nobody is coming to save you, get up

and other ways I trick myself into writing my book

Mar 19, 2025

I have always loved an underdog. I’ve often felt like an underdog which is probably all the explanation you need as to why I like them. But either way, I’m able to identify the underdog in any situation and align myself with them immediately.

So when I say the Three of Swords is the underdog of the tarot deck, you understand what I mean, yes?

a Three of Swords tarot card: a red heart stabbed through with three crisscrossing swords, suspended in air in the middle of a rain storm.

The Three of Swords is often considered to be the “worst” card you can pull in a deck because it’s meant to signify heartbreak, pain, and despair. (What is more representative of that then being STABBED THROUGH THE HEART by not one, not two, but THREE swords?)

Obviously, for this reason, I love it.

I’ve had a hard time writing recently. And by recently I mean for about a year now.

Basically ever since The Friendship Study came out, writing has been a lot of WORK for me. It’s always work, but especially now. Which makes writing books as a career pretty hard. Somehow I got The Match Faker done while existing in this creative desert of my own making, I even wrote sample pages for a new book and used them to get a new agent! But then it came time to start writing Most Likely to Match and my brain was like, nah.

So, I tricked myself into writing this book and I’m going to tell you how in case any of these tricks might also help you!

1. Get inspired by random Pinterest quotes and also self-bullying

I never really liked Pinterest. There was something about the interface that didn’t work with me, there was so much happening at once. But self-publishing has required me to spend a lot of time on Pinterest to create moodboards for cover artists, find images for social media marketing (and get fun embroidery inspo but that’s another newsletter). Anyway, there I was the other day, scrolling Pinterest when I came across this:

Type written text: nobody is coming to say you, get up.

Immediately, I texted my friend L.L. Montez, who is my tarot mentor (unofficial title) and said, this made me think of the Three of Swords, to which she said YES (paraphrasing).

Anyway, I’ve been thinking about that card, and that quote a lot lately and while I don’t generally suggest people be mean to themselves to get shit done, in this case it really helped me.

Nobody is coming to save me. I write my books, no one else, no one else can. I try hard, I work hard. I’m scrappy. An underdog. Whether now or later, I have to be the one to write my books, if for no one else but me.

So get up. There are no helping hands. Write your fucking book, if only to prove to the faceless nameless (probably nonexistent) mob that you can.

2. It’s like a reward

A while ago I read Paused to Prolific by K. Webster, a guide to help authors write faster and stay focused. Webster provides a lot of helpful advice but the one I’m currently using to trick myself is where I set myself a weekly word count goal and if I reach that goal, I get to stop work on Most Likely to Match and instead work on my secret reward book instead.

It’s a secret so I shan’t be telling you anything about it other than it’s a fuckton of fun and maybe I’ll share it one day! But also maybe not! Maybe I’ll just keep it for myself. idk idk idk.

3. Sex mapping

The way I write now is so different from the way I used to write. In the past, before I was a published, inspiration came in the form of sex scenes. The first introduction I’d get to my characters was how they decided to touch butts. The story would grow from there, by asking myself how did they get here? Where will they go? What else are they gonna do to each other’s bodies?????

Publishing has taught me many skills, one of the most important ones is the ability to plot, to plan, to ask different questions like what do my characters want, need, and why can’t they have it. The sex, while still fun, didn’t get prioritized as much, especially when I’d have to sell a book on spec. As much as I’d like to, I can’t tell a publisher about just the slap and tickle.

The final trick, my favourite trick is simple, fun, yet perhaps the most incredible hack I’ve ever created for my brain: I plotted out all of the sex scenes in Most Likely to Match in my Scrivener document and I’m writing all of those first. That’s right, I’m going back to my roots. Of the 9000 words I’ve written so far, 7500 of them are sex words.

Fucking inspired.

What I’m Reading

I just finished The Book of Eels by Patrik Svensson. It wasn’t totally what I expected — which was something more scientific and historical — but it was a surprisingly beautiful (surprising only to me) ode to grief and loss and love and life intertwined with the mysteries of one of the most mysterious animals on the planet.

What I’m Watching

I just finished season 2 of Shoresy. To be quite honest, there’s enough casual fatphobia and homophobia that makes it impossible for me to recommend this show. But the one thing I did want to talk about is the joy of allowing an artist to “go off”. Jared Keeso is a Canadian actor and screenwriter who has paid his dues in Hollywood and Hollywood North. He starred in the English version of 19-2 (originally a Canadian French-language police procedural) then went on to create Letterkenny. Shoresy is a spin-off of Letterkenny, also starring, created, and written by Keeso.

Shoresy is, perhaps, one of the best examples of Canadiana in media I can think of right now.

Shoresy has a Canadian cast — both Canadian born actors and actors representative of what Canada (specifically Canadian hockey) truly looks like: indigenous people, French Canadians including the ones who barely speak English (they exist!), Black hockey players, WOMEN (there aren’t any women hockey players in Shoresy from what I’ve watched so far but like all industries, Canadian hockey does not exist without the labour of women).

Keeso has cast real Canadian hockey players along with Canadian acting icons, many of whom Americans and the global community might not recognize, but who make Shoresy feel like home to me: Laurence LeBeouf! (see also: 19-2); Jonathon Torrens; the Nolan Brothers (and John Mirasty) as the Jims; and Jay Onrait, to name a few.

When I see depictions of Canada by non-Canadians, even the kind that’s trying to get it right, it falls short, which makes sense. But beyond Keeso, a Canadian, creating Canadian content for Canadians, Shoresy is also — to me — what you get when you give an artist the freedom to go off.

Again, Shoresy has issues with casual fatphobia and homophobia, something that is unfortunately still quite prevalent in Canadian hockey culture but that did NOT need to be conveyed on the show.

It’s also weird and self-deprecating. It doesn’t take itself seriously and it loves what it loves (hockey, Canada, community) earnestly and unselfconsciously.

I have to assume that Keeso was given a blank cheque to do what he wants with this show because of the respect and privilege he’s earned and been granted by Canadian television, and while I have not reached the Keeso level of Romance authorship, I want to approach my own creation with this kind of unselfconscious joy. With the intention of creating something niche, something just for me, because I love it.

I want to let myself cook, as the kids say (did I use that right?)

But seriously, Jared please go to therapy about the fatphobia and just cut the homophobia from the script. It’s not necessary for the authenticity of the experience and only hurts potential and future fans.

Well, that’s it from me.

xo,

Rubes