Find your publishing home without losing your voice: Literary agent Deidra Riggs reveals insider secrets on breaking into publishing while staying true to yourself—especially for women of color and writers with unconventional perspectives.

In this interview (episode 278), you'll discover...

• Insider secrets: Deidra reveals what draws her to a manuscript
• Authors' authentic voices: Deidra supports clients, helping them navigating publishing without compromising their unique perspectives and voices
• Publishing reality check: Social media followers...do they matter as much as we think?
• Deidra's wishlist: Learn what genres Deidra's looking for (and how the main interest surprises her)
• Direct access: Deidra invites you to contact her directly with your work (a rare agent invitation!)

I don't want authors to feel like they've had to make themselves smaller, change their message, change their voice or the essence of who they are just to get a book published." —Deidra RiggsAbout This Episode

Ever wondered what literary agents really look for in submissions? Or how to maintain your authentic voice in an industry that often demands conformity? Literary agent Deidra Riggs shares some of publishing's hidden realities while sharing her journey from writer to agent at Embolden Media Group.

This isn't just another "how to get published" conversation, however. Deidra reveals her process for deciding to work with an author, why this is a "risky time" for diverse voices in publishing, how she creates and searches for a nurturing "home" for authors (particularly women of color), and what makes her champion certain manuscripts in an increasingly challenging market.

Guest Spotlight: Literary Agent Deidra Riggs

Deidra is an author, speaker, coach, and consultant. Her extensive background includes writing, editing, and marketing for faith-based, nonprofit, and for-profit organizations. She is adept at shepherding a group or individual to the successful conclusion of a project, offering clear and accessible tools and guidance. Deidra is drawn to well-told stories with fresh viewpoints.

Whether fiction or nonfiction, she gravitates toward engaging, thoughtful, and creative first-rate narrative and out-of-the box perspectives that help us laugh, dream, heal, and grow (and go) forward. A Qualified Administrator of the Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI), Deidra lives in Connecticut.

The first thing I look at is when I read this first paragraph, Do I wanna read more? And if I wanna read more, then I wanna know, well, Who's writing this? And that's when I'll go and look. And if it says you have 57 followers, I will write you back and say, "This is great. I'm concerned about your platform." —Deidra RiggsTimestamps for Quick Reference

0:00 Introduction to the publishing industry challenges

0:58 Welcoming Deidra Riggs, a literary agent who cares

2:07 Deidra's journey from writer to literary agent

3:04 The influence of blogging on Deidra's path

7:23 Deidra's transition to publishing books

10:17 Joining Embolden Media Group as a literary agent

12:22 Building relationships with authors and editors

14:58 Creating a sense of "home" in the publishing process

16:50 Handling rejections and providing feedback

19:03 Assessing submissions and deciding to proceed

22:17 Platform requirements and starting a conversation

24:49 Discovering new writers and using social media

28:17 Encouragement for finding a publishing "home"

29:44 Exploring other publishing options

31:09 Balancing social media and new content for books

33:15 Deidra's current interests (it surprises her)

35:10 Contacting Deidra and final thoughts

The women that I represent write as women of color, so they're not trying to make anyone like them. They're trying to be who they are and put out a message they feel called and led to put out into the world, and that's a risky thing right now. —Deidra RiggsResources:

• Full Episode Information & Transcript
• Embolden Media Group
• Contact Deidra Riggs
• Related: Interview with literary agent Lucinda Halpern
• Craft Your Best Book Proposal

On a chilly December afternoon in 2014, I closed the door to my bedroom, swallowed back nerves—even trembled a little as I held a tiny earpiece as a microphone. Then I cleared my throat and recorded my first podcast episode that lasted all of two minutes.

At that point a seasoned author, I forgot what it felt like to send something into the world for the first time. I’d done it for decades with my voice on the page or the screen. With a podcast, I was sending my actual voice into the world for the first time. How would people react? Would these episodes find their way into writers’ ears? I was a beginner again.

First Facing Fears

I fretted over editing, even though my initial vision for using audio was to give myself a simpler way to share ideas. I thought I could wing it. I thought it would be simple. But I realized a more focused, tight delivery would serve listeners better, so I started by outlining and writing a script. This added more time and tasks, but it gave people another way to enjoy the ideas without wasting any of their time with rambling and repetition.

Next Facing Discouragement

Only a few people listened to those first episodes. My friend Charity listened. My mentors. A few friends. I probably forced my husband to help with audio editing questions, but that may have been it.

Publishing episode after episode proved daunting when I looked at the stats and saw only a few people tuning in. I kept going, though, because I enjoyed it. Truly. I loved sending off ideas as a podcast episode, in that medium.

When I first told people about it, they told me they couldn’t find it on their podcast player. They searched and searched, but…nothing. I phoned the good people at Blubrry, my podcast host, to help diagnose several technological mishaps on my part, which resulted in a name change from The Writing Life with Ann Kroeker to the Ann Kroeker, Writing Coach podcast. With those few changes, people could finally find the podcast.

From Humble Beginnings to Global Reach

In time, more listeners downloaded the show. A friend with a huge following shared it one afternoon and that introduced me to her readers. My listening stats showed a bump because of that and the numbers continued to rise: and every number, an individual writer I hoped to encourage.

Ten years later, looking back at those humble beginnings in late 2014, I can see how the determination to start—even when I didn’t know what I was doing, even when I was scared—led to a decade of growth and connection. I grew as a coach, writer, speaker, and podcaster, and writers have told me the ideas I’ve shared have helped them grow in their courage, craft, and confidence.

If that’s you, thank you. Thank you for being part of this journey.

While I don’t obsess over data, I’m floored to realize how it’s grown into a platform that reaches writers worldwide. I thought you might enjoy seeing the top 10 countries where writers are listening to the “Ann Kroeker, Writing Coach” podcast. You might even be in one of them!

Top 10 Countries

Here are the top 10 countries based on listener downloads:

1. United States
2. Canada
3. United Kingdom
4. Australia
5. Germany
6. India
7. Japan
8. Netherlands
9. South Africa
10. France

Top 10 Downloaded Episodes of All Time (as of this recording in January 2025)

The most downloaded episodes must reflect what resonates most. Enjoy browsing the top 10 downloaded episodes of all time (as of January 2025), in case one of them resonates with you:

1. 10 Ways to Start the Writing Process When You’re Staring at a Blank Page
2. Prepare for Publishing with Insights from Literary Agent Lucinda Halpern
3. What’s a Writing Coach (and what kind do I need)?
4. Find Your Book Midwife, Say “Yes” Before You’re Ready, Pitch to Build Platform, and Authentically Engage with Readers (interview with author Clarissa Moll)
5. How Simple Systems Can Unlock Your Writing Productivity, with Kari Roberts
6. Validate Your Idea to Produce Your Best Project (Back to Basics)
7. Embrace These 4 Key Roles for a Flourishing Writing Life
8. How to Make Time to Write and Develop a System to Take Notes, with Bryan Collins
9. Improve Your Writing by Getting Back to Basics
10. How to Hook and Hold Your Readers

First 3 Interviews:

For the first four years of podcasting for writers, I produced only short solo episodes. In 2018, I began to incorporate interviews and since then, I’ve introduced you to 16 writing and publishing professionals, inviting them to share their wisdom and insights.

My first three interviews were with:

1. Shawn Smucker
2. Patrice Gopo
3. Alison Hodgson

Top 2 Series

Two cornerstone series emerged over the years that continue to guide writers: Your Writing Platform, and What Do I Write Next.

Your Writing Platform Series:

For the Your Writing Platform series, I helped writers understand that platform-building isn’t about being a wandering troubadour, but about finding your focus and connecting authentically with readers who resonate with your message.

1. Your Writing Platform Needs a Home Base: An Author Website
2. Your Writing Platform: The Need for Focus
3. Your Writing Platform: What Fascinates, Captivates, and Energizes you
4. Your Writing Platform: How to Confirm Your Niche
5. Your Writing Platform: Who Is Your Who?
6. Your Writing Platform: What’s the Definition of Platform (and Do I Really Need One)?
7. Your Writing Platform: Do People Expect Writers to Be Speakers
8. Now Is the Time to Start Building Your Platform
9. Your Writing Platform: First Steps to Launching Your Social Media Presence (related: You can Impact Readers Right Now Through Social Media)

What Do I Write Next Series:

This series addressed the perpetual question of creative direction, encouraging writers to explore their “vein of gold” while staying open to experimentation.

1. What Do I Write Next: How to Decide What to Write Next
2. What Do I Write Next: Why Write Small When You Want to Go Big?
3. What Do I Write Next: Why Not a Series?
4. What Do I Write Next: Enjoy Your Vein of Gold
5. What Do I Write Next: Experiment and Expand Your Repertoire

Start Your Own Scary Project

For that first-ever episode, I decided the best thing to do was to give myself the advice I gave my writing clients all the time: just get started.

If you’re hung up on a project and you don’t know how to launch it, or you don’t know how to outline it, or you don’t know where you’re going with the ideas, just get started.

Once you start, you’ll get in motion.

When you get in motion, you’ll get clarity.

And when you get clarity, you’ll get both vision and specifics, and you’ll be able to get the thing done. You’ll solve your problems as you go. You’ll discover new solutions. And in the end, you’ll have a product.

It may or may not be what you thought it would be when you started out—and you may adapt and evolve as you go along—but you’ll never get there if you don’t start.

So that’s my message to you both then and now, as I look back on the ten years I’ve been speaking to you about your writing life.

Do you have something you haven’t started yet because you’re afraid, worried, uncertain?

Don’t put it off any longer. Your audience is out there. Just get started.

Resources

• All Podcasts (with summaries for browsing)
• Blubrry (you can check out my podcast host; affiliate link, which means I’ll receive a small commission from Blubrry as a thank you)

____________ Join us in Your Platform Matters (YPM)

YPM is a warm and welcoming membership community committed to creative, meaningful ways we can grow our platform and reach readers—check us out!

https://annkroeker.com/yourplatformmatters https://annkroeker.com/yourplatformmatters/

Attending my first writers’ conference proved to be life-changing—or at least career-changing. In the years since, I’ve attended a wide range of writing events, and each one has in some way substantially contributed to my career.

Some deepened my knowledge, others expanded my professional network—most did both.

I can’t imagine where I’d be without them.

Could a writers’ conference be a life-changing/knowledge-deepening/network-expanding opportunity in your future, even this year? If yes, how do you determine the right conference for you?

This post is the first of a short series on how to get the most out of your next (or first!) writers’ conference, starting with how to choose your next (or first!) writers’ conference. 

The Gifts of a Writers’ Conference

In the early days of my writing career, I explored freelance writing. Thanks to a mentor, I learned how to pitch myself as a writer for companies looking to outsource things like company newsletters and I gained a few core clients.

That launched my professional writing business.

But as a creative writing major attracted to poetry and essay writing, I wanted to explore other types of writing and submit to magazines, for example, so I picked up everything I could from library books.

The books, while excellent, were not enough to answer all my questions or help focus my efforts. And the internet did not exist at that time. In time, I instinctively knew I needed to start connecting with writers and learn from them. 

In fact, I started to crave it.

Somehow I heard about an event in Chicago called Write to Publish. I registered and attended it as my very first writers’ conference.

Nervous and unsure what to expect, I showed up and sat through sessions, as speaker after speaker delivered talks that energized my creativity, while the speakers themselves embodied a life I wanted to pursue: that of a working writer building a body of work to be proud of.

Many first-time conference attendees feel so overwhelmed by the flood of information at events like these, they conclude they could never pull it off and give up, walking away from writing and publishing altogether.

I felt overwhelmed, yes, but mostly excited and empowered. It was exactly what I wanted; it was exactly what I needed.

By the end of the conference, I interacted with attendees who in time became colleagues. I met someone who became another writing mentor. Those conference connections formed the beginnings of my professional network.

If you attend a writing conference…

• You could meet your next coach or mentor.
• You could meet like-minded writers and form a writers’ group.
• You could meet industry leaders who offer to look over your project.
• You could meet someone who introduces you to key people you only dreamed of meeting one day.
• You could meet a writing buddy who becomes an accountability partner.

If you’re considering attending a conference or any kind of writing event for the first time, I hope you find it proves to be a pivotal step in your journey. You never know how a chance encounter in the hallway or a timid hello as you take your seat in the auditorium could be the start of a professional relationship or a literary friendship that changes your life.

Writer’s Conference or Writers’ Conference?

As we dive into what a writers’ conference is and how to choose the right one for you, we have to face two small but fascinating issues. One, believe it or not, is punctuation; the other is labels.

Let’s start with punctuation.

You surely think this is overkill, but humor me for a minute.

Sometimes you’ll see an event called a writers’ conference, other times a writer’s conference. Occasionally you might spot a writers conference with no apostrophe. And then a few call their events writing conferences, avoiding the need for an apostrophe altogether.

In most industries, no one would care one bit about this level of detail. These conferences, however, are events catering to…writers, agents, and editors. So of course we notice the apostrophe (or lack thereof). And of course we start wondering how that tiny fleck of ink affects the attendees’ (or attendee’s) experience. 

Without wasting more time on the grammatical implications, I bring it up for practical reasons. Because when asking your writerly friends what conferences they recommend, apostrophe placement may not matter much, but in an online search each version could produce different results. 

 To turn up the perfect event for you, try using all the different search terms:

• Writers’ conference
• Writer’s conference
• Writers conference
• Writing conference

In your online searches, you also might change the word “conference” (singular) to “conferences” (plural). Conferences (plural) might turn up a list of events in a single article, which will save you time in your search.

If you search for the singular “conference,” your search results may deliver endless events to sift through one at a time…but it still might be an advantage, as you might find a new event that wasn’t around when a list of events was compiled into one article.

What a Writers’ Conference Tends to Offer

Most writers’ conferences feature speakers with sessions that educate authors about topics like industry expectations, genre-specific recommendations, author platform advice, tips for developing book proposals (especially for authors of nonfiction), queries, and other publishing advice. 

Conferences can also come in all different sizes, but most will offer keynotes, lectures, and breakout sessions. Some may include readings and workshops paced throughout a long weekend or some are a full week. 

Most writers’ conferences offer pitch sessions for writers who have completed non-fiction book proposals or for those who have complete manuscripts for their novels or memoirs.

Many conferences will have different tracks: one track might be for novelists, and the other might be for non-fiction authors. One might offer a track for unpublished authors and another for more advanced authors to discuss topics that new writers aren’t ready for. 

Knowing all of this can help you choose the best fit as you’re searching.

Is a conference a conference by any other name? 

The other question is this naming or labeling. Gatherings for writers might go by different names. In addition to writers’ conferences, I’ve seen and attended:

• writing retreats
• writing seminars
• writing festivals
• writing workshops
• and a writers’ colloquium

Each designation suggests a different purpose and personality. When you realize how one tends to differ from another, you’ll be able to match your professional needs and goals with the right event. 

For example, you might want to write and talk about craft at a retreat led by a writer you admire, maybe in a beautiful setting. This event would feel dramatically different from a two-day conference hosting hundreds of authors that offers 15-minute agent pitch sessions and is held on a college campus or at a hotel. 

Match Your Purpose and Project to the Type of Event

That’s why you’ll want to first be aware of what kind of writer you are and the writing you’re focusing on at this moment, then determine your purpose for attending a writing event.

This will include where you’re at in your professional and publishing journey. Then consider your current project and its stage of development. Today, I’m mostly covering the in-person conference experiences, but you may find similar benefits at something labeled something else.

Study the descriptions carefully, read the fine print regarding refunds and take into account that certain experiences may be much more expensive than others.

What Kind of Writer Are You?

Knowing yourself and your writing goals and writing stage can help you determine your purpose for attending an event. It can help you decide if you’re better suited to an event for:

• authors of nonfiction books
• authors of novels
• authors of literary writing (literary novels, short stories, essays, poetry)
• authors of genre-specific books
• bloggers
• freelance writers who are actively pitching and submitting (or want to learn how)
• writers interested in writing for the ABA and general market
• writers interested in Christian publishing
• writers interested in self-publishing

When you realize an event doesn’t offer speakers or sessions suitable for the kind of writer you are and the writing you’re pursuing, cross it off your list. It won’t be worth your time.

What About Your Project?

Next, consider what you need given where you’re at in your writing life and with a given project. 

Are you:

• a newbie with no project or book in the works, simply ready to soak in everything possible?
• an experienced writer who has taken a break and you want to dip back in and learn how the industry has evolved?
• an experienced writer with a project in a specific genre?
• an unagented novelist with a completed manuscript, ready to pitch?
• an unagented author with a nonfiction book idea, and you want to understand the industry?
• an unagented author with a completed nonfiction book proposal (or nearly complete), ready to pitch literary agents and/or acquisitions editors?
• a writer wanting to self-publish a book?

Given your current project’s status, you can decide which conference offerings will move it forward to its next milestone.

Even if you’re an unagented writer—that means a writer without a literary agent representing you—if you have a partially developed nonfiction book proposal, you may want to attend a writers’ conference to meet people and practice pitching. You might converse with an industry expert who offers ideas to strengthen your project!

What’s Your Purpose, Goal, and Need?

Once you narrow the options to an event that seems right for you, you’ll have access to useful information provided by industry experts, and you’ll meet other writers, literary agents, and acquisitions editors who are in the same space as you.

Here are common benefits:

Learn and be inspired: If you’re new to writing and publishing or if you’re new again to it after a break, search for events that will provide you with foundational advice from trusted professionals lined up as faculty. The combination of motivating keynotes and educational breakout sessions could be just what you need.

Network: You’ll be mingling with other writers at these events. Some may be at the same stage as you, and others will be further ahead. You’ll chat at the coffee station during breaks between sessions. You might sit next to each other or stand in line together to meet a speaker at the end of a presentation. These may become future colleagues who endorse your book when it comes out or introduce you to an industry gatekeeper—they might be an industry gatekeeper!

Find an agent: If you have a completed manuscript or book proposal but you haven’t yet landed an agent through querying, look for events designed for your genre with literary agents and acquisitions editors from agencies and publishing houses that interest you. Be sure they offer pitch sessions and sign up the minute that option is available. Even if you don’t land a spot with your ideal agent, as I mentioned, you might bump into them naturally and have a chance to interact.

For the Shy, Introverted Writer

Even if you’re an introverted or dreadfully shy writer, don’t let that keep you from attending a writing event.

I’ll be encouraging you in another episode to make an effort to meet new literary acquaintances. Building a network of like-minded literary people is priceless. For now, know this: You might not meet your kindred spirit, but it’s highly likely you’ll meet someone you can at least follow on social media.

And you might get to know someone who can help you take the next step in your creative journey—you might encourage them, as well.

The Writers’ Conference Investment

Conferences and other writing events aren’t cheap. In addition to the registration fee, you may need to ask for time off work, arrange for childcare, pay for travel, housing, and meals.

It adds up. And the writers who most benefit from conferences are rarely at a stage where they are compensated well for their writing, so it becomes a conundrum.

Small, Local Events: When my kids were young and our funds were limited, I looked for nearby one- or two-day events within driving distance. They often brought in two or three speakers and focused on a narrow aspect of the writing life. Those really helped me at that stage. Just because they’re small doesn’t mean they’re not offering valuable input.

Scholarships: Some events offer limited scholarships, so if you feel you qualify, reach out and ask the event organizers.

Grants: If you have enough time before the event, you could consider applying for a grant that aligns well with your writing project(s) and target reader.

Subsidized from Personal Budget: You might consider how other aspects of your life and work could subsidize this event. Be clear about what you hope to gain from attending—and how it fits into your long-term writing goals. That could be a way to view your investment in attending this event.

When I attended Write to Publish, I was building my freelance business. It probably took another year to start making substantial income, but in time I made enough to cover those initial costs. 

I wasn’t super savvy back then, but in retrospect I think I was viewing my writing as a small, startup business. The conference was an investment in my professional development, and I gained information and connections that contributed directly to my success.

Meet at Write to Publish?

In a remarkable turn of events, I’ll be on the faculty of the Write to Publish conference in Wheaton, Illinois (Chicago area), June 11–14, 2024. 

Yes, all these years later, I’ll be on site at the same event that changed the trajectory of my writing career. This time, I get to be there as a coach to support and serve Christian writers who want to be traditionally published. 

It’s humbling to come full circle, and I can’t wait to be there again.

If, after learning more about ​Write to Publish​, you feel it’s a good fit for you, use my affiliate code AK2024 at registration checkout to get $25 off. 

Make sure it’s a good fit—that’s part of the research. Again, Write to Publish is geared to Christian writers and traditional publishing. 

Do Your Research

I have attended so many different types and styles of writing events over the years. I have loved every single one of them, whether they were in person or online, whether they were a one-day or a week-long event, whether it was a retreat or a conference.

Determine your criteria right now. What you need today might be different a few years from now when you’ll pick a different event. Dive in to research the options that suit you best.

Study the faculty, the session titles and descriptions, and how the days are structured. Do they have agent pitch sessions or not? Do you need that?

If you’re writing novels for the general market or you’re writing genre fiction, skip the Christian conferences clearly designed for authors of nonfiction. Avoid those that are focused on essayists submitting to literary journals, unless that’s what you want!

There’s no one perfect event, and no one event is going to have everything you need for all time. As I mentioned, I’ve attended many different types and styles of events over the years, and each one has given me a little something different to walk away with and apply to my writing journey. 

Your Writer’s Conference

As you find one that feels like a good fit, don’t delay too long because some of them fill up. In fact, some might be full already—you can register or get the waitlist for your favorite. 

And look forward to connecting with people in the publishing industry who might be instrumental in getting you where you want to be as a writer in 2024 and beyond.

Resources

Once you choose your conference, keep an eye on the second article, about making the most of the conference itself (with tips for preparation and creative ideas to try while you’re there).

• Write to Publish Conference (use my faculty affiliate code AK2024 at checkout for $25 off)
• The Festival of Faith & Writing (April 11-13, 2024; I plan to attend this)
• Jane’s Guide to Getting the Most out of a Writers Conference (Jane Friedman)
• The Top Writers’ Conferences for 2024 by Book Publicist Scott Lorenz (Westwind Communications):
• AWP (Association of Writers and Writing Programs) Directory of Conferences & Centers
• Poets & Writers Conferences and Residencies Database (of particular interest to literary writers)
• Writers Conferences 2024: 60 Incredible Events to Consider This Year (The Write Life)
• It’s Fun to Write with Others! (episode 236)

Tis the season for lists, even for those who aren't naturally checklist and to-do list types. For the holidays, people will make packing lists, shopping lists, cleaning lists, address lists, and wish lists. - Lists are useful and practical,

[Ep 174] In last week’s interview, Patrice Gopo described the stories that bubbled up inside her—personal stories about topics she cared deeply about as she grappled with her identity and where she fit in society. Patrice grew up in Anchorage, Alaska, as a black American daughter of Jamaican immigrants. She wanted to explore that, to make sense of it all. How? Through writing. She turned to the essay to figure out her life, to delve into her experiences—to discover self and live a more meaningful life We, too, can delve into our experiences, diving beneath the surface to discover ourselves and live more meaningful lives. Elizabeth Lesser writes in Broken Open: If we don’t listen to the voice of the soul, it sings a stranger tune. If we don’t go looking for what lies beneath the surface of our lives, the soul comes looking for us. I haven’t read Lesser’s book, but that line urging us to look for what lies beneath the surface of our lives? We can use writing to do just that: to look for what lies beneath and listen to the voice of the soul. Capture Ideas It starts with an image, perhaps, or an interaction that bubbles up—a scene or memory. Pay attention to each one. Capture in detail this scene or image. You can do this on the spot or during a writing session later. Add sensory details. Try to recreate it objectively. That helps to examine and explore the meaning in it. If you don’t have time to write at that instant, jot down in a notebook a key word or phrase that can serve as a reminder or prompt. When you settle in to write it out in more detail, you’ll have many to choose from. Anne Lamott captures these snatches on 3x5 cards she carries in her pocket. Patrice uses a simple composition notebook tucked in her bag. I use Evernote or Google Keep. Ask Why? When you write—when you start to dive in and look beneath the surface—be curious about yourself, about that scene or image or snatch of dialogue. Why am I remembering that moment my dad grazed his leg with the chainsaw? Why does the sensation of flying back and forth in the swing keep coming back to me? Why does that glass doorknob make me tear up? Patrice says that when we're trying to understand what's happening in our lives or in the world—when we delve deeply into an incident to see its significance and why it matters—that’s meaning-making on the page. The incident could be big or small. As an example, Patrice said she noted in her journal that a couple of weeks ago her husband brought her a chocolate bar. It occurred to her he's been bringing her chocolate bars throughout their entire marriage. Why? Why are these chocolate bar moments over the years coming to mind? Why does he bring them? It seems small, but it’s rising to the surface. She’s listening to the voice of her soul. She pulled out her composition book and started writing some of the other scenes and memories, all because she was struck by that recurring image of a chocolate bar. She doesn’t know the answer yet; the meaning is unclear. For now, she’s exploring it. We can do that, too. We can write scenes and reflect. Let’s let curiosity and a sense of discovery lead us. Stay open as you listen to the voice of the soul; look for what lies beneath the surface of your life. You Don’t Need an Outline or Plan Thanks to our early academic training in the essay form, it’s tempting to set out with a thesis and outline our way into understanding, theme, and meaning. Resist...at least, at first. Anne Lamott, in a podcast interview for "Books of Your Life with Elizabeth," says not to worry about outlines.

At Breathe Christian Writers Conference, held October 12 and 13, 2018, I interviewed three authors who served on the speaking team. We discussed all things writing, like their writing challenges, their writing process, and their advice for writers.

As you know from my interview with Shawn Smucker, he’s a novelist with ambitious goals—on track to write ten books in ten years. He's written three of his own books—two novels and a memoir. His fourth will be released in 2019. - To make a living,

At a writing conference held October 12 and 13, 2018, I interviewed three authors who served on the speaking team. We discussed all things writing, like their writing challenges, their writing process, and their advice for writers. All for you! -

Last time, we talked about the 6+1 Traits. When you take time to evaluate your work in each one, you can begin to identify areas of strength and weakness. Over time you can boost the weaker areas and become a better writer. - In the months ahead,

[Ep 169] I’m glad to be back after an unexpected and lengthy break when I needed to care for a relative during a complicated emergency. I’m sorry I didn’t have a way to let you know in the midst of it, but it looks like things are slowing down and stabilizing. I’m back in business—able to encourage and support you and your writing again. Before my break, we were discussing how to be a better writer. I focused on small, quick wins to help you improve your writing right away with tips and tweaks. If you implement them, you will see a difference in your writing right away. But I realized I want you to see how all writing advice fits into the bigger picture of how we arrive at great writing, so I wanted to share with you the 6+1 Traits. Boost all seven traits, and you will be a better writer. 6 + 1 Traits of Great Writing The 6+1 Traits, developed by Education Northwest and promoted by the National Education Association, provides K-12 educators a way to teach and evaluate student writing. I used these categories with high school students and found that whatever their projects—essays, term papers, and creative writing projects like poetry and short stories—the seven traits gave me a way to instruct and provide input. And the traits gave them a way to think through how to make any given piece clear and strong. Not Just for Kids: Use the 6+1 Traits for Your Own Projects While it may be geared for training young writers, the categories are useful for all ages and all levels of writing experience. Whether you're writing a blog post, a social media update, or a book—fiction or nonfiction—the 6+1 Traits serve as useful reminders and guides for all stages of the writing process, from idea and developmental stages down to the final proofread. I love that they don’t focus disproportionately on conventions—usage, punctuation, capitalization, and grammar. It includes that as one of the traits, but only one of the key characteristics of writing. By exploring each trait instead of fixating on one or two, we don’t neglect areas that need attention. In fact, examining all the traits, we identify strengths and weakness not only in a given project but also in ourselves as a writer. They help us move toward excellence. The Traits What are the traits? Ideas Organization Word Choice Sentence Fluency Voice Conventions The “+ 1” trait is Appearance. Appearance is optional because it doesn’t relate to the writing itself—it’s about how we present our writing. Ideas Ideas form the core of our writing. When developing your project and later when you’re editing, start with the idea. To be crystal clear on it, express the big idea succinctly—in a sentence—and then read your piece in light of the idea. In nonfiction, is your writing clear and focused on that idea or are you veering off into the weeds? Do your main points and examples offer convincing support? If your idea isn’t clear to you, your idea won't come across clearly to the reader. In fiction, ensure your short story or novel idea is strong and clear: Does your plot work? Your character arc? How about theme? When you clarify and solidify your idea, you can turn to the second trait: Organization. Organization You can start thinking organizationally about how to present your idea starting with the title and subtitle (or headline, depending on what you’re writing). And then your introduction with a thesis. Will you create subheadings to chunk your ideas and present them logically? In fiction, you organize the piece starting with the title, subtitle, and the opening scene and the hook. You move through, scene by scene, organizing your story in a way that best fits,

In a recent release of Revisionist History, Malcolm Gladwell introduces his podcast listeners to Dr. Bernadine Healy. In this episode, he asks Johanna Schneider, who worked with Dr. Healy at the National Institutes of Health, to describe her to listeners. Schneider said several things, including this: "She had a wooden sign on her desk that said, ‘Strong verbs, short sentences.’ And that was Bernie.” Using that wooden sign’s message as a callback, Gladwell seemed to say that Dr. Healy's value of strong verbs and short sentences conveyed formidable strength, in person and on paper. A force to be reckoned with, Dr. Healy communicated with precision and clarity. “Strong verbs, short sentences” reminds me of the advice we hear so often: Write tight. “If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.” ~ George Orwell. “Writing improves in direct ratio to the things we can keep out of it that shouldn’t be there.” ~ William Zinsser “Omit needless words.” ~ William Strunk Jr. I thought about stopping right there. I mean, “Strong verbs, short sentences”? Strunk nailed it. Omit Needless Words In an increasingly impatient world accustomed to texts, tweets, and sound bytes, this classic advice feels timely and, like it or not, necessary. Readers are impatient. We can’t waste their time. As we embrace this new cultural tendency toward sentence fragments and textspeak, we can write so tight we squeeze out nuance, texture, and meaning. If we interpret “Omit needless words” to mean “Write in the sparest style possible, like Hemingway,” we may be missing the point. The Elements of Style elaborates on its own concise, unambiguous, three-word sentence, “Omit needless words” when it says this: Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts. This requires not that the writer make all his sentences short, or that he avoid all detail and treat his subjects only in outline, but that every word tell. (The Elements of Style) Let every word tell. Make every word count. Include Necessary Words Instead of hacking away at our work, reducing it to a series of short sentences that hammer away at the reader’s ear, we study our work to determine the necessary elements. Sometimes, we need more words for clarity. Our culture often points to Ernest Hemingway as the master of strong verbs and short sentences, elevating him to the master of concise, clear writing—so much so, someone created an app called The Hemingway Editor. From its help page, it claims the app "makes your writing bold and clear...Almost any bit of writing could use some cutting. Less is more, etc…. So, the Hemingway Editor will highlight (in yellow and red) where your writing is too dense. Try removing needless words or splitting the sentence into two. Your readers will thank you.” Using the Automated Readability Index, the Hemingway Editor evaluates the “grade level” of your writing style when you paste a portion into the app, which you can do online for free. Turns out Hemingway didn’t write like Hemingway, at least not the way we’ve oversimplified his style, reducing it to strong verbs and short, declarative sentences. Hemingway Fails I plucked The Sun Also Rises from my shelf. Listen to this sentence: He was married five years, had three children, lost most of the fifty thousand dollars his father left him, the balance of the estate having gone to his mother, hardened into a rather unattractive mound under domestic unhappiness with a rich wife; and just when he had made up his mind to leave his wife she left him and went off with a miniature-paint...

Last week I talked about the mindset that believes growth is possible—that you are neither stuck at your current level nor have you arrived at mastery. With that mindset, you can begin to evolve and improve. Today I recommend three simple writing tweaks that will keep your readers interested and engaged. 1. Use Active, Vivid Verbs Propel your story or idea forward with active, vivid verbs. Don’t fret about your word choices as you write your draft, but in the editing stage, especially, look for places you can swap a flat, lifeless verb for one that keeps the reader alert and engaged. A few examples of flat, lifeless verbs: “is" and other forms of “to be” (am, are, was, were, be, being, been, will be, and so on) “go” or “went" “have” or “had" “made" "do" When you identify words like these that slow down your work, you open up new opportunities to improve. Start fishing for verbs that energize your writing and dream up new ways of expressing an idea or scene. Let’s say a writer describes a troubling situation in her kitchen. She writes, “The Instant Pot made such weird sounds, I worried I’d missed a step with the lid position or the settings.” By simply choosing a more vivid verb than “made” ("The Instant Pot made such weird sounds…”), creativity kicks in and the whole scene picks up. Like this: “The Instant Pot fizzed and spit as the silver peg jiggled and wobbled. Did I miss a detail in the instruction book? Should I turn the lid one notch tighter or pick a setting lower than ‘ultra'?" The scene expanded and changed in tone. By playing with the verbs, the sentence came alive. This simple tweak can produce stronger writing in all genres. Turn to active, vivid verbs whenever possible and play around with options. 2. In General, Avoid “There was” Consider this common sentence structure: "There was a jogger who outran a terrier that nipped at her heels." Because "There was" includes a form of "to be," I could have lumped this suggestion under the discussion of flat, lifeless verbs. Instead, I want to address this on its own. >> “There was” Fills in for Unknown Subject Sometimes we use “there are” when we aren’t sure who or what the actor or subject is. Newspapers rely on this when reporting on a situation with limited information. “Last night there was a robbery at the gas station on the corner of 5th and Main.” Perhaps the reporter turned to “there was" because police hadn’t said anything about the perpetrator. If so, the reporter didn’t have enough information to write, “Two men wearing clown masks robbed the gas station on the corner of 5th and Main.” To make the deadline for the morning paper, the reporter gave readers what he had so they are aware a robbery allegedly took place on the corner of 5th and Main. >> “There was” Can Hide an Identity A writer might rely on “there was,” “there are,” or “there is” to avoid casting blame. For example, a mom might write in an email, “I’m going to miss the meeting. There was a flood in our house from an overflowing toilet.” She chose “there was” on purpose to avoid pointing fingers at the particular child who flushed an entire roll of toilet paper and clogged the toilet to overflowing. Sometimes identity doesn't matter. "There was a pine cone jammed in the gutter." No need to blame the squirrel or the wind when the focus of a scene is the pine cone itself. As you can see, this construction comes in handy from time to time. But in general, avoid using it—especially because it can so easily be rearranged to create a more engaging alternative. >> Alternatives to “There was” I can rearrange the example and play with variations.

Last week, we started to explore a fear that haunts many writers, which is the fear that they aren’t good enough. Or they think they aren’t enough. I hope you've explored the root of this fear and other fears that hold you back as a writer. I hope you're ready to move past the fears. Instead of worrying, wondering, or fearing you aren’t good enough to write, you’re going to do something about it. You’re going to be a better writer. For the next few weeks, we’re going to introduce, review, and practice some things we can do to improve, so that we’re getting better all the time. Ernest Hemingway said, “We are all apprentices in a craft where no one ever becomes a master.” In other words, we'll always be growing and changing as writers. When we have a beginner's mindset—when we see ourselves as an apprentice—we can continue to learn. Even those who feel confident in their writing skills can discover room for growth. We are all apprentices capable of becoming better writers. Believe You Can Change It sounds so simple, but any writer can get trapped in the belief they are stuck where they are in a kind of personal stasis—they assume their writing skills and ability are finite and unchangeable. The beginner’s fixed mindset This fixed mindset can haunt the insecure writer who feels he is trapped in mediocrity, unable to evolve and improve. He believes he'll never be good enough to submit his work to a journal or agent. He believes he wasn’t born with that gift of writing, so there’s only so far he can go. He settles into the space he feels he’s allowed to occupy and sort of gives up. The experienced writer’s fixed mindset The thing is, this static mentality—this fixed mindset—can also plague the more experienced writer who’s found some degree of success. He settles into a comfort zone, seeing that he can consistently turn out material at about the same level of quality and readers continue to respond with enthusiasm. Why change? Why grow? "Why fix what ain't broke?" he thinks. So he writes without stretching himself, satisfied with how his writing life has unfolded and where it’s taken him. He sees no need to grow beyond this. Both writers, stuck I'm glad for those who have reached goals and arrived at some level of success. Congratulations. But I confess...I hope to encourage those writers to believe they, too, can get even better and write even more challenging and captivating projects, whatever they may be. So wherever you find yourself on this spectrum, I’m going to try to change your mind and your mindset. If you feel you weren’t born with the writing gene and you believe have no hope of improving, I’m telling you, it’s time to learn about—and even test—the growth mindset. If you’ve built publishing credits and produced an impressive portfolio of work—if you’ve sold books and hit bestseller lists—you, too, can improve. You’ve been received well, but you can be an even better writer. Because we all can. None of us is stuck or static. Embrace the Growth Mindset If you’ve been told only some people are natural born writers who emerged into the world with some kind of supernatural artistic gifts, that’s a fixed mindset, and the fixed mindset causes us to slam a door that was actually standing wide open to us. This belief is supported by plenty of outliers we can point to—people for whom writing does seem easy, whose work astounds. But writing skills can be learned and writers—even so-called natural-born writers, if they exist—are not locked into one level of greatness. None of us needs to feel stuck, yet many of us cling to the fixed mindset. “Oh, that’s not for me. I'm not a great writer. I can’t do that.” Everything Is "Figureoutable"

Dear Writer,

It’s easy to freeze up when we’re writing for the faceless masses or the random reader who happens upon our words.

What do we say to all those people? How can we speak with heart to a total stranger?

Next thing you know, we second-guess our ideas, our prose, our very selves. We fade to beige without saying what we really think, without being specific, without our signature wit and whimsy. 

What would that random person who doesn’t even know me think if I crack a joke?

We lose our creativity, our passion, our joy.

We freeze. We get stuck. 

We’re afraid to stand out, so we play it safe. We write dull, ordinary prose that could be penned by anyone at all, even ChatGPT.

Unlock Your Creative Voice: Write a Letter to Your Reader

One way to unlock creativity is to write a letter—a letter to your reader.

And not just any nameless, faceless reader but a specific person you actually know.

Dear Anthony…

Dear Paula…

Dear Lissa…

When you think of the kind of person you’re trying to reach with your words, does Lissa fit?

Good. 

Now, write her a letter about a question or struggle that she herself has voiced. 

Weave in ideas that can help. 

Encourage her with a vulnerable story.

Add a little pizzazz that only you can include—after all, she knows you. She’ll grin at your joke and “get” your allusion.

When you’re done, you can send her the note, if you want.

Or you can cross out Lissa’s name and replace it with the type of person you write for:

Dear Weary Homeschool Mom…

Dear New Gardener…

Dear Journaler…

If that feels awkward to publish, cross off the salutation altogether. 

Dear Anthony…

Dear Paula…

Dear Lissa…

I’ll bet you can find a great hook in your opening lines, and the letter-writing trick disarmed you enough to write fresh and real and personable.

Writing a Letter to Your Reader Frees Your Natural Voice

From the writer’s perspective, writing a letter to your reader can remove that feeling of writing to the faceless masses and instead invite an easy tone and thoughts that convey empathy and intimacy.

J. Willis Westlake, author of an 1800s book about letter-writing, says:

In other [writing] productions there is the restraint induced by the feeling that a thousand eyes are peering over the writer’s shoulder and scrutinizing every word; while letters are written when the mind is as it were in dressing-gown and slippers — free, natural, active, perfectly at home, and with all the fountains of fancy, wit, and sentiment in full play.1

By tricking your mind into donning its dressing-gown and slippers, you can achieve that “free, natural, active, perfectly at home” tone, style, and voice. Your readers will love reading your “fancy, wit, and sentiment in full play.”

Genuine Letters Contain Our Most Interesting Content

And it’s not just our style, tone, and voice that letters unleash; it’s also the content itself.

Westlake continues, “Though written, as all genuine letters are, for the private eye of one or two familiar friends, and without any thought of their publication, they nevertheless often form the most interesting and imperishable of an author’s productions.”2

In other words, these letters contain our “most interesting and imperishable” ideas. So why not write them as letters first?

Discover Epistolary Writing

This letter-writing format is labeled “epistolary” writing. And the epistolary approach is used more widely in published work than you might be thinking. For example, advice columns.

Advice Columns

Advice columns like the classic “Dear Abby” and more recent “Dear Sugar” dished out empathetic responses that addressed specific needs that were sent in from readers.

The writer connected directly with the recipient who asked the initial question and with every reader who “listened in.”

Epistolary Nonfiction Books

Then there are nonfiction epistolary books, which invite us to peruse a letter exchange, and as we do, we feel we’re listening in on an intimate conversation. 

Recognize these letter collections?

• 84, Charing Cross Road, by Helene Hanff
• Letters to a Young Poet, by Rainer Maria Rilke 
• The Letters of Vincent van Gogh

Epistolary Novels

You may have read epistolary novels that rely on this format to create “an intimate space between the characters and the readers,” as the Smithsonian Postal Museum writes. “[Because] letters are usually intended to be a closed communication, the readers are allowed to peer into the relationship created by the author.” ‌“Epistolary Novels as an Intimate Space.” Si.edu, 2023, postalmuseum.si.edu/research-articles/epistolary-fiction-themes/epistolary-novels-as-an-intimate-space. Accessed 23 Oct. 2023.

Here are a few novels in this format:

• Flowers for Algernon, by Daniel Keyes
• The Color Purple by Alice Walker
• The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
• The Screwtape Letters, by C.S. Lewis
• Gilead, by Marilynne Robinson

Letters Between Writers

When I was a college student, I wrote to an author whose book gave me hope and instruction when I was struggling personally and creatively. I sent her a long, vulnerable, typewritten thank-you letter explaining how her book gave me inspiration, vision, and tools to pursue my creative life.

She wrote back!

In fact, her response was an exuberant typewritten letter even longer than mine. She included vulnerable details related to her own creative journey and urged me to move forward.

We continued to exchange letters over the years, and each one she sent answered questions and gave me advice for writing…and for living.

Letters Capture Our Most Creative, Interesting Ideas

We almost published these exchanges as a book in the epistolary format—maintaining the format of letters. 

Had we published them, the “interesting and imperishable” ideas from my mentor—in the intimate form of our correspondence—would have remained. Readers could have listened in, as it were, to our interactions. They would have received her insights for themselves even though she typed them out first just for me.

So the letter-writing structure can be an interesting experiment if your recipient is open to letting your notes (and possibly their responses) be shared with the wider public.

Write Your Reader a Letter Today

Picture your reader—that specific person who comes to mind. The reader whose specific problem you understand.

Open an email if you need to trick yourself even further and put that person’s name in the recipient line.

Relax. Write to her in a conversational tone. Say what you’re truly thinking. Express empathy, tell a story, offer a couple of ideas.

By shrugging off the sense that you’re writing to “everyone” and instead addressing just one person, you’ll feel free to be creative. Your writing style will produce more authentic and engaging content.

Tweak or delete the salutation, copy the text into a newsletter, social media post, Substack, or blog post, and then…

Click publish.

I’ll bet that genuine, heartfelt note will sparkle with your true voice and resonate deeply with your readers.

Sincerely yours,

Ann

Footnotes:

1. Popova, Maria. “How to Write Letters: A 19th-Century Guide to the Lost Art of Epistolary Etiquette.” The Marginalian, The Marginalian, 21 Dec. 2012, www.themarginalian.org/2012/12/21/how-to-write-letters-1876/. Accessed 25 Oct. 2023.
2. Ibid (emphasis mine).

A few times I brought my high school English papers to my dad for him to look over. Trained as a newspaper editor, he’d reach into his desk drawer and pull out either a red pen or a soft black pencil he used at work. Sometimes he’d mark it on the fly while I was standing there, narrating his reasoning as the pencil left ominous black marks on the paper. Other times I’d leave it with him and return to find entire paragraphs X’d out, words and phrases circled or deleted, giant question marks in the margins, and arrows pointing out problems here, there, and everywhere. If I still had a copy of those drafts, I know now—as an adult—that his corrections significantly improved my work. As a teen, though, I didn’t see it that way. Corrections felt like criticism, and I walked away dejected. I wasn’t good enough. What’s your story? Have you endured an interaction where someone gave you the impression or outright told you that when it comes to writing, you aren’t good enough? Did a parent, teacher, or editor offer criticism that caused you to question your writing hopes and dreams? More recently, has anyone asked you to write something you’ve never attempted before and you thought, “I’m not good enough to write that?” Have you signed up for a writing course only to realize your classmates seem far more experienced and knowledgeable—each time you turn in a project, their harsh comments cause your heart to crumble like one of those buildings that implodes and collapses into rubble? Have you started work on a writing project feeling bold and brilliant—maybe you got some positive remarks from a few people—and then you’re suddenly hit with imposter syndrome, and you think: “I’m not good enough to do this!”? You’re not alone. Many writers fear they aren’t good enough, and some never get a project off the ground because the fear takes over. It shuts down their creativity and keeps them from finishing. If they manage to finish, they’re too afraid to share it with the world. Fears Upon Fears The fear of not being good enough is often tangled up with other struggles and fears so that we have fears upon fears: fear of judgment fear of criticism fear of rejection fear of failure imposter syndrome people pleasing personalities perfectionism self-doubt insecurity anxiety We're complex people and some of us are a bundle of neuroses. Understanding ourselves can give us insight into our writing roadblocks. As we identify our fears, we take a step toward overcoming them. Write the story behind your fears That’s my first suggestion: write about it. Write the story behind your fears. Not for publication; rather, write about it in a private journal, for your own benefit. If you feel you aren't good enough to write, ask yourself why you believe that. Write out scenes from your past where that message came through. Recall the scowls and frowns, those jabs and insults, those question marks and arrows and X’d out paragraphs that you carried with you into adulthood. Root out the experiences that have formed your unchanging, stifling belief. Sort out the complexities. When fears cause us to stop Whether comparing themselves to other writers or feeling haunted by criticism from their past, writers can struggle with crippling fear that they are not good enough. Sometimes it manifests as self-doubt that nips at every word they tap out on the keyboard. Sometimes it manifests as perfectionism that expects such shimmering prose that the writer gives up, feeling incapable of producing such high-level work. The fear of not being good enough can stir up insecurity in any writer,

Over the past week I followed several women on Instagram as they traveled to London for a literary-themed trip. One woman on the trip, Bri McKoy, posted a photo of a letter preserved under glass at St John’s College Library. The letter, written by Jane Austen’s father, was sent to a publisher, describing a book about the same length as a popular novel of the time. He wondered if they might be interested in taking a look at it. https://www.instagram.com/p/Bl_dpmkAeXt/ The publisher rejected the book, sight unseen, with the short reply "declined by Return of Post.” Famous Books Initially Rejected Here’s part of Bri's Instagram caption: Everybody, listen up! What you are looking at is a REJECTION for Jane Austen’s book PRIDE AND PREJUDICE. Her dad sent a letter to a publishing house not only asking them to publish her manuscript but also telling them he would pay for everything. Still, they rejected it. They rejected it by sending his letter back to him. Can we sit with this for a moment? Someone. Rejected. P & P. We know of many stories like this. Lithub pulled together a list of books initially rejected by publishers. The list included Madeleine L’Engle's A Wrinkle in Time, with 26 rejections from publishers, and Kathryn Stockett's The Help which endured 60 rejections from agents. The website Bookstr pulled together a list of 10 books rejected multiple times, including Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, which was rejected 12 times; William Golding's Lord of the Flies, rejected 20 times; and Carrie by Stephen King, rejected 28 times. In her Instagram update, Bri pointed out how easy it is for us to have the luxury of knowing the whole story. “Listen,” she writes, “we know how that story ends….But what if we don’t know how the refusals handed to us end? What if we are sitting in our own unknown.” Writers in Their Own Unknown Websites like Bookstr don’t pull together a top ten list of writers who got rejection letters who still are unpublished. There’s no triumph there. There’s just the rejection. They’re sitting in their own unknown, so we don’t find inspiration in them. St. John’s College Library doesn’t preserve under glass a rejection letter for a book that's still sitting on someone's hard drive, only read by a few beta readers and the writer’s mom. The rejection letter is under glass because the book was rejected AND THEN was published and became the much-loved novel Pride and Prejudice. Stephen King’s book Carrie made the list because it was rejected 28 times AND THEN it was picked up by a publisher and became a blockbuster commercial success and was made into a movie. Same with The Help. It was rejected, AND THEN. Many of us haven’t reached the AND THEN. We know the end of those other stories, but we don’t know the end of ours. Worse, if we get the rejection, it feels like END OF STORY. That’s why we’re afraid. Take Heart: This Is Not The End I’m here to say it is not the end. Bri encourages her readers to take heart. “Rejection is not an executioner. Rejection is a guide.” Then she goes through several possibilities. This rejection could guide us to keep going or to pause. To take a slight left turn even though we were certain we were to go right. The idea could be too big or too small. Then she says, “Remember you are living out a full story, not a highlight reel. Let rejection inform you, not destroy you.” I join Bri in saying “take heart.” Take heart, because a rejection is not THE END. It’s not. So don’t let the fear of rejection keep you from doing the work. When Fear of Rejection Stops Us Before We Even Begin You may be afraid of a formal rejection by a magazine, an agent,

I love that today’s theme comes from a newsletter subscriber who responded when I asked for ideas to address on the podcast or in articles. So this is a real writer with a real struggle—a reality for many writers. This person wants to know: How to write when you work full time? That’s a tough one. It’s hard to have any kind of hobby or side hustle when you work full-time. When you put in the hours at work and come home exhausted, how can you possibly devote your depleted brain and energy to a creative project? Don’t Ignore the Ache I stayed home to raise our four children and we chose to home educate, so while I didn’t work full-time in a traditional sense, I had my hands full most hours of the day. Writing was extremely challenging during those years. My dream was to have an entire day at my disposal, no interruptions, no diapers to change, no activities to organize. But that wasn’t the overall lifestyle we’d chosen. I thought if I couldn’t have the day to write—and if, in fact, my reality felt like I had NO time to write—why bother? But I couldn’t ignore the ache. I ached to write. Some days I felt hopeless. Some days I felt sorry for myself and didn’t bother even trying. Most days I wanted that all-or-nothing writing life. So a lot of days I didn’t write. After all, I didn’t feel like I had the energy; or if I started, I’d only be interrupted. Why try? But that ache wore on. Address the Ache I couldn’t go on like that. I had to address the ache. I suspect that’s where a lot of writers are—maybe the person who sent in this idea for a podcast. You’re feeling the ache, that soul-ulcer chewing away at your creative impulse. You’re losing hope. How do you write when you work full time? Assuming you can’t quit, I hope you’re feeling something else rise up in you—something louder and stronger than the ache. Voice It It’s a voice, a determination within. A resolve. You have something inside of you that must be voiced. A barbaric yawp you’re ready to sound over the roofs of the world. I. Must. Write. That’s it. You must write. Yes, there’s writing in you, ready for the page. You can’t wait any longer. There’s a writer in you, ready to yawp, and you know it. You can’t wait for the perfect conditions. You can’t wait until you inherit some distant relative’s fortune so you can quit your job. No more waiting. You must sound your yawp over the roofs of the world. You must write. Today. Look for slivers of time and the occasional chunk of time here or there. Settle for less than the dream of a cabin in the woods. Whatever you can, grab it and write a few lines. Where Will You Write? Let me tell you a story. Joseph Michael developed a Scrivener training course while he was working full time at another job. Scrivener is writing software, also an app, that many authors use because with it, you can manage longer, larger, more complex projects more easily than you can using Word or Google docs. But Scrivener is a little confusing to most newbies; at least it was for me. So I grabbed his training course years ago when it was on sale and started watching, hoping to avoid bumbling around, losing important pieces of projects. I felt frustrated because I didn’t understand the system, so I walked through his short training lectures and made sense of Scrivener. Years later, because of the success of his Scrivener course, Joseph Michael came out with some additional training on how to build courses—a course about courses. I didn’t buy the course about courses, but I signed up for a free introductory webinar,

Last week I told my email subscribers I'd love for future content to be inspired by the very issues that trip them up or hold them back. Today I’m going to spotlight one of the first responses: What do you do with the initial ideas once you’ve got them? This writer continued by saying they're great about coming up with a brief synopsis and sometimes even an outline but then they get stuck. "I never know where to begin! What’s the best way to start any story?” Story Ideas Are Gold—Store Them in a System First let me address at a practical level what to do with those initial ideas. Not every writer generates a lot of motivating, marketable ideas, so if you have more than one, you're sitting on a creative gold mine. Take good care of your ideas and you’ll always have options. Store any and all ideas in a safe place—ideally in a system designed for easy access, one that supports your project’s progress. Your Writing Pipeline I suggest setting up a Writing Pipeline, which I’ve explained in another article. Allow me to mention briefly that my Writing Pipeline consists of different folders set up in Evernote marked: Ideas Drafts Final edits Shipped Archive I have two more folders in the same stack that aren’t part of the actual pipeline but feed the pipeline, and those are: Notes & Quotes Research While Evernote has worked well for me, your Writing Pipeline folders could just as easily be set up in Trello, Google Docs, or any project management app or system you use. But the point is to be sure you have a place to capture, store, retrieve, and develop your ideas. Initial Idea Development Let’s say an idea comes to you one morning. You capture it in an Idea folder where you’ve stored several other ideas. Later that evening you review your ideas and decide to develop that one. An idea needs time to grow and develop. You may want to map out a plot or flesh out a concept. You might make lists, draw mind maps, jot the main ideas or plot points onto Post-It notes, and assemble all that into a working outline. This is where the writer who posed that question finds him or herself. If we’re at the same stage, we’re staring at files filled with at least a few ideas in early stages of development—with a synopsis and maybe an outline. What now? Pick Your Favorite Story Idea It’s time to pick one of those ideas and write. Not long ago I waded along the edge of a body of water. Scattered across the hot sand were not shells but stones. I picked up a few and gazed at them, admiring the lines that cut across one, the soft red hue of another, and the smooth feel of a flat gray stone against my fingertips. I showed my selection of stones to a friend. “I love stones!” she exclaimed. Then she headed out to the water’s edge to find her own choice handful. Others in our group did the same. Next thing you know, we were running up to each other, showing off our favorites, admiring the beauty. Out of all the stones piled along the edge of the water, we’d all identified our own small selection that pleased us. In the same way I was drawn to one of those stones more than another—and who knows why?—I sift through my Ideas file now and then, and find myself drawn to one of my ideas more than others. The same can happen to you. You’ll read through ideas and for whatever reason, your mind will ignite just a little more when thinking through one idea than it does for another. And don’t choose one idea over another just because it’s further along. Why invest creative effort on a project that’s developed but void of energy?

When I was in college, I bought a small recorder. A Sony, I think. You’re wondering the year? Well, let’s just say I bought packs of cassette tapes for this gadget. My goal was to record the lectures so I could play them back as I walked or biked across campus, listening to the material a second or third time. I took notes during the lecture, but if I re-listened to them on the go, I only needed to skim my notes to perform well on quizzes and tests. Ideal Input for Auditory Learners Many years later someone suggested I might be an "auditory learner." Though I love to read and I enjoy visuals, their label sounds about right. Auditory learners like me tune their radios to talk shows, borrow from the library CDs of The Great Courses, download audiobooks, and subscribe to podcasts. Recorded content isn’t for everyone—podcasts may not “stick” with visual and kinesthetic learners, after all—but for me and many other auditory learners, they're ideal. The stories, ideas, encouragement and teaching delivered via podcastsprovide valuable input without the need to crack open a book or stare at a screen. Podcasts Offer Flexibility Through podcasts, in particular, I can learn while jogging, walking, weeding, folding clothes, or driving down the road. If I’m sick in bed, I can press play to passively take in ideas. Through podcasts I keep up-to-date with technology, I follow industry trends, and as much as I love audio, I am, of course, an avid reader, so I tend to take in most words from the page or screen and don’t always know how to pronounce them. When I listen to a podcast, people's voices become familiar, new words roll off my tongue with greater ease, and names of industry insiders become easy to pronounce—with the added bonus that ongoing exposure to the hosts' ideas and laughter makes them feel like old friends. So maybe I'm preaching to the choir, and maybe you're already one hundred percent sold on the power of podcasts to deliver just what you need to boost energy and inspiration—even replacing conferences to some extent—but I’ll say it anyway: If we subscribe to podcasts, we can learn on the go and supercharge our writing. Depending on the podcast, the content might even contribute to personal growth and professional development. All for free. Find Your Friends I find podcasts through recommendations from people I already listen to or read. I’ll skim the lists and stop on the titles or subject matter that sounds interesting. I’ll search for the show, sample an episode or two, and then decide whether or not to subscribe. Sometimes those shows send me down yet another rabbit hole. If I enjoy the guest on an interview-based show, for example, and find out the guest has her own show, I'll give that a listen. And so I meander, finding more and more podcasts to stimulate my mind and bring me up to speed on best practices and industry twists and turns. Shows to Sample In my podcast player, I subscribe to shows that seem like they’ll consistently produce appealing, useful, encouraging material—and a few that are unpredictable. Those surprise me with a perspective completely different from mine. Sometimes I keep listening; sometimes I unsubscribe. I invite you to sample a few I've enjoyed. This is not an exhaustive list, of course, and you might not click with them. If none feels like a good fit, I do hope at least one of the shows leads you to someone else who ends up becoming your next favorite podcast. Nine Writing-Related Podcasts to Try Here are nine writing-related podcasts to consider. I’ll include descriptions from their notes, to help you know the direction of that show. Novel Marketing Podcast A show for novelists who don't love book promotion but still want to become bestselling...

My dad started smoking when he was a teenager and smoked like a chimney all the way through college and into adulthood. He worked in the newsroom of a major metropolitan newsroom, where smoking cigarettes and cigars was the norm—almost expected.

If you’ve concluded you really need to leave behind who you are and the writer you’ve been, and transition to a completely new look, feel, tone, and type of writing, you’re going to rebrand yourself. - You have options for how to go about it.

You’re going for it. You decided you’re going to rebrand yourself. - How will you go about it? - We already discussed one option: the trial run. Rebrand Yourself: Integrate Today we’ll see if choosing to integrate will work best.

You’re going for it. You decided you’re going to rebrand yourself. - How will you go about it? - You have options. One is what I’ll call “Trial Run.” Next time, we’ll talk about “Integration.” Then “Slow Transition” followed by “Cold Turkey.

In the last episode, I finally attempted to define an author brand. Before that, we talked about staying consistent with the core you—the brand you’ve developed, the tone you take, the voice your readers have come to enjoy. - The episode before that,

Let’s look at the pros and cons of using writing prompts to decide if we’re fostering creativity or frittering away time.

I remember the pleasure of writing about ladybugs for my high school freshman English class based on the prompt written on the board.1

And then there was the book I found a year or so at the library: Write to Discover Yourself. The author suggested we “portrait” the important people in our lives.2 I wrote pages and pages about my dad based on that prompt.

Prompts continued to play a big role in my creative writing journey when college professors supplied our class with poetry prompts.

Those prompts did exactly what they were designed for: they sparked creativity, teased out long-buried memories, and helped me spin creative storylines I would never have imagined on my own. Prompts have so effectively opened me up, I decided to gather a collection for others to use called 52 Creative Writing Prompts, to help get pens moving and ideas flowing. 

Do Prompts Distract or Delight?

But am I doing a disservice? Are prompts mere distractions, diverting writers from purposeful, goal-oriented writing?

Some argue we need to stop using prompts and only write toward public-facing projects. Why waste time on writing prompts that fill notebooks and journal pages, when we’re struggling to find time for the writing we claim we want to do? Why write in response to a random prompt instead of composing the essay we want to submit, the book we want to draft, the article we want to pitch?

Let’s peek at arguments for both sides, the pros and cons of prompts, to see if we need to embrace or abandon them in our creative writing life. 

Pros of Creative Writing Prompts:

On the plus side we have benefits of creative writing prompts, such as how they:

1. Spark Fresh Ideas

Creative writing prompts inspire writers who struggle to generate any ideas at all by giving them an energizing starting point. Prompts also spark fresh ideas in writers who tend to return again and again to topics they’ve written about before. Prompts press writers to explore subject matter outside their comfort zone, breathing new life into their rotating collection of pet topics and pillar content. 

2. Overcome Writer’s Block

Prompts offer a lifeline to writers grappling with writer’s block—they invite a “stuck” writer to write freely for ten, 15, or 20 minutes without those words needing a destination or purpose other than to get the ink flowing.

3. Provide Low-Stakes Practice

Writing prompts intended as practice serve as low-stakes exercises, encouraging writers to play and experiment without the pressure of immediate evaluation by editors or readers. Prompts allow writers to refine their craft and explore techniques in the safety of their writing notebooks and journals. In time they may develop a more captivating style.

4. Prepare for Assignments

Freelancers who’ve been assigned a topic for a magazine or essayists who have entered themed writing contests benefit from writing from prompts. It’ll prepare them for assignments based on narrow parameters. 

5. Offer a Writing Warm-up

When writers tap out a few words in response to a prompt before diving into their long-form/high-stakes project, they can enjoy a brief warm-up that loosens them up.

6. Enhance Honesty and Depth

With prompts, writers delve into deeper personal experiences, memories, emotions, and themes without fear of judgment, leading to more honest and profound writing.

7. Lead to Personal Growth and Healing

When intentionally selecting prompts that invite reflection—maybe even under the direction of a therapist—writers can experience transformation through personal growth and healing. It’s no surprise that when we spend time in personal writing such as journaling, we grow and mature as people, which in turn makes us better writers.

Cons of Creative Writing Prompts:

To be fair, we need to look at the cons of creative writing prompts and how they might hinder our writing.

1. Waste Time

Critics argue that writing prompts can lead to aimless scribbling on topics unrelated to our writing goals and projects—time we could have dedicated to a work-in-progress. Instead, it’s being swallowed up by an unrelated prompt. Marion Roach Smith wonders why we can’t try warming up by writing toward the main project itself. Her big argument: when you write from prompts “you’re frittering away your time” instead of writing “with intent” and “for real.”3

2. Spit Out Stilted Prose

Savannah Cordova observes, “If you choose a prompt that’s too far out of your comfort zone (or one doesn’t really inspire you), it’s no surprise that the response will usually come out sounding forced.”4

3. Lack Purpose

Prompts are usually random—in fact, some websites offer random prompt generators. These offer no clear direction or purpose; they simply invite us to write a random scene. Lacking purpose, have we strayed from our goal of completing a project?

4. Allow Writers to Avoid Feedback

While some writing groups use prompts and offer input from the group, writing to prompts privately means we miss the opportunity of receiving input and feedback from real readers. In contrast, when we write for readers in public in a place like Substack, we can see our work resonate with others when they respond in the comments.

5. Encourage Procrastination

Are some writers using prompts to avoid their main project? Relying on prompts for this purpose could be a form of procrastination instead of hitting a word count goal on a more important and urgent project. “Admittedly, prompts can be valuable — as an exercise,” writes Jeff Goins. “But eventually, you don’t need another day at the gym. You need to sign up for the marathon and run. You need to go play a real game. You need to do something. Here’s what I find productive — far more than writing prompts (no offense to those who use them): Write something meaningful and share it.”5

Is it really either/or? 

It’s easy to see the appeal of creative writing prompts but important to consider the downsides and “dangers” of them, as well.

Words of caution from Marion Roach Smith and others remind me that while a solid prompt can open up the flow of words, it could also—if not used judiciously and with purpose—keep me from hitting my most important targets and deadlines.

But is it really either/or?

An integrated approach to prompts

I could propose a controversial conclusion banning prompts from serious writing work. Yeah, sure. I might get more hits on social media or responses in online searches.

But studying the pros and cons of using creative writing prompts has led me to a less controversial and more integrated conclusion. And maybe those who argue against them would agree to a thoughtfully integrated approach as well.

Here’s what I’m thinking…

Real Projects May Benefit from Prompts

Prompts could be used when we’re working toward the deadline and find ourselves stuck or blocked. Yes, a real project might benefit from a prompt.

We can set a timer and write for 20 minutes from a prompt to get our words flowing—any words flowing. When the timer beeps, we return to the official project with fresh eyes. The timer limits prompt-writing and minimizes distraction and procrastination while the prompt refreshes the mind. We’re still completing the “official” writing—in fact, the time spent responding to the prompt might brighten the tone of the finished piece.

Prompts Invite Creative Connections for Effective Slants

Prompts could be used to generate a narrow focus for a freelance pitch, landing on a creative slant or angle that gets a “yes” from an editor. In this case, prompts aren’t keeping us from our “real” work but are in fact used to inform and inspire our “real’ work. 

Prompts for Personal Reflection Make for Better Writers…and therefore Better Writing

And behind the scenes, free from public scrutiny, we could use prompts for inner work that shapes us into more insightful and compassionate writers.

It would be hard to measure the prompts’ influence on a future manuscript, but the writer will have more to draw from because they used prompts to privately sort out life, pain, problems, and confusion.

Creative Writing Prompts Have a Place in the Writing Life

That doesn’t seem like a time-waster to me. Those private writing sessions? They could stay in a journal or notebook or who knows? One day that unfiltered writing may liberate the writer to produce more vulnerable projects that transform readers. And maybe one day they actually pull from some of those private writing sessions. Some of the actual content may find its way into a powerful piece.

I agree that writers with limited writing time will want to choose prompts wisely, avoiding procrastination by funneling as much as possible into their work-in-progress.

But I do think prompts have a place in our writing life, our writing practice, and our writing process.

As for me, I’ll be using prompts…with purpose.

Q4U:

How about you? 

How have prompts served your creative work or distracted you from it?

Will you continue to use prompts? If so, how will you use them (and how often will you use them)?

52 Creative Writing Prompts: A Year of Weekly Prompts and Exercises to Boost Your Creativity Get your copy on Amazon Footnotes:

1. Kroeker, Ann. “Creating Worlds from Words: The Unremarkable Beginnings of a Writing Life.” Substack.com, Story Hatchery, 15 Apr. 2023, annkroeker.substack.com/p/creating-worlds-from-words-the-unremarkable. Accessed 12 Oct. 2023.
2. Kroeker, Ann. “Ep 180: Write to Discover – Start with Yourself – Ann Kroeker, Writing Coach.” Ann Kroeker, Writing Coach, 8 Jan. 2019, annkroeker.com/2019/01/08/ep-180-write-to-discover-start-with-yourself/. Accessed 12 Oct. 2023.
3. ‌Smith, Marion Roach. “Memoir Writing Resolutions. Number One: No More Writing Prompts – Memoir Coach and Author Marion Roach.” Memoir Coach and Author Marion Roach, 27 Dec. 2011, marionroach.com/2011/12/memoir-writing-resolutions-number-one-no-more-writing-exercises/. Accessed 4 Oct. 2023.
4. https://www.facebook.com/jamigold.author. “Writing Prompts: Helpful? Or a Waste of Time? — Guest: Savannah Cordova.” Jami Gold, Paranormal Author, 16 Apr. 2019, jamigold.com/2019/04/writing-prompts-helpful-or-a-waste-of-time-guest-savannah-cordova/. Accessed 4 Oct. 2023.
5. Jeff Goins “The Last Writing Prompt You Will Ever Need.” Goinswriter.com, 2015, goinswriter.com/writing-prompts/. Accessed 4 Oct. 2023.

I guess I got ahead of myself. - I’ve been talking about author branding, but I didn’t describe or define it. And in this world of author branding, you may be wondering, “Uh...what’s an ‘author brand’?” - Sorry to leave you full of questions.

Last time we talked about having a playground. A place to relax and try new things. A place where you can experiment and be a little messy until you figure out how you want to use that space. Consistent at Your Core At the same time,

If you scroll through my Instagram feed, it won’t take long before you’ll see quotes on pictures, quotes with colored backgrounds, sourced images and my own snapshots all jumbled together. It’s not pretty. -

As a writer, you know how amazing it feels to get positive feedback on something you've shared with the world, whether a blog post, article, poem, or even a short social media update. - And if you're an author trying to get a book into the hands of re...

This coming Sunday in the United States we celebrate Mother’s Day. Eight years ago, I wrote a tribute to my writer-mom, reflecting on they way she modeled how to live the tension of being the mom she wanted to be while also being the writer she wanted ...

About 20 minutes before the my dad’s calling and funeral service were scheduled to begin, we were milling around, chatting with various family members, organizing papers for the service. - Throughout the week,

When my dad died in March, our family worked together to write the obituary. Each of us thought back on his life to decide the right stories to tell, the best details to share. - What career highlights or life accomplishments should we bring up?

On a recent road trip, I loaded the “up next” feature of my podcast player with every episode that sounded intriguing. One episode would play after another without my having to touch it. Hours of Filling the Mind As I rolled down the freeway, I listened to hours and hours of podcasts, filling my mind with interviews, ideas, tips, and strategies related to writing and publishing, creativity and productivity, social media and marketing. That continuous input felt like taking back-to-back sessions at a conference or classes at college. Hungry to learn, I gorged on the steady diet of nourishing information. Hours of Stilling the Mind When I arrived at my destination, I turned off the podcast player. Silence. My brain grew still. That’s naturally what happened at the end of my long journey. But of course that’s exactly what I needed next. After filling my mind, I needed to still my mind. I needed to build in space and time to process and ponder the content I had taken in. I needed time to decide which ideas I could “own” for myself and integrate into my life and work. How could I test them out without some degree of stillness? Hours of Input Need Hours of Silence My outing was my Grand Gesture, if you recall from the last episode. I was near a beach. I made a commitment to walk every day, at least an hour. Sometimes two. As I walked, all that input from hours of listening and learning tumbled around in my mind, mixing with whatever I’d dropped in there over the years. Waves spilled against sand and lulled me into a relaxed state of trust in the directions my mind meandered. Freed from overthinking and overanalyzing, I solved a few sticky issues and casually outlined a few projects. I gained excitement and vision for the year ahead. Fill + Still = Breakthroughs While I have a lifetime of input floating around inside me, I believe in the importance of continuing to fill myself with more. I’m a lifelong learner, I guess. I want to keep my mind sharp. But I also see the value—the necessity—of following the filling with a stilling my mind, giving it space to make connections and arrive at breakthroughs. We have those a-ha moments while walking, showering, folding laundry, washing dishes. When we aren’t actively problem-solving, our minds are still enough to wander, think, make connections. This is a valuable state for a writer in need of breakthrough for a sticking point in a project. Effortless Breakthrough After a period of filling the mind, take time to quiet the noise. Turn down the volume, whether literal or figurative. Give the brain some down time. In the stillness of those quieter, less mentally demanding times, we figure it out: I just realized how my heroine will escape the trap! Ah! I know the third stanza in the poem—I can hear it in my head. For that essay, I’ll allude to a line in a play and write a section on how it resonates with our society. Our rested state allows us to arrive at clarity and vision. Filling and Stilling, We Write Unique With your insight, you can put the idea together in a way that only you can. That’s why you and I could both write about the same topic or respond to the same prompt and your final product would be completely different from mine. Not only are our styles different, but we’ve filled our minds with different content. You read this book while I read that. You came across a quote in your travels and I found one in a letter my mom wrote to her best friend when she was in college. You pored over medical research, while I had a conversation at a party thrown by a friend. We have it all inside, ready to increase the clarity and quality of our writing.

About a month ago, I escaped the frigid late-winter temperatures of the American Midwest and headed out on a big road trip. - By myself. - To write. - (And to walk on the beach.) - ’Twas a big investment of time and resources.

The past two weeks, I shared with you parts one and two of my writing life beginnings. I reflected back on when, where, and how I began to dream of writing, pursue writing, and latch on to the writing identity. -

Children gaze at a vast blank wall and see opportunity—inspired, they grab a permanent marker and scrawl across the surface in loopy circles and jaggedy lines without hesitation. 

Why, then, do we adults stare at the blank page—not unlike a blank wall—and freeze up? Instead of scribbling out ideas that fill the white screen, we writers often come up empty, the blank page producing a blank mind.

We get too far ahead of ourselves, thinking about readers before we’ve written a single word, afraid of what they’ll think. Or we second-guess our ideas or skills. We worry about that and more, and next thing you know…we stop writing and stare at that blinding white abyss, paralyzed.

The blank page need not intimidate or cripple us. Why? Because with the ideas below, you can fill that great expanse with words so that it’s never really blank when you open it.

Try one of them the next time you open a document and feel fear trickling down to your fingertips. I hope they’ll free you up long before you freeze and you’ll replace fear with joy by effortlessly filling the page with words.

1. Templates

Create templates for your content, whether it’s a newsletter, blog post, or podcast. By inserting the structural elements you tend to use each time, you approach the page with a sense of familiarity. Templates serve as a framework to jumpstart your writing process, making the page feel less daunting.

2. Outlines

Embrace the power of outlines. The classic 5-paragraph essay structure you learned long ago—with an introduction, three main points, and conclusion—is a reliable starting point for informative articles. For more creative pieces, try narrative outlines with a three-act structure (even if it’s short) or a beginning, middle, end approach. Outlines help you organize your thoughts and create a roadmap for your writing, banishing the fear of the blank page. See the links below for ready-made outlines you can use to add structure to your document.

3. Record Yourself & Transcribe

Take a walk and record your thoughts about the topic you want to write about. Then, get a transcription made of that recording and paste it in—you’ve eliminated the blank page altogether. It’s as if you’re simply editing and expanding on (and refining) your existing thoughts, which is far less intimidating than starting from scratch with nothing but a blank page and blinking cursor.

4. Record a Conversation & Transcribe

Meet with a friend on a virtual platform like Zoom, click the record button, and explain your idea. As your friend engages with questions, you’ll be able to clarify and delve deeper. This approach captures your natural voice as you share what you’ve been researching and thinking about. Thank your friend, download the audio, and then use a program like Happy Scribe or Rev.com’s AI transcription service to transcribe the conversation. You’ll end up with a working draft for your writing project. TIP: more and more free AI transcription services are cropping up, so be sure to search for the latest options and you might not even have to pay. 

5. Pull from Your Journal

If you’ve been jotting down ideas, thoughts, or snippets of writing in a journal or a similar document, don’t let them go to waste. Pull something from there and paste it into your current document to kickstart your writing. Things like Morning Pages, Dream Journals, and freewriting can be sources of inspiration.

6. List Bullet Points

Before you even have a minute to think about the blank page, start writing your ideas in the form of bullet points—they don’t have to be complete thoughts or sentences. No more blank page! And you’ll have prompts you can use to draft your content. You can expand on each bullet point to develop your ideas further, gradually filling the blank page with meaningful content. Move them around until you find the ideal flow and structure. Problem solved.

7. AI Writing Apps

If you’re open to experimentation, consider using an AI writing app. These tools can generate ideas and even provide outlines based on your input. While they may not perfectly replicate your voice, they can jumpstart your creativity and offer valuable suggestions—maybe even a rough draft you can work with—reducing the intimidation factor of a blank page. Manage your expectations, though, because it may take a long time before it comes close to matching your style and writing voice. Use it as a starting point before making the final project sound like you.

Beat the Blank Page & Write with Confidence

With these fill-the-page strategies, you can conquer the blank page and approach your writing with confidence and creativity. Each method makes the page less daunting, so you can seize the opportunity and make your mark on the world with your words, scribbled with joy.

Try one of these ideas this week and let me know how well it works for you!

Resources:

• Ready-made outline: Problem-Solution (this articles shows how you can apply this outline to different projects, including opinion pieces, blog posts, and nonfiction books)
• Ready-made outline: Past-Present-Future (this article makes an argument for outlining; scroll down for applications of this outline)
• Ready-made outline: Zoom In / Zoom Out

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Note: This was originally published both at my website and at Tweetspeak Poetry back in 2013. - I signed up for an American Literature class. The instructor didn’t ask about my brother, and I understood what I read,

Note: This was originally published both at my website and at Tweetspeak Poetry back in 2013. - My mom, a journalist, was talking with a friend. She beamed at my brother. “Charlie, he’s the writer of the family. And Annie? She’s…” Here,

Last time we talked about getting that first pancake out of the way so you can make more pancakes. We can be so afraid of that wobbly-edged first pancake that we don’t even start, but when we overcome that fear and pour out that first blob of batter,

Back in December of 2014, my first podcast episode spoke to listeners. I preached to myself, as well. - The message? Just get started. You Only Need to Know 'Enough' I’d been putting off podcasting for years.

Photographer Walker Evans said, “Stare. It is the way to educate your eye, and more. Stare, pry, listen, eavesdrop. Die knowing something. You are not here long." - Pay attention to this world. Learn something. And then, I might add, give it away.

In her book The Artful Edit, Susan Bell says editing “involves a deep, long meditation within which the editor or self-editor listens to every last sound the prose before him makes, then separates the music from the noise" (5). -

Recently I plucked from the shelf The Artful Edit: On the Practice of Editing Yourself, by Susan Bell. Already I can tell that Susan Bell's approach to editing has less to do with comma-spotting and more to do with staying attentive and open to more im...

Curious writers are generally creative and productive, and able to achieve their writing goals—all while having fun. This is no surprise to you—I say it every week! Curiosity can fuel our writing projects and our writing lives so we can create our best...

Last time we talked about enjoying our vein of gold as we decide what to write next. - To discover our strength as a writer—writing that represents our brightest, most brilliant contributions—I proposed we may have to experiment and try new genres,

If you were to meet me in person, you’d find out I’m a little silly. My humor is situational, and a story grows more animated in relation to audience reaction—which I don’t have in real time here on the podcast. -

When I was visiting my grandmother one summer afternoon, she pulled out a letter I sent her.

“This is good,” she said.

“Really?”

She pointed at the paragraphs and said the ideas were well organized, my writing flowed well, and I included lots of details. “It was interesting to read,” she said.

Then she looked up at me and smiled. “Maybe we have another writer in the family?”

Did I gasp? Her words certainly sent a jolt through me. Did she know how badly I wanted to write? Could she have known how much I yearned to be a writer?

Surely the thought of me as a writer seemed far-fetched to her. After all, my mother was a seasoned editor and columnist, endowed with innate writing talents—Grandma saw her earn accolades in college and as a career journalist.

My father was an editor at a prominent metropolitan newspaper, shaping stories, crafting headlines, and curating front-page content.

Even my brother, a skilled wordsmith, showed promise as a creative writer, eventually becoming an award-winning copywriter for ad campaigns.

And then there was me—Grandma knew her granddaughter was a sprinter on the track team, a clarinetist in the band, and a dedicated student earning good grades. Yet, no one, myself included, saw me as a writer…well, I helped put the school newspaper together, but I was hardly an ace reporter.

Yet here she was, encouraging me to write, cheering me on.

During that brief exchange when pointing out the strengths of my letter, Grandma kindled a spark of hope within me.

External Validation Bolsters Us

While external validation shouldn’t dictate our writing journey, it bolsters us when we face the inevitable resistance that hits us from within and without. Her words reverberated in my head (and my heart) for years, counteracting doubts that crept in, giving me courage to push past obstacles and move toward a future with words.

Around that time, my best friend in high school praised the short story I wrote: “The Medallion of Kilimanjaro.” Her sincere reaction made me believe I could tell a captivating story.

A few years later, my college boyfriend nudged me to enroll in creative writing at our university—his vote of confidence aligned with Grandma’s earlier endorsement, solidifying my self-perception as a writer.

In one of those creative writing classes, a poetry professor urged me to submit my work to the undergraduate journal. Armed with her belief in my potential, I sent in three. The outcome exceeded my expectations—each of the three submissions was accepted for publication, and one poem secured a prize.

I could continue to list even more people who added to that chorus of encouragement, bolstering my confidence. Editors, friends, team leaders, mentors. With their voices cheering me on, I took risks. With their affirmations in my head and heart, I pursued a writing career—I built a writing life.

Who Cheered You on as a Writer?

Who cheered you on throughout your writing journey? Who pointed out your potential and steered you toward a life of words?Whose voices gave you confidence?

Was it a mentor, teacher, peer, editor, friend, or coach?

If they never voiced their thoughts, would you have given up?

Make a list of the people who offered you encouragement to pursue this path. If possible, track some of them down and thank them.

Perhaps you could mail them a letter?

After that…cheer on another writer. Encourage them as they face obstacles on the path to achieving their writing goals.

When you do, you’ll be one of the powerful voices adding to the chorus of those who give them confidence to stick with it—to pursue writing and build a writing life.

Resources:

• My Writing Life Beginnings, Pt 1
• My Writing Life Beginnings, Pt 2
• Writers: Never, Never, Never Give Up
• 5 Writing Strengths

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In this eight-week intensive, I’ll help you elevate your writing skills and create a compelling piece you’ll be proud to show an editor or agent. By the end of our time together, you’ll have completed a 3,000-word piece, along with multiple short submissions that invite you to experiment and play with new techniques.

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A few weeks ago, when I introduced the idea of how we can decide what to write next, I proposed several ways a writer can approach that decision. One was to write whatever’s next in sequence. Write What’s Next in Sequence If you’re writing a novel,

Last week I presented you with a long list of ways you can decide what to write next and then I promised to expand on some of them. - One suggestion was to decide to write something you can finish and ship fast. Projects Big and Small

Every day, a writer wakes up and asks, “What do I write next?” And the answer varies from writer to writer—even your own answer may change from week to week. Sometimes it’ll be obvious what to write next. When you’re approaching a looming deadline and that article or chapter must be completed, the decision is made for you. You sit down and work on that. But other days you have flexibility. You can write anything you want. How do you choose? Can we be sure the next thing we write is the right thing to write, or the best thing? Do we need to be sure? I don’t think there’s an absolute right or wrong answer. You choose. But you usually choose based on something, whether consciously or subconsciously. And if you make the choice based on something that rings true with your values and supports where you’re at in your journey, you can feel good about your decision. Ways to Decide The next few weeks, we’ll go through various ways you can decide, so you’ll feel a little more confident moving forward on whatever you do write next. Write Something That Moves You Toward Your Goals When you’re trying to decide what to write next, you may already have clear goals in mind. You want to submit poetry to literary journals in hopes of being published this year, or you want to put together a book proposal and send it to an agent this fall. Knowing your goals can help you start with the end in mind and work your way back so that you know what to write today and the next day. For you, the question “What do I write next?” will be easily answered by those goals—your next thing to write will be whatever moves you closer to that goal. But you may not be that clear about your goals. You may not know where you want to be in a year or what you want to do even in the next month or so. Or you’re re-evaluating your goals. Or you just want to write. That’s okay. You don’t have to overthink it or get uptight about your decision. But if you want to give it some thought, I’m going to toss out various filters or motivations that might help you begin to think about your next writing project and make a decision. This list will serve as an overview, and then in the weeks ahead, I'll go into more detail on some of them. So…How do I decide what I write next? Write Something That Increases your Skills One way to decide what to write next is to take stock of your skills and experience. Do you need to work on something? You could pick a project based on its ability to help you hone the craft and develop yourself as a writer. Write Something You Can Finish and Ship Fast If you’re working on a long-term project and have been for years, you may realize you’re not going to get any real feedback on it for several more months and you won’t know what readers think for months or even a year after that. An occasional shorter project lets you enjoy quick turnaround and a sense of completion. This could be something as immediate as a social media update or as formal as a poem sent to a literary magazine. Write What’s Next in Sequence If you’re writing a blog article series, write the post that explains the next step or stage. If you’re writing a novel, tackle the next scene. Your short story will need the next beat. A poem grows with the next line leading to the next stanza. An article will expand with another paragraph or section. The sequential approach can be a logical way to decide what to write next. Write Something for Validation You may want to write something in hopes of a magazine acceptance. You’ll get that feeling of being chosen. “Hey, they picked me! They picked my article! Someone other than my spouse and mom says my writing is worth publishing.” After that, you may have readers responding and enjoy anothe...