Get that Book Written

How are your New Year’s resolutions coming? Are you harnessing the energy of the New Year to write a book? Are you using it to get started on (or heck, restart) your memoir or nonfiction book?If not, what are you missing? Do you need a better system? Accountability? Support? The Real Reason People Hire a Writing Coach I’ll be honest with you—the real reason people hire me is for accountability, support and community. Most of us know already know what we should be doing, as well as how to go about it (i.e.: write every day, or as often as we can). If we need more info, we can find it online. There’s a zillion writing experts out there, and most of us offer plenty of tips, tricks and free advice. When people come to me, they’re looking for a clear plan and […]

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How to Write a Book in 10 Simple Steps

How to Write a Book in 10 Simple Steps Always wanted to write a nonfiction book? This guide will show you how write a book in 10 simple steps  so that you can get those ideas out of your head and onto the page. Taking the time to work through these steps will save you tons of time, money and energy as well as keep you from having to do unnecessary rewrites. STEP 1: How to Clarify Your Book’s Audience, Purpose and Goals   A. Let’s start by getting clear on your book’s purpose. Grab a pen and paper and jot down your answers to the following questions. Please don’t edit yourself. What’s the purpose of your book? Perhaps it’s to help heath-care professionals navigate the increasingly-high level of bureaucracy in their office. Or maybe you want to teach stay-at-home moms how to […]

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Does This Sound Familiar? (+ free training 9/18)

Something I often talk about with my clients is our tendency to move the goal post (i.e.: expanding the scope of a writing project by making it longer, fancier or more complicated than it needs to be). Sound familiar? (I do it, too.) We’re human, after all, and this is one the primary ways the inner critic shows up, by catapulting us into fear and overwhelm. Which is what happened to two of my clients this week. M. and K. are both fabulous women, strong writers and successful business owners writing books on their topic of expertise. Intimidated by the vastness of the project before them, both started piling more to-dos on their writing plate. Once I helped them see how they were moving the goal post, we could get back on track and start moving forward, one manageable step at a time. […]

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Want to Write a Book But Don’t Know Where to Start?

I can’t tell you how many people tell me they want to write a book. But they don’t know how, don’t have time and/or don’t know where to start. Without a plan, it’s easy to keep putting it off. I get it! Writing a book can be a big project, absolutely. But it can also be incredibly rewarding. The trick is breaking it down into manageable pieces. Some folks think it’s something they can just sit down and do. (As if it’s a matter of will power.) It’s not. Like anything else, writing a book entails getting crystal clear on your project first, before you start writing. Otherwise, you’ll end up wasting tons of time and money, not to mention energy. And there’s nothing worse than sitting down to a blank page without any idea where you’re headed. Yikes! Talk about scary. There’s […]

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When to Share Your Story, Part 2

In our last post, we talked about when to share your story if you’re working with a difficult situation, as well as when not to. But what if you’re writing about a difficult story? Do those same rules still apply? Yes! Remember how we talked about the importance of NOT sharing your story publicly until you’ve worked through it (Rule #1)? That applies even more when you’re writing about that story. Why? Because trying to share your story too early can lead to writer’s block. There’s simply too much pressure around how people will respond. Plus, when we share our stories before we’re ready, those all-too-vulnerable spots leave us wide open to attack. But even if you’re not yet ready to share your story, writing it can still be challenging. You might have to write your way through your story before you’re able […]

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