Welcome back, writers!

This episode focuses on the relationship between authenticity and the seasons of writing! Your lovely hosts Gina, Melody, and KimBoo discuss how inviting authentic existence, one of the guideposts in Gina’s Creativity Quest cycle of creativity, applies to all five seasons since authenticity is integral to fully expressing each stage of growth and change.

Melody explains how each season influences authenticity, and we share our experiences finding our authentic voices over time through recognizing recurring themes and having a positive physical response when we engage in writing sincerely. Reading work aloud can also reveal authenticity that is otherwise hidden during the editing process. While the process is gradual, realizing that she had written over one million words helped KimBoo develop a richer, more authentic style and is one reason why she started the 1 Million Words membership community for writers.

RESOURCES

• The 1 Million Words Club
• The Great Work of Your Life: A Guide for the Journey to Your True Calling by Stephen Cope

Ep. 33: The Challenges of Authenticity

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 back to  Around the Writer’s Table. I’m Gina Hogan Edwards coming to you today along with my co-hosts, KimBoo and Melody. We’re going to be diving into the relationship between the seasons and the last guidepost in The Creativity Quest that we discussed, which was Inviting Authentic Existence [episodes 29 and 32]. But let’s say hello first, especially for new listeners. As I said, I’m Gina Hogan Edwards. I am a historical fiction writer. I am also a creativity coach, a retreat facilitator, and my passion is supporting women in finding their voices and leaning into their creativity. So, hello, ladies. Glad to have you here. Melody, would you like to introduce yourself?

Melody, A Scout
1:27
Welcome back, everyone. My name is 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. I’m also a writer and a blogger and a podcaster.

Gina
1:47
Glad to have you here, Melody. And KimBoo, how are you today?

KimBoo York
1:51
I am awake. I am still working on my first cup of coffee even though as we record this, it’s almost noon. So that’s just how I’m rolling this week clearly. But as an introduction to listeners who maybe don’t know me already, I am a novelist and productivity coach for authors. I love writing, talking about writing, and I love helping other writers write. So that’s… once I wake up. (laughing) All right, I know we got some deep topics going on from our last, carryover from our last episode. So I’m excited about this one, though. This is gonna be good. 

Gina
2:30
Yeah, so let’s set this up for the listeners and prepare them for this conversation that we’re about to dive into. Last episode, we talked about Inviting Authentic Existence, which is the first guidepost in the outer work that we do as writers. And what does that mean? We’ve been talking about, before we logged on here, the idea of authenticity. So this is where it really starts to show up for us, and also when we may first be showing that authenticity in a very public way. It’s where we become more visible as a creator. It’s really inviting and engaging with the outer aspects of the creative process. 

So Melody, when we were looking at the alignment between the guideposts and the creativity quest, tell me. Because I see “all seasons” written on this piece of paper in front of me, and I don’t know where to go with that.

KimBoo
3:38
Take it away, Melody.

Melody
3:41
Yes, we’ve been picking or talking about seasons that most closely align with the different stages of The Creativity Cycle all along, and when I was looking at this, I’m like, “Okay, what one do I pick? Spring? Oh, yeah, that. Yeah, that works. Ah, summer. No.” So as I looked, was processing thi,s I was like, No, this authenticity, the internal authenticity and the way we express it in our work, in our outer world really is a thread that runs through all of the seasons and all of the seasons of the writing process. And I feel through The Creativity Cycle as well. Because without this thread of authenticity, we can’t really fully live or express each of the stages of the creative cycle or the seasons of the writing process.

Gina
4:56
Which I think is why, as I mentioned earlier, this guidepost of Inviting Authentic Existence, more than any of the guideposts that we’ve talked about so far, has the potential to kick us back or loop us back into repeating guideposts where we may have already visited. And my question to you was whether you thought that that might be an influence on why you saw this particular guidepost applying to many of the seasons. Because, in the reality of being a creative person, we can talk about authenticity all day long. But unless we really feel it and really lean into it, you know. So it’s hard to make it show up when we don’t really know ourselves very well or we’re not very self aware. And so I’m just, I’m really curious to find out how each one of these seasons plays into that recognition of when we are being authentic or not.

Melody
6:08
So rich. I mean, even our last podcast, leading into this one. We could just do podcasts forever. But we won’t. And I’m going to go over each season and how authenticity is influenced or how that season influences our authenticity in expressing our creative selves. It’s so integral. And I invite the listeners to go back and listen to the individual podcasts on the individual seasons. Because in there, and also the worksheets, because one of the ways I think that’s really helpful, I found really helpful in Five Element medicine is it not only tells you about living an authentic, balanced life that’s also filled with harmony, but it also helps you understand where you’re imbalanced. And that, to me, has been the most helpful clues when I feel like getting stuck or off track in any season, or any stage of the creative cycle. So I would invite the listeners to go back and go through those podcasts. 

You know, when we go, I’m going to start out just talking about the season of Fall because it’s what we’re in right now is late Fall going into Winter. And the season of Fall is recognizing and valuing our creations and our work and knowing deeply inside the value of what we have and what we do. And that absolutely requires authenticity. You can value and appreciate the authenticity of others, but I think to produce a full work that people can connect to you, I think requires a deep personal authenticity. So not only recognizing it, but owning it is an aspect of fall. In winter–

KimBoo
8:36
I’m just gonna quickly jump in there, is like the thing that resonated with me about what you just said was I can connect to the readers. And I realize a lot of times writing is an internal process because we’re writing because we want to tell the story. But that’s an important part of it, too, is including that authenticity, so it just doesn’t lie flat in the book.

Melody
8:54
Yeah, I’ll tell you a little story about that. Someone asked me to give a review about a book. They sent me their book. It was a good book. I love the subject matter. I liked the characters. But for me, it did not pull me in emotionally. It laid around the page. It checked all the boxes: great storyline, great subject matter, good. You know, it moved along with a pretty good pace. And then I had a chance to meet the author in person, and I felt the same way.

KimBoo
9:32
Wow. Interesting.

Gina
9:36
Fascinating

Melody
9:38
Isn’t it? We had a great time when we met and talked and enjoyed the conversation, great conversation, but it just, I didn’t feel pulled in emotionally. So to me that is the connection with authenticity. And so we may not see that in ourselves, or in our work to be honest, until we do the deep dive and/or someone kindly, or not so kindly, points out to us where we may be lacking in that department. 

So moving on to Winter, Winter is a season when we sort of do the inner work a lot. We have this inner knowing of who we are, and what our work and our vision is for our work. It’s a contemplative state. And this requires rigorous self honesty, during this phase of the process. It’s where new ideas are born, new story ideas. It’s where the seeds have fallen to gestate. 

In Spring, the vision of our authentic self or the vision of our work and our writing comes into fruition. It’s that seed that has sprouted, and now it’s popping everywhere. And I found this with, I knew I was going to write a book, I was told by others I was going to write a book a long time before I actually wrote a book. I tried to write a book and I talked about this in the last podcast, angst-filled novel based loosely on some of my own experiences. That fell flat. And that was ten full years before I would start what I felt was my first book, but I achieved. I was able through plant spirit medicine and Five Element medicine to bring an authentic vision for my work into fruition. So it’s a very exciting time. Go back, listen to our podcasts on the seasons. There’s so much in there. 

In Summer, we bring our authentic selves and our authentic work into fruition. We have to lead from a position of authenticity. Otherwise, you’re just regurgitating somebody else’s vision or somebody else’s work. 

So being grounded is part of Harvest, the next season. And it’s grounded in the fruit, the home place, the place where we land and inhabit, and in our work and in ourselves. So that’s how I see authenticity, weaving itself into all of these stages. And in order to express and live them fully, as a writer and as a person, it requires nothing less than authenticity.

Gina
13:08
To me, the sort of… what’s the right word: the instigator, the spark, the impetus toward authenticity is something that you mentioned, Melody, as you were talking about self honesty. And I’m always questioning myself about whether I’m being honest with myself. And I think that that is part of my unconscious practice of reaching toward authenticity. Does that make sense?

Melody
13:48
Absolutely makes sense. I think I can relate to that. And I often do that. Now I have to balance or temper that with my knowing and trusting myself and my authenticity. But I think that’s not a bad thing. It’s a really helpful trait to have. You can tell when you’re out of balance, when you’re always questioning it no matter what. You know, like, oh, yeah, that’s me. And then the next time you’re questioning the same thing over again. But I think as a self assessment, then can you honestly say, “Yes, I know this is part of the authentic expression of myself,” and then move on, or do you just cycle it around and chew on it and chew on it and chew on it? I think that would be a great clue on whether that is helpful to you or not. 

Gina
Thank you.

KimBoo
14:57
I’m gonna jump in there because I was just working with a client who has been making really great breakthroughs, but has been doing that, turning around and chewing on it and chewing on it and chewing on it. I had to really break them out of that for a moment, just get out of that headspace so that they could have a bigger picture of what they’re really trying to work on. Because this was like going down a whirlpool. All you can see is the whirlpool; you’re not seeing the river around you. And I had to pull them out of the whirlpool and say, “Look, it’s a small whirlpool. It’s not that big. The river is much bigger.” So that really resonated with me just because of the issue of having to talk about that with a client recently.

Melody
15:42
Yeah, absolutely. And that it’s also something to be developed and matured over time is a tool that’s useful to us, and using it in a way and a time that it’s appropriate. Second-guessing comes to mind. I’ve been very guilty of that. Get a clear vision, understand, get that inner gut knowing. Yes, this is how I’m going to go. But it doesn’t always go as planned. It’s more that spaghetti model we were talking about in a previous podcast. Wasn’t that straight line from here to there. You mean, it’s not like that? No, I’m sorry. And you know, something else occurred to me, that our reaching for authenticity and expression of it always involves struggle. 

KimBoo
Darn it. 

Melody
I know, I had to really change my relationship with struggle. It was a contentious relationship. And as I see it as part of the learning process, the analogy in the plant world which I’m familiar with is the seed struggles to become the plant. It’s encased safely in this little shell where it’s protected. It has everything, all the elements of becoming the full mature plant, and the fruit that it produces, and the generations of plants that will go on after it. But it will never become that without breaking out of that shell. And sometimes that requires a rigorous, difficult process. It may have to go through a freezing process. It might have to go through what’s called scarification, which is the actual cutting or breaking of that shell because it’s tough. It may have to go through a season of dormancy. And where it’s deprived of a lot of the elements in order to burst forth at the proper time. The great redwoods have this comparatively tiny little pine cone, where the seeds are stored. It is rock hard. It’s only opened by wildfire. 

KimBoo
18:26
Oh, interesting. Wow.

Melody
18:27
So when I understand struggle is part of the growth process, I can at the very least not resist it. And then give myself what I need to complete that gestation and growth cycle. And then the struggle becomes minimized.

KimBoo
18:55
Hmm. Well, it’s kind of like none of us remember being born.

Melody
Tell me more. 

KimBoo
Oh, well, I was just thinking, the tree growing out of the seed and bursting out, of the eggs breaking open for the chick, us human beings coming into the world. It’s a struggle for both the mother and the baby, and that’s if everything goes great. That’s if there’s no problems at all It’s still a huge struggle. And we talk a lot about the person giving birth, who’s fully conscious of the time that while they’re doing it, but the baby’s conscious, too. We just don’t remember it. There’s childhood amnesia, infantile amnesia. But that doesn’t minimize the struggle later on. We still had to go through that and grow into this great majestic tree of a human being, as I like to think of it. So anyway, just a just a side comment on the importance of struggle for growth, for birth, for generation, for regeneration.

Melody
19:54
Absolutely, and I had so much struggle in my life during certain passages. Some of it was having to do with my own resistance of moving on to the next season or phase of my life. And then my own concept of: It shouldn’t be so hard. It shouldn’t be so hard. I’m not in favor of struggle for the sake of struggle. I’m okay with struggle as a part of growth.

KimBoo
20:26
And I think that’s what I’m getting at with the birth analogy is at the point where we’ve come through the struggle, it doesn’t matter anymore that we struggled. It doesn’t matter because we’ve gone past that and now we’re on to the next thing. We may have to struggle again, but we’re not basing our whole existence on the fact that oh, we once struggled. Does that make sense.

Melody
20:46
Yeah, absolutely. I like that. 

KimBoo
20:50
Anyway, sorry. to derail that. I know we have an outline we’re trying to follow. Trying, the operative word, right?

Melody
20:57
It’s all related. All related. So I have a couple of questions I’d like you to consider, my fellow podcasters. I wanted to know, a) what does it mean to you to be authentic in your writing? Or in your work? And b) when did you first become aware of your authentic voice as a writer? 

KimBoo
Oof

Melody
Gina?

Gina
21:30
I’m going to answer those questions at once, because they’re very related to me. I don’t know if I can pinpoint an exact time when I became aware, but I began at some point–probably eight years ago or so–to consciously recognize some of the topics and themes that were beginning to show up in my writing over and over again. Recurring issues, recurring types of topics. And I had to pay attention to that, because I feel like our values and our belief systems are naturally going to infuse their way into our writing. And it’s those things that we care about the most that are going to start showing up again and again and again. And so, to me, being authentic in my writing means including those things. And I think there’s a little bit of danger in sort of consciously picking out… we don’t want to be preachy in our writing. We don’t want to be obviously trying to convey certain messages. But I do think that it’s important for us to recognize when things do start showing up in our writing again and again, because that is a pointer to the things that mean a lot to us and a pointer to leaning into that authenticity of showing who we are and what we value. Does that make sense?

Melody
23:33
Oh, it absolutely does. It actually brings to mind a book I read, which the title escapes me right now.

KimBoo
We can always put it in the show notes.

Melody
We’ll put it in the show notes. But the book was about finding your life’s purpose. And a lot of people get to a later position in life, I can attest to this, and come to this spot where they’re like, why am I really here? What am I doing? You know, what’s the real me? What am I meant to do? And that’s one of the things he pointed out. It’s like a look back and see what you are drawn to over and over again. Even if you think it’s a negative thing, there is some element of that, that is trying to show you what it is, what your purpose is here on this earth. And that was a big aha, for me. You didn’t, say you didn’t have an actual point, Gina, where you recognized your authentic voice, but it was more of a process? Is that what I hear you saying? 

Gina
24:41
Yeah, I do think it was a gradual unfolding. Because I think, you know, I put a lot of words down on the page, and it was only in retrospect of those things that I had written that I started to recognize these things that were showing up and I was like, on a conscious level then going, Oh, yeah, that that is important to me. And, obviously, it’s important to me because it keeps showing up again and again in different ways in the things that I’m writing. And so it was just a real self-recognition for me of what is it that I want my writing to be? 

KimBoo
Interesting.

Melody
25:28
So for myself, I had this idea of what I wanted my writing to be. Even though, as I mentioned, in earlier podcasts, I’ve written a wide variety of genres and subject matters. But it took me a while to come into my authentic voice. It was during the writing of Soul of the Seasons. And one of my beta readers made a comment, like I had everything but the kitchen sink in the first few drafts. Like I said before, Five Element medicine is a huge subject, very complex system of balance and harmony. One of the things one of my early beta readers said about my writing was, “You sure to get up on your soapbox a lot.” Oh, snap, I do. That’s one of the things I did not want to do in my writing was be preachy. Someone told me a long time ago, people want to learn but they don’t necessarily want to be taught.

KimBoo
27:01
But also isn’t being preachy and being up on your soapbox, a good way to deflect from your own vulnerabilities.

Melody
27:07
I don’t know what you’re talking about.

Gina
Ouch

Melody
And another thing? (laughing) I think part of it for me also was, through my writing, I felt finally able to have a voice for things that had been minimized or ignored or whatever, discounted my whole life. So I was taking this opportunity to tell every single one of you right now, all of those things. I’m like, okay, and so I went through and I cut out every single soapboxing out of there. That at least that it seemed like to me. But it was also during that process, and through one after the beta readers had gone over the early beta readers, and I like, Oh, crap. I have to go back through. So I made some really tough revisions. And I came back and handed Gina, who was my editor on my book, and she sent me this lovely note about me finding my voice finally, in this. And it was so powerful. Because I felt like that had been true. I knew my rhythm, I felt my expression to be more authentic and genuine. And that was a powerful point. And I’ve carried that with me to what I write now, whatever I’m putting my pen to now.

Gina
29:05
A couple of things run through my head, as you’re talking, Melody. You talked about stripping out all those things that felt soapboxy. But I think that what you were able to do then was to take those things that you had been very soapboxy about and put them in a way that could land with the readers, in a way that they were open to accepting it instead of preaching at them.

Melody
29:35
That’s absolutely true. And I think turned a lot of those into personal stories.

KimBoo
29:44
Yeah, I was gonna say in the book the points that I remember the best of reading your book, and referencing it, is when you were talking about your experiences with your voice, I mean, the authenticity really comes through in those moments. It’s not a novel. It’s not something you read front to back unless you really want to. But that authenticity and that voice is very clear.

Gina
30:10
You know too, I realize that, as I’m listening to you that even though there was not a specific moment when I recognized that my authentic voice was showing up, there was a time when I realized that when I would go back to reread what I had written, or sometimes even in the moment of writing something, I had a physical—and we’ve talked a little bit about this before—but I had a physical response to what I was writing, and it’s almost like a moment where the tension is released, because something feels true.

Melody
30:59
Yeah. Wow. Yeah, that is, and I would highly recommend, if you haven’t done this with your own work, to read your work out loud. Because when I’ve done some readings, or people have requested to read me a passage, I did not realize how much emotion on authenticity was contained in that passage, until I started reading it out loud. That’s very powerful.

KimBoo
31:35
That actually was an experience I had at the retreat for myself, was reading a passage of my new memoir that I’m working on, Empty Bowl, and hearing myself read it aloud, and then hearing the feedback I got on it. Really, I don’t want to say, I don’t know, opened my eyes, I think, to a way that, of just how much I’ve internalized that authenticity. I don’t want to sound like I’m bragging per se, but like it felt very true.

Gina
32:11
Claim it, sister. Claim it.

Melody
32:14
You can brag.

KimBoo
32:17
Well, it really showed me that the work I’ve done and trying to claim that ownership of that voice has paid off. That is something that was very, when I read it, like you said reading it aloud was a much different experience than just reading it over and editing it. And then seeing people’s reactions to it. I was like, Yes, that was very validating, for that insight of Yes, I finally found the right voice for this particular story. And that was very important to me. So I’ll second that one.

Melody
32:47
Nice. So KimBoo, do you recall a moment of time? Or was it a process more like Gina was talking about when you recognized your creative voice? And how does that tie into what authenticity in your work means to you?

KimBoo
33:05
I think it’s a little bit of both. I think it was a process, but I didn’t notice it was happening. One of the things I talk about over on my own podcast, Author Alchemist, is a concept—and I’ve talked about this with Gina—is the idea of writing 1 million words and as a goal for writers. If you’re trying to find your voice, just aim for 1 million words. It’s not a stand-in for studying literature or studying craft. But for finding your own voice, the only way you’re going to do it is by practicing the craft and writing, right? So I think it’s a good rule of thumb. I’m going to be plumbing those depths in my own blogs and things like that. But I remember the time when I realized I’d written, I think at the time, I’d written over 1 million words. I’d written like 1.2 million words. I was just like, Oh, oh, I’ve really put some time and energy into this. And I kind of just looked at what I’d written over the years. And I don’t want to say I sat down and analyzed how I changed. But I was just like, wow, the writing that I’m doing now is so much more rich and interesting and well-structured. And I think that had to do with a slow process that evolved over writing that many words. So, it was a slow process. But for me it was in some ways kind of an unconscious one in a lot of ways. I always wanted to be better. I was always striving to be better and always striving to reach that point of authenticity in my writing, but it kind of snuck up on me.

Melody
34:42
And once again, there is no set linear way that any of us go through this process. It’s all right. It’s all right.

KimBoo
34:55
As long as you keep going through it, as long as you just keep going on. 

Gina
34:59
So, speaking of going through it, we are coming to the end of this episode. And the next topic that we are going to be discussing is the guidepost that is called Verifying and Testing. So listeners, thank you for being here with us.

KimBoo
35:18
Oh, wait a second. Wait a second. This isn’t testing like getting a grade, right? 

Gina
Oh, no.

KimBoo
Okay. Whew, all right. We can go on. I was like, I’m gonna be out of school that day.

Gina
35:34
So listeners, thank you for joining us. And please do visit our website around the writers table.com where you can find transcripts. You can find worksheets, past episodes, and you can leave us a comment. Give us a suggestion for future topics because at some point, we’re going to come to the conclusion of our discussion about the quest and the five seasons of writing and we want to know what you want to hear about. Listen to us on any platforms where you might listen to your podcasts, Apple, Spotify. Make sure you give us a thumbs up or a heart. And be sure and tune in to our next episode, and thank you for being here. And thank you co-hosts for joining us today.

KimBoo
36:22
It was awesome as usual. 

Melody
36:23
Thank you.

Dave
36:29
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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