196. Fun Values Check-In for Sci-Fi/Fantasy Writers

“ I care very much about your success and I really believe that our future is in our hands and as creatives, we have some incredible skill sets we get to bring to that.” - Beth Barany

In this How To Write the Future podcast episode, titled “Fun Values Check-In for Sci-Fi/Fantasy Writers,” host Beth Barany shares what values are most important to her, why that matters, how values can guide the choices we make, and about an upcoming creative business training. Beth also reveals how she found inspiration for her current work in progress, something about marinating.

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Transcript

196. Fun Values Check-In for Sci-Fi/Fantasy Writers

What Matters Most

BETH BARANY: What is truly important to you? Really. What is like the most important thing in your life? Whatever your answer is, I'm a yes. Yes! What you value as important, those are your values. Now we can talk about non-tangible things and tangible things. So today I'm gonna talk to you about what are your values and why this is an important discussion.

[00:25] Meet Beth Barany

Hi everyone. I'm Beth Barany. I run How to Write the Future Podcast and a YouTube channel for creative writers and creative entrepreneurs. I care very much about your success and I really believe that our future is in our hands and as creatives, we have some incredible skill sets we get to bring to that.

Not only, can you write a story, but you could also write your own future as a creative entrepreneur.

So that's what I'm talking about today. Today I wanna talk about values and I also will share with you about a creative entrepreneur training that we're running, pretty soon.

Alright. Values. I asked at the top what is truly important to you, and I'm really curious. Please, if you're listening to this on YouTube or you feel called, write me, DM me. I wanna know what do you actually value in your life. 

[01:15] Relationships As A Value

So the first thing that pops up to me when I say this is my relationships. I was gonna say my love connection. 

Yeah. The people I love. My husband, my cats, my friends, my family. I thought, oh, you know, life is so much better when I get to spend it with the people that I care about.

So I have really made a point in my my creative writing, business, and my creative entrepreneur business as a, as a book coach,and an editor and a trainer to work with people that I really think are awesome, awesome people. Yeah. Life is too short to be spending time with people that I don't have much in common with. I'm like, lukewarm. I wouldn't wanna be spending time with them. I wouldn't wanna hang out and have coffee with them. So that's a really high value for me.

[01:58] Play And Joy

Another high value for me is having fun. Let's play. Let's experiment. Let's try this. Let's try that. That's not to say I don't get stuck. Oh boy. I get stuck. I get stuck a lot, and that's maybe why I've really leaned into playfulness, because when we start playing with things, then I get unstuck. I'm like, oh, I hadn't thought of that.

So that is a really high value for me. Play. And all the forms of that. Play involves joy. Play involves experimentation. Play involves taking little risks.

[02:28] Why Values Guide Choices

Okay, so values. why is this important? I, I read some article on LinkedIn how most people, or a lot of people don't do values explorations, couldn't tell you if you ask them what do they value? ' cause they've never really thought about it. Okay, well, I invite you to think about it, and I think it's so important because it allows us to make decisions.

Very important as a creative writer. As a creative entrepreneur. No matter what you're doing in life, when you know what is important to you, that helps you say yes or say no to things.

That comes up to me as like the biggest thing, right? It helps you choose, but it also, so here's another reason why knowing your values is important, is it helps you commit.

[03:08] Persistence Through Roadblocks

So I have been stuck many times in my creative writing process. I'm working on a, my fifth sci-fi mystery, in my Janey McCallister series, and I've been stuck for a little while. And instead of giving up. I just give myself a break because it is really important to me, and I know, because I've written lots of novels, that when I hit this kind of roadblock in my creative writing in the story, um, and I'm in editing mode, that there's an element missing that I don't yet have.

There's like a piece of the puzzle I don't yet have. So I have learned to put the story on the back burner and let it like marinate. I stir it a little, right? I love cooking metaphors. And I have been thinking about it and I have been thinking about some of the suggestions my critique partners gave me about the rewrites, yet again, for chapter one.

And I am committed to getting the story done because I'm committed to the story. I'm committed to why I am writing these books and my value of sticktoitiveness. So that's another one of my values. I know it's a silly word, sticktoitiveness. I love this word. Another word is persistence. That's the same thing.

I love writing fiction, and the dream has not gone away. And I've had the dream of being a novelist since I was 18, 19 years old. And when I think back to all the time, the near decade, over a decade, I spent wishing and wanting to be a novelist. And then when I finally started, like the joy I get from the fact that I really started on my dream, and then also the fact that I've continued and that I've handled step by step, every one of the roadblocks I've hit, like now I'm an experienced writer, but I still hit roadblocks, and that's okay. I know there's some ingredients missing, so because of my value of persistence and my love of the work and my love of storytelling and my track record too, and loved ones reminding me that, uh, I hit these roadblocks on occasion, I, I'm gonna stick with it.

So when you know your values, you can stick with your commitments, even if you are gonna hit ups and downs, and you know what, you're gonna hit ups and downs. That's the nature of life. As day turns into night and night turns into day, we're gonna have ups, and we're gonna have downs.

[05:15] Share Your Values

So share with me what your values are, and I would love to hear. Post in the comments if you're watching on YouTube. DM me on the socials. I'm all over the place. Write me through my website and on how to write the future.com. You can hit contact me, you can just leave me a note. You can also leave me a voicemail. I love those and thanks to those of you who've left me those. That's so awesome. 

[05:37] Creative Entrepreneur Paths

Alright, so why am I telling you all of this? It's because I'm passionate about helping creative writers who wanna start their own businesses, serving other writers. Maybe you wanna be an editor, or a coach or a virtual assistant with social media, or an organizational virtual assistant. Or maybe you wanna help with book production, getting people's books up on Kindle and Apple. Or maybe you wanna help writers set up their own stores. That would be a really awesome niche to be in. I would like to talk to you if you're interested in that, 'cause I need some help with that.

Book design, copy editing, proofreading, line editing, developmental editing, coaching mindset, coaching, book coaching around the process of writing. 

There's a lot of jobs out there for us creative writers who wanna serve other creative writers, and there's more. Creating products, creating books, workbooks, trainings, coaching masterminds like I do.

In-depth one-on-one, deep work. I do a combination of mindset coaching and developmental edit and story coaching. I got a lot of skills. 

[06:37] Niche Bootcamp Invitation

So if you are interested in starting your own creative entrepreneur business, or you've already started, but you want some more support, come join our Find Your Creative Entrepreneur Niche Bootcamp.

That's gonna be in the middle of March, March 20th to 24th. The link to register is in the show notes. And, uh, we'd love to have you there. It is a paid event because it is a training. We're giving you training so that you can have clarity, so you can really assess your strengths, so that you can get support. And so you can walk away with a statement on what is your niche. 

We really care about both the inner work that you're gonna do. And the tangibles that you're gonna walk away with. We have worksheets, we have live support for you during the event, and we have the opportunity for you to optionally upgrade to a VIP mini mastermind that we're gonna run on the very last day of the bootcamp. So you can see the registration link in the show notes, and also.

[07:35] Take the Creative Business Style Quiz

Because you are unique, go ahead and take our quiz. We have a creative business style quiz for you, and that link is in the show notes as well. That will give you an idea of how you approach being a creative entrepreneur. 

[07:47] Wrap Up And Farewell

Alright everyone. That's it for this week. Write long and prosper.