When Belle Brooke announced on her instagram (
) that she finished her manuscript, I wasted no time in messaging her to ask if she’d sit down with me and tell me all about it. I’d remembered another post of hers where she shared that she was writing a difficult scene where FMC was confronting past trauma, and so I was interested to hear more about how this character navigated her journey, and how she overcame her challenges.Brooke explained to me that with her background as a therapist, she sought to share a story that could address the need for balance, while providing readers with coping strategies, delivered in an easily digested format—a fantasy novel. To me, this sounded like peanut butter + jelly, because for me, reading is its own form of therapy. To feel growth through a character and view hardships in a way that keeps us removed so that we can remind ourselves, yes, the story will continue, no matter how big the consequences.
It wasn’t just balance of her story we discussed, but balance in life. She and I both relate as mothers trying to balance prioritizing our children while also feeding our souls with writing, but I don’t know a single person, mother or not, who isn’t needing to juggle something in this world. Whether you’ve faced pain or not yet, Belle Brooke wants to remind her readers that the best thing you can do is have tools to navigate your way through whatever may come, just like her characters. One of those tools, is genuinity of your emotional state. As her favorite character in her story says, “I’m free when I’m truly myself,” Belle Brooke wants people to know we don’t have to deny sadness, and emotions come and go.
I’ve had to navigate grief and hardship from a young age, but today, I’m lucky that the only coping I’m doing is taking deep breaths, while I wish I was writing my new WIP—but knowing that the balance I need to strike means it has to wait until later. But for the days I’m not so lucky and those messy choices rear their heads again, I look forward to Belle Brooke’s novel, so I can learn more strategies for when deep breaths just won’t cut it.
I encourage everyone to listen to my time with Belle Brooke to hear more about this story that I’m so relieved is entering into its second draft, so we could hopefully all read it soon!
Is there anything your balancing today? Any strategies that help you through it?
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