In The Bestselling Book Formula, Honorée gives you a simple 4-part framework for ensuring that you have an amazing nonfiction book.

In today’s episode, we’re diving into the first key, which is making your book EASY TO READ.

She’s also generously made 5 copies of the book available as a giveaway. The first 5 people to leave a review of the Daily Writer Podcast on Apple Podcasts will receive a print copy in the mail. Just leave a review, take a screenshot, email it to me at kent@dailywriterlife.com along with your address, and I’ll drop it in the mail!

The post The Bestselling Book Formula with Honorée Corder: Make It Easy to Read appeared first on Daily Writer | Essential Habits for Impact & Influence.

One of the most underrated aspects of the film is Aaron Eckhart’s portrayal of Harvey Dent, the Gotham City District Attorney. Before he becomes the villain Two-Face, he is known for having such a positive outlook that he carries a two-headed coin and says, “I make my own luck.”

That’s a great attitude not only for comic book characters, but for every writer as well.

We live in an amazing age where we can instantly connect with almost anyone. We have multiple publishing options. We can build an audience without going through traditional gatekeepers. We can work from anywhere. The list goes on.

Are you going work your tail off? Yes. Is it going to take longer than you think? Yes. Are you going to want to give up every time it gets hard? Yes?

But is it worth it? Yes. A thousand times, yes.

There’s nobody stopping you. Success is yours for the taking. You make your own luck.

Challenge: Think about your biggest writing challenge today. Take the initiative to tackle it head-on and make your own luck.

The post Make Your Own Luck appeared first on Daily Writer | Essential Habits for Impact & Influence.

What does it mean to listen to your life? It means paying attention to the signposts telling you where you should go.

It is amazing how often we don’t see the signs right in front of us. These signs can take different shapes, such as what your gut is telling you, what you’re passionate about, and where you are experiencing success. Those can all be indicators of what you should be doing with your life.

One of the most important signs comes from other people. Are there people in your life who have encouraged you in your writing? Perhaps teachers, parents, or friends? If so, this is a sure sign that you need to lean into writing.

If you haven’t had people encourage you as a writer, no worries. It may be that you simply have not written and shared it with enough other people for them to affirm your gift.

Maybe you’ve had people be critical or dismissive about your writing. If so, remember that anybody who criticizes you without a loving spirit has the wrong attitude. Most of the time, other people’s criticism is driven by jealousy and a lack of affirmation in their own life.

As the saying goes, hurting people hurt people.

Pay attention to the signposts, especially from the people around you. Listen to the ones who encourage and affirm your writing. They are the ones pointing you in the right direction.

Today’s Challenge: Think about a person who has encouraged you as a writer. Take a moment today to write them a note or send a text thanking them for how they have added value to your life.

The post Look for the Signposts appeared first on Daily Writer | Essential Habits for Impact & Influence.

But I’ve also learned that you won’t get very far in life if you only depend on yourself. thejohnnycastle onlyfan One of the best decisions I’ve ever made was to get involved in various mastermind, business, and writing groups over the last few years. It has literally changed my life. Back in the Fall of 2020, in the middle of the pandemic when so many people were trying to find their way, I wondered about the best ways I could help writers. I started this podcast and the Daily Writer Club that November. Both have been successful, and it’s been a blast to see how the Club in particular has helped writers collaborate, get clear on their goals, write books, and make more money in their writing business. I want to invite you to check out the Daily Writer Club by visiting https://dailywriterclub.com. You can give it a try for two weeks at absolutely no cost.

Even if you don’t join the Daily Writer Club, I want you to consider at least getting together with a couple of writer friends once every week or two to talk about your writing and your goals.

Let me be clear: you will not be successful by yourself. You need a team of supportive writers who have your back. It’s not going to happen by magic, so take the initiative to check out the Daily Writer Club, or invite a couple of friends to form your own group and meet on a regular basis.

I promise this will give you more motivation, ideas, and creative energy than you’d ever have on your own!

Today’s challenge: Check out the Daily Writer Club at https://dailywriterclub.com or ask another writer friend or two to meet on a regular basis to talk about your writing.

The post New Year’s Goal: Join a Writing Group in 2023 appeared first on Daily Writer | Essential Habits for Impact & Influence.

Yes, I know the year has just started … but if you don’t consider what your goals are, you’ll never achieve them. As Stephen Covey says in The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, “Begin with the end in mind.” So with that, I want to challenge you to think about what you want your writing life and business to look like at the end of this year.

To that end, we’re doing a short 5-day series on New Year’s Goals for writers. I’m going to issue five challenges to you—five commitments to make this year.

If you do these five things, I promise they will change your life!

The first goal is to finally write that book you’ve been talking and dreaming about for years. It’s never seemed urgent. Dreams rarely seem urgent until you wake one day and realize that time is slipping away and you never accomplished what you wanted to do.

When you write a book, you automatically become an authority on that topic. A book can open doors, help you make money, change people’s lives, and go places in the world you’ll never be able to go.

When you have a book out there with your name on it, it’s MAGIC.

Success in your writing life does not need to be complicated. In fact, success usually comes down to doing just a few focused things well. As a writer, getting your first book out there—or your NEXT one—is a critical piece of the puzzle.

It’s been said that 8 out of 10 people want to write a book. However, the vast majority of people never do it. When you choose to put the time and effort into finally writing that book, you’ll be able to join the elite club of people known as AUTHORS.

You can do it! Commit to making it happen this year.

Today’s challenge: Shoot me an email with the subject line, “I’m in!” and tell me about the book you want to write this year. You can email me at kent@dailywriterlife.com.

The post New Year’s Goal: Write a Book in 2023 appeared first on Daily Writer | Essential Habits for Impact & Influence.

Carson ruled the late-night airwaves for thirty years. He was the most important Kingmaker in American culture. If you were invited to do a 5-minute set on The Tonight Show, and Johnny liked you, your career was set.

In 1981, Seinfeld was scheduled for his first appearance on the show. A few years later, he reflected on the experience when he sat for an interview with Larry Wilde, a comedian and author.

Larry asked, “How did you prepare for that?”

Seinfeld deadpanned, “Rigorously.” Then he continued, “Every comedian knows that his first appearance on the Tonight Show is his Olympics, his World Series, and his Superbowl all rolled into one. This is his chance to become an A player, the A team.”

Then, Seinfeld went on to explain that as soon as he constructed his 5-minute set of material, he practiced it relentlessly. In the weeks before his Tonight Show appearance, he would go from club to club, performing it. He would do it up to five or six times a night. Seinfeld said that he probably rehearsed that single 5-minute set two hundred times during that period to make sure it was perfect. It was an opportunity he was not going to blow.

And in fact, he made the most of that appearance because Seinfeld became one of the most famous comedians in America, even before the enormous success of the Seinfeld TV show.

All because he saw an opportunity he was not going to waste. He put in the reps, he did the work, and it paid off in spades.

Question: When you consider the success you want to achieve and the opportunities you want as a writer, how many reps are you willing to do in order to be the best?

Note: If you’d like to listen to Larry Wilde’s full interview with Jerry Seinfeld, you can do so by listening to the album “Jerry Seinfeld on Comedy.”

The post Jerry Seinfeld’s 200-Round Practice Routine appeared first on Daily Writer | Essential Habits for Impact & Influence.

My guest today is Professor Anne Sheridan, and she’s going to help take the intimidation factor out of reading classic literature. Anne is an educator, a pastor’s wife, and a mother of three girls living in Davenport, Iowa. She has undergraduate degrees in Piano Performance and English, a graduate certificate in Biblical Studies, and an MA in English.

Anne has several years of experience teaching at the college level, with courses on Speech, English Composition, English Literature, and Christian Fantasy Literature. She enjoys reading in community and helping students to discover and appreciate the joys of reading.

Anne and I talk about what makes a classic a “classic,” why you shouldn’t feel intimidated by literature, how to distinguish between different genres, why Shakespeare was so great, how to make time to read, and of course… Star Wars, a topic that seems to make an appearance on my podcast every few interviews or so.

You can connect with Anne on Twitter @A_L_Sheridan.

The post Professor Anne Sheridan on Why You Should Read Classic Literature appeared first on Daily Writer | Essential Habits for Impact & Influence.

Writers don’t think about what we do in terms of power. We use words like creativity, craft, platform, audience, and entrepreneurship. But power? It’s a concept that seems a little old-fashioned, if not outright outdated these days.

Power is just influence. When you have power as a writer, you can change people’s minds. You can tell a story that has impact. You can write books, blog posts, articles, or other content to influence other people.

If power as a writer is a good thing, how do you get it? There are many ways, and those ways can include having the right connections or, sometimes. even just getting lucky. But those are external situations that you can’t predict or control.

There is only one surefire way to accumulate power as a writer. Margaret Atwood, author of The Handmaid’s Tale, said it best: “A word after a word after a word is power.” (By the way, this was the title of a 2019 documentary where she discusses her life and work.)

The meaning of the phrase is pretty obvious: when you put down one word after another, eventually you wind up with something you can share. And when you accumulate those words, and they become books, screenplays, speeches, or other types of shareable content, they can have more power than you can possibly imagine.

As Tears for Fears sang in their 1985 hit song, “Everybody Wants to Rule the World.” However, not everybody can write, or even wants to write. That’s too bad because they are missing out on an incredible opportunity to use their writing power to influence other people.

But we know better. We know our words have power. So, let’s get out there today and put down not just one word, but a word after a word after a word.

Question: What do you think about the concept of being powerful because of your words? Does it make you comfortable or uncomfortable?

The post A Word After a Word is Power appeared first on Daily Writer | Essential Habits for Impact & Influence.

One of the difficulties of working on this book was that we had far more material than we could fit into it. Billy had so many stories and insights about Elvis and his faith that it could have been twice as long.

One of those items we couldn’t into the book was what Elvis called “the universal law of insanity.” When Billy was a teenager, Elvis once explained this principle to him. He was trying to help Billy see that life gets much easier when you understand that everyone is a little bit crazy, including YOU.

Elvis had the wonderful gift of being able to relate to anyone, whether it was the person digging ditches or the President of the United States. We could use some of this insight today, when people seem so divided and we need to find common ground with people who don’t see the world the way we do.

In your dealings with your family, business partners, editors, designers, publishers, agents, readers, and lots of others who are part of your life as a writer, it’s wise to remember that everybody sees the world a little differently.

We’re all just a little bit crazy. Understanding this can help you relate to people who don’t see things quite the way you do.

Question: Think of a few people in your everyday life. How could the “universal law of insanity” help you get along with them better?

The post The Universal Law of Insanity appeared first on Daily Writer | Essential Habits for Impact & Influence.

If you were to guess what the most requested image in the National Archives is, what would your guess be? Would it be something related to the moon landings? Maybe something historic related to WWII or the Civil War? Maybe something from the turn of the century?

If so, you’d be wildly off base. The most requested photo in the National Archives was taken on December 21, 1970, in the Oval Office. It shows Richard Nixon shaking hands with Elvis Presley, who was wearing one of his famous jumpsuits along with a giant gold belt buckle.

You might wonder, how in the world did these two famous figures end up in the same picture, and what does it have to do with writing?

Let’s tackle the first question first. On December 19, 1970, Elvis Presley abruptly left Graceland and flew to California to meet his friend Jerry Schilling, who joined him on a flight to Washington, D.C. They were met there by another of Elvis’s friends, Sonny West. Elvis often did things on a whim, and this time he had decided he wanted to get a DEA badge. He had always been a big supporter of law enforcement, and he often collected badges from the police and other officers when he was on tour.

Despite his image as a rebellious rock ’n roll star, Elvis was actually quite conservative. It bothered him that the problem of illegal drugs was getting out of hand, and he wanted to do something about it. His solution, as crazy as it sounds, was to become an official undercover drug enforcement officer. He felt that his status as a public figure could help lend support to the fight against illegal drugs.

Having struck out with the powers that be in D.C., who refused to give him a badge, Elvis decided to go straight to the White House to seek an impromptu meeting with the President himself, Richard Nixon. He directed his limo to pull up to the White House gates at 6:00am and gave a handwritten letter requesting the meeting to the guards, asking them to pass it along to the President. At first, he was rebuffed, but later in the day, he received the call at his hotel that the meeting was on.

And yes, Elvis did get his DEA badge that day. He was immensely proud of it and was excited to show it to his family and friends when he got back to Memphis.

So… what does that crazy story have to do with writers?

It all comes down to taking initiative to get what you want. Do you want a podcast? A book deal? Do you want to write a book series? Do you want to write full-time? What specifically do you want to do in your life as a writer?

Whatever it is, go for it. Take initiative. Get assertive. So many writers just sit passively by, waiting for something to happen to them. You’ve got to get off your duff and start making things happen.

On the wall in my home office, I have a printout of that famous photo showing Elvis and Nixon shaking hands. I hung it as a reminder to get a little crazy, to take action, and to do whatever it takes to make my writing dreams come true. They’re not going to happen for me by accident, and they’re not going to happen by accident for you, either.

Question: What did you learn from this story about Elvis, and about taking initiative as a writer?

The post Taking Initiative to Get What You Want appeared first on Daily Writer | Essential Habits for Impact & Influence.