We’re doing a short series on perspectives that go against conventional wisdom. If you’re just now joining us, I encourage you to go back and catch the last few entries in this series. Today’s perspective is that almost everything is a draft. Here’s what I mean: one of the reasons we get creatively hung up … Read more
We’re doing a short series on writing habits, and yesterday we talked about the pathway to your writing dreams, which is writing habits. You can have all the marketing skills in the world, all the business skills, all the opportunities… but without the writing habit to actually produce the work, none of those things will … Read more
Disney parks all over the world are known as the happiest places on earth. And judging by the number of people who flock there each year, it is correct. It’s known as a place full of fun, magic, and wonder. But even Walt Disney himself knew that it was dangerous to contain happiness to a … Read more
The writer Matthew Kelly said, “It is important to understand that you are not writing a story or a book, or a sentence or a paragraph. You are writing a body of work. Whatever you are writing today is just one small part of that body of work.” This helps take the pressure off because … Read more
One of the reasons that writing feels so hard to many people is because their expectation doesn’t match the reality of how a clean draft actually gets written. Many people have an ideal of sitting down at a computer and just letting the words flow out perfectly. The heavens open up, birds sing outside, and … Read more
One of the most important decisions you make as a writer is how to balance your input and output. Or to say it another way, how much time you devote to watching and consuming versus how much time you spend writing and creating. You probably have friends who watch a lot of TV, movies, or … Read more
There is a lot of pressure in the writing and publishing worlds to create the “right” words—words that are moving, effective, emotional, and whatever other superlatives we want to put on them. Is it important to impact the reader and make a big difference? Sure. But you don’t get the gold unless you dig for … Read more
Yesterday, we talked about the value of hitting singles. The main idea was this: if you focus on getting small wins every day, you will eventually win the game. Let’s look at this from another perspective. Recently, I was doing a little 90’s musical reminiscing and listening to the Backstreet Boys (Don’t judge me). It … Read more
Whatever you’re working on right now, you’re bound to get stuck at some point. When you stumble upon our old friend, lovingly called “writer’s block,” here are ten tips to keep the words flowing. Lower your standards. Many times, we get stuck because we’re trying to make it perfect. Be willing to write garbage just … Read more
As writers, we have lots of project-based items to think about. These are big items that can take weeks or months to complete. This can include things like building a website, writing a book, creating a course, building an author platform, or starting a podcast. That is why it’s easy to get paralyzed by all … Read more