What Lindsey Vonn Taught Me About the Writing Life

By Terry Whalin @terrywhalin

As a writer, I consistently listen to audiobooks on various topics. Some of these books are exceptional and teach me lessons about my own writing life. Rise, My Story from skiing champion Lindsey Vonn is one of those books. I have never been on a ski but found Rise to be filled with great storytelling and insights for every writer.

 

At nine years old, Lindsey Vonn and her father made a detailed plan for her to go to the Olympics in skiing for 2002, Her perseverance, commitment and grit to reach this goal made at a young age was impressive and built into the fiber of this story.  Vonn’s honesty and transparency come through the pages of this book and in the stories.

 

Writers need to learn to face and conqauer their fears and Vonn writes about her own struggles with fear and how she overcame it to be able to fling herself off the top of a mountain and race to the bottom of the course. Also Vonn talks about her mindset and the importance of being in the right frame of mind before a race. It was another connection that I made with my own writing life. It's important to be in the right mindset as you write.

 

Vonn tells her readers that she is an introvert and how she's learned to support and encourage her teammates. The majority of writers (including me) are introverts and needed to learn these lessons as well with their writing life. Other topics that Vonn covers in her book arer how to handle criticism and gossip from others. It was another area where I could identify from my own writing life. Through stories, Vonn wrotes about the sacrifices that she has made to achieve her dreams. As I heard these stories, I could identify with some of the sacrifices I have made for my own writing life.

 

Built into the fiber of Rise was the reality of hard work as an athlete and how she has overcome injury and depression and much more. Also Vonn details the importance of working with the right people at the right time such as trainers, coaches, physical therapists and others. I've learned similar lessons during my journey in publishing. I need to note Rise is not a Christian book and has some profanity sprinkled into the stories but I found the insights far outweighed these few words. I recommend and enjoyed listening to Rise from cover to cover.

 

Do you listen to or read books in an entirely different topic which provide insights about your own writing life? Let me know in the comments below.

 

Other Recent Articles

 

As I've mentioned in these entries, I regularly write for some other publications. Here are some of those articles. It's a practice that I encourage you to do with your own writing.

 

Self-care for Writers on the Blue Ridge Mountains Christian Writers Conference blog

Why First Impressions Matter on the Writers on the Move blog

Looking For Authors Who “Get It”  on the Almost An Author blog in the section about book proposals

 

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Use of Time Choices

Each of us have the same time and space limitations. Yet each of us can continue to grow and improve in this area. I know I have a lot to learn and continue to learn about how to manage my time. As I speak with writers, some of them want to write and do zero marketing. I understand this bent toward writing. They get their greatest joy and satisfaction for pouring their words into their computer and telling stories.

Groups of writers have taken personality tests and the majority are introverts. It makes sense they would rather write on their computer or in a journal instead of stand in front of a group of people and teach. Through the years, many people believe I am an extrovert because I've been a keynote speaker at large and small conferences.

Also I've taught continuing classes where I teach for five or six hours with a group of people. For example in May, I will be teaching a continuing class at the Colorado Christian Writers Conference in Estes Park. Last week I was talking with a friend about doing this teaching and he whether I had enough content for this session. I reassured him I had done this type of teaching in the past. Yes I have plenty to teach during these sessions. Is it my natural bent? No but like other writers, I have learned to rise to the occasion and do this type of teaching.

Several basics in this area of time choices:

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1. Connect to your readers. Every writer needs to devote some time to building their presence in the marketplace. Some people call this connecting with your tribe or readers. Others call it platform building and marketing. (Click this link to get my free Ebook, Platform-Building Ideas for Every Author). Publishers and literary agents are looking for writers who are connected to their readers. Why? Publishers may create beatiful books and get them into the bookstores (online and brick and mortar store)—but it is the author who drives readers into those stores to actually purchase the books.

2. Whatever you begin, be consistent. Some people build their following on YouTube while others do it through a social media network like Twitter or Facebook.  In my view you don't have to be everywhere but wherever you are, be consistent. For example, since 2008, I've consistently written about once a week on these blog entries on different aspects of writing and the publishing world. I've written nearly 1,500 entries and it did not happen overnight. It happened one entry at a time. You too can do it.

3. Spend regular time on your marketing efforts. Over the years I have built a large body of work. Just search for my name on Google and you will see what I am talking about. I have tweeted thousands of times on Twitter. I consistently tweet 12=15 times every day. Yet in these articles, I've also been transparent about the tools that I use for these tweets.

4. Be conscious of how you spend your time. Are you wasting hours looking at Facebook or in front of the television or monitoring the news? Any of these things can consume hours of attention and time. Choose to limit it or eliminate it. Such choices will open more time in your life.

People wonder how I've written over 60 books. I've written these books one page at a time and one chapter at a time and one manuscript at a time. Like one of my novel writing friends told me years ago, “No little elves come out at night and write her pages.” She does it one page and one story at a time.

How are you making time choices? Let me know in the comments below.

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