Meet Dianna Gunn

We recently connected with Dianna Gunn and have shared our conversation below.

Dianna, we are so happy that our community is going to have a chance to learn more about you, your story and hopefully even take in some of the lessons you’ve learned along the way. Let’s start with self-care – what do you do for self-care and has it had any impact on your effectiveness?
The biggest thing I do for self care is journaling. I actually have a three part journaling practice. The first part is freewriting, where I write about whatever I’ve done that day and what I’m feeling. I often use this space to write out my anxieties, getting them out of my head so they don’t keep me up at night. This allows me to get better rest, which is essential for getting my work done the next day.

The second part of my journaling practice is planning out my next day, week, and/or month. This helps me keep track of where I’m going and create new ideas for how to be successful in my business.

The third part of my journaling practice is affirmations. These are simple statements to remind myself that I am creative, that I deserve success, and that I create my own future. These statements bolster my confidence and help me build better beliefs about myself. I’ve found this technique so powerful that I even wrote a book about it!

And, when I’m not up for journaling, I cuddle my cats, which is always an important part of self care!

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
I’ve wanted to be an author since the moment I found out that being a writer could be a career, but I loved stories long before that. Stories provided a much-needed escape from the struggles of growing up in poverty. They often taught me things, too – I’ve learned so much about what it is to be a human from the stories I love.

My first fantasy horror novel, Moonshadow’s Guardian, is a story set in a world I’ve known for most of my life. My parents created it for a homebrew TTRPG, and I’ve built upon it to tell stories about badass women struggling with horrific pasts. I’ll be putting out a second novel, Moonshadow’s Champion, in this world, and I am so excited to wrap up the story of my main character, Riana – and to continue exploring Moonshadow through short stories and even other books in the future.

I’ve also written a lot of nonfiction, and just this year I released 151 Affirmations for Creative People, a short book and workbook combo rooted in my own journey with journaling and affirmations. I hope to eventually expand upon this with Self Care for Creative People, another book rooted in my own lived experience as someone who struggles with mental illness and the many demands of creative life.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
I think the biggest thing is stubbornness. I come from a long line of stubborn women, and like them, I refuse to give up even in the face of enormous challenges. And there are enormous challenges in attempting to forge a creative career, from the challenge of fitting a creative practice around my “day job” (I’m a freelance article writer by day) to the many challenges found within creative industries. If you’re going to make it, you have to be willing to face rejection, to survive pathetically low income for years or even decades, and to keep working on your craft even when it seems like there’s no hope whatsoever of success.

Unfortunately, I don’t know how you cultivate stubbornness. I’ve never had to think about it; it’s an intrinsic part of who I am. Although, as I’m thinking about it, one thing that might help is cultivating spite. Every time someone says you can’t do it or laughs at you for dreaming of a creative career, your thought should be “I’ll show them”, and you should double down to work harder than you ever have before.

Is there a particular challenge you are currently facing?
My biggest current challenge is living as a disabled person in capitalism. My health took a sharp turn in 2019, and while I’m much better than I am now, I don’t feel like I ever fully recovered. Where I used to be able to work an 8-10 hour day and still have energy for an hour or two of writing, I now struggle to get any writing done after a six hour work day.

Thankfully, I had already built a life as a freelance writer who makes my own hours. Having this job, and a relatively low rent, allows me to make space for my writing and other creative endeavors. Sometimes I do have to take on more work to deal with things like vet bills, but for the most part, I’m able to work 20-30 hours a week and make enough to live well – and this allows me the mental space I need to be creative.

I still wish I could do more, though. And to some extent, this is because I struggle to acknowledge my own accomplishments. This is why writing about what I’ve accomplished in a day is such an important part of my journaling process: because it shows me that I am doing great work, even if I’m not able to do as much of it as I want to.

Of course, I’m also working on making more income from my books so I can do less freelance work and focus on my books! They’re the work of my soul, and while I am grateful for my freelance work, it doesn’t fill me up in the same way. So I keep marketing my work, submitting stories to anthologies and other markets, and working for a future where all writers are paid better so I can be too.

Contact Info:

Image Credits
Sandy Kennedy – Author Photo Carmilla Mayes – Moonshadow’s Guardian cover Steven Savage – 151 Affirmations for Creative People cover

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