"How Do You Know When Your Story Is “Finished?” Ask Me Anything with Lisa Cooper Ellison

Writing Your Resilience: Building Resilience, Embracing Trauma and Healing Through Writing

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Welcome to the last episode of Season 2! This second season has been amazing, and I am so grateful for all of the featured guests and all of you listeners. Just as I did last season, I decided to sit behind the microphone and open myself up to answering questions.

In this episode, you’ll meet Katie Rouse, a poet, memoirist, and former student in my Camp Structure course. During this episode, we explore the signals that your story is “finished” and ready to marinate. As you listen to our interview, here are some questions to consider: How do you know it's time to let a manuscript rest? Do you resist doing it? What fears do you face? What have you done to cope with them? If you've let your manuscript rest, what tells you it's time to pick it back up?

Katie’s Bio: Katie Rouse is a marketing manager, poet, and freelance writer who writes about faith, doubt, and deconstruction. She loves sending out weekly poems to email subscribers, as well as longer monthly letters. Her work has been published in Missive Mag, hyssop + laurel, and The Unmooring. She published her first book of poetry, Psalms of Deconstruction, in Fall 2021, and is working on her first memoir, which will recount her journey of deconstructing her faith while serving as a missionary in India.

Resources Mentioned During This Episode

Katie’s Poem “Psalm 9” from The Unmooring (See page 38)

Episode Highlights

1:15 Finding the “Good Enough” Completion Point

4:55 Completing Your Work

6:15 The Three Types of Rest

10:15 Signals It’s Time to Return to Your Work

12:36 Common Fears Writers Have Around Rest

Connect with Katie

Website: https://bit.ly/katierousewrites

Newsletter: https://bit.ly/katierousewrites_subscribe

Instagram: @katie.rose.rouse

Connect with your host, Lisa:
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Sign up for Camp Structure: 14 Weeks to Find and Refine Your Memoir’s Narrative Arc: https://lisacooperellison.com/camp-structure-find-your-memoirs-narrative-arc/

Produced by Espresso Podcast Production

Chapters

1. "How Do You Know When Your Story Is “Finished?” Ask Me Anything with Lisa Cooper Ellison (00:00:00)

2. Finding the “Good Enough” Completion Point (00:01:15)

3. Completing Your Work (00:04:55)

4. The Three Types of Rest (00:06:15)

5. Signals It’s Time to Return to Your Work (00:10:15)

6. Common Fears Writers Have Around Rest (00:12:36)