You Need to Expand Your Social Circles and Get Accountable

by James L. Rubart, @jameslrubart

In May I bought a new mountain bike. The old one (an ancient Schwinn that wasn’t so grand to start with) finally breathed its last so it was time to step up to a model that could handle the off-road trails near my home. 

I told a friend I was riding again and he asked if I wanted a road bike he wasn’t using. “What do you want for it?”

“It’s free.”

“Really? What’s the catch?” 

“You have to ride the STP with me in July of ’23.” (The STP is the 200 mile Seattle to Portland bike race.)

“Okay … I think I can do that.” (I rode the STP way back in 1993 and knew what it entailed. Yes, it would be work, but I figured I had a year to get in shape.)

“But we have to do it in one day.”

“What?”

“Yeah.” Jeff smiled. 

I thought about it for a few seconds, then said, “I’m in.” (I should have thought about that decision a LOT longer.)

Two hundred miles in one day. Quick math says if you want to cover that much ground in 12 hours, you need to average a little over 17 mph (allowing for one 30 minute break). 

This would take some serious work.

So I’ve started putting in the miles. 

And two weeks ago I made a smart decision in search of getting in serious shape; I joined a bike club. There are a couple reasons it’s turned out to be a really good move:

  1. I’ve already gotten three solid story ideas from being around a completely different set of folks and by delving into a world (biking) l know little about.
  2. Riding with a group is helping me get better faster. I’m naturally a competitive person so when one of the group shoots off ahead of us, I push myself to see if I can keep up. Plus they inspire me. 

You probably already see how you can apply this to your writing: 

Join a new social group. Yeah, not the easiest for introverts, which many of us are, but the benefits are worth it. New insights. New ideas. New characters for your novels. New ways of looking at the world all contribute to better stories.

Get accountable. I’m not talking critique partners. I’m talking about accountability partners. (They might be the same people who are your critique partners.) Set goals for each other. Put some pain behind it like giving them Amazon gift cards if you don’t hit your goals. I did this early in my career and it works! 

Gotta go, time to meet my new friends, crank out another 20 miles, and figure out how I’m going to work an ex-chess champion turned water ski instructor turned Iron Man competitor into my next novel. 


The Pages of Her Life

How Do You Stand Up for Yourself When It Means Losing Everything? Allison Moore is making it. Barely. The Seattle architecture firm she started with her best friend is struggling, but at least they’re free from the games played by the corporate world. She’s gotten over her divorce. And while her dad’s recent passing is tough, their relationship had never been easy.

Then the bomb drops. Her dad was living a secret life and left her mom in massive debt.

As Allison scrambles to help her mom find a way out, she’s given a journal, anonymously, during a visit to her favorite coffee shop. The pressure to rescue her mom mounts, and Allison pours her fears and heartache into the journal.

But then the unexplainable happens. The words in the journal, her words, begin to disappear. And new ones fill the empty spaces—words that force her to look at everything she knows about herself in a new light.

Ignoring those words could cost her everything . . . but so could embracing them.

James L. Rubart is 28 years old, but lives trapped inside an older man’s body. He thinks he’s still young enough to water ski like a madman and dirt bike with his two grown sons. He’s the best-selling, Christy BOOK of the YEAR, CAROL, INSPY, and RT Book Reviews award winning author of ten novels and loves to send readers on journeys they’ll remember months after they finish one of his stories. He’s also a branding expert, audiobook narrator, co-host of the Novel Marketing podcast, and co-founder with his son, Taylor, of the Rubart Writing Academy. He lives with his amazing wife on a small lake in Washington state.

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