And just be still. How about you, Kimboo? Any problems with you?

KimBoo
5:54
Oh, yeah, never. Nice talk. I think for me, this particularly hits home because I am a productivity expert. My business is helping writers and women solopreneurs manage their time management. And so I often run up against people, and especially writers, but it hits everybody, like I need to write 1000 words, today; I need to write two chapters this month; I need to do this, I need to do that. And it just haunts them. So I’ve really had to look at my own life in that, because I am also susceptible to those, exactly what you’re talking about, like just never shutting off, always being on. “Oh, I have a free hour. Maybe I could do some editing or some writing.” And I’ve really had to learn, and teach my clients how to learn, to schedule in that downtime. Like Gina, you’re talking about going on vacation, which is a scheduled downtime, but it still takes you several days to wind down, right. So you have to allow for that. You can’t just say, “Well, I’m just going to turn off at five o’clock on Friday, when I go home from the job.” We all know that there’s an unwinding that has to happen. So it’s been a learning curve for me both personally as a writer and as a productivity coach, to help with the idea of accounting for and working around and working with, basically working with, Winter, working with that season where we need to rejuvenate and rest, and you know, deal with all of that that’s going on down there.

Gina
7:25
I think too, that you know, the scheduling of the rest is important. But, and in addition to that, I think that because we do pack our schedules, tend to pack our schedules so fully, that when there’s anything that comes up in our lives that we don’t anticipate, we don’t have room to deal with it. Because it wasn’t on the schedule and our schedule is too full already. You know, applying that to our writing and thinking about, you know, so let’s say we happen to be very committed to our writing practice and we’re able to write every day. What happens when there is a family emergency or just some major life event that keeps you from writing? Then what are your tactics for getting into that? And are you going to allow yourself that time to not be writing?

KimBoo
8:24
I also think this harks back to an older episode where we talked about the fact that writing is not always writing, right? Writing is thinking and writing is rest. Which brings us back to Winter. It’s like these are all elements of writing that are all critical.

Melody
8:41
And the adage to, you know, ‘to sleep on it’ is, I mean literally, it is essential to keeping the creative cycle going, recharging your batteries, so you have the passion to get up and do it again or do more or do further. And I literally, and Gina was really good when she was working with me during the writing of my book, when I reach a particular milestone, “Good. Well, how are you gonna go celebrate? Take some downtime. Take a few weeks away from it.” And that was so essential to me because when I’m doing, doing, doing, or working or revising, revising, revising, I become blind to my own work, and I can’t see it. When I step away, I take a break from it completely, do something totally different, I come back to it with fresh eyes and a renewed mind. I see things that I wasn’t seeing before. And that to me is so essential. When I finished the, finally completed, first draft, completely finished and the revisions done up to that point–hadn’t been edited yet—I printed off, I made a hard copy of the whole thing, which was a lot because it was over 100,000 words at that point. And I put the whole thing under my mattress and literally slept on it.

KimBoo
10:19
That’s hilarious. I love it.

Melody
10:21
Yeah, like, okay, so if there’s something I need to know about this, you know, moving forward into the editing and revising part, and let it come up to me through my dreams. And it was several weeks, might have been even a few months that I left it under there.

Gina
That’s so cool. I love that. 

Melody
Yeah. Coming back to it then was just a totally refreshed frame of mind for me to do it. And we forget how essential rest is.

Gina
10:55
You talk about this being a time of contemplation, concentration, regeneration. And this stage, if you will, this, this part of the process is when that subconscious is at work and it doesn’t seem like anything is going on on the outside is one of the most fascinating stages to me of the entire creative process, because it does look on the outside like nothing’s going on. That’s where we can, we can get judged by people around us. You know, when we’re staring out the window or taking leisurely walks or, you know, whatever it is that we do when we’re in that sort of resting or contemplative stage, but what’s going on underneath and yet looking on the outside like nothing is happening. That whole process just fascinates me.

Melody
11:55
Yeah, it’s nothing short of a miracle on how it can transform not only our work, but the way we look at our work. And KimBoo, you had an example of that recently. You were working on, you know, doing a work in progress. And tell us about how you completely shifted the direction of your main characters.

KimBoo
12:18
Oh, yeah, yeah. So that’s my series Dragon’s Grail, which kind of sort of got launched in 2017. And then I pulled it. And I really wasn’t happy. I’ve actually written about 100,000 words in this series and it’s meant to be a very long story, so that’s really just the opening salvo. I pulled it and I just wasn’t happy with it, and couldn’t make myself work on it. And so I let it rest. I basically buried it, like you’re talking, put it under the mattress. I basically buried it virtually in my head. And recently, and I wish I could remember what the inspiration was, but it was like a crack. It was like something just cracked open. And I realized that trying to make it a young adult story with a 22-year-old protagonist was not resonating with me as a writer. And so I knew wasn’t going to resonate with the readers. And I’ve gone back, and I’ve aged up the protagonist to 45 years old. And now it’s just flowing like water. I’m doing a lot of rewriting, I’m not doing a lot of new writing at this point, because I’m going back over what I had already written to make these changes. And some of them are pretty substantial—does require a little bit of writing. But having that time away from it, and I just love that—I’m going to use, like, put it under the mattress as our catchphrase now. Because that’s just great yet. I had to put it under the mattress, so that I could come back to it with that clarity that you’re talking about. It needed its time underground, to figure out what it was going to be. And I think I’m really, I’m thrilled with it. Now I’m super excited. I’m going to be serializing it online with a new serialization platform. And so I’ll definitely be sharing that as we get closer to the release date. But I’m super excited about it. I love the main character now. It’s not a trial to write her at all.

Gina
14:15
Terrific. Nice. Melody, I know that… well, first of all, I would like to remind our listeners and to let the listeners who might be new to the podcast, I want to let you know that when we talk about these seasons that are the structure that Melody has used within her book Soul of the Seasons, we are not… So the external season that we’re in doesn’t necessarily align with whatever season we are in in our lives. And so just because we happen to be in the natural season, the outer season of Winter, that may not necessarily mean that you are, on the inside, in the season of Winter. So just wanted to remind the listener of that, because sometimes there’s some confusion about that. And Melody, I know that for every season that there is, number one, a core emotion, and also an element. So can you kind of tell us a little bit about that and what’s associated with Winter?

Melody
15:24
Yeah, so the core emotion of Winter is fear. I call it our Risk Assessment Department. And we’re going to talk more about that in a minute. And

KimBoo
15:36
Risk Assessment Department. I love it.

Melody
15:40
I liked the idea better than, you know, gripping the steering wheel of life, the white knuckle ride, which it can be at times. Also the element of Winter is water. And water is in the classic sense for Winter water is the snow that blankets the earth. It’s the moisture that holds life in its sleeping state until Spring comes and warms up. And it has a lot of helpful qualities about it. There’s a fluidity about it. There’s a big continuum of you can go from frozen like ice on a lake, to, you know, steam, that’s evaporated moisture and goes up into the clouds. So there’s a lot of different aspects of Winter in water, and the element of fear that we’re going to talk about here, coming up. 

So fear is a continuum. And you know, it’s often seen as a negative or a bad emotion, or a state that we want to avoid at all costs. But fear serves us and it serves us well. It reminds me when something is amiss, that there may be potential danger ahead. Do I need to pay attention to it? And it can resonate in our bodies as simple anxiety or, you know, a chill on the back of our neck. “What’s going on? Something’s up,” right up into terror, and everything else in between. 

Fear is something I think the average person deals with on a daily basis. It seems like there’s a lot of scary things going on in our outer world. But the Risk Assessment Department is about taking each fear that we’ve become aware of and deciding if we’re willing or able or if it’s safe to take that risk. Yes, it’s a risk. But can we take that risk? Do we have the tools we need? Do we have the skills and the support we need to move forward and take that risk?

KimBoo
18:04
It’s interesting, too. I’m gonna break in because it’s interesting to me as listening to you talk, the conversation the three of us have had together and independently I’ve had with both of you is a lot about intuition these days. And I think there’s a real link between fear and intuition in the sense that, you know, you can be scared of something not even knowing why. And also, the fear being something that you’re just like fighting against even if there may be a good reason for it, whether that reason is valid, you know, like past trauma, or the car is heading for you on the interstate. There’s lots of different levels to this. But I just, I was just wanting to make that link between, because I was thinking of that. How you acknowledge the fear, how you understand the fear I think a lot of times can be very intuitive for people rather than a logical ‘I am scared of this thing.’ That make sense?

Melody
19:01
Oh, it does make a lot of sense. Yeah. And the intuition connection, because this is a season of really a level that is beyond our consciousness, it is a place of mystery. We don’t really know how and why things happened during this season. And there may not even be evidence that anything is happening. So, but something we get inside about it. You know, when I was writing my book, it was taking me what? Eight, nine years. And often during the process—and it was a struggle… not just to write it, because it was kicking my ass the whole time I was writing it, but also life was kicking my ass and I would often stop and: “Are you sure?” I’d be praying to the gods… “Are you sure this is what I should be doing?” And I would just get that inner confirmation: Just keep going. Just keep going. Yeah, and it was something beyond my understanding or explanation at the time. I can look back and see it now. I’d love to hear how intuition has influenced your writing—either one of you, or both of you.

KimBoo
20:15
That’s a big one.

Gina
20:17
So this topic of intuition, this, this, this thing we call intuition has come up for me a lot lately. And I am challenged with knowing the difference between my intuition and what my brain is trying to tell me. And that is especially prevalent when I am in a state of fear. So I don’t know sometimes whether that fear is a sign that I should stay away from something or not do something, or if it is a fear based in self doubt that I need to pursue because it really would be good for me, but my intuition is a little confused. Does that make sense?

KimBoo
21:08
Oh, totally. Absolutely.

Melody
21:11
It does. Because fear can overwhelm us. And make it hard. Tou know, there’s a reason they call it a still small voice, it doesn’t shout over the top of, you know, the crazy going on in your mind. I do know, for me, when I know it’s my intuition or, like, this direct connection to my subconscious that feels like the right thing for me to do, I get it in my body, and there’s no fear when I get it. Now, fear may come up later, when my mind goes, how the f*** is this gonna get done. But, you know, when I get it, an intuitive hit, it’s like, I feel peace with that.

Gina
22:00
I’m glad you brought up that still small voice because I think that that, that right there is another good reason why we need to allow ourselves to be in this space of Winter, to be able to rest, because when we are in the productivity, doing, grinding mode, we can’t hear that still small voice. And so it’s critical, especially I think, for us as writers to give ourselves that quiet, contemplative, inner time to be able to hear that still small voice.

KimBoo
22:39
And I think too, I mean, one of the things that I really value in your book, Melody, is that you do list out like ways to recognize the good and the bad, or what’s what’s genuine, or what’s coming from a place of fear, or what’s coming from a place of positivity. And on the worksheet that we’ll be having with this episode, we’re gonna have a little overview of Winter for our readers. So in case you’re not actually sitting down and taking notes, you’ll still be able to go over everything we’ve talked about. And one of those things is talking about what a balanced and imbalanced Winter looks like. And I think we’ve decided we’re going to continue this discussion on with the next podcast. And we’re gonna go more into, what do we call it? The continuum of terror. That should be exciting for everybody. 

But I did want to go over real quickly, Melody gave me this list of some signs of what a balanced Winter looks like. So I’m just going to pick a couple of highlights for you. Again, these are going to be listed on our handout on our website. So if you’re listening to this on a distribution platform, such as Spotify or Google podcasts, visit our website. And we have links everywhere for that. But for instance, creative problem-solving and critical thinking, being able to make those decisions is a good sign of balance. A balanced ambition, so you’ve got that balance between ruthlessness and healthy goals. Fluidity of movement and thought. Ability to offer reassurance to self and others. Seeking out wisdom and meaning, not just from what you’re writing but from the experiences of other people around you. The correct use of willpower, which not one of my strong points, but… you know. And more deeply being at peace with the death process, and death can mean not just the death of people you love or pets or animals, but also the death of, you know, the ending of something, the ending of writing a book, the ending of a relationship. There’s a lot of ways that can be in. And then some self assurance, you know, having confidence in the decisions that you do make. Those are all signs of what a balanced Winter looks like. 

So with that, maybe a little bit of a sneak peak, Melody, to what we’re going to be talking about in our next episode.

Melody
25:06
Well, we’re going to talk more about the imbalances. Of course, every season has its imbalances. And they’re really helpful in guiding us when we get off track, when we fall out of balance in this season, and they can help us move back towards, reach towards, things that will get us back on track. So we’re going to talk about that with a little bit of balance between fire and water and the creative process. We’re going to talk about that a little bit and talk more about, you know, rest and death and the continuum of terror. 

KimBoo
25:51
Don’t worry, listeners, we will clue you in onto what exactly we mean by the continuum of terror, It’s not as drastically terrible as it sounds.

Melody
26:00
So you say.

KimBoo
26:04
So that’s it for this episode. We really appreciate you all coming to hang out with us as we talk about these really intense, deep issues. Again, we’ll have a worksheet on our website. Also, at our website, we have a comment box. We’d love for you to drop by there and leave us some comments, tell us your thoughts about episodes that you’ve listened to, or suggest topics that you would like to have us talk about in the future. So please consider that as well. Give us a thumbs up or a like or a heart, whatever the heck your particular platform uses, to help us get some more get us up in the algorithm so more people can see it. And we really appreciate it. I have got nothing else. I think it’s time for us to move right along on to the next, I guess maybe, get some writing done perhaps. I don’t know. What do you guys think? 

Gina
26:56
That sounds great. You all visit us at  AroundTheWritersTable.com and we’ll see you next episode.

Dave
27:04
Thanks for joining us around the writer’s table. Please feel free to suggest a topic or a guest by emailing info@aroundthewriterstable.com. Music provided with gracious permission by Langtry. A link to their music is on our homepage at AroundTheWritersTable.com. Everyone here around the writer’s table wishes you joy in your writing and everyday grace in your living. Take care, until next time.

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