Hearing Yourself First: A Conversation with Christin Rice on The Clinic
A quick note: Today’s post is an article I recently wrote featuring Christin Rice. It’s structured a bit differently than my typical essays here, but it’s actually the first in a series of profiles I’ll be sharing from time to time. I loved exploring her story and am so glad to share it with you. I hope you enjoy it!
What does it mean to be a ‘successful’ writer?
We are often fed a very specific script: write a book, endure the excruciating silence of shopping it to agents, collect your hundred rejections, and wait in hope that the traditional publishing world will one day crown you as “validated.”
But what happens when you step off that treadmill?
I recently sat down with my friend Christin Rice to talk about her new book, The Clinic. It is, as she beautifully calls it, her “fourth first novel.” In tracking the lineage of her unpublished manuscripts—from a first project titled Loneliness, the Musical, to a story set in San Francisco, to a literary-commercial hybrid set in Iceland—Christin’s writer’s journey charts a parallel path of personal growth. It is a story about becoming a parent, becoming a coach, and ultimately, redefining what it means to live a creative life.
The Evolution of the Workspace
“Each of my early novels was an excellent way to learn how to write a novel,” Christin reflects. “In hindsight, their sole purpose was to teach me the craft.”
For a long time, Christin wrote on the side while maintaining full-time jobs. She wasn’t interested in monetizing her prose; she wanted her writing to be her art. But she still wanted to be published.
Then came a season of massive internal shifts. Through a long, deliberate conversation with her partner—and the support of a marital therapist—Christin decided to pursue parenthood. The road led through IVF, and she finished the final revisions of her third novel, Invincible, just before giving birth.
“I thought, this will be my one tether back to who I am as a person, not just a mom. It was low-hanging fruit to help me still feel like a writer.”
Mining the Micro-World
Three months after her daughter was born, Christin stumbled upon a book about how to write a bestseller. Intrigued she asked herself a foundational question: If I had to write a bestseller, and it had to be authentic to me, what story would I tell?
That question became the germ for The Clinic.
But where her previous attempts to draw from real life had stalled, the reality of a newborn changed her perspective. “My world had shrunk,” she says. “I couldn’t really use my imagination beyond the walls of my room. I needed that place in my life to still stay me. So, I began to mine my own immediate life for art.”
When the pandemic hit a year later, her world grew even smaller, tighter, and harder. To cope, Christin began writing separate, anthropological observations of her daily life—using art as therapy to find a sense of control amidst the chaos. Eventually, she wondered: What would happen if my characters went through this lockdown, too?
“I developed the confidence that you can absolutely use your life as inspiration,” Christin notes. “But you have to have some distance to find the part that is interesting to other people. You can always write just for yourself, but this book was meant to be shared. The deeply personal is the universal. People don’t need to have your exact experience to connect with it; they just recognize the underlying feeling that they couldn’t quite put into words.”
Letting Characters Be Messy
To let The Clinic fully live, Christin also had to learn to get out of her own way as a creator.
“I needed to stop trying to be completely politically correct with my characters. I had to let them be their messy selves and live beyond me, rather than just being fragments of my own ego. I was so worried about Ingrid—a character who carried the cultural pressure and angst of being single for many years. I wanted to rescue her from that pain, but I realized I needed to let her fully live it. As you write, they become distinct from you. I had to protect them from my own desire to shield them from mistakes or limited thinking.”
Redefining Success
The true turning point for The Clinic came when Christin shifted her professional focus and completed her coaching certification. By changing her mindset around how she valued herself and her work, the metric of success completely transformed.
“I had friends in the traditional writing world who finally got their books out there, but they weren’t gaining the notoriety they secretly or openly hoped for. It is so easy to fall into the trap of thinking that unless you are a bestseller, you are a failure. I had to ask myself, what is it that I want? Is it the money? What does that create for you? Is it fame? What does fame get you?“
Through the community of self-publishing, Christin found her “why.”
“This matters to me so much that I am willing to do what used to feel like the ‘cringe’ thing and self-publish. I want to be brave for my child so she sees her mother doing brave things—not because I’m the best, but because it brings me joy. As a coach, I challenge people to rise to their own hopes. I have to be willing to go where I am leading others.”
For Christin, success is no longer about high-stakes metrics, teaching gigs, or public validation. It’s about connection. “If a book inspires an insight in someone else’s life, makes them feel seen, or feeds back into the collective well of truth that keeps us all connected—that is success. It’s about uncoupling yourself from the outcome, keeping your ‘why’ clear, and actually letting yourself feel the good of the things that are happening right now.”
The Unstoppable Ripple Effect
Today, as a full-time working parent, Christin’s creative practice is small but non-negotiable.
“A lot of people have to work out first thing in the morning for their whole day to go well. Writing - creativity - is that workout for me. It opens certain pathways in my brain that stay open all day long. That creative spaciousness allows me to witness my own life, making it feel richer and more meaningful. My brain stays alert, noticing details, sparking new ideas.”
Ultimately, it is an act of radical self-preservation.
“As a person who takes care of a lot of other people, writing is how I take care of myself. It is how I hear myself before I listen to anyone else. Meeting that fundamental need within myself allows me to show up in my relationships exactly how I want to, without burning out.”
Thank you for reading. If you enjoyed this glimpse into Christin’s world, I’ll be sharing a few more of these profiles over the coming weeks.
My broader work as a writer, photographer, and horsewoman is all about amplifying the good and helping people find their way back to a grounded sense of ease. If you’d like to explore some of the practical tools or community gatherings I offer outside of these stories, you can see more here.
