When You Discover Your Writing Style
What’s your writing style? I’ve always had a hard time answering this question. We know it when we see it, but it’s hard to describe. All the good writers are supposed to have one, and I’ve come across...
View ArticleWhat I Learned from #NaNoWriMo2018
It’s been six years since the last time I participated in (and won!) NaNoWriMo: National Novel Writing Month. Back then, I was twenty-three and didn’t have a job. I did NaNoWriMo because I had nothing...
View Article3 Writing Lessons From The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
Lately I’ve been watching the Amazon original show The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, about a woman in the late 1950s whose... The post 3 Writing Lessons From <em>The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel</em>...
View ArticleThe Anatomy of a Book: Front Matter
We read books all the time. When we open one, we have an idea of what to expect – even if we’ve never really thought about why we expect certain things. We see the way books look at the end, when flesh...
View ArticleThe Anatomy of a Book: The Body
To get us in the mood for Halloween, we’re doing a short series on the Anatomy of a [Nonfiction] Book. We’re x-raying commercial nonfiction books at their most basic structure: their bones, you might...
View ArticleJoin Me for National [Nonfiction] Writing Month!
Have you heard of NaNoWriMo? It’s short for National Novel Writing Month, and it happens every year in November. The NaNoWriMo organization – the writers who created this fun annual challenge – focuses...
View ArticleThe Anatomy of a Book: End Matter
Today is our last post in our mini-series about the Anatomy of a Book! Week one, we talked about Front Matter – where we set the direction and expectations for the book. Week two, we talked about the...
View ArticleThe Thrill of Writing
Last week I met with a new coaching client, and we talked about places in her writing where she felt stuck. She said she had so many ideas for books—so many topics that she wanted to explore, but to...
View ArticleHow to Include Others’ Stories in Your Book
Many of my authors are writing personal development books – books meant to convey knowledge, help readers make progress toward a goal, or help them adopt a new mindset about something in their life....
View ArticleHow Mark Driscoll Gamed the New York Times Bestseller List
Last week I wrote about how Mark Driscoll, formerly the pastor of Mars Hill Church, found himself in a plagiarism scandal in 2013. This is bad enough to hurt an author’s credibility and reputation, but...
View ArticleOvercoming Resistance to Your First Draft
Do you remember learning how to drive a car? My dad took me to the parking lot at a park near our house, and, very gingerly, I practiced pulling into parking spaces and backing out, pressing the...
View ArticleThe Label Doesn’t Matter. Your Beliefs Do.
What do you believe about your creative life? Your beliefs are the most important thing about you. I’m not talking about politics or religion, though of course those are important, too. I’m talking...
View ArticleOwning Your Creative Power
What you believe about your creative self determines everything you do. If that’s the case, then we need to start paying attention to what we believe. Today, we’re talking about one of the most...
View Article7 Creative Beliefs That Will Change Your Life
If you read enough books about writing, creativity, art, and innovation by experts, you start noticing something. There’s something fundamentally different about how they view their work. There’s...
View ArticleA Simple Framework for Writing a Great Introduction
If you’ve done any coaching with me, you probably know I’m a huge fan of a good sentence frame. Sentence frames help us set our thoughts on the right paths, and they’re incredibly effective because...
View Article4 Qualities of Bestselling Books
Part of the reason I became an editor and a book coach is because I’ve always been fascinated with what makes things work—including books. At a young age, I started asking, Why did I love this book so...
View ArticleThe Right and Wrong Problems for Your Book
There are four defining features of bestselling personal development books: They are written for a distinct audience. They solve a sticky problem that is a constant source of pain in their readers’...
View ArticleInforming & Instructing Your Reader with Your Novel Approach
There are four defining features of bestselling personal development books: They are written for a distinct audience. They solve a sticky problem that is a constant source of pain in their readers’...
View ArticleInspiring and Engaging Your Reader with Simple Genius
There are four defining features of bestselling personal development books: They are written for a distinct audience. They solve a sticky problem that is a constant source of pain in their readers’...
View Article#AskMeAnything: What does the publishing process look like?
This month I’m answering all of the questions you have about publishing! Many people think it’s a straightforward manufacturing process—closer to producing zippers or bubble gum or anything else we use...
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