Category Archives: Neurodivergent writer

Writing: it’s Not About the Hours

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We’ve all heard it before—the old “10,000 hours to mastery” idea. It’s everywhere, from writing advice blogs to motivational speeches. And like a lot of popular ideas, it’s been simplified to the point of nonsense.Because here’s the truth: simply putting in 10,000 hours doesn’t automatically make you a master at anything. You could hole up in a cave and write for 10,000 hours and still feel stuck if you’re not practicing deliberately.

The “10,000 hours” concept actually comes from a 1993 study by Anders Ericsson and his colleagues, which Malcolm Gladwell popularized in Outliers. But the original idea wasn’t “just do something long enough and you’ll be brilliant.” It was about how you practice. There are three key parts to real skill development:

  1. Have a goal. You need to know what you’re working toward so you can measure progress.
  2. Use deliberate practice. That means focusing on the things you struggle with, not just repeating what you’re already good at.
  3. Get feedback. Improvement doesn’t happen in a vacuum. You need outside perspectives.

This post came from conversations I’ve had with writers who tell me, “I’ve been writing for years, but I’m not getting anywhere.” Often, the frustration comes from setting goals that aren’t actually within your control, like landing an agent, getting traditionally published, or hitting bestseller lists.

You can’t control whether an agent picks your manuscript or how many people buy your book. But you can control your craft. Goals like improving your dialogue, tightening pacing, deepening character arcs, or writing more vivid settings those are within your power.

When I first started writing, structure was my biggest struggle. My brain moves fast like, a thousand miles an hour in a thousand directions and trying to wrangle all my ideas into something coherent felt impossible. Then, while taking a class on teaching special needs students, I discovered mind mapping. The software I used doesn’t exist anymore, but the method changed everything.

Mind mapping let me capture my chaotic ideas on paper before I tried to organize them. It gave me a visual roadmap for my stories and helped me make sense of the whirlwind in my head. If you struggle to get your ideas out in a linear way, try it. You don’t need fancy software just pen and paper will do.

So, how does this tie into the 10,000-hour theory for writers? For me, it was about focused, deliberate practice. I didn’t just write drafts, I studied story structure, I asked for feedback, and I restructured entire books. Over time, that kind of practice made me better.

When I felt like I’d finally gotten a handle on structure, I moved on to deepening character development. I studied, read everything I could, took classes, and applied what I learned to my next book. One of my NaNoWriMo novels, Double Six, came out of that process. It’s one of my favorites, and it even won the 2020 Goldie award for Erotica. But it wasn’t magic. It was focused effort and feedback, applied over and over again.

Here’s the thing: you can’t control external success. But you can control how you approach your craft. Writing is a skill. It’s something you can improve through study and practice, even if progress feels slow.

So if you’re feeling stuck, here’s what I want you to do:

  • Step back and look at your writing with clear eyes.
  • Pick one area—just one—that you want to improve.
  • Study it. Practice it. Ask for feedback.
  • Apply what you learn in your next project.

That’s how you grow. Not by clocking hours, but by being intentional with your time and effort.

And please, please, don’t sell yourself short. You’re not “bad at” structure or dialogue or description; you’re just still learning. Everyone starts somewhere. Folks with Neurodivergent brains, creative people, those of us who don’t process or think like everyone else,  are often told to “settle” or “give up,” and that breaks my heart. You don’t have to settle. You can absolutely improve. It might take longer, or look different, but you can do it.

So, don’t let those inner critics, or outer ones convince you to stop. You have stories to tell. You have a voice worth hearing. And the only way to get better at writing is to write. Not just read about it or talk about it, but sit down, open that document, and start.

Every hour you spend deliberately practicing moves you closer to mastery. You get to define what success means for you. You get to decide what growth looks like.

Now go write your next 10,000 intentional hours. I’m cheering for you,

Until next time, Happy Writing!

Want more writing advice? Tune into my podcast Writing While Distracted, available wherever you listen to podcasts or click here

https://writingwhiledistracted.podbean.com/e/create-before-you-consume-a-neurospicy-guide-to-writing-when-the-worlds-on-fire/

 

Mud Flat Revelations

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Hello Writer

It has been a minute since I wrote a blog post to y’all. In fact it was April to be exact. And I apologize for not writing. I spent most of this spring and summer traveling, even sending out my reader newsletter was a struggle, one that I won, but I was remiss in not writing a blog post because this is supposed to be a space of encouragement offering tips and suggestions to help you along the writing journey.

I think my most profound revelation when I realized I had not written a blog post was that I wasn’t writing myself much. I don’t write when I am traveling with my family, choosing to enjoy that time with them. My kids are growing up and I know once a kiddo leaves home, life just becomes a series of comings and goings as far as family goes.

That said, I was also struggling with my own frustrations with AI, and piracy and the state of the world in general.  So that even when I was home I didn’t write. I question why I was spending time of what in the moment seemed frivolous. I spent a lot of time journaling and thinking, and reading.
I didn’t start writing to make oodles of money, I started writing because I couldn’t find the kind of stories I wanted to read. That said, after the first few years I made enough money to break even and pay for the necessary things (website, newsletter service, and Bookunnel subscriptions) and have a little bit left over for conferences. That amount has decreased steadily over the last three years, for many reasons, the largest one is that times are hard, and folks don’t have a lot of extra cash to splash out on books, and the market is flooded with AI creations that keep readers from finding real authors. This all led to a creative crisis on my end. Do I keep going? What is the point if folks are not reading? Or if AI allows folks to rip everything off? What is my ‘why’?

I figured it out staring out at mud flat on salt river in Maine. My original ‘why’ still stands. I wanted to write books for folks who wanted to read them, who wanted my kind of stories. If my stories reach ten people, or ten thousand it doesn’t make any difference in my ‘why’.

All of this to say. If you know your ‘why’ you can lean on it when you are struggling, and wondering if it is worth it. No matter how much AI tries it will never be original, never have the soul of a human written book. So I am not quitting. I am embracing that a rest was all I needed, time to remember my why.

The most important book I read when I was trying to figure out my way forward as a creative was Aime McNee’s book We Need Your Art

I found her book just when I needed it, and it reminded me why we need to keep going, even when it feels like we are shouting down a well.

This month’s podcasts speak to the struggles many writers and creatives are having right now. Give them a listen. Share the episodes with folks who might need to hear them please. Creatives need each other right now. Keep going. Keep writing. I am cheering for you.

Until Next time,

Brenda

Links for Podcasts

How to Keep Writing When You Want to Burn It All Down https://www.podbean.com/eas/pb-ffp6c-18735eb

 Unplug, Boundaries, Write: Five Ways to Carve out Creative Space                               https://www.podbean.com/eas/pb-gacb5-1960f30

How to Keep Writing

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typewriter is on top of a blue table

How to Keep Writing

 This blog post is a response to so many friends I have that are struggling right now to maintain their creative endeavors. They are despondent and feel there’s no point in continuing to write. They believe it doesn’t matter at the end of the day.  

These feelings and beliefs are due to a convergence of many events. For many the rise of AI generated novels combined with the appalling piracy of Meta, who books off the Internet and used a known pirate site to train its AI this has made writers feel superfluous This thievery was done without any authors consent and without any renumeration.

To be clear this is theft on a grand scale. The theft of all your work in such a way, and that while Meta knew exactly what they were doing, many writers would not have known without the ongoing lawsuit. It is beyond disturbing. If someone steals your money, you usually know about it. Stealing an author’s work that they hoping to get paid for is the same as taking a dollar bill right out of their pocket. Who knows how much revenue was lost by writers whose work was pilfered?

While there are those people who believe all art should be free to be enjoyed by everyone, I would submit if those people do a job they get paid for, that takes them away from their family and requires them to have certain skills they expect to be paid for their labor. Artist, writers, painters, composers, musicians, and every other creator you can name has the same expectations. We deserve to be paid for our time, skills, and work. And it is work to create. If anyone could do it they would. Many writers have quit and others are on the edge of quitting.

To all of you who are feeling that way, please hear me: Don’t do it. Don’t give in. Don’t quit. Don’t give up on your writing dreams.  If you want to take a rest, if you need to take a break, if you need to step back a moment and figure out why it was you started this whole thing in the first place, do that.  I often have to take a step back and ask myself: why did I start writing books?

The short answer is I started writing books because I wanted to put out stories in the world that featured people who were not usually featured in most books. I wanted to have people to be able to read books with happy endings because for those of us under the rainbow. We still don’t often we don’t get happy endings and many forms of art and entertainment. The kill your gays is a real trope.  I’ve mentioned this before and if you have been reading this blog a while it’s not the first time you’ve heard it.

            For those of you out there thinking of quitting please don’t. Take a break. Get some rest. Think about your why and for all that is good step back from social media. Most everywhere you are on social media everyone is screaming the sky is falling for indie authors and small presses. While I’ll admit the sky is looking a little dicey and everyone’s revenues are for the most part down, it is the result of many forces. While it is good to be informed, it is not healthy to obsess over it. To protect your creative self, limit your social media.

I log out of social almost every weekend from Friday evening until Monday morning.   Sometimes I sign off for two weeks. It depends on how much of a break I need. The point is  include breaks from social media in your self-care. It’s okay to disconnect from the world. It’s healing to get back in touch with yourself and to interact with your friends and family. Do things in real life.  Read a hard copy book. Play a game. Puzzle. Cook. Walk outside. Get out of everyone else’s  life and into your own.

It is so easy to get caught up in all the drama on social media. No one needs more drama. Take a break, get your feet back on the ground, touch some grass as the young folks say.

I get that it is very difficult to keep making art if you’re not getting paid for it. I get it. I get it on so many levels. I also understand that if you stop writing/creating/ making art, you don’t have anything to sell and nothing to get paid for, so itis a real issue. If you are finished, really ready to stop creating, after thoughtful consideration, then that’s okay. We all have different roads we follow at different times and sometimes you are only on a path for a season.

It’s okay to quit if that’s what you really want to on a soul deep level. Quit. But if you’re responding out of fear, if you’re responding out of despair, if you are giving up because it all feels like it’s just too much. Don’t quit. Take a break but don’t quit. The world needs your stories even if you don’t think they do they do. If no one else tells you your work is valuable, I am telling you your writing matters. Don’t let the world and its ugliness silence you. Rest when you need to and then get back to work. Writing is the safest place to work out your feelings about most things, the page will never judge you for continuing to write with the world on fire, even if others do because they don’t understand, that writing/creating/ making art is resistance.

If you want to hear more advice on this topic,  I have included a link for my podcast “How to Keep Writing When You Want to Burn It All Down that is companion piece to this blog post. I would love it if you would give it a listen. It will address creative frustration, and how to keep working when you’re just sick of whatever it is that you’re working on and/or there has been a major life event that makes you want to just set everything on fire and walk away.  

I go into more depth offering more ways to help yourself, but the second thing that I recommend in this post and in that podcast is to get in touch with your why. Take time examine why you started writing. Explore your reasons and put your reasons in context with your current circumstances. I wrote all of my life but seriously started pursuing publication in 2012. My why has for the most part stayed the same but my life has changed considerably. If you have been writing for a while remind yourself why you started and why you want to continue.

 Remember why you started creating, memorize it, etch it into your soul, and then get back to work. That might sound harsh, but I believe working your way through a creative crisis is the only way out of creative crisis.

Wishing you all the best with your writing craft and everything else that’s going on in your life and I’ll talk to you again next month, Until then happy writing.

Creating Compelling Characters

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an old fountain pen resting on a manuscript

Today on the blog, I’m going to dive into a topic that often confuses new writers: the difference between character arcs and story arcs. I’m sure you’ve probably heard about story arcs and character arcs, and it’s very easy to get the two mixed up. So I’m going to clear things up.

First, story arcs and character arcs are not the same, even though you will hear people say that “character is story.” What they mean by that is the character’s development is a huge part of your story, whether your novel is character-driven or plot-driven. Even in a plot-driven story, your character’s changes over the course of the novel make it more readable and relatable.

Your story arc is what happens overall—the sequence of events in your novel. It’s the plot. It’s how your characters deal with the plot that is the story arc. It’s the “what happens” in your story, both in the environment around your character and what happens to your character.

The character arc, on the other hand, is all about what happens to your characters as they navigate these changes—the internal changes. It’s about their personal growth and development, or even their downfall, which is a popular literary trope, as a result of the story’s events.

So, you’ve got two different arcs to think about: the story arc and the character arc. Both of these arcs need to have a beginning, a middle, and an end. For a deeper dive into story arcs, I have podcast episode and a blog post dedicated to that topic. I’ll link those in the show notes for you so you can have another reference.

It can be a complicated topic and one that trips up a lot of new writers or writers who have a hard time keeping all the threads together. Many neurodiverse authors struggle to keep their storyline straight because many of us are pantsers, not big plotters. Having a firm idea of what these arcs are will help you develop a storyline and understand, during revisions, whether something falls under the story arc or the character arc.

Ask yourself: am I making it clear to my readers what’s happening in the story as well as what’s happening to my characters as a result of the events in the story?

Now, here’s the thing about character arcs—they’re not limited to just your protagonist or main character. If you have multiple characters in your story, each should have their own arc, especially if they are point-of-view characters. Even if the change is small, having your characters go through different changes makes your story richer and more readable.

Nobody changes in a vacuum, and changes in your character often bring about changes in others because the character is no longer acting the way they did in the past. Other characters will notice and react to these changes. You don’t want your other characters to feel like window dressing or placeholders. I’m not saying that every minor character needs a fully developed arc, but the people your character interacts with on a routine basis should have some kind of acknowledgment.

Think back to books you’ve loved. Everyone in those books was impacted by the events of the story in some way, even if the story was told from a single point of view. You often get a glimpse into how other characters change through the narrative, and that’s the kind of depth you want to bring to your own writing.

To figure out how your character will change throughout your story, doing some background work is essential. I’ve got a free workbook on designing characters, which I’ll link below.  It’s based on Deborah Dixon’s Goal, Motivation, and Conflict and Eileen Cook’s fantastic book Build Better Characters (Links below). Both of these are great resources to help you flesh out your characters and make them as real as possible.

When your character’s actions make sense, your story resonates more with readers. There’s nothing worse than a character doing something completely out of character without a good reason. Now, we sometimes love a surprising twist, like when the most hated selfish character suddenly sacrifices themselves for the group but even then, we want to see hints of that change coming. It’s those subtle, gradual changes that make a character and your story feel authentic and relatable.

For neurodivergent writers, this process can be especially rich. Many of us have faced unique challenges, often from a young age. Those experiences can be a treasure trove for character development. We’ve often had to be more observant of the world around us, whether to survive, to mask, or to simply understand social cues. This heightened awareness can really help when creating characters who feel real and multidimensional. So lean into that and take advantage of those skills.

Now let’s talk about how to effectively show your character’s change in the story. Because remember, we’re going to show, not tell. That’s what makes a good book. We want to see what happens to the characters. And when I say “see,” I mean we want scenes that demonstrate a character’s change and development. One of the first things you want to do is establish your character’s starting point. That’s the beginning of their character arc. Who are they at the beginning of this story?

Now, don’t info dump. Don’t spill out a bunch of stuff and list every place they’ve ever gone to school and everything else in their lives up until that point. Show us who they are through their actions and their interactions. There’s a great book called Save the Cat by Blake Snyder  that explains how to do that, and I will link to that below as well. It gives examples from movies and screenwriting that show scenes filmmakers include to illustrate where a character starts. And they often do this with interactions with other characters—an elderly person, a child, or a random stranger. How they treat other people reveals much about who they are as a person.

The next part of showing your character’s development is the inciting incident—the thing that kicks your novel off. Both the story arc and the character arc are launched here, but they’re viewed through different lenses. There’s the large action happening in the background, the event that pushes your character into the story, and then there’s how your character reacts to that event.

How does your character get pulled into the story? Was it by chance? Did they seek it out? This event sets the story and the character arc in motion and complicates their life with various obstacles. Watching how they deal with these challenges shows us their growth, or lack of it.

Some stories feature a character who never changes, and that’s still a valid arc. It may be a flat arc, but it’s a conscious choice, often used for side characters. Even so, you need to show how others around them react to that lack of growth. Sometimes this kind of stagnation can be just as telling as dramatic change.

So, how do you show those moments of crucial self-realization where the character becomes aware of how their actions are affecting their life? When your character finally starts understanding what’s going on around them, that’s when we as readers see their development. Usually, this happens at the midpoint of the story.

Supporting characters play a vital role here. Remember: Showing how your character interacts with others shows a lot about who they are and how they’re changing. If you’re writing a romance, for instance, this is especially crucial. You want to show both characters realizing they belong together, and their reactions to that realization drive your story forward.

The climax of your story may not always align with your character’s arc. Sometimes, a character’s big change happens after the plot’s resolution, when they take a moment to reflect on their behavior.

For example, in the movie Backdraft, the main character’s development culminates when he honors his dying brother’s request to keep a secret for the sake of the fire department. This significant change happens after his brother’s death and marks a decisive departure from who he was at the beginning of the story.

For longer stories, especially in series, a character’s arc might stretch over several books. If you’re writing a series, you can plot out your character’s development over time. Think of your character’s arc as starting in the first book and concluding only at the end of the last. You can give readers glimpses of that progression along the way, with each book presenting new challenges that keep your readers hooked.

This allows you to stretch out the character development, especially in genres like science fiction and fantasy, typically longer works,  where you have more space to explore deep character growth. Even if your character’s growth spans several books, you need some resolution in each one, something that shows their development to keep readers engaged and wanting to know more.

Now, focus on those key moments that will keep your readers hooked and turning the pages. You want your character to be relatable but not predictable. You want surprises and challenges that make readers say, “Wow, I didn’t expect that!” If your character becomes too predictable, readers will lose interest and stop reading.

When you revise, this is the time to polish your characters. Add scenes, dialogues, or events that showcase your character’s progression throughout the story. Make sure your characters’ actions are consistent with who you’ve shown them to be and that their development feels natural.

There are two different kinds of character arc when you’re thinking about revision. There’s a positive arc where the character starts off flawed and grows into a better version of themselves. That is a classic character arc.

You can think of Bilbo Baggins in The Hobbit, who goes from a quiet homebody to an adventurer. And you can also have a negative arc where a character starts off in a very good place and then descends into darkness and becomes the villain of the story and a person you never expected them to become because of events in the story.  You can have a flat arc where the character doesn’t change much, but the story around them does. Their reluctance to change and their resistance is also a story. Think about all of this when going through the revision process.

If you’ve sorted your story arc and fixed any problems with your structure, it makes it easier to fit you character’s arc into those events.   If you think of them as nesting one inside the other, that can also give you a sort of mental model for how they fit together. They don’t have to exactly align, but they should be close, because your character is changing because of events in the story. So get your story events nailed down first, and then look at your character development. How has that character changed because of events in your story? Are you showing their change or lack of it clearly?

Again, I’m going to include a link in the show notes for a free PDF with 60 ways to show your character’s arc and build that into your manuscript to make your character’s development  and clear and compelling.

There are a lot of ways to do show character arc and it can be overwhelming or frustrating at first when you’re just starting out as a novelist, that’s one of the finer points of the process. It is stressful because  it’s one of those things where, if you don’t get it right, people close the book. If your characters are not compelling, they close the book—they don’t finish. Or, if you’re trying to get representation, the agent stops reading.

The challenge today is that so many people are submitting, either seeking representation or for publication. If you’re an indie publisher, you have about five pages to capture your reader’s attention. You need to do that by showing a character in those first five pages that intrigues your readers enough to keep turning the pages to find out what happens.

Common author advice used to be you had the first ten pages to hook your readers. In my opinion it’s now down to five, because of attention span reduction, that’s been documented. It is also because of the plethora of available reading materials.  The reader can just close the book and go to the next book.So, take your time. Build characters that are compelling and show how compelling they are in that first five pages.

 Lastly, I want to touch on a crucial point of character development and creation. Be careful of stereotypes when creating characters. I’ve touched on this in several blog posts and another podcast I have about character development.  Stereotypical writing is lazy writing. It does a disservice to your readers and your story. If you’re writing characters outside of your own lived experience, please do the research. Hire sensitivity readers. Talk to people who’ve lived that experience. Don’t rely on stereotypes to fill out your novel. It’s another way to end up in the rejection pile, because readers and editors are not looking for stereotypes. Editors and readers are looking for colorful, creative characters that are compelling, authentic, and nuanced. Creating authentic and nuanced characters is what makes a book relatable and memorable. Think back to those characters that you still carry with you from books you’ve read. The characters you wish you could meet in real life, or those you’re really happy you never have to.

Please, take your time, use your tools, and keep your characters real. I’ve listed a bunch of resources below. Be sure to check out the links list below for resources mentioned in the post.

Until next time, happy writing.

Resources

Sign up for my newsletter for free resources for Writers: https://www.brendalmurphy.com/resources-for-writers.html

Follow me on my socials for quick tips and updates: https://www.instagram.com/writinghwhiledistracted/

Struggling with character development? Check out my free character building workbook: https://BookHip.com/HDPNDMX

Here is the free resource 60 Ways to Show Character Arc: https://dl.bookfunnel.com/xjcaam4085

This is my podcast is all about structure: https://www.podbean.com/eas/pb-ckhgh-167fd45

Eileen Cook’s Build Better Characters:  https://eileencook.com/non-fiction/

Debra Dixon Goal Motivation and Conflict: http://www.debradixon.com/index.html

Save the Cat: https://savethecat.com/books

Writing While Distracted Blog on Story Structure/Story ARC https://blog.writingwhiledistracted.com/?p=2295