In part two of my interview with Jenna Blum, the New York Times and internationally bestselling author of five books, including “Those Who Save Us” and “The Lost Family,” and “Murder Your Darlings” which is a psychological thriller and a peek inside the writing life.
In today's interview, we're diving into what I call inner stuff, the squishier side of writing, dealing with resistance, doubts, the passage of time, unhelpful beliefs, all that fun stuff. We're going to dive into it.
We covered:
- Working to get back to the joy and self-importance of writing she felt as a kid
- The part of writing she despises (that most writers claim to love)
- The part she’d do with glee even if a lawnmower ran over her foot
- How she talks herself out of feeling like she’s wasted time if she doesn’t end up liking what she wrote
- Trusting your inner encouragements even if your critical mind doesn’t quite believe them
- Why hitting her mid-fifties has prompted her to change genres (from historical fiction to psychological thrillers)
- How she’s had to face the fact that writing is hard on the body–and what she’s doing to take care of herself
- The question she asks herself when she’s figuring out which invitations she’ll say yes to and which she’ll decline
- How she’s racked up a four-year daily meditating streak
- All the things she’s doing to take care of herself as a woman in midlife with a sedentary career
Visit Jenna at JennaBlum.com, Substack (Writer Girl in the World), Facebook (Jenna Blum author), or Instagram (Jenna_Blum).
For full show notes with links to everything we discuss, plus bonus photos!, visit katehanley.substack.com.
Thank you for listening!

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[Jenna Blum, inner stuff]: Getting over the fear that you’re wasting time Ep 1261