First ever episode of The Writer’s Helm Podcast
We do wish there was a less patriarchal term for a ship’s first voyage. Perhaps something more queer, like “unicorn voyage” or a “coming out launch.” Anyway, welcome to the first episode of The Writer’s Helm Podcast! We, Lauren and Gabby, are your captains, and we’ll be guiding you through this grand writing adventure.
In this monthly podcast, we’re going to be sharing our knowledge of the writing world as well as our radically rebellious encouragement to help you along your writing journey just like we do for our online writing community, also called The Writer’s Helm.
We believe first and foremost that everyone deserves to write at their own pace, in their own time, and that you can foster a relationship with your creativity that doesn’t focus on capitalist metrics and structures for success.
Climb aboard if you want to join!
Transcript
00:00.26
Lauren: Here we go. Welcome to the first ever Writer's Helm podcast! I'm Lauren Alexander. I use they/them pronouns and I'm your mindset captain.
00:16.30
Gabby: Yay and I'm Gabrielle Goodloe aka Gabby and I'm your story captain, and I use she/her pronouns.
00:26.97
Lauren: Amazing! So on this podcast. We really wanted to just share our knowledge of writing as well as our radically rebellious encouragement to help you along your writing journey just like we do for our online writing community, also called the Writer's Helm.
00:43.70
Gabby: Yeah, look at us, we—
00:43.76
Lauren: We did it. We did a proper intro. Ha, ha, ha so right before recording we were talking about being unprepared for things—totally unrelated to this podcast. Ha ha completely unrelated. Don't know why you think it's related. Um, and.
01:06.54
Gabby: Um, right? No.
01:12.99
Lauren: We're a year into this writing community that we've started um and that's honestly how we've started so much of this community and then also how we encourage writers to start because otherwise sometimes you just don't start at all so like fucking start unprepared just go for it.
01:27.82
Gabby: Yeah, yeah, yeah, start. And I think we say without being prepared because so many people find it hard to know the line of like what is too much prepared. You know what? I mean it's like you get in that procrastinating learning mindset and I think that's why it's better just to say just raw dog life just don't even in no preparation.
01:51.88
Lauren: Oh yeah.
02:03.64
Gabby: Whatsoever because I think it is so much easier to get trapped in that cycle of oh maybe I should do this first. Maybe I should do that first I've known lots of people that are like that and I think that the difference between the people that I know that have started and have had. Some semblance of success. However, they see success. It's just because they started. It's silly and as easy as that is it really is that easy.
02:33.42
Lauren: Yeah, a hundred percent. So a year into this writing community. What are some of the changes that you've seen in yourself over the past year of running this group of writing with this group?
02:49.20
Gabby: Um, oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. That's a big question and I really can't wait to hear what you say too because ha we know like there's obvious changes like I'm in another country.
03:03.30
Lauren: Right? There's like physical changes, life changes.
03:05.68
Gabby: Ha, right? Yeah, but I think, I don't know, I've experienced such extremes and so many emotions since we started this. But I would say that the Writer's Helm has been such an anchor through all of it like when you start before you're ready. It's fucking scary right? And even if you are well prepped because it's not like we were, you know, total novices in our fields or writing or anything like that. Um, but yeah, it was scary and it's even hard to still believe like what I mentor people I can help people like that. You know you're still kind of like me.
03:56.87
Lauren: Right.
04:02.20
Gabby: Um, but ha, um, but we've met so many beautiful humans truly like I think as much as I have helped others I feel like I've received it tenfold.
04:21.32
Gabby: And that has been truly amazing which is like those extremes where you're just so touched by how we can connect with other humans through writing and how but not even just writing It's like the empathy and the compassion that we see in our community and the courage that we see in our community and it takes so much bravery to show up and be vulnerable in the way that we are vulnerable and it has changed me as a person and I think those things, like yes, I did move to another country. And I think I took those things with me, you know it took a lot of bravery to immigrate to Portugal and leave the US and I feel like I could not have done so as successfully as I have without the experiences that I've had in the Helm.
05:14.00
Lauren: Yeah, oh that makes me so happy.
05:18.66
Gabby: Um, yeah I just am so moved by everyone in my community. But I want I want to hear you. How do you feel a year later? It's hard to believe it's even been a year. But wow.
05:34.59
Lauren: I know I know and like listening back because we recorded a podcast episode for my podcast the Ugly Podcast right before we started or like at the very beginning and like looking at kind of my goals I think for the writing community then and then just like kind of where my priorities lie now. Um I think even then, even though I was still like very radically like everybody should write what they want at all times. Like you should pursue your goals regardless of like the quote unquote quality of your work. Um, and but I still kind of had that mindset of like word count goals and like produce produce produce and like write as much as you possibly can.
06:29.23
Lauren: And through this writing community I think something very profound that I've realized is like—well I don't know if it's profound for other people, but it feels profound for me—is like it's not about the actual outcome or the whatever you actually make it is how whatever you are doing is making you feel and just that relationship with your creativity as a lifestyle and not as like something you need to produce and to show proof of creativity. It's like no, it is in the work and in how it makes you feel like that is the process I think that was like 1 of the major changes for me.
07:12.00
Gabby: Um, yeah, absolutely. And I'm just reflecting on that because I'm thinking about all the ways in which I have like you know so much I keep saying compassion because I've been so blown away by how compassionate everyone is but you know that specifically like that living a creative life I have found that most of us have seen to want to come back to that. Sort of like basically getting back to that source, that essence of why we originally started writing in the first place even though a lot of us have big goals in publishing and you know whatever bestsellers list you want to make or what have you, but just learning that no matter what it is your goal is that you can enjoy it and that you can live a creative life and it and it’s just so much. You know I'm all caught up in my feelings about it. But yeah and I have been I have been truly like irrevocably changed by seeing how people say the permission that we give each other to be Like. What does the treat of life look like for you and that that's okay, you know it's like because it looks so different for everyone and I've just been So yeah, so truly amazed really.
08:47.59
Lauren: Yeah, yeah, and I love that that's something that we do in this community is like celebrating all of the steps that you are experiencing. It's not just oh yeah, you got in 2000 words today or whatever. It's oh yeah.
09:07.11
Lauren: Ah, you like sat down and let yourself daydream for 20 minutes like it's the little things that a lot of times we just dismiss as procrastinating or um, yeah, mainly procrastinating or avoiding and it's like no sometimes you need those moments and the writing comes when you take care of yourself and I think that is so important to remember because we get so caught up in this like we're not doing enough. We could be doing more. We don't have a book published yet. We don't have a first draft yet and it's like it will come if you if that's what you really want.
09:45.94
Lauren: If you prioritize what you actually need and celebrate every step along the way.
09:50.40
Gabby: Yeah, it's that shame cycle and I do think that like we always talk about how we're so rebellious like we're the were the rebellious riding pirates and I think it is rebellious inherently.
09:56.14
Lauren: Yeah.
10:03.80
Gabby: To combat shame like everything that we celebrate like you're saying it's whether it be daydreaming or staring at a bank page and trying or deciding to you know what? I'm not going to write today I'm going to drink tea and watch Netflix because I need that I need to rest I need to recover and.
10:23.10
Gabby: The fact that we celebrate those things because we're like you are taking care of yourself. You know that is all part of what is a creative life other than you know your connection to your humanness and it's like you cannot work yourself into being more human you cannot purchase more humanness. It's not a product. So yeah I think that exactly that and this I think I mean like with the compassion thing is like that that right there what you're saying Lauren is just yeah.
10:56.14
Lauren: Yeah.
11:00.93
Gabby: Ah, can't believe it's been a year. It's been a year of glorious wholesome heartwarming amazingness and we've seen so many people reach their goals like you even have someone like the people that say oh.
11:19.51
Gabby: You know those people that are so sensitive and in their feelings and you know are okay with taking breaks or resting or taking months off of their projects or whatever they never get anything donor. They're not real writers. Well you can say that to the people who have finished their drafts and who are editing their manuscripts.
11:39.28
Gabby: And they're rebellious writing pirates and they're doing the damn thing. So.
11:43.71
Lauren: They're doing the damn thing. I know like over the last I think it's been three months we have had 1 person completely finish her draft and 1 person get was it 30000 words that they were telling us like so freaking cool.
11:58.73
Gabby: Um, that they loved. Yeah yeah.
12:01.33
Lauren: Yeah, so yeah I think that that process of prioritizing what you need and like that inherently prioritizes your story and I but like even the people I don't know like we point those examples out as like look.
12:20.82
Gabby: Yeah.
12:21.17
Lauren: They're still achieving and like they are they are but like also like if you're not achieving that like that's okay, too and I think like people get like there's just there's like certain accounts on social media that I'm thinking of specifically that like get angry at this like perspective of like.
12:39.31
Lauren: Your feelings don't matter. That's never going to get you your book and it's like why is that the goal Why is that like your soul shining beacon goal like the goal should just be like a good like a wonderful creative life where you get to pursue your ideas.
12:58.83
Lauren: And have a community of people to share those ideas with whether or not you do end up going to get published or end up getting like a full first draft or whatever like it ultimately doesn't matter as long as you are doing what you need and you have a community of people around you who are celebrating you along the path.
13:17.59
Gabby: Um, yeah, no I agree and I know that for some people, the only reason that they see publishing is the end goal is. It's probably financial. Where they're like I only want to write…
13:27.86
Lauren: Oh yeah, absolutely, it's capitalism.
13:30.28
Gabby: Yeah, it's like I only want to write and it's the only thing I enjoy and so of course I need to make money doing that. So I need to figure out how to do that and I get it.
13:38.98
Lauren: Yes, and that makes sense. Yeah.
13:48.80
Gabby: And I think our whole point is not that not like any of your goals are wrong. It's just that you don't have to be miserable while you work towards whatever it's like you can still feel fulfilled. You can still because it's so easy to get lost in the capitalism like you're saying it's like you know you can What was the whole reason why you started.
14:07.75
Gabby: Right? It's like because you originally said you loved writing and that's what you wanted to do and it's like we just want to make sure that you can have what you want and reach whatever it is that you want some people. It's just to write. They never want to publish ever in their lives and they just want writer friends. We've got plenty of those but there are people that is like.
14:27.23
Gabby: I do want to publish and I do want to make money and it's like okay you can do that too and enjoy it and not feel miserable and not need to wake up and drink 2 bottles of whiskey just to get through your day and access your higher power of creativity like you me is looking.
14:40.70
Lauren: Right? Yeah, yeah, yeah I feel like we could do a whole episode just on like how when you focus on like when capitalism is running your creativity.
14:46.58
Gabby: Oh yeah.
14:59.38
Lauren: Like how quickly that leads to burnout and how quickly that makes you feel like your ideas aren't worth pursuing because it's not what the market is telling you I feel like that should be a whole episode so we'll probably talk about that at some point but put a pin in that we will talk about it.
15:08.93
Gabby: Um, yeah, pin that we're pinning it right now for future episode. Yeah.
15:19.83
Lauren: Um, do you have any favorite Helm moments from the last year
15:26.26
Gabby: Um, my gosh all of them I mean truly all of them I but I really love our Setting Course events and it feels like cheating to say that because we don't even write we like paint and draw. Whatever we want with pencils or markers or Crays or collage or digitally on our computer like whatever just feels good and all of those are my favorite and I pretty much always cry and so for those that don't know are Setting Course events.
15:59.75
Gabby: Is where we make intentional ugly art which is something Lauren started on their own but whoop whoop and then we kind of brought it and merged it into the Helm where we could make intentional ugly art with.
16:04.32
Lauren: Woop woop.
16:15.43
Gabby: Trying to set intentions for the month for like what we get in tune with our creativity how we're feeling about our relationship with creativity and writing and we do a little meditation and then um. We draw? Whatever it is. We want whatever feels good, whatever feels bad, get it on paper. Um, and I find that I always am surprised about how I feel about creativity and writing and I makes me feel more in tune with myself and gives me clarity when I feel like Peter Pan and the little lost boy being like what the hell am I doing um so I have to say like I know it's not 1 specific memory but I will say it's.
17:10.81
Gabby: Every event is the best.
17:14.56
Lauren: Ha, ha, you're right. That absolutely is cheating but I also have like the same answer. So ha ha.
17:20.85
Gabby: Um, what's your favorite thing about the Helm. It's actually a not writing part. Can you believe it? yeah.
17:25.93
Lauren: Um, it's the not writing part. Actually I will say Um, yeah I think my set Setting Course events and like especially anytime during a Setting Course event which I'm pretty sure this has happened anytime when someone says like this is exactly what I needed. And then everyone starts crying like favorite moment.
18:01.70
Lauren: When we share our own like little snippets of our writing um in our slack channel. Um, it's always been a place for me that's very fun to just like post something. Like this really made me laugh and I don't know maybe you'll laugh too, and then everybody's like Lauren you're so weird. We love you and like yeah it just it's really fun to be able to share writing in a place that is
18:29.57
Gabby: Um, yeah, yeah, yeah.
18:38.50
Lauren: Encouraging and you know you're never going to like have somebody be like you know you spelled this wrong or like this should technically be this way or like you know, um, it's just like a safe place to share your silly little brain zoomies and it's delightful.
18:51.74
Gabby: Um, yeah, and that actually reminded me of um when we did that challenge where I had everyone cover their computer screens with.
19:00.20
Lauren: Oh that was so fun.
19:05.48
Gabby: That was so Fun. We did this great challenge where it's like you took whatever you could to cover a computer screen piece of paper tablecloth. Whatever and um, you we just typed for that writing hour and you couldn't edit because you couldn't see your screen and then we all shared. What a fucking mess that was like all the typos all the ugly grammar all the repeat sentences and repeat words and that was such a fun experiment. Truly yeah.
19:32.95
Lauren: That was really fun I I'm really glad you brought that up because I definitely want to do that again sometime that was so fun and just that emphasis on like typos literally don't matter like don't worry about them. It's okay, yeah.
19:49.30
Gabby: Um, yeah, totally um, a whole year Lauren a whole year.
19:58.63
Lauren: Yeah I know a whole year and hopefully many years to come Ah, those are literally the only questions. Yeah.
20:19.92
Lauren: Do you have anything that you need to hear this month for your own writing?
20:32.21
Gabby: Um, oh shit. Okay wow that is uncomfy, let me think, what do I need to hear.
20:34.32
Lauren: Give yourself advice Gabby.
20:41.25
Lauren: Ah, okay, ha ha we don’t have to do that if it’s uncomfy.
20:46.60
Gabby: No I Love that question. No like it's uncomfy in the sense that I was like I can be like someone that I look up to. Like I can validate myself, that's why I was just like why have I never thought about that? So it was uncomfy in a good way.
21:03.42
Lauren: Ha, okay, good.
21:05.75
Gabby: Um, what advice do I need to hear about my writing? Wow one of my, it's slightly cheating but I always need to remind myself of it and it is the writing gods will not punish you. So It's like if you are not writing or you know. Like the world's on fire and we are all going through things in our personal lives and in things that are external of us and I know that things feel yucky and we have these phases where there is no writing happening and you know the idea of sitting down to write can feel very empty and I think a lot of us chase that itch. You know I think. It's really relatable when we say oh writing feels like that itch that you just need to scratch like oh I just really need to write about this and sometimes nothing is itchy. You know it's like it's later. I Yeah nothing is tingling I feel empty and I just.
22:06.00
Lauren: Yeah.
22:18.74
Gabby: Think back to that thing that I heard is like the writing gods are not going to punish you and they are not punishing you now. It is okay if there is no itch to scratch and it is okay if you take weeks or months or years away from your writing.
22:23.25
Lauren: Yeah.
22:37.68
Gabby: You can still find joy in being creative and you can daydream and you can enjoy reading books and watching movies and those are all things that are story related and for me like as a story person like.
22:53.99
Gabby: Those are stories have always brought me joy and it's okay to find joy in things because you do not need to punish yourself because you are not writing in the way that you think that you should be.
23:08.10
Lauren: Um, that's a really good one I Love that.
23:12.32
Gabby: Um, ha thanks. Thanks I feel better like I'm just like it's okay, Gabby deep breath. But yeah, thanks for asking that question, Lauren yeah, so.
23:16.80
Lauren: Yeah, little self hug. Yeah I love that. You're most welcome.
23:29.65
Gabby: What advice would you like to give to yourself? What do you need to hear?
23:32.95
Lauren: I think I need to hear that my goals and my dreams for my art and my writing don't have to happen right this second.
23:50.84
Lauren: Like they're still valid if they are like someday dreams like I've just recently been feeling like so kind of caught in the muck and like everything's just going by very slowly and I can see like I can see areas where I'm like.
24:11.30
Lauren: Healing from these things in my personal life and like that's all great. But then I'm like okay the healing's happening now I can like get onto these like other creative goals that I had and it's like your feet are still like two feet deep in mud and you're just gonna go slow and that's okay, like just because they're like in the distance doesn't mean they're like running away from you that can be just like a point that you're like making your way to. So Yeah I think I need to hear that like yeah similarly like even though the things aren't happening now. Even though you know. I'm not sending out things to literary magazines right now I'm not selling my art right now which is a what a someday dream of mine. Um, it doesn't mean that it's never going to happen and like my healing takes priority and so yeah.
25:07.54
Lauren: That's what I need to hear right now.
25:07.78
Gabby: Um, yeah, absolutely I would say that your healing takes priority and that even if this is taking its time. And if you can dream it. You can do it.
25:20.98
Lauren: Oh thank you. I just like ha ha ha there's like a voice that I hear when you say that, and I don't know what it's from. “If you can dream it. You could do it.” It's like from something and I don't know what.
25:37.43
Gabby: Um I think it's from Disney. Yeah I think it's from Disney I think so yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
25:38.44
Lauren: It's like a commercial. Is it Disney? Ha oh yeah, that makes sense.
25:54.29
Lauren: Well thank you all for listening to our first episode of the writers helm podcast. Um, do we have any like housekeeping things to invite people to? I guess if you're listening to this and you are not a Helm member.
26:01.70
Gabby: Um, yes.
26:11.12
Lauren: And if you are curious about the Helm, One: You can do a seven-day free trial with us. There's absolutely no pressure to stay. You can just come write with us for a week, see what our slack channels are like and see how awesome we are, and then if you're like “meh” you can peace out and if not, you can join.
26:28.55
Lauren: And then another way that you can get just some of the snippets of joy and rebellious creativity with us is we have officially opened up our Setting Course event, which is the event that Gabby mentioned earlier, to anybody who is just a friend of the Helm, and by that we just mean you like what we do and want to support us in some way and are interested. That's all that it takes so you can just sign up for our monthly Setting Course and that's the first Thursday of every month and that's it. That's the tea.
27:17.53
Gabby: That's the tea. We need a pirate thing for tea. That's the Parrot.
27:50.82
Lauren: That's the rum.
28:46.80
Gabby: Yeah, I like that's the rum better. Oh that should definitely be on a shirt. That's the rum.
29:04.33
Gabby: Let's do that every podcast episode. That's the rum the yeah and they're like we can open it with. we're gonna spill the rum.
29:07.55
Lauren: And that's the rum. I like that as a sign off, we can do that.
29:17.42
Lauren: Oh there we go. I Love it.
29:30.95
Lauren: Thank you so much for listening. We will have these episodes out once a month I believe. Anyway, that's the rum!
