This past week I spent a lot of time celebrating other people.

Clients finding homes.

Agents reaching goals.

Actors mastering difficult scenes.

Sometimes it’s easy to forget that someone else’s success doesn’t take anything away from our own, especially when you feel like you’ve been personally struggling.

However, I’ve discovered the opposite is true – Joy multiplies when it’s shared.

Maybe that’s one of the greatest lessons both life and storytelling teach us.

Every hero needs people cheering them on.

And sometimes we get to be that person. I feel truly blessed to be the cheerleader for so many amazing people in my life.

~Nina Soden #TheRedheadedAuthor

There’s something about Fall that makes me want to write.

Maybe it’s the cooler mornings.

Maybe it’s the earlier sunsets.

Or maybe it’s because everything outside reminds me that change isn’t something to fear, it’s something to celebrate.

The trees don’t fight the changing seasons, and God knows I love to see the leaves changing colors as I stare out at the mountain views around my town.

Change is a way of life. Something or someone simply become something new.

I wonder how much easier life would be if everyone just trusted change as naturally as nature does.

For now, I’ll keep chasing stories while the leaves fall outside my office window.

~Nina Soden #TheRedheadedAuthor

One of my favorite things about directing theatre is watching someone become someone else.

Actors step onto a stage carrying their own worries, their own responsibilities, and their own stories. Then, for two hours, they become another person entirely.

Writers do the same thing.

Every time I sit down at my keyboard, I spend a little while living inside someone else’s life.

It’s funny how pretending can provide so much comfort.

The best stories help us relax… imagine… and forget the stress of our day to day lives; and still, they help us understand it.

~Nina Soden #TheRedheadedAuthor

Have you ever looked at your calendar and wondered where all the hours went?

That’s been me this week… a lot of weeks.

Somehow I convinced myself I could fit real estate appointments, coaching sessions, theatre rehearsals, family time, writing, laundry, grocery shopping, and sleep into the same twenty-four hours.

Spoiler alert…

I couldn’t. I’ve actually tried several times over the last 6-7 years and I’ve never been successful… not more than a day or two in a row.

I’m slowly learning that writing doesn’t always need an entire free afternoon. Sometimes it only needs twenty quiet minutes before the phone starts ringing again. Sometimes it only needs a small burst of inspiration while standing in line at the store.

Those small moments add up.

Maybe novels aren’t written in giant bursts of inspiration after all.

Maybe they’re written in borrowed moments.

~ Nina Soden #TheRedheadedAuthor

I sat down this week determined to finish a chapter I’d been wrestling with.

Instead, I rewrote the same three pages… over and over.

At one point I seriously considered deleting the whole thing and pretending it had never existed.

I’ve learned something about writing over the years.

The chapters that fight back usually matter the most.

They’re asking me to dig a little deeper. To understand my characters a little better. To stop rushing toward the finish line and listen to what the story is trying to become.

It’s frustrating.

It’s exhausting.

But maybe that’s how good stories are made—not by writing quickly, but by refusing to give up on the difficult parts.

I suppose life works that way, too.

~ Nina Soden #TheRedheadedAuthor

Today was supposed to be a writing day.

I even had it on my calendar.

Coffee.
Laptop.
Chapter nine.

I don’t get a lot of time to write but today was supposed to be simple. Not thing on my calendar, except writing, until later in the day.

Except life had other plans. A client called about a contract. Another needed to see a house. Someone had a question about coaching. Dinner theatre preparation started early.

By the time I finally sat down, at the end of the day, my brain felt like it had already lived three separate days.

For a moment I felt guilty. I promised myself and my readers that I would publish two novels this year and its already the end of August and I haven’t even published the first one.

The book didn’t grow today. It was supposed to, but it didn’t.

Then I realized… maybe it did.

Every conversation I had today taught me something about people. About hope. About stress. About disappointment. About joy.

Those are the things stories are made of, right?

Maybe writing isn’t always typing words. Sometimes it’s simply paying attention to the world around me.

Tomorrow, I’ll open the manuscript again.And maybe today’s life will help tomorrow’s chapter become something better.

~Nina Soden #TheRedheadedAuthor