Is ‘write book’ on your list of commitments this year? If so, consider joining me for an interactive talk at the Tattered Cover LoDo on Monday, January 27th.
I’ll be sharing from my book, The Busy Woman’s Guide to Writing a World-Changing Book. You’ll leave with actionable ideas and inspiration to write the book you’ve been waiting to write. It will be fun and invigorating.
Here’s the link with all the info.
I hope to see you there!
To your writing success,
What a delight it was to speak with Andrew Chamberlain of The Creative Writer’s Toolbelt. You’ll hear about how I have managed to get a lot of writing done and how I cope with the fears most of us face when writing.
If you’ve read my book, The Busy Woman’s Guide to Writing a World-Changing Book, you’ll know about my concept of the Ardent Opportunist. This is the part of us that snatches writing time whenever we can. We don’t believe our minds that tell us we need an hour or a day or a week just to get anything done.
I’ve been getting more quickies in lately, and I’ve called it sneaking up on myself. I have been working on the podcast and on promoting my book and with my students in my workshops and the Atelier. It’s been a busy time! I do like having a lot of projects going but sometimes it can spin into a feeling of overwhelm.
So I’ve been sneaking up on myself. I have a few minutes and I look at my list. One day I had a bunch of new edits to make on the podcast. It meant turning on the mic and recording a few new bits. In my mind, I would need days to get the time and space to do that. But on a Monday morning, before I got together with my Atelier members, I just flicked on the mic and started.
It was easy. It took ten minutes. I sent the files over to Jason and it was done. No letting it sit on the list, taunting me. No letting it become something that I grew more and more fearful about.
I just snuck up on myself and did it. I admit, having the structure of the Atelier helped. On Mondays, we commit to what we will do for the week. So I kinda have to do it. No blowing it off.
Bypassing my thoughts about the process has made everything easier. Of course, we all have notions about the work. Perhaps we all entertain fears or grand dreams for the project. But what I have found to be helpful is to just do it. Sneak up on the task so thoughts can’t block your action.
Have you tried sneaking up on yourself to slip some writing in? Or do you let your mind tell you that you need all the right conditions to be able to write? Share your experience below.
My friend, colleague and former coach Charlie Gilkey is a wiz at all things productivity. We had a blast talking about what it takes to write a book and why doing so is great for your business.
Also, Charlie’s new book, Start Finishing, was just released this week. Get your hands on a copy now if you struggle getting things over the finish line.
While it might be appealing to go away to a writing retreat for a week or weekend, the reality is that you will probably write most of your book in the interstices of your life. But because you don’t want “Write book” to be something on your calendar that you see and dread, you will want to find ways to integrate it into your life so it’s easy to drop into and get your words out on the page.
Consider that writing a book is a new relationship you are entering into. The book is a place where you connect with your ideas and yourself. It’s a repository of your ideas and what you want for the world.
As women, we tend to be relationship focused, so let’s make that work for you and your book. Instead of thinking of your book as something that takes time away from your current relationships, consider it a new and exciting relationship that you get to devote time and attention to.
Think about your author self. She’s super smart but not intimidating. She’s the kind of person you want to be with because she always has something to say. Most of the time it’s good stuff, too, insights and observations that somehow bring light to your life. She has a way with words, that one!
She’s a great friend, and is always there when you want to connect. You can tell her anything. She can take it. She’s wise and because she knows you well, she can help you shift into new ways of thinking, being and acting. She’s that kind of friend that makes you feel like a better version of yourself just by spending time with her. How cool is that? You will love getting to know your author self.
Clients ask me if they can work on a book and another project at the same time. Maybe two books are vying for your attention. It’s easy to think we can spread our creative love around. Everyone has to discover this for themselves, and in my experience, it’s very hard to do our day-to-day roles and juggle two major projects at once. Every project we have going is like a burner on our stove cooking away. It may be on low, it may be on high, but it’s taking away from our ability to focus. It may not seem detrimental, but losing our precious focus because of many projects can really slow us down.
If you have a record of being able to drive multiple projects consistently over the finish line with your sanity intact, by all means go right ahead. But I suggest becoming a creative serial monogamist, finishing one project at a time so you can give each its due. Keep a file or notebook for all your other projects. Use the magic phrase “for now.” For now, I’m focusing on my book. For now, I’m setting aside other projects. For now, I’m in a monogamous relationship with my book.
Take good care of this relationship. Follow through with all the dates you set aside to write your book. The power of keeping those promises to yourself cannot be overstated. The more you show up for your book, the easier it will become to devote time to it. If you find yourself avoiding your book, ask yourself what it will take to get back in touch with it. You can always do a free-write about the current state of your relationship with your book.
What does a healthy relationship with your book and author self look like on your busiest week?
This is an excerpt from my book, The Busy Woman’s Guide to Writing a World-Changing Book. If you’re ready to write your book and want support along the way, this is the guide for you. Available wherever books are sold in paperback, e-book and audio book. Get your copy now.
Her Rules Radio is a great podcast that is designed to empower women in work, life, health, and yes, creativity. My friend Alex Jamieson hosted me for a conversation about what it takes to write a book that changes the world. Listen in here.
It was a delight to be a guest on Kristoffer Carter’s This Epic Life podcast. Here are highlights from the show:
There’s an odd thing about writing (probably true for any art) – we can do more than we think. When we set out to write something, we think we have to have it all figured out. Then we’ll sit down and take dictation from our mind.
But what I have seen for myself and hundreds of writers is that the mind represents only a thin layer of our knowing. I call it a thin layer of topsoil. What’s below – in our heart, our gut, our essence – is much more rich than our minds believe.
And what’s above – coming from source, the Divine, God, inspiration – is also much vaster than our thinking mind.
This might sound crazy to you. Or perhaps you’ve experienced it yourself? You get into the writing zone. You go into a sort of writing trance. You lose yourself in the words and let it flow.
Later, when you read over your words, you find surprises. Clever turns of phrase. Things you don’t recall writing. Some good stuff. Where did that come from? You have no idea. Your mind certainly didn’t generate it.
I wouldn’t believe this myself if I didn’t experience and witness it thousands of times in my 20 years as a writing coach. It’s the most marvelous magic we spin with our pen, when we surrender to the flow state. When we write freely, we access an intelligence that’s much wider than what we know.
If you haven’t had this experience, have you tried free-writing? This method of writing is the quickest, easiest way to get out of the thin layer of our minds and into the depths and heights of what is possible for our creativity.
If your mind tells you that you don’t know what to write, that you aren’t good enough, that you have to have more figured out before you sit down, don’t be fooled! You really just need to sit down, open a document or grab a pen, and let your thoughts rip. Using a timer and a prompt, write for at least 10 minutes without stopping. See what emerges.
Writing your book will require time, focus, attention, humility and courage. But your project will also give back. And not just when it’s finished. Throughout the process, you will slowly and subtly gain confidence. You will fall in love with your material all over again. You will enjoy how it feels to really know and share your expertise in this new way.
I believe that our creativity is the source of our vitality. When we are creating, we are tapping into our truest aliveness. We ignite our life energy when we create. We generate new energy. This energy feels so much better than the dread or pain of avoiding our writing. Quite frankly, this is the primary reason I coach authors. I want everyone to enjoy the aliveness that we generate when we are doing our creative work.
Now, here’s the weird thing. Usually, you won’t “feel” like writing. Your mind will trick you into thinking everything else is more important. That’s why we build structures around our writing so we don’t get lost in feelings or insecurities. We build a writing practice that helps us cross the river of resistance.
What if you had a reflection process that allowed you to feel the benefits of writing throughout the whole process? Simple, quick, but potent, capturing the vibe of the sessions will help you notice and savor more. The cool thing is you will begin to appreciate that working on your book is working you. You are writing this for others, but doing the work is having a positive impact on you. The first world you are changing is your own.
Here’s a simple practice to help you notice the difference your writing is making in your life on a regular basis. At the end of each writing session, in your author notebook, jot down three words that describe how the writing session was for you. Don’t overthink this; just write three words that reflect your experience. You will certainly see a range of experiences on your list. Some days might be “slogging, hard, good” or “freeing, fun, challenging.” Keep a running list to witness how the writing is changing you.
This is an excerpt from my book, The Busy Woman’s Guide to Writing a World-Changing Book. If you’re ready to write your book and want support along the way, this is the guide for you. Available wherever books are sold in paperback, e-book and audio book. Get your copy now.
Do you love back to school time? I do, and always have. While summer delights me in so many ways, my eager student self always welcomes the focus of fall. Time for support with online writing workshops!
What if your writer self got to go back to school this fall? What would they want to learn?
I’m a fan of designing my own curriculum based on what I want to learn. In my unique online writing workshops, participants get to choose what they want to focus on and what they want to learn. My workshops don’t focus on craft or contain a lot of lessons to fall behind on.
I create a safe and supportive container for focus and progress on writing projects we care about. I help you know, like and trust yourself and your writing process so you can write what you want, when you want, with joy and ease.
This foundational work gets overlooked in craft classes. My workshops address the writer, helping you past any blocks or obstacles that keep you from writing your best work.
In my upcoming classes, this is what you will learn:
Eight-monthcoaching group to focus on one project
September 20th – April 30th, 2022
We begin the Atelier on September 20th and meet for eight glorious months. All the details are waiting for you here.
October 8th – November 9th, 2021
This is the most fun class! You didn’t know you needed this kind of space and guidance to write about your travels, did you. And I bet you have so many stories about your travels that you want to explore and rediscover. This class is in itself a journey – perfect for those who haven’t been traveling as much as they like. 
In this six-week, live course, we explore:
What do you want to learn in your writing life this year? Which option meets your current writing needs? Contact me if you have questions about which of these workshops are right for you now.
You may have more than one book in you. If so, choosing which one to write first can be challenging. This choice is something you will have to decide for yourself based on a number of factors:
Do a free-write to get deeper into the answer about which book you should write first. I always suggest free-writing as a way to get clarity for yourself. It’s amazing how much more insight can come through free-writing as opposed to just thinking or talking through the issues.
There are many types of books you can write. Your book might be a blend of your own stories and some guidance. In her book Soulful Simplicity, Courtney Carver shares both her personal journey and specific guidance on how we can simplify our lives for more satisfaction. Her tagline and Instagram account are called “Be More with Less,” and that’s the basic promise of her book. We all want to be more, right? But how to do it with less stuff and less activity, that’s new.
In Your Story Is Your Power by Elle Luna and Susie Herrick, the authors help the reader excavate their stories and live in new, empowering ways as a result of knowing and owning their stories. The exercises in the book are fabulous, and the stories the authors tell to accompany the exercises help make them sticky. While the book isn’t personal essays or memoirs per se, a little bit of this kind of writing blended throughout makes the book more powerful. The colorful illustrations add a lot to the book as well.
It may take time to choose which book is first. This is something only you can decide. Use your intuition and your instincts alongside your intellect to choose the book to dive into first.
What book will you start with and what makes that a good choice for you?
This is an excerpt from my book, The Busy Woman’s Guide to Writing a World-Changing Book. If you’re ready to write your book and want support along the way, this is the guide for you. Available wherever books are sold in paperback, e-book and audio book. Get your copy now.
Bring to mind that feeling when you finish something. When something ends, you feel space open up. Like putting away the holiday decorations, completing a project at work or finishing a school year. You have time and energy to bring something else onto your plate. You also know the feeling of overwhelm, having too many things to manage.
Most of us juggle many priorities: children, work, home, significant other and more. It’s not easy to find space or bandwidth for our own projects. We also underestimate how much space things take, and I am not just talking about physical space. There’s also mental, physical and temporal space. We have a warped idea of how long things take. Most of us feel disappointed that we didn’t do as much as we wanted in any given week. What if we had more spaciousness? What if we could fit our projects into the time available and leave stress of over-committing behind?
When my clients come to me feeling overwhelmed, I ask them to identify their tipping point. When is it all too much? What obligations on your plate put you over the edge? Hopefully, with awareness, you can learn to stop committing before you are plunged into overwhelm.
I have had clients who added book writing to their agenda in the same year that they were either buying a new house, moving to a new country, moving parents out of a childhood home, getting a new job or moving across the country. Guess what happened to their books? They aren’t on the shelves of bookstores. They are sitting in computer files waiting for actual space and the commitment to be written. No amount of coaching could reduce the amount of space those other things were taking in my clients’ lives. It just wasn’t the right timing for them to write their book.
You have a full life too. You are busy. But that doesn’t mean you can’t make space to write your world-changing book. You may have heard of the “write your book in a weekend” workshops. The truth is, it’s going to take much longer than that to get your book written and into a form that’s ready to share with the world. Like renovation projects, your book will take longer and require more from you than you might expect.
The biggest mistake people make when getting ready to add a book to their plate is not removing obligations. Sometimes when I ask clients what they will put on hold, they stubbornly say, “Nothing!”
We have a skewed perception of how much we can actually do at any given time. The space in our imagination is vast—infinite, even. Yet the space we have in a day is, alas, limited. Our energy isn’t always full steam either. So we have to go with the flow of what’s manageable in any given week. We need to make space on our calendar for writing time, organizing, researching and all the other tasks associated with writing a book. Some things will contribute directly to our book. Clients, teaching, interacting with our book’s audience, networking at conferences. There may be volunteer obligations or other family obligations to set aside while writing the book.
Now, I am the last person to use the word “realistic.” I learned early on from a former yo-yo pro boyfriend (that’s right, yo-yo pro) that anything is possible—and I have seen all kinds of “unrealistic” things happen in my clients’ lives. I believe the word “realistic” exists largely to shut down innovation and creativity. But in assessing whether you have the space to write a book, you do want to bring in a dose of realism. The last thing I want for you is to add another stressor into your life. It’s okay if now isn’t the time to write your book. Setting yourself up with the space to succeed will build competence and confidence that will allow you to enjoy writing the book.
Let’s take a look at your current commitments. Here’s an exercise my clients have found useful to see what they are committed to. I call it “Mind Mapping Your Plate,” based on the common phrase “so much on my plate.” Putting your obligations visually on one page can give an immediate sense of how much you are actually taking on.
Get a regular sheet of printer paper. On sticky notes or in drawn bubbles, jot down all the major projects and commitments you have over the next three months. They could include:
When you see all your current commitments on the page, it’s easy to get a true picture of your availability. This is where you may see what you can set aside while you write your book. As you go through your months writing, many opportunities will arise. How will you fend off more projects and keep your writing space intact? Sometimes we have to spell it out for ourselves. I once made a sign that says “Add No More.” When I pull it out and hang it in my writing space, it reminds me not to add more things to my plate.
Perhaps you thought that because of the title of this book, I would have a magic solution to help you write your book even when you are juggling other major projects. Yes, I can help you, and you will have to make time, space and focus for your book. Consider if this is the right time for you to take on another project.
Are you able and willing to commit space to making your book a priority?
This is an excerpt from my book, The Busy Woman’s Guide to Writing a World-Changing Book. If you’re ready to write your book and want support along the way, this is the guide for you. Available wherever books are sold in paperback, e-book and audio book. Get your copy now.
Are you an audio book listener? I made something for you!
The Busy Woman’s Guide to Writing a World-Changing Book is available in audio format (as well as paper and e-book). The chapters are short and sweet. I made them that way so you can listen, get ideas for your book and immediately start writing.
I’ve shared the audio intro elsewhere, so here’s the chapter on how you can feel great while writing even before the book is done.
Get your free audio book with an Audible subscription here. Or, purchase the audio book wherever audio books are sold.
And yes, I did the narration! That’s me at the mic.
When I was promoting my novel, Chasing Sylvia Beach, I found a way to share the book’s message that didn’t feel like I was always shouting, “Buy my book!” Instead, I paired two things that are important to me: life-changing conversations and leadership. I love rich conversations that bring out new ways of thinking and being. In my work as a coach, I get to talk with people about what’s truly important to them. We dig deep to find the truth of their life and work and then seek ways to express that more on a daily basis.
Leadership is also important to me. I believe that creative people and women are leaders. We have experiences that differ from the male experience. Now more than ever, we have the opportunity to initiate conversations to make the world a better place.
A book can serve as a conversation leader and an emissary, bringing your message to the world and leading the conversations you want to have. Women are being called to speak up and speak out like never before. Our voices and ideas are needed to help build a new way of being. And it’s never been easier to write a book and get it out into the world.
When you think about your book, return to your rallying cry. Conversations and leadership matter to me. What matters to you?
At the core of your book are the things you care about deeply. Your book holds the key to the change you want to see in the world. There are many reasons to write a book, among them:
Each of these reasons is valid and may motivate you to write.
I found it helpful to have a reason connected to one of my core values—a reason that got me excited to do the work of writing and promoting, even when it felt scary. For me, it is about starting conversations, and a book is a conversation starter. My values of communication and life-changing conversations allowed me to think of the themes in my novel in a different way. When it came time to write articles and guest posts about my book, it was much easier to come from the place of initiating a discussion rather than marketing my book and trying to get someone to buy it.
Saying you are an author and sharing the content of your book leads to conversations that you want to have. Our conversations can change the way we think, what we believe and how we act. The world has plenty of problems that need solutions. They need you, a woman with something to say, to take the lead and offer your insights and expertise. Write your book. Lead the conversation.
Make a list of the conversations that might spring up around the topics in your book. What do you want to be sure to talk about when discussing the book? These ideas can also be used as talking points when preparing for interviews about the book. Add to this list throughout the process of writing the book.
This is an excerpt from my book, The Busy Woman’s Guide to Writing a World-Changing Book. If you’re ready to write your book and want support along the way, this is the guide for you. Available wherever books are sold in paperback, e-book and audio book. Get your copy now.
The biggest misconception I see around writing – or any creative practice – is that we think we need a lot of time. We imagine that we’ll get to the writing when we have two hours, five days a week.
Who does anything for two hours, five days a week? Okay, maybe work. And Netflix bingeing.
But other than that, we rarely do anything continuously for two hours. So why would we set ourselves up to write with completely unreasonable expectations?
I’m writing this article in between things. My mind said I didn’t have much time to focus. But I just opened up the freaking document and started typing my thoughts. (Revision comes later.)
Using free-writing, I’ve trained myself to stop, drop and write when I need to. I don’t worry about what I am going to say. I don’t fret over it being good or even coherent! I know that, for me, getting something on the page that I can sculpt and revise later is much better than having it sit on my to-do list.
Try writing for 15 minutes every day. If you can’t do every day, NO SWEAT! Even 15 or 20 days is better than none. In this way, we learn that we can stop, drop and write. Even when we’re busy. Even when we have fears. Even when life seems to want to get in our way.
If you are waiting for a two-hour chunk of time to write, or a time when you have a more clear calendar, you will be waiting for a long time. I say stop waiting. Stop deferring your writing dream.
It will be messy, and some days will feel like a slog. But if writing is a dream of yours, I want so dearly for you to claim the joys awaiting you in your words.
