Month: September 2026

How to tell the truth without turning it into a rant

~ Dian Burns ~ Leave a comment

I’m someone who bottles things up till they a reach a limit and then often explode because I’ve waited too long. Call it middle-child conditioning, say its because I used to have red hair, blame my people pleasing nature, or the fact that I’m a Taurus with a Scorpio moon whatever you like, it’s just me. And this has often been a struggle for me in writing because I tend to rant first, POST, then overthink later.

I’m not saying I regret or don’t regret some of what I wrote, but if my goal is to become a better writer part of that training is learning that I can’t restrict how I truly feel about things. I also have to learn the fact that every idea doesn’t have to be shared/posted. If I aspire to be more clear in my communications then I have to remember that I am responsible for honing that message in a way that makes the reader feel respected but also as if I’m not attacking them directly.

Anger can tell you what matters, but revision helps you say it well.

If I’ve done my job and said what I meant and someone still disagrees, I can live with that. I can apologize if I’ve caused real harm. I can take the time to clarify what I meant and still stand by a belief I’ve thought through. That’s the difference I’m trying to learn: when to revise my words and when to trust them. People won’t always agree with what I say, even when I’ve chosen my words carefully. This country was founded on dissention and those who took risks with their words, but it continued because of the grace we used to allow each other when someone had an idea different than your own.

I’m learning to take aim before I fire, and in doing that I’m still not throwing away my shot.

Building a creative life around a full-time job

~ Dian Burns ~ Leave a comment

How do you build a creative life while working a full time job? Or as a caregiver? Or with your own physical illness or limitations, you ask? You don’t. Thanks for coming to my Dian-talk. (trademark pending).

Just a little joke there. Every artist faces this question as some point in their journey. I’ve gone through it myself and haven’t ever foreseen a time when I won’t be asking the question, does this still work for me? I am a full-time employee, caregiver, and have a myriad of health issues I have to face daily. I often feel like I’m swimming against the cosmic current to get my writing time in. I’ve scoured Reddit threads, YouTube author channels, and various corners of the internet looking for guidance on how to get the most out of the time I have to write. I have also learned from creators who’ve gone before me. My two personal favorites are Toni Morrison and Flannery O’Connor, but I’ve listed a few other inspired and tired writers below who are worth learning from as well:

I once saw an interview where Ms. Morrison was telling a story of trying to work full-time, write and take care of one of her sons when he was sick. She talked about sitting up with him early one morning, holding him and trying to write. At some point in the process the sick child threw up all over her papers. The interviewer was shocked and asked, ‘what did you do?’ Ms. Morrison said, “I wrote around the part he threw up on; I worked in the space that was left.” The lesson? She worked with the space she was given.

Flannery O’Connor was a writer I had admired since college. She was diagnosed at 25 with Lupus at a time when little was known about it, other than having the disease would shorten one’s life. (Her father died early from the same condition.) She returned home to Georgia for her own health. She wrote many times about the condition but she never really complained about it. She began with a strict four-hour schedule after her diagnosis but bear the end of her life, she wrote: “I can write for one hour a day, and my, my, do I like my one hour. I eat it up like it was filet mignon.” The lesson? She wrote inside her limitations.

There are lots of stories like this from similar authors you may know.

  • Octavia E. Butler is noted for taking jobs that were undemanding, like dishwasher, potato chip inspector, or other temp jobs because it would allow her to preserve her mental energy for when she was ready to use it. She would write from 2am to 4am before heading to work. Lesson? She prioritized her creativity.
  • Alice Munro was another mom trying to find a way to write. She had 3 kids and couldn’t figure out how to write her novel, so she pivoted to short stories because they fit perfectly into nap times. She then went on to master short stories and won herself a Nobel prize. When asked how she did it, she said,” I wrote when I could.”
  • Anthony Trollope worked full-time for the British Postal Service for 30 years and wrote most of his work at the same time.  His method, keep it measurable. He aimed to write 250 words within 15 minutes. By writing 3 hours a day, starting at 5:30 am, he could roughly achieve 2,500 words a day. In his life he wrote 47 full novels, 42 short stories, 5 travel books, 2 plays and huge amounts of interviews, essays, biographies, and his own autobiography. Lesson? How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.
  • And I also like Ursula K Le Guin’s technique. Another mother (shout out to all mothers here) Ursula believed there was no perfect method or system that you needed to build. Her success was built simply by acknowledging the different seasons of life that she was in. The person you were at 25 is not the person you are at 58. It’s okay to reflect, restructure and rebuild as you go. Lesson? As you change so will your needs, so just work with what works for you when it’s working.

So, there you go, this is your creative vision and you get to build it any way you want. Do it around the kids, do it when you’re physically/energetically able to, do it before work, after work, on break. The only takeaway you need, just do it how it works best for you. And if it’s not working, just try something else. Never stop writing.

What Seven Years in a Library Taught Me About People

~ Dian Burns ~ Leave a comment

My previous job, before I returned to remote work, was as the public librarian in my hometown. It was, in truth, one of the top five best jobs I’ve ever had. I left because the position was only part-time and, after a serious health problem, I needed work that offered health insurance. It solved one practical problem. The rest is a story for another day.

But during my seven years of working there I got to know people and see how others experienced the library for themselves. Here’s what I came away with, in no particular order:
1- You can’t judge a reader by their cover. You would think you could come up with some excellent suggestions to offer folks by who you perceive them to be, but the truth is everyone likes something you’d never guess they would enjoy reading. so listen, and more importantly, put in the time to remember what each patron likes so you can help guide them along.
2- “It’s a great book. You should read it.” This was the number one phrase patrons would say to me each day. They loved telling me about their favorite author, book or series and became the greatest sales representative on why everyone should have read it, should be reading it now or in the future. With 200 people making daily suggestions I built up quite the TBR as you can imagine.
3- Let them read what they want. This one relates to my youngest readers. These patrons had a particular taste and some of them didn’t want to try new things, and that would, and did, turn into an argument with their parents. Then my motto became “let them read what they want to read.” Always remember you’re trying to encourage a love of reading, it doesn’t matter if it’s the same book over and over again. Read Dr Seuss every single week if you want to, it’s good stuff.
4- Who we serve. During my seven years at the library I watched as the kinds of patrons that we serve changed over time. This was back right after the 2008 economic crisis, but before Covid, where normally we would serve say the bottom 25% of residents already living with limited financial resources, that rapidly expanded to include others so about 40% of townsfolk were using the library for a variety of reasons every single week. The lesson I learned from this is to find out all the available services at every level of the library system from the city, county, district and state and then make those services available at the local level so everyone can enjoy their benefits without having to pay for them.
5- Why yes we have that book in stock, ssshhh! A lot of discretion has to take place for the librarian to be able to meet all the needs of the library patrons. Some books require a little more discretion when letting people know they’re available and checking them in and out. People don’t want to be embarrassed and don’t want you to know too much about their personal tastes so just be an adult, treat the patron and the book with respect, and don’t shout anything across the room.
6- Never and, and I mean NEVER, come between a grandmother and her grandchild. I watched another librarian learn this lesson the hard way. Now look, when you work with the public, and you especially with children, sometimes those children have rough days and they misbehave. We all know this happens; we are adults and should act appropriately. But when a grandmother is correcting their grandchild don’t. get. involved. You can try to offer support to parents, distract the child, offer them another book, tell them they can come back when the library is open; again, that’s all fine. But when it comes to grandmas and grandpas you do not help until it’s asked for.
7- Libraries are going through a difficult time, a lot of the time. When money is tight or the world seems to be changing too quickly, people develop strong feelings about what their communities still need. But libraries hold an important place in people’s lives—even for those who do not visit every day. You may remember your grandmother taking you to a summer reading program, bringing your own child to tummy time, or discovering a book that made you feel understood. Those experiences matter, and the libraries that provide them need our support.

There are many ways to help:
• Donate during Match Month or the holidays, when your contribution may stretch further.
• Volunteer your time at the library.
• Join or assist the Friends of the Library.
• Write to your representatives and ask them to support library funding.
• Talk with your city council members about what the library needs.

Not everyone can give money, and not everyone can give time. Offer what you can. Libraries remain strong when their communities make it clear that they are still needed—and still loved.

When I was a child we moved eight times before I was five years old (but that’s another story for another day.) The one thing my mother taught me as a child was that everywhere we moved to, no matter how scary, or how far from what we had known before, there would always be a church and a library where we were going. She said these are the only two places anyone can go that will welcome you, all the time, with no questions asked. And it was the first place she took us after we moved into our new homes and after getting registered at school. I have remembered that lesson my whole life. I’m extremely proud to say that I am (for the moment) a former librarian. Who knows what the future holds?

If you care about books, libraries, and the creative life they make possible, subscribe. I write about the people, places, and ideas that help us keep going.

Why Small Towns Make Such Good Mysteries

~ Dian Burns ~ Leave a comment

Have you ever been driving down the highway/interstate and at some point during the trip found yourself looking at small towns and wondering, “Who would live there?” or “I wonder what they do in a town that small?”

The author who is taking on the job of writing about small towns has quite a task in front of them. First, it’s the prejudice of the readers who have never been to a small town. They assume from a certain viewpoint that small towns are boring, with nothing to do, and don’t offer the excitement of living somewhere larger.

But don’t sell the small-town, or close-communities short, simply based on what you think they lack. The people who choose these places are often the main benefit to what makes the small-town experience worthwhile. The interconnected and immediate relationships with fellow town members can be a trove for storytelling. The family that had a kid break their arm? They sell baked goods at the weekend to help cover the bills. You can pick up a sweet treat and help them out. The couple who runs the grocery store? Well, he works 6 days a week and still finds time to help coach the football team on Fridays, she’s either helping in the concession stand or cheering on kids who aren’t hers from the bleachers. If you missed the game, just ask them about it while picking up your groceries this week. No there is no fast food, but there is also no better steak than at the local eatery. It’s been nationally recognized by the brave highway travelers who dared to pull off the road and take a chance somewhere they’d never been before.

There’s also a sense that everyone knows everyone, but at the same time not everyone knows everything. This allows space for tension to be built-in, in real life and writing as well. Without space, you are forced to deal with ex’s (and sometimes their ex’s), difficult neighbors, crossing paths daily with people you’d often like to avoid if possible. Also grudges and bad reputations never seem to die in a small town. They often get passed on for generations. Gossip is alive and well but often mutates as it gets passed, that’s ready-made drama right there. There are pre-built stages you can center on, like libraries, local diners, church meetings and the senior center where overheard conversations can be used to piece together clues in a mystery.

Anytime you write something with the word “cozy” in it (i.e.-cozy mystery, cozy romance, cozy fantasy) it’s that interconnectedness of the characters that defines the cozy feeling we are trying to create. The long traditions and living memories of how they started are passed from generation to generation. The concern for the neighbors is just as real as is their ongoing arguments about property lines.

My own small-town series (Hiawatha Falls Mysteries) is based on small towns where I grew up. The town’s name itself, Hiawatha Falls, is a combination of my Mom’s hometown (Hiawatha KS) and my Dad’s hometown (Falls City NE). The characters in my series have last names based on the founders of my hometown. This can really help a writer out when they are stuck on coming up with names/places.

Mark Twain once said human nature is best studied in a small village rather than a crowded city. What better setting is there for any writer who is trying to learn to shape fully developed characters, create drama, add tension and set a stage? Interconnected and immediate relationships really give a story a boost when needed. Small towns can make great fodder for stories and might just make you a better writer.