Harness Summer Solstice Vibes & Find Your Voice
Collective effervescence. That’s what we New Yorkers are calling our good vibes, kicked off with the first Knicks NBA championship win since 1973. As a lifelong Knicks fan of many, many (17-ish to be exact) days, I was ecstatic to see them finally take it all for the first time in my life. The city streets are buzzing with excitement, and we all have a little bounce in our steps as we roll into Summer Solstice this year.
New York’s moods are always palpable, so the elevated one of late has inspired me to stay in this sparkly mindset as often as possible. I’m fiercely protecting my boundaries, planning only activities and projects that bring me joy and contribute to good health. I’ll travel a bit, and I’ve also blocked time on the calendar for spontaneity (ha!). Taking long walks with my dog, enjoying sand in my toes, and spending time with people who make me laugh until my cheeks hurt—this is how I’ll know it’s a summer well lived.
The warmest season is, after all, about expansion, a brighter version of ourselves, and new experiences. (And sunscreen—never forget sunscreen!) Perhaps most importantly, it’s about joy and creativity. When we acknowledge and listen to the creative nudge, we feel instantly lighter, more grounded in our sense of self, and focused on our life purpose—which is ultimately sharing a story or work only we can create.
In an era when a 5-minute scroll drains us, the pursuit of art is the ultimate act of inspiration and rejuvenation. Its accompanying self-expression is an act of resistance, a first-line defense against the attacks on freedom of expression. (I recently joined this; in case you’re seeking some way to engage, it’s a good cause.)
The Summer I Turned Creative
Because I’m a published author and editor, people sometimes assume I’ve always been in a creative field or that I’ve always aspired to write.
Nothing is further from the truth. I’ve been a voracious reader since childhood, yes. But I don’t recall ever considering writing my own books until about one day before I began writing my first. And even then, when I embraced the idea to write a book, it was definitely not romantic suspense. It was meant to be a book about yoga, wellness practices, and nutrition for modern women. No one was more surprised than me when I realized the muse had other plans for me.
It was the start of an idyllic summer, 2012, that innocent time we didn’t fully appreciate before the world was permanently and fundamentally altered. I was living in Southampton, and I had just left my corporate job two weeks earlier to try my hand at something more entrepreneurial—put my yoga and meditation teacher training and integrative nutrition certification to good use by building a wellness empire, the book a critical component of establishing my legitimacy as an expert.
I rented a house by myself, and my friends visited on the weekends. Meaning I had weekdays free to write. At the beach. With no distractions. An aspiring author’s dream. My heart and mind were open to possibility because summer has that effect. I’ve never not finished something I started, so I thought writing the nonfiction book proposal would go off as my thesis and final papers had in grad and law school—boring process but ultimately not difficult.
Alas, the muse had other plans. There would be no wellness empire, at least not then. There would only be insurmountable resistance in my path to steer me away from nonfiction and toward Celeste’s story. (Ignoring the muse is not pleasant. If you know, you know.)
The story was there, the characters with me on my days as I strolled along Main Street in Southampton or ventured beyond to the latest hot spot in East or Montauk. I thought about how Celeste would feel, act, and live before she even had a name. I had a double life: with her and her friends by day and with Manhattanites flocking to visit by night.
I was still trying to force the yoga book, though. I resisted the story that consumed my days. Hard. I had no business as a novelist, no formal training, my (annoying) negative little inner critic reminded me. I certainly didn’t feel a thriller series was the vibe. Maybe a cute Devil Wears Prada-type was more up my alley. Yes, leave that dark, twisty story brewing inside me and focus on a lighthearted rom-com.
Done, the decision was made. (Eye roll to the part of me that believes I control the universe when I only control my tiny contributions.)
Statistically speaking, most authors write a few novels before publishing their debut. They play around with tropes and categories, writing styles and craft. Not me. There was no playtime luxury. I had absolute writer’s block on the yoga manuscript, couldn’t even get a sentence out for the rom-com. When I finally embraced Celeste’s story (as if I had a choice in the matter), the words flowed more freely than anything else I’d tried. I couldn’t type fast enough to keep up with the ideas—and I can usually type at the speed of thought.
Like it or not, I would be writing romantic suspense—and specifically, the story in my debut novel, Trading Secrets, the first in what has become the Celeste Donovan series.
There are at least two larger lessons here: forcing it—whatever it is—almost never works out for the better; and ease is indicative of alignment.
The Hard Thing Usually Isn’t the Right Thing
As humans, we confuse the right thing with the painful thing we have to force. The more difficult or demoralizing or uncomfortable, the more we think it’s a struggle we must overcome, our just deserts, or our cross to bear. We repeat affirmations or prayers that the universe or goddess or whoever wouldn’t send us more than we could handle.
Life has proven to me time and time again that this is not the case. To be clear, there are no substitutes for hard work and taking advantage of opportunity. Yet that’s wholly different than sacrificing yourself for a path that isn’t yours.
Ease Reveals Alignment With Your Purpose and Path
The other pill I had to swallow, which should’ve been a positive but the idea that life is synonymous with struggle was deeply held, is that some sense of ease comes when you’re in alignment with your path. I’ve always felt that when I am on the right path—and entirely the opposite when I am forcing things or people not meant for me. The same goes for writing—I’ve never struggled with a lack of story clarity or writer’s block the way other authors joke they do when I’m writing the Celeste novels. I’m in the flow when I am in the Word documents that become her next iteration, and without knowing what would come of it, I learned early on to trust that part of myself, that deeper knowing.
I owe the lessons I learned from that summer’s experience to much of my life today. Those tiny decisions I made (though they never felt voluntary) to write a word after a word after a word created paragraphs and chapters and books and companies and an editorial program to bring other authors’ stories to life.
What a gift life handed me then. Don’t miss your calling by forcing a life that isn’t meant to be yours.
Drumroll… The Life Purpose Reveal
In my day job working with authors (including myself), I ask them to focus on their voice and vision. What is that story only they can tell? The one they carry throughout their days as I do with Celeste’s? That’s what they should write. Before the conversations about what turns agents on or what editors want to acquire or what the market is clamoring for in that moment (it’s all fleeting). Before the research on tropes and Scrivener and outlines. Their unique perspective. Because that’s the good stuff. That’s where the authenticity lies. That’s the one that’s going to keep readers enthralled well after bedtime, scrambling to read just one more page.
Trading Secrets was that story for me, what I was meant to write. The one only I could tell. The one the muse pushed me into (kicking and screaming). And because I relaxed into the whimsy of that summer, allowed myself to finally consider myself a creative, and kept coming back to the page when called to, the next and then the next and then the next steps revealed themselves.
Beyond all imagination, I stumbled upon life as a storyteller, committed to amplifying the lived experiences of women through all different mediums—books, digital content, and beyond—while helping other creatives protect—and extract as much value as possible from—their intellectual property that drove them to share theirs.
Why Summer is the Perfect Season to Plan Your Creative Year
I didn’t understand how the eternally gray purgatory of the Northeast winter and specifically January through March of this year impacted me until we had a warm day in April. (We go through many false starts to warm weather out here, but suffice it to say that some form of summer has finally landed as I write.) I’ve been feeling on the up-and-up since that first peek into warm weather. I was writing a little this winter, but without my usual fervor. The expansiveness of summer couldn’t have arrived soon enough to pull me out of the winter stagnation.
I now have my writing plan in place for the next few months, and I feel relief.
If your story is calling, if you know it’s time to begin, here are a few simple steps to stay on track and potentially have a manuscript or book proposal before the end of the year:
Refine Your Voice and Vision. Spend time on what I’ve deemed the 3 Ws. Identify your WHY (why you’re embarking on this journey in the first place), your WHAT (what you’re actually writing about, how it is uniquely your story, layers peeled back to your core authentic voice), and your WHO (who you are writing for and who you need to become to do so).
Commit to Yourself and the People Waiting for Your Story. Block creative time and honor it as you would a work or family commitment. You’re doing this for your past and present selves, who have carried the burden of this story for a while, your future self as storyteller, and your readers who are waiting to hear from you.
Ask for Help. It took me too long to realize help was available beyond the crappy (it’s the only way to describe them) writing courses I kept investing in as though this one would be different. Find a developmental editor committed to encouraging you, lifting you up, and helping you refine your voice and vision. You’ll know if it’s the right fit based on whether you feel nurtured, motivated to write, and like they are deriving the best work out of you. If it’s not a good fit, find someone else. They should be your partner and should provide you with specific, actionable feedback that feels empowering, not discouraging. (As with anything, there are good and bad editors.)
Final Takeway: Enjoy!
I won’t pretend the world isn’t without chaos, and the realism can deflate the collective effervescence. It’s up to us to unencumber our voice, share our stories, and find ways to enjoy the whimsy and expansiveness of summer. I for one am going to ride the revived energy!
xx, Rachael
Rachael Eckles is the founder of Aphrodite Media, Inc. and runs the Aphrodite Author Program. It has been the great privilege of her life to share her novels with her readers and to work with other authors to get their stories to the people waiting for their stories. She believes New York is the center of the universe, that few things in life are more enjoyable than Champagne, a burger, and high-vibe, sparkly conversation with friends who make her laugh until her cheeks hurt, and that improving health span (don’t worry—Champagne and burgers, combined with laughter, are soul food) makes life unequivocally better.
*Collective effervescence: a term coined by sociologist Émile Durkheim to mean the heightened sense of energy, unity, and shared identity people feel when participating in a large group event. In the context of New York vibes, the large event is life in the city.
