Episode 316 - Taking a Break for a Creative Refresh with Matty Dalrymple
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Matty Dalrymple discusses TAKING A BREAK FOR A CREATIVE REFRESH, including how intentional downtime can boost author productivity, help you refocus on your priorities, and give you space to plan your writing and publishing goals; why a December reset can support long-term creative sustainability; how to balance the business of being an indie author with your creative work; and practical strategies you can use to start the new year with greater clarity, energy, and momentum.
Matty Dalrymple is the author of the Lizzy Ballard Thrillers, beginning with ROCK PAPER SCISSORS; the Ann Kinnear Suspense Novels, beginning with THE SENSE OF DEATH; and the Ann Kinnear Suspense Shorts. She is a member of International Thriller Writers and Sisters in Crime. Matty also writes, speaks, and consults on the writing craft and the publishing voyage, and shares what she’s learned on THE INDY AUTHOR PODCAST. She has written books on the business of short fiction and podcasting for authors; her articles have appeared in "Writer’s Digest" magazine. She serves as the Campaigns Manager for the Alliance of Independent Authors.
Episode Links
https://www.theindyauthor.com/
https://www.mattydalrymple.com/
https://www.facebook.com/TheIndyAuthor/
https://www.facebook.com/matty.dalrymple/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/matty-dalrymple/
Transcript
Hello, and welcome to The Indy Author Podcast! Today my guest is ... me! : )
This is going to be a pretty short episode because, as you know if you’ve listened to the intros of previous episodes or have been reading my weekly email newsletter, I decided to take (most of) December off.
For a while, I’ve been considering options for reducing the time I spend on the podcast, including taking one week a month off, which felt awkward, or putting out a new episode every 10 days rather than seven, which felt like it would be confusing for listeners (not to mention for me). But then I was having a post-interview chat with Polly Campbell, who was my guest for Episode 315 Reigniting Your Creativity with Writing Contests, and who is also the host of the Simply Write with Polly Campbell podcast—I joined her on her podcast in November to talk about Creative Control for Indie Authors—and she mentioned that she was going to be taking a month off, and I thought, What a good idea.
I hope I don’t jinx myself by saying this, but one my primary goals for taking a break is to give myself some time to focus on fiction. Between my nonfiction work, both books and articles; speaking engagements; my work for the Alliance of Independent Authors, and consulting, fiction is the thing that keeps getting pushed to the back burner. I’ve been so close to finishing Book 6 of the Lizzy Ballard Thrillers for so long, and I hope if I have some concentrated writing time, I’ll be able to wrap that up. I also have two nearly ready standalones, and I’d love to get those into readers’ hands next year. Not to mention Book 7 of the Ann Kinnear series, which I have a high-level outline for.
At least I finally got the last stories I needed for my long-planned Ann Kinnear Suspense Short Collection, “A Year of Kinnear”! I realized how long that has been in the works when Mark Lefebvre and I were working on the 2nd Edition of “Taking the Short Tack,” the first edition of which first came out in 2020 and contained a reference to a planned collection, and Mark said, “Well, surely you’ve published that by now ... right?” Which was enough to light a fire under me and get me to write three stories in three months: the October story “More Than a Jest,” the November story “Ever Thanks,” and the December story “Wondering Eyes,” all of which are available over at Curios.com. (In fact, I’m considering taking the shorts down from all the other retailers so that they are only available on Curios, where I get 100% of the list price, versus as little as a third of the list price on other some sites, like Amazon.) So assembling the collection is going to be another thing I’ll work on during my break.
I’m also hard at work on putting a plan together for a new consulting offering, so I’ll be sharing more about that in upcoming episodes.
In preparation for that, I’m once again vowing to spend more time on LinkedIn. I realized that it’s not fair to pop onto LinkedIn, scroll through a few posts, and decide it’s not worth my time. No social media platform is worth a writer’s time if they don’t curate the feed! So I’m liking and, more importantly, commenting on the posts that are tied to my goals for the platform—to connect with fellow professionals in the writing and publishing space. And, just as a side note ... if you’re on LinkedIn and your profile picture is more than ten years old, it’s time to update it! In fact, if your profile picture is more than three years old, I’d say it’s time to updated it, but LinkedIn is far and away the worst platform for displaying ridiculously old profile pictures!
I’m probably not going to get through all that work in one month just with the time I save from podcast production, but I hope that I’ll at least have the time to regroup, start that work, and have a plan in place going into 2026 for how I will make more time for my fiction.
Another change I’m going to experiment with is ads. I have been resisting including ads in the podcast for years, but I finally decided I need to give it a try, in part because I started thinking about my own podcast listening experience, and I realize that almost all the podcasts I listen to include ads, and even thought I don’t love them, I don’t find them particularly distracting, and finding ways to make the podcast more of an income-earner helps me justify the time I spend on it. I’m going to experiment with just one ad at the beginning of the episode and one at the end, so I’m hoping that won’t be too disruptive.
So ... why pick December to take off?
One reason is that I really needed a break, and December was coming up!
Another is that podcast listening generally takes a dip in December anyway, with a lot of us distracted by holiday events and family get-togethers and other year-end celebrations.
If I was planning further ahead, and if I was planning on taking a month off based solely on my own schedule, I probably wouldn’t pick December ... maybe September, when Wade and I spend 2 weeks on Mount Desert Island Maine. But September feels like a time when writers are gearing up—maybe for going back to school, or getting kids ready to go back to school, or getting ready to dive into that fourth quarter crunch to meet the year’s goal—and I didn’t want to skip the podcast during that time when you might be especially relying on my guests’ expertise.
I might have picked November, when, for the last several years, I’ve been in Las Vegas for a week for Author Nation (and then spending a week recovering).
Speaking of Author Nation ...
... I wanted to take a moment to thank all the folks who took a minute to let me know that you value The Indy Author Podcast. Podcasters can check stats that suggest how many people are downloading the episodes, but there’s really nothing like hearing it from an actual listener, so thank you.
While I was in Vegas, I got to catch up not only with podcast listeners but also with past guests of The Indy Author Podcast and the Self-Publishing with ALLi podcast! That included ...
Alexa Bigwarfe
Becca Syme
Chelle Honiker
Cindy Gunderson
Dale L. Roberts (I can’t believe that was the first time I had met up with Dale in person)
Damon Courtney
Dan Wood
David Viergutz
Douglas Pratt
Evan Gow
Greg Keogh
Jami Albright
Jessie Kwak
Jim Azevedo
Joanna Penn
Joe Solari
Johnny B. Truant
JP Rindfleisch IX
Karen Inglis
Kerrie Flanagan
Kevin Tumlinson
Kristen Tate
(I’m almost through the list)
Mark Leslie Lefebvre
Michael Evans
Orna Ross
Phil Marshall
Ricardo Fayet
Roland Denzel
Sacha Black
Sara Rosett
Troy Lambert
And, last but not least, Wade Walton, who is not only my husband but was also brave enough to be my guest on Episode 2 to discuss Creativity Tips.
I had a goal of taking a selfie with every past guest who was at the conference (actually, I’m terrible at selfies, so it was usually the other person who took the picture)—and I’m *still* posting those on The Indy Author Facebook page with links to that guest’s episodes. And when I look at that photo album, I am so thrilled to have had a chance to talk with all those knowledgeable and generous experts.
I also realized that I had become aware of most of those people by hearing them speak on other podcasts or at author events, or had them recommended by other guests, and that that is really been the best way to find the guests who will be the best match for this how. I fortunately have had only a very few guests that afterwords I felt were not a great match, and most of those were ones I accepted from a cold call pitch or from a pitch from a PR firm. So at least through 2026, I’m going to focus on inviting back past guests back who I feel have brought especially fantastic value to you, or who I know brought fantastic value because I’ve heard that from you through your comments on the episode. If there is a past guest that you would especially like to have back, please drop me a note at matty@mattydalrymple.com to let me know.
A lesson I was reminded of I was prepping the script for this episode is the power of writing things down. I wrote the original version of the script weeks ago, but I found myself returning to it frequently to modify it in response to changes in my plans, and I don’t think I would have thought those plans through in quite so much detail if I hadn’t been writing them down. Plus, I’m sharing them with all of you, so that provides accountability!
Be sure to take advantage of this dynamic yourself. In the couple of hours when you would otherwise be listing to episodes of the podcast in December, set up some time—in-person or virtually—to get together with a writer friend and talk through your plans for the coming year ... or quarter or month or even week, whatever timeframe makes sense for you. Having the time to do that as the year is coming to a close is a gift.
So I kind of like the idea of having this end-of-year regrouping period for myself and for you—I might make the December break a regular part of the podcast schedule.
But I also wanted to remind you that my holiday break doesn’t mean a lack of insights from the expert guests of The Indy Author Podcast—you now have 315 backlist episodes to relisten to, most of whose content is just as valid today as it was when my guests and I first chatted!
For example, if you’re looking for an overview of indie publishing, please check out the series of interviews I did with Orna Ross of the Alliance of Independent Authors on The Seven Processes of publishing—conveniently enough, those were episodes 101-107.
And in December, you can also check out me and other ALLi Team Members hosting episodes of the Self-Publishing with ALLi Podcast. In fact, the November 30 episode is me talking with ALLi Awards and Story Marketing Advisor Hannah Jacobson about how indie authors can find and make the most of book awards. Just search for self publishing with alli podcast—and that’s ALLi with an I—to find that and many more episodes.
And back to The Indy Author Podcast ... if you’re a writer (or reader) of crime fiction, check out my unofficial mini-series “Mistakes Crime Writers Make ... and How to Avoid Them,” which includes episodes on police procedure, firearms, forensic psychology, forensic psychiatry, working K-9s, bladed weapons, coroners, first responders, the FBI, and PIs. You’ll find a run-down of those at TheIndyAuthor.com/Podcast.
If you go to my YouTube channel, you’ll also find playlists that can serve as mini (and sometimes not so mini) courses on ...
Author Career Development and Branding
Succeeding as an Author Speaker
Short Fiction
Podcasting for Authors
My Tools Cruise series, with demos of tools and apps to support your writing and publishing work
My What I Learned video series, where I ask authors two questions related to their latest book: What did they learn from that book that they would like to share with their fellow writers, and what did they learn that they would like to share with their fellow readers.
So this month’s recommended resource is The Indy Author, and all the resources available not only on the podcast and on YouTube, but also on my website, which Writer’s Digest has named one of the 101 Best Websites for Writers four years in a row.
And one final note: In January, the price of my consulting services will be going up. Chart Your Course, which is a tailored consulting service designed to help authors gain clarity on your creative and business goals and to craft strategic and tactical plans to reach your desired destination as an author, will be going up from $175 for the first one-hour session and $125 for each subsequent one-hour session to $195 for the first session and $145 for each subsequent session. BUT if you book your first session before December 31, 2025, you’ll lock in the 2025 price not only for the first session but for any subsequent sessions. (And you just have to book the session before December 31—the session itself can take place after January 1 if that works better for you.)
Similarly, the price for my Pod Pro Author Coaching service, which prepares you for successful podcast guest appearances, will go up from $125 to $145, but here, too, you’ll enjoy the 2025 rate if you book before December 31, even if the session happens after that.
And if you’d like to send me a holiday present, please take a moment to leave a rating and review on your favorite podcast platform to help other writers who are looking for support with their writing craft and publishing voyage find it—or consider buying me, let’s say, a mulled cider via Buy Me a Coffee! You’ll find a link at the bottom of any page at TheIndyAuthor.com.
When the podcast resumes on January 6, 2026, I’ll be speaking with Laura Goode about THE IMPORTANCE OF SELF-ADVOCACY, and that’s an episode you won’t want to miss. Laura is a writer with an MFA from Columbia University, a poet, a film producer, a writer of nonfiction that has appeared in BuzzFeed, New Republic, New York Magazine, and elsewhere, and she teaches at Stanford University, where she was honored with the 2025 Walter J. Gores Award, Stanford's highest award for excellence in teaching. She was recommended to me as a guest by the wonderful Jeff Elkins, the Dialogue Doctor, and his recommendations are always top-notch. I’m looking forward to relistening to that conversation, and I know you’ll enjoy it as well.
If you’d like to revisit any of the information I’ve shared in this episode, a full transcript—not just a summary—is available at theindyauthor.com.
Until next time, here’s wishing you a wonderful holiday season, and I look forward to being back with you in January!