Latest / The Daily Writer / November 2020 Listener Q&A

Transcript

November 2020 Listener Q&A · The Daily Writer

0:07
SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the weekend edition of the Daily Writer.
0:10
SPEAKER_00: Each weekday, we bring you a short lesson that helps you live out the four practices of a great writer: creativity, consistency, courage, and connection.
0:20
SPEAKER_00: Here on the weekend edition, we take a deeper dive into those topics through conversations with notable writers, as well as teaching that helps us apply what we're learning and also prepare for the week ahead.
0:31
SPEAKER_00: For more, you can visit us at dailywriterlife.com.
0:40
SPEAKER_00: Well, as I've launched this new show called, of course, The Daily Writer, I thought it would be fun to do a QA episode about once a month and invite people to submit questions related to writing.
0:51
SPEAKER_00: Now, those questions can also be on topics like productivity, publishing, mindset, success, lots and lots of different things that can be related to writing.
1:01
SPEAKER_00: But of course, here on this podcast, it all relates back to writing.
1:04
SPEAKER_00: It all comes back to that topic.
1:06
SPEAKER_00: So these are some questions that people have submitted.
1:08
SPEAKER_00: I've got, oh, I think 14 or 15 questions here.
1:11
SPEAKER_00: I was honestly surprised at how quickly uh people sent questions.
1:15
SPEAKER_00: I was uh really pleased by that.
1:17
SPEAKER_00: I thought that was pretty cool.
1:18
SPEAKER_00: So basically, I got on Facebook a couple of days ago and I asked people to submit questions related to writing, and I did the same thing on my email list, and these are the questions that people submitted.
1:29
SPEAKER_00: And again, I envision on doing this about once a month, and um we'll see where this goes.
1:35
SPEAKER_00: So let me know if you like this QA episode.
1:37
SPEAKER_00: I love QA's on other podcasts and in other formats and and so forth.
1:42
SPEAKER_00: So hopefully you enjoy this.
1:44
SPEAKER_00: We we're dealing with a lot of different topics in this in this episode today.
1:48
SPEAKER_00: So let's dive right in.
1:50
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna group these first two questions together because they both deal with productivity.
1:56
SPEAKER_00: Mike Singleton asks, how does a writer stay productive during the pandemic?
2:01
SPEAKER_00: And Sean Washburn asks, Productivity tips would be a good one.
2:07
SPEAKER_00: I know there are a lot of factors.
2:09
SPEAKER_00: And for me, being more ADHD brained, I found the Pomodoro technique really helpful to help me focus in short bursts.
2:17
SPEAKER_00: So, in light of all that, my question would be what are some good tips for staying productive when you have a lot of ideas floating around in your head?
2:26
SPEAKER_00: Well, the Pomodoro technique is definitely something I like to use and I find really helpful.
2:30
SPEAKER_00: And for those who don't know what the Pomodoro technique is, basically you focus for 25 minutes, you take a short break, then you do another 25-minute burst, and you you do you could do several stretches of that for hours, I suppose, if you want to.
2:44
SPEAKER_00: Doing it that way helps you focus for a burst of time because you know you've got a break coming up.
2:50
SPEAKER_00: In other words, normally what we do is we sit down and we're like, okay, I've got to get this thing done, and we we envision us charging ahead at full steam for two or three or four hours at a time, but it's really difficult to stay focused for a long period of time like that.
3:04
SPEAKER_00: So that's why something like the Pomodoro technique can be so helpful is because you focus for a short burst, then you take a little break.
3:10
SPEAKER_00: I usually take a five-minute break when I do that.
3:13
SPEAKER_00: I can do it for a couple of hours, then I'll take a you know a 15-minute break or something like that.
3:17
SPEAKER_00: Now, just to throw in a little thing here before I move on with this question, I teach a lot of online courses.
3:25
SPEAKER_00: Um, in my day job, I'm a professor at St.
3:27
SPEAKER_00: Louis Christian College in Florescent, Missouri.
3:29
SPEAKER_00: Proud to be there.
3:30
SPEAKER_00: I love uh our SLCC soldiers.
3:33
SPEAKER_00: And in all of my online courses, I take a break if we go any longer than like 75 minutes or 90 minutes.
3:40
SPEAKER_00: I try not to go any longer than 75 minutes without taking a break.
3:44
SPEAKER_00: I do that occasionally, but I think it's important when you're in a focused format to go for a while and then you take a break.
3:52
SPEAKER_00: That applies to a teaching environment as well as to our productivity as well.
3:56
SPEAKER_00: Now, about being productive when you have a lot of ideas floating around in your head?
4:00
SPEAKER_00: That's something any creative person can relate to because we have way more ideas than we can ever possibly put into practice.
4:08
SPEAKER_00: So, Sean, I would ask, which of those ideas is helping you to accomplish your goals?
4:13
SPEAKER_00: Uh, for example, if you're a ghostwriter, uh, which I know that you are, uh, which of those ideas that you have floating around in your head will help you further your marketing, your content, or your relationships as they relate to ghostwriting?
4:28
SPEAKER_00: And I think it also helps a lot to have an outlet for those ideas.
4:31
SPEAKER_00: And for me, this podcast is my main outlet.
4:34
SPEAKER_00: I have other outlets as well, like my email newsletter, social media, uh, writing books, you know, that kind of stuff.
4:40
SPEAKER_00: But this podcast is my main outlet for content.
4:44
SPEAKER_00: But you can have a blog, a newsletter, social media, or whatever else.
4:49
SPEAKER_00: Having something like a podcast where people expect it on a regular basis, I think really helps with productivity.
4:55
SPEAKER_00: So I'm recording this on Saturday evening, and I know in my mind that I've got a I've got an email newsletter I still have to write that goes out to my list in the morning.
5:03
SPEAKER_00: So knowing that people expect something, I think really does help with productivity as well.
5:09
SPEAKER_00: Now let's go back to Mike's question about productivity during a pandemic.
5:13
SPEAKER_00: And Mike, I assume that you mean how do you stay productive when you're feeling bummed out, maybe feeling a little bit discouraged, maybe a little tired, or you're not feeling well, or just kind of like being out of sorts.
5:24
SPEAKER_00: I think that pretty that pretty much describes like 2020 as a whole for the whole world as we're all just kind of out of sorts.
5:31
SPEAKER_00: So this would probably be a good time to revisit your 80-20 activities.
5:36
SPEAKER_00: And what I mean is that that's going back to the 80-20 principle, also called the Pareto principle.
5:43
SPEAKER_00: Paretto said that 80% of your results come from 20% of your activities.
5:48
SPEAKER_00: So which of those activities that you're doing gives you the biggest return?
5:53
SPEAKER_00: I think when you have a limited amount of energy and time and focus, when you're feeling tired and you have no energy, um, focus on those things that are giving you the biggest return and that are giving you the biggest bang for your buck, in other words.
6:07
SPEAKER_00: I think it's important to focus on those.
6:09
SPEAKER_00: Also, I think getting plenty of sleep, getting exercise, keeping your energy level up, those are all really, really important as well.
6:17
SPEAKER_00: Let's go on to the next question submitted by Ted Beerman.
6:21
SPEAKER_00: Ted asks, how does one deal with being a perfectionist?
6:25
SPEAKER_00: Well, Ted, this is something a lot of writers deal with, including me.
6:29
SPEAKER_00: And I deal with this, in fact, a lot more than probably I let on at times.
6:33
SPEAKER_00: Um, I've dealt with perfectionism a lot in my life, and it's really been a battle that I've have fought again a lot.
6:42
SPEAKER_00: Uh, even right now I'm fighting this.
6:44
SPEAKER_00: I've actually started this podcast episode, I think, four or five times.
6:48
SPEAKER_00: I know it's kind of crazy to admit that, but this is like the fifth time I've tried to record the first couple minutes of this because I just wasn't happy with it.
6:55
SPEAKER_00: So I'm a lot better with perfectionism than I used to be, but it's still a big struggle.
7:02
SPEAKER_00: Now let's take a second to look at what is perfectionism exactly.
7:06
SPEAKER_00: Perfectionism is based in the idea that your value as a person is tied to your performance.
7:12
SPEAKER_00: If you perform well, if you make straight A's, if you look and act perfect, if you never mess up, then you're worthy.
7:20
SPEAKER_00: And if you don't perform well, then you're unworthy.
7:23
SPEAKER_00: That's really what perfectionism is.
7:24
SPEAKER_00: It's all based on your performance.
7:26
SPEAKER_00: So I would ask, why do you feel that you need to be perfect?
7:31
SPEAKER_00: I think it's really important to dig down hard into that question.
7:35
SPEAKER_00: And for every answer that you tell yourself as to why you feel you must be perfect, keep asking why until you get to the core.
7:44
SPEAKER_00: Usually when you dig really deep down, it's something like, if I don't perform or I'm not perfect, nobody will love me, or nobody will value me or appreciate me.
7:53
SPEAKER_00: And saying it out loud like that, it sounds kind of ridiculous.
7:56
SPEAKER_00: You know, it sounds like something, you know, like a third grader would say.
8:00
SPEAKER_00: But, you know, we all carry around a lot of ridiculous ideas in our heads, don't we?
8:04
SPEAKER_00: We all carry around these notions that I have to perform or people won't love me, or that people won't value me or or think that I'm worth being a friend to.
8:14
SPEAKER_00: Again, it sounds ridiculous to say that out loud, but those are the emotions that many times we carry within our hearts and our minds.
8:21
SPEAKER_00: Perfectionism, I think, is like emotional quicksand.
8:25
SPEAKER_00: There's no way you can get out by yourself.
8:28
SPEAKER_00: You have to have other people to help you with getting out of perfectionism.
8:32
SPEAKER_00: And what I specifically mean is that you've got to surround yourself with people who affirm you, who love you, who appreciate you for who you are, and not because of just what you do.
8:43
SPEAKER_00: And I think in practice, this means developing quality friendships and maintaining those friendships.
8:49
SPEAKER_00: You're investing time into those friendships.
8:52
SPEAKER_00: It means being a part of a great mastermind group or being a part of a small group or some kind of community where you support each other and you accept each other.
9:00
SPEAKER_00: And when you're around those type of people, you really start to value yourself and you also come to terms with the fact that you will make mistakes.
9:08
SPEAKER_00: You're not going to be perfect, and that's okay.
9:11
SPEAKER_00: From a spiritual perspective, the antidote to perfectionism is knowing that God loves you unconditionally, and therefore you have value.
9:19
SPEAKER_00: And when you have a bigger awareness of God's love for you, and then when you also have good friends who support you, and you're you're feeling that love and that validation in a tangible way, then you can learn to love and appreciate yourself for who you are, not for who you should be.
9:37
SPEAKER_00: And then you can stop measuring your worth by your accomplishments and achievements.
9:42
SPEAKER_00: So this is starting to sound like a counseling session a little bit, but you know, I've been a creative person my whole life.
9:48
SPEAKER_00: I've worked around creative people my whole life.
9:51
SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, artists and writers, you guys are my peeps.
9:55
SPEAKER_00: I mean, that's just how it is.
9:56
SPEAKER_00: I love artists and writers and creative people.
9:59
SPEAKER_00: And this is how this is how a lot of creative types think, you know, because we do things that are more public, you know, whether it's being on a stage, whether it's putting our writing out there or our music, whatever it is, because we do things that are public in that way, it's very easy for us to get into this mode of thinking where we have to perform for people, you know.
10:21
SPEAKER_00: It's like almost like we're the court jester sometimes.
10:23
SPEAKER_00: It's like we got to get up and dance, we've got to perform for people.
10:26
SPEAKER_00: Otherwise, we're scared that they're not going to love us for who we actually are instead of just what we provide to them.
10:32
SPEAKER_00: So that's why you have to get around people who don't just love you for what you do or for what you provide for them, or uh whether you're entertaining or you're a good musician or a good writer, you've got to be around people who love you because you're you.
10:46
SPEAKER_00: I've got to be around people who love me because I'm Kent and I'm a messed up person and I'm flawed and I make mistakes, but they love me anyway.
10:56
SPEAKER_00: And I am eternally grateful that I have a wife who she doesn't, she's not impressed by anything that I do.
11:03
SPEAKER_00: It's not not necessarily that I've done anything like majorly worthy of, you know, it's not like I've had these massive accomplishments in my life or anything.
11:10
SPEAKER_00: Um, but anything that I do that maybe is a little noteworthy, like having a podcast or being an author or whatever, you know, she's not impressed by any of that stuff.
11:19
SPEAKER_00: She loves me for who I am, warts and all, and I'm so grateful for that.
11:23
SPEAKER_00: So, and I've also got lots of friends who love me for who I am as well.
11:27
SPEAKER_00: So, Ted, those are some words.
11:29
SPEAKER_00: And because we have a long history, you know, um, we've known each other for a long time, uh, I appreciate you asking the question.
11:35
SPEAKER_00: That was a lot to unpack in that question, and I kind of went on for a minute.
11:39
SPEAKER_00: But this this gets to the core of what a lot of us writers and artists deal with.
11:43
SPEAKER_00: Thanks for asking the question.
11:44
SPEAKER_00: I really appreciate that.
11:45
SPEAKER_00: And I appreciate you, by the way.
11:47
SPEAKER_00: I really do.
11:49
SPEAKER_00: Next question is by Becca White, who asks a question about memoirs.
11:54
SPEAKER_00: She says, How do you get past emotions to write a memoir?
11:59
SPEAKER_00: So, Becca, I feel like I have a little bit of a glimpse into what you mean.
12:03
SPEAKER_00: I just finished ghostwriting a book that was, I would say it was half memoir, half personal development.
12:10
SPEAKER_00: And that book told the story of the author's very rough childhood up until she was about 30, um, 30 or 35 or so.
12:18
SPEAKER_00: And at that point, she started to develop a very successful business.
12:23
SPEAKER_00: And in this story, there was a lot of emotion that she had to deal with.
12:27
SPEAKER_00: Uh, in the process of us putting this book together, she had to relive a lot of those experiences, and I know that was really difficult for her.
12:33
SPEAKER_00: And I really respected her for not holding anything back.
12:36
SPEAKER_00: Now, obviously, I can't reveal what the book was, unfortunately, since it was a ghostwriting arrangement, but I can tell you that the number one comment on her Amazon reviews was that the book is real, honest, and raw.
12:51
SPEAKER_00: And that was a powerful reminder to me that people don't want perfection.
12:54
SPEAKER_00: They want people they can relate to, they want people who are flawed.
12:59
SPEAKER_00: Um, they want people who they can cheer for.
13:01
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't mean you've got to be perfect, but it means you've got a heart there.
13:06
SPEAKER_00: You've you've got something that people want to cheer for.
13:08
SPEAKER_00: And I'm here I'm talking really about storytelling.
13:11
SPEAKER_00: But but I did I did learn that lesson from writing that book, and that was a very important lesson, that people don't want perfect authors.
13:19
SPEAKER_00: People want authors they can relate to.
13:22
SPEAKER_00: We all relate much more to brokenness.
13:25
SPEAKER_00: We relate much more to mistakes than we relate to success.
13:27
SPEAKER_00: At least that's that's me.
13:29
SPEAKER_00: I mean, when I see somebody who has all these accolades and awards and recognition, you know, I look at that and think, wow, that's that's great, and I would love to have those things as well.
13:40
SPEAKER_00: But I think we all emotionally relate much quicker to failure and to flaws and brokenness.
13:46
SPEAKER_00: So without knowing any details about your book, I would ask, why do you need to get past the emotions?
13:52
SPEAKER_00: Is it that the material is too painful to talk about?
13:56
SPEAKER_00: What's holding you back from telling your story if you believe it'll help readers?
14:00
SPEAKER_00: You know, many times we're simply afraid of what people are gonna think if we tell our real true life story.
14:07
SPEAKER_00: So, Becca, I would encourage you, at least in your first draft, to just get your emotions out there.
14:12
SPEAKER_00: You can go back and edit later, but just capture the whole story.
14:15
SPEAKER_00: And I'd I've got to be honest with you.
14:18
SPEAKER_00: So I'm sure I've mentioned this uh a couple times on this podcast before, but I do ghostwriting in my side business.
14:25
SPEAKER_00: So the podcast and the daily writer, that's kind of like my side side business.
14:28
SPEAKER_00: Uh I love it, so I've got kind of two concurrent businesses going here in addition to my teaching job.
14:33
SPEAKER_00: But in my ghostwriting business, one thing that I learned this year in writing a couple books for clients is that you can get a first draft down really fast.
14:42
SPEAKER_00: And it's important to get that first draft down, even if it's ugly and messy, it's so imperfect.
14:48
SPEAKER_00: You've got to get that first draft down so you have something to work with.
14:50
SPEAKER_00: So, Becca, I would encourage you just to get that draft down um as quick as you possibly can and get those emotions out there.
14:59
SPEAKER_00: Now, another thing to consider when it comes to um maybe being a little hesitant to start the memoir because um you're having a little difficulty getting past the emotions is that it could be due to your mode of writing the first draft.
15:16
SPEAKER_00: So I would encourage you to try dictating your first draft.
15:20
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if you've ever tried that before, but that has worked really, really well for me when I need to write something fast or when I'm feeling kind of blocked with writing something.
15:29
SPEAKER_00: And the reason that dictation works so well at times is because it's a whole different mode of getting the content out there.
15:38
SPEAKER_00: You know, not to do a whole history lesson here, but in our development as humans, we we learn to speak long before we learn to type or to create uh you know letters or symbols with our fingers or our hands.
15:51
SPEAKER_00: So speaking is a much more natural and fast way of communicating rather than writing, because when you're when you're typing something, you're that's one more step in the communication process.
16:03
SPEAKER_00: You know, your thoughts have to be translated into your fingers.
16:06
SPEAKER_00: So that's why I love dictation because it's just I don't know how else to say it, except it's kind of more of a like a primal way of communicating and more natural than trying to sit down and type everything.
16:18
SPEAKER_00: So give dictation a try, see what you think.
16:20
SPEAKER_00: Um personally, I love it.
16:22
SPEAKER_00: Now, one other thing to consider is having a friend interview you instead of having to do all the pushing of the ideas yourself.
16:31
SPEAKER_00: Uh, for example, you can have them ask you questions that will prompt the story and it'll pull the story out of you rather than you having to summon the energy to push it out of you.
16:42
SPEAKER_00: Hopefully, I'm explaining that correctly.
16:44
SPEAKER_00: Um, in fact, this is exactly how we got a first draft of the client book that I was talking about earlier.
16:50
SPEAKER_00: I would prepare a bunch of questions for each chapter, and we did a series of Zoom calls.
16:54
SPEAKER_00: I think we did, we covered two chapters for each Zoom call we did.
16:58
SPEAKER_00: Each Zoom call lasts about an hour and a half, and in that hour and a half, that would generate um sometimes around 10,000 words, I think, uh, if I recall correctly.
17:09
SPEAKER_00: Um, so it was far more than enough material.
17:12
SPEAKER_00: Um, and that worked really, really well.
17:15
SPEAKER_00: And then I would have those calls transcribed, and those became the basis for the book chapters.
17:20
SPEAKER_00: So you might think about that as a way to get started as well.
17:25
SPEAKER_00: Okay, our next two questions I'm gonna put together because they both deal with uh with similar topics.
17:31
SPEAKER_00: MJ James writes, What are your little tips for making it over the writer's block hump?
17:38
SPEAKER_00: And my friend Sri asks, how do you get to chapter two?
17:42
SPEAKER_00: And basically these are the same question.
17:44
SPEAKER_00: Both of these questions are about pressing forward in a book when you're not sure where to go.
17:49
SPEAKER_00: So I just I thought I would give five things that help me when I get stuck.
17:55
SPEAKER_00: Uh, number one is work from an outline, especially if you're writing nonfiction.
18:00
SPEAKER_00: If you outline material before you start writing, you always know where you're going.
18:05
SPEAKER_00: Number two is, as I mentioned with Becca's question a minute ago, I would try dictation instead of typing.
18:12
SPEAKER_00: I think this, again, it's a great way to go.
18:14
SPEAKER_00: I know I talk about dictation a lot, but it's because it's it's so much easier than typing.
18:20
SPEAKER_00: It's I think it's more natural.
18:22
SPEAKER_00: You can get a lot more content out there typically.
18:25
SPEAKER_00: So try dictation, especially if you haven't done it before.
18:28
SPEAKER_00: Number three is take a walk.
18:30
SPEAKER_00: Taking a walk has a way of cleaning the cobwebs out of your mind and helping you do a reset.
18:35
SPEAKER_00: And I recommend using a hiking pole, which I know it's gonna sound kind of ridiculous, but whenever I go for a walk, which is almost every night, I always use a hiking pole because it gives my hand something to do.
18:48
SPEAKER_00: And as I'm walking along, it's kind of that, you know, click and clack of that hiking pole as I take every two steps.
18:57
SPEAKER_00: That just, you know, you have to understand, um, I started out as a drummer.
19:02
SPEAKER_00: I played drums all through middle school and high school and still play drums to this day.
19:06
SPEAKER_00: So I'm a very rhythmic, a rhythmic person.
19:09
SPEAKER_00: So I love that rhythm of using a hiking pole or or two hiking poles if you want to.
19:14
SPEAKER_00: And that just helps my mind to kind of get in a flow state, and I love that.
19:17
SPEAKER_00: So you might think about doing something like that, just going for a walk and using a hiking pole or like a walking stick as a way to just kind of get into a flow state or a rhythm.
19:27
SPEAKER_00: Number four is um, now don't laugh at me, but number four is just write some gibberish.
19:34
SPEAKER_00: Just start typing sentences that make no sense.
19:37
SPEAKER_00: Or write, you know, you can write about what's on your desk or what happened this morning or what's in your coffee.
19:42
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't really mat it doesn't really matter.
19:44
SPEAKER_00: It's a way to get your thoughts moving and unblocked.
19:47
SPEAKER_00: And number five, this is one of my favorite ways to get unblocked, which is write something from a book that you love.
19:54
SPEAKER_00: My friend Jim Woods taught me this fantastic idea.
19:57
SPEAKER_00: He said, get a book by your favorite author and then type a couple of paragraphs word for word.
20:03
SPEAKER_00: This helps you get in tune with their voice and it really does work for giving you a creative spark.
20:08
SPEAKER_00: For me, that always helps helps me to get a little bit unblocked.
20:12
SPEAKER_00: So hopefully that's helpful.
20:14
SPEAKER_00: Derek Brink has a question.
20:16
SPEAKER_00: Really, this is more of a statement, but I'm gonna include it anyway because I thought it was really good.
20:20
SPEAKER_00: He says, This barely counts as a question, but I could personally spend several minutes on it.
20:25
SPEAKER_00: Dorothy Parker once said, I hate writing, I love having written.
20:31
SPEAKER_00: Thoughts.
20:32
SPEAKER_00: And yes, I have two responses to this.
20:35
SPEAKER_00: One is more direct, and the other one is a little bit more nuanced.
20:38
SPEAKER_00: So let's tackle the first one, which is I think every writer relates to this statement on some level.
20:43
SPEAKER_00: Again, she said, I hate writing, I love having written.
20:47
SPEAKER_00: You know, writing is hard work, plain and simple.
20:50
SPEAKER_00: And as they say, writing is rewriting.
20:53
SPEAKER_00: So most of the hard work in writing actually comes in the rewriting and in the editing phases, which can be really, really tedious and just sort of monotonous.
21:02
SPEAKER_00: But we all love that finished product.
21:04
SPEAKER_00: So there's a lot of truth to that in that you know, we all love the finished product typically more than we love doing the work.
21:12
SPEAKER_00: So that's that's kind of a direct way of uh responding to that.
21:16
SPEAKER_00: But here's something that's a little bit more nuanced, I would say.
21:20
SPEAKER_00: For anybody who relates to this phrase, I hate writing, I would challenge you to really dig into that.
21:26
SPEAKER_00: Why do you hate writing?
21:28
SPEAKER_00: Seriously ask yourself that.
21:30
SPEAKER_00: Why do you perceive that writing is so unpleasant?
21:33
SPEAKER_00: Well, the answer is that I suspect for most people, it's because they associate writing with pain of some kind.
21:40
SPEAKER_00: Now, what kinds of pain would people associate with writing?
21:43
SPEAKER_00: Well, there's two things that come to mind.
21:44
SPEAKER_00: First, they learn to write in a setting that most people don't associate with fun, which is English class.
21:52
SPEAKER_00: Now, nothing against English teachers.
21:54
SPEAKER_00: They're wonderful people, but most students don't find a lot of joy in an English or an English class.
22:00
SPEAKER_00: Composition class.
22:01
SPEAKER_00: So they associate writing with being forced to write essays and term papers and things like that.
22:07
SPEAKER_00: And when they carry over that negative emotion to writing in other areas of their life, they automatically think of writing as a negative thing.
22:14
SPEAKER_00: They think of it as punishment, as pain, as something that they're being forced to do, no matter what the context is.
22:20
SPEAKER_00: It's kind of like guilty by association.
22:22
SPEAKER_00: Now there's a second reason that people associate pain with writing, and that's because they don't think they're a good writer.
22:28
SPEAKER_00: Maybe they got bad grades in English class.
22:30
SPEAKER_00: Maybe they have a brother or sister who is the quote unquote writer in the family.
22:36
SPEAKER_00: Or maybe they submitted an article to a magazine and it got rejected one time and that like killed their enthusiasm for writing.
22:41
SPEAKER_00: Who knows?
22:42
SPEAKER_00: But I want to say it's very, very rare that I have seen a writer who I thought had zero potential.
22:48
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I've seen a few, but the vast majority of people are very capable writers if they want to be.
22:54
SPEAKER_00: You know, as I said before, writing is rewriting.
22:58
SPEAKER_00: So when you sit down to write a first draft of something, if if you understand that it's going to not be very good, that takes a lot of the pressure off.
23:06
SPEAKER_00: Most people don't really get that principle.
23:08
SPEAKER_00: When you sit down to write something for the first time, it's not going to be great, typically.
23:12
SPEAKER_00: Even Ernest Hemingway was a famous rewriter.
23:16
SPEAKER_00: I don't remember how many times he rewrote the ending to one of his famous books.
23:19
SPEAKER_00: I'm sure somebody will give me the facts on that.
23:21
SPEAKER_00: But it was like dozens of times, you know.
23:24
SPEAKER_00: So even the great writers don't start out, they they just don't sit at a at a at a computer and stuff magically flows out of their fingertips.
23:31
SPEAKER_00: They structure their, they write, they rewrite, they edit.
23:34
SPEAKER_00: Um many times they have lots of help in that editing and rewriting phase.
23:39
SPEAKER_00: And that's the way that it should be because writing is work.
23:43
SPEAKER_00: Writing takes time.
23:44
SPEAKER_00: Writing does not happen typically because, you know, well, it never happens this way that the magical fairies come and sprinkle writing dust all over us and we all of a sudden become these magical writing creatures.
23:57
SPEAKER_00: So with a little work and practice, almost anybody can be effective in writing.
24:01
SPEAKER_00: But here's the thing, though.
24:03
SPEAKER_00: If writing is not your thing, then then do something else to get your to get your content out there.
24:09
SPEAKER_00: If you're a musician, then write songs.
24:10
SPEAKER_00: If you're a podcaster, do a podcast.
24:12
SPEAKER_00: If you prefer to, you know, to talk rather than write, podcasting is awesome.
24:18
SPEAKER_00: So the point is communicate in the way that you like to communicate.
24:22
SPEAKER_00: Now, one more thing about this issue of hating writing, I think a lot of people don't grasp the amazing potential of writing.
24:30
SPEAKER_00: I think writing is not a burden to bear.
24:32
SPEAKER_00: Writing is a privilege and an opportunity.
24:35
SPEAKER_00: So a lot of it comes down to our mindset, and it really doesn't have anything to do with our ability or talent.
24:41
SPEAKER_00: I could I could tell you about lots of people over the years who I have read their writing and I've thought they were phenomenal writers, but they think they're a terrible writer for whatever reason.
24:52
SPEAKER_00: So, you know, if we can learn to separate the the facts of our writing talent from our psychology of writing, that's you know, that self-awareness is really, really important.
25:05
SPEAKER_00: So, you know, knowing knowing that you actually do have talent with writing and that you do have capability, I think really, really helps.
25:13
SPEAKER_00: And if you know that you don't think of yourself a writer, but what you think of your talent is not really relevant to the facts of your talent, that really helps.
25:22
SPEAKER_00: So I think this self-awareness, this, you know, knowing our own psychology about it and and knowing that we sometimes put down our own talent, even though it's actually legitimately really good, I think that helps a lot in this process.
25:34
SPEAKER_00: So let's go on to the next question, which was submitted by Britney Musgrave.
25:39
SPEAKER_00: This is a question about fiction.
25:41
SPEAKER_00: Brittany says, What are some techniques to guide a writer through not overbuilding the background story?
25:48
SPEAKER_00: What I'm referring to is making characters or the backdrop so big that it causes the story to get lost.
25:55
SPEAKER_00: Too little info and it causes it not to flow.
25:59
SPEAKER_00: Well, Brittany, this is a great question.
26:01
SPEAKER_00: And I will say up front that fiction is not really my expertise, so I'll say that it partly depends on the genre of the book.
26:08
SPEAKER_00: You know, as to how much background material and world bidding and world building that you do.
26:13
SPEAKER_00: What I would do is first decide what type of book that you are writing.
26:17
SPEAKER_00: For example, if it's a 150-page romance novel, there's not going to be a lot of detail in that world that you're talking about.
26:26
SPEAKER_00: Uh on the other hand, if it's a 400-page fantasy epic, that's a whole different kind of book.
26:32
SPEAKER_00: So pick two or three books that are very similar to the kind of book that you want to write, and then see how much detail they add about the background story, about the world, uh, about the universe that they live in, so to speak.
26:44
SPEAKER_00: Um pay attention to how much detail they use, and that'll give you kind of a template.
26:49
SPEAKER_00: I also recommend the books of KM Wyland, who has a fantastic website and a lot of books to help authors write novels.
26:56
SPEAKER_00: And you can find her material at helpingwriters become authors.com.
27:02
SPEAKER_00: Now, Britney submitted a second question, and I want to share this too.
27:07
SPEAKER_00: She says, How do you help someone who is shy around others and doesn't talk with them right off the bat?
27:13
SPEAKER_00: How do you help someone overcome that?
27:16
SPEAKER_00: And she also adds, if it's any help, think back to our classes together.
27:20
SPEAKER_00: I was never the first one to talk.
27:22
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I always had to be called upon before I talked.
27:25
SPEAKER_00: So Brittany is a former student of mine.
27:28
SPEAKER_00: We had a lot of classes together.
27:30
SPEAKER_00: And Brittany, I've got to tell you that I relate to this a lot.
27:34
SPEAKER_00: Uh, in fact, let me tell you a quick story.
27:36
SPEAKER_00: A couple years ago, I went to a networking event in the area, and this was like a business networking sort of a thing.
27:45
SPEAKER_00: And I got to I got there a little bit early.
27:47
SPEAKER_00: A friend of mine, in fact, my insurance agent, had invited me to this, and I got there before he did, about 15 minutes before.
27:55
SPEAKER_00: And I got there, and there was about six or seven people already there, kind of milling around.
27:59
SPEAKER_00: It was obvious they all knew each other, and I felt extremely uncomfortable, not because of them, but because I'm an introvert, and I really don't like being in social situations where I don't know anybody.
28:10
SPEAKER_00: It just feels very weird to me, and sometimes I don't know what to say.
28:13
SPEAKER_00: Maybe some of you can relate to that.
28:15
SPEAKER_00: So I got to this, to this place, and uh I just sort of stood there for a minute kind of awkwardly, and then I thought, well, I can't just stand here, you know, looking awkward.
28:26
SPEAKER_00: So I went to the bathroom and used the bathroom, and um I kind of thought to myself, well, maybe I can just hide out in the bathroom for like 10 minutes.
28:35
SPEAKER_00: And as I stood there looking in the mirror, I thought, well, that's kind of weird also.
28:39
SPEAKER_00: I mean, you know, when a guy walks into the restroom and sees another guy just kind of standing there for no reason, that's sort of weird socially.
28:46
SPEAKER_00: So I thought, well, I can't hide out in the bathroom.
28:49
SPEAKER_00: So I went out and I sat at a table by myself because, again, I didn't know anybody else there.
28:54
SPEAKER_00: Uh, there were people kind of milling around and chatting.
28:58
SPEAKER_00: And uh literally, this is what I did.
29:00
SPEAKER_00: I I'm kind of embarrassed to admit this publicly, but literally I sat at a table and I opened up a notebook that I had brought with me, and I pretended like I was taking notes on something.
29:09
SPEAKER_00: And literally what I was writing in the notebook was things like, I feel very weird about this.
29:14
SPEAKER_00: I'm just writing, pretending like I'm writing something important.
29:18
SPEAKER_00: Really, I'm just passing the time waiting for my friend to get here.
29:20
SPEAKER_00: I was just writing total nonsense in my notebook to appear like I was, you know, occupied with something important.
29:28
SPEAKER_00: So all that is to say that I relate to what you're saying.
29:32
SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, you know me as your college professor, uh, where in a classroom you have to be outgoing and you have to be the one who's in charge, and you know, you're setting an emotional tone for the class and so forth.
29:44
SPEAKER_00: But in other social situations where I'm not in charge, uh, if I don't know people, I can feel sometimes very awkward.
29:52
SPEAKER_00: So to get to your question, I think whether it's on Zoom calls or in person, if you're shy, that means you typically don't want attention or you're afraid to put yourself out there.
30:01
SPEAKER_00: And I felt that way a lot of times.
30:03
SPEAKER_00: And both of these are driven by a fear of what other people think.
30:07
SPEAKER_00: In social situations, as I mentioned, it really sucks my emotional energy very quickly.
30:12
SPEAKER_00: When we're worried about other people's perception of us, that can be really emotionally draining.
30:18
SPEAKER_00: So here's what I do many times.
30:21
SPEAKER_00: I didn't do this to my discredit at this event I was talking about, but many times here is something that I do is I play this little game when I'm feeling socially uncomfortable.
30:30
SPEAKER_00: I give myself the task of making other people feel comfortable and valued.
30:35
SPEAKER_00: So if I'm at an event or I'm on a Zoom call and some people aren't engaged or they're shy or they're not talking, I make it my goal to say hello and to make them feel welcomed.
30:46
SPEAKER_00: And when I do this, I take the focus off my own feelings and I focus on helping other people.
30:51
SPEAKER_00: And I find that when I do this, instead of draining my energy, it actually gives me energy.
30:56
SPEAKER_00: So, like most things in life, if you focus on helping other people, it helps you also, and then everybody wins.
31:01
SPEAKER_00: So that experience I talked about with the networking meeting, um, that taught me a lesson that you know what, even if you're uncomfortable, you need to kind of put yourself out there and say hello.
31:10
SPEAKER_00: So, to finish up that story, uh, this event started.
31:13
SPEAKER_00: My friend arrived, and I sat was satin around the table with a few other people.
31:17
SPEAKER_00: We had a great time.
31:18
SPEAKER_00: I met a couple of other really awesome people who I'm friends with still to this day.
31:22
SPEAKER_00: And I started to feel more comfortable.
31:23
SPEAKER_00: And in the lunch line, I actually talked to a couple of the people who I hadn't met before and started to feel very comfortable.
31:29
SPEAKER_00: So the lesson, the moral of the story here is you know, sometimes if you just stick it out and you put yourself out there a little bit, your emotions start to follow your actions.
31:40
SPEAKER_00: And even if you don't know anybody, even if you feel shy in a social environment where you don't know people, if you just put yourself out there a little bit and take the action and pretend like you're feeling brave and comfortable, then those emotions will follow and you can actually make some pretty cool connections as a result of that.
31:58
SPEAKER_00: Okay, let's move on to our next question by Tad Dickle.
32:01
SPEAKER_00: He says, Do you recommend outlining your main points first, or should a writer just start writing without an outline?
32:08
SPEAKER_00: And he also says, What do you think about grammarly?
32:11
SPEAKER_00: Well, Tad, it depends on what type of writing that you're doing.
32:14
SPEAKER_00: If you're talking about fiction, there's different schools of thought on whether you should outline or not when it comes to fiction.
32:21
SPEAKER_00: Some people prefer using an outline because it gives them structure and they know where they're going with the story.
32:27
SPEAKER_00: Other people prefer to just start with a character and a situation and then just kind of go with the flow and let their creativity take over.
32:36
SPEAKER_00: But I assume that you're probably talking about nonfiction since you mentioned main points.
32:40
SPEAKER_00: And the answer is yes.
32:41
SPEAKER_00: I think it's usually best to outline your writing before you get started.
32:45
SPEAKER_00: It goes a lot quicker this way, typically.
32:48
SPEAKER_00: Taking this approach is actually what allowed me to write a 45,000-word first draft of a book during the month of October.
32:55
SPEAKER_00: So I did this in just about four weeks.
32:58
SPEAKER_00: I had a very detailed outline, and when you have a detailed outline, it takes the pressure off of having to, you know, figure out where you're going.
33:07
SPEAKER_00: You know where you're going, so it's kind of like you're feeling you're filling in the blanks of the book as you go.
33:13
SPEAKER_00: It's not exactly what it is, but it kind of feels that way sometimes because you already know where you're going and you're you're adding the stories, you're adding the content, subpoints, and and so forth.
33:22
SPEAKER_00: Now, that being said, there are times when I think it's good to just write and explore.
33:27
SPEAKER_00: Many times in the process of writing something, I get new ideas, and the article that I'm working on or the book chapter will change a little bit.
33:36
SPEAKER_00: And that's totally okay.
33:37
SPEAKER_00: That's part of the creative process.
33:39
SPEAKER_00: But in general, with nonfiction, outlining is usually the way to go.
33:43
SPEAKER_00: Now, you also asked about Grammarly, and I love Grammarly.
33:46
SPEAKER_00: I think it's great.
33:47
SPEAKER_00: It's a wonderful tool for catching mistakes in your writing.
33:50
SPEAKER_00: And I also recommend using an app called the Hemingway App, of course, named after Ernest Hemingway.
33:56
SPEAKER_00: And the Hemingway app will improve your style and readability.
34:00
SPEAKER_00: And you can go to uh I think the website is Hemingwayapp.com, or you can Google it and find it.
34:05
SPEAKER_00: Let's go on to our next question, which was submitted by Josie Sewell.
34:09
SPEAKER_00: And Josie asks, what are some ways for newer writers to gain confidence?
34:15
SPEAKER_00: Now, Josie, I know that your field is dentistry, specifically uh dental hygienists, so let's use that as a backdrop.
34:22
SPEAKER_00: How does a new dental hygienist get more confident in their job?
34:27
SPEAKER_00: Now I know that you love systems and processes, so let's use that as a little bit of a framework.
34:33
SPEAKER_00: Four of the big keys to getting better at anything are practice, evaluation, mentoring, and impact.
34:40
SPEAKER_00: Let's dig into those a little bit and I'll tie those into writing.
34:43
SPEAKER_00: So practice is doing something over and over again so you increase your skills and get more comfortable with new things.
34:49
SPEAKER_00: That obviously applies to the dental field as well.
34:53
SPEAKER_00: Uh, evaluation is seeing what you're doing right and what you're doing wrong so you can improve.
34:59
SPEAKER_00: Mentoring is having a teacher or a guide show you the way, but also having peer mentoring where you're part of a positive group that that cheers you on as you're learning.
35:10
SPEAKER_00: And then finally is impact, which is seeing the good that you're doing for others.
35:14
SPEAKER_00: In the case of a dent of a dental hygienist, I think seeing how your work directly helps patients, how it helps them with your teeth being fixed, or of having a better smile, which gives you, you know, that that reduces pain, gives you more confidence, and has so many other benefits in your life.
35:30
SPEAKER_00: Now, I think we can apply these four things: practice, evaluation, mentoring, and impact.
35:35
SPEAKER_00: I think we can apply these four things directly to writing as we talk about gaining confidence.
35:40
SPEAKER_00: For example, uh, let's look at practice.
35:44
SPEAKER_00: Practice is writing regularly in some type of outlet, whether that's social media, blog posts, emails, or whatever.
35:52
SPEAKER_00: Now, Josie, I've seen a lot of your Facebook posts, and I can tell you for sure that you are a really gifted storyteller.
35:59
SPEAKER_00: And not only that, you have a real gift for lifting up other people, for being positive, and for highlighting their accomplishments.
36:06
SPEAKER_00: So, your question, I've got to be honest, it surprised me a little bit because you really appear to already have a lot of talent and confidence in writing as it is.
36:16
SPEAKER_00: So I just want to take a second to encourage you and what you're doing because you're already really, really a wonderful storyteller and a great communicator.
36:24
SPEAKER_00: Uh, so that's practice.
36:25
SPEAKER_00: Then evaluation, getting feedback from others on what is working and what's not working is really, really helpful.
36:32
SPEAKER_00: So, what are the themes and content you're writing about that is impacting people the most?
36:38
SPEAKER_00: Take a look at you know things like social media posts or blog posts or articles.
36:43
SPEAKER_00: What are the things that you're putting out there that are helping people the most that you're getting feedback about the most?
36:49
SPEAKER_00: I think feedback is a big clue to what you should do more of.
36:52
SPEAKER_00: So pay attention to um to what people are responding to.
36:56
SPEAKER_00: Um let's go to mentoring, which is another great way to gain confidence.
37:01
SPEAKER_00: Mentoring helps us immensely because it puts us in the orbit of people who can help us improve and gain more confidence.
37:09
SPEAKER_00: Now, of course, you already know this from your work in dentistry, but being around high achievers and action takers makes a super huge difference.
37:18
SPEAKER_00: And I'm gonna put a little plug in here for the Daily Writer community, which is launching very soon and is intended to do this very thing for writers.
37:26
SPEAKER_00: More details are coming about that uh here in the next few weeks.
37:30
SPEAKER_00: But mentoring is really, really important, whether it's mentoring from other people who are guiding us, people who are further along and more experienced, or from our peers as well, which can be so helpful.
37:41
SPEAKER_00: And then finally, impact.
37:43
SPEAKER_00: You know, whenever you publish your writing on whatever platform you're using, you see the impact it has on people and you see that it gives them courage, it makes them feel better, it lifts them up, it gives them a shout-out, uh, it gives them something to think about or challenges them in some way.
37:57
SPEAKER_00: Knowing the impact that our writing makes, even sometimes if we don't feel totally confident in our right in our writing, but when we see that impact, that has a huge, that has a huge impact on us as well.
38:09
SPEAKER_00: You know, we see how we're affecting people, and that affects us in turn also, and that boosts our confidence.
38:15
SPEAKER_00: So hopefully those four things practice, evaluation, mentoring, and impact, I think those are four really great ways to assess our own writing and to gain confidence as well.
38:28
SPEAKER_00: Our next question is by Ray Jewell, and I love this question because this is something a lot of writers have faced.
38:34
SPEAKER_00: And Ray, I appreciate you kind of putting yourself out there with this question.
38:37
SPEAKER_00: Ray says, here's my question.
38:39
SPEAKER_00: I have written two novels and I've done what I call a devotional commentary on Luke and Acts, Revelation, Isaiah, and John.
38:47
SPEAKER_00: I can't afford to self-publish or spend upfront money to pay one of the dozens of companies out there who want you to pay them before they do your book.
38:56
SPEAKER_00: What do you suggest?
38:58
SPEAKER_00: Well, Ray, I'm not totally sure how much the companies you're referring to charge for their services.
39:02
SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of different options out there.
39:04
SPEAKER_00: I'm guessing it's something like$5,000 or somewhere in that ballpark.
39:09
SPEAKER_00: I could be off, but I'm just doing a very rough guesstimate there.
39:13
SPEAKER_00: You can do very high quality self-publishing for around$3,500.
39:19
SPEAKER_00: Now, of course, it depends on a lot of factors, but let's say it's a nonfiction book of around 150 pages.
39:25
SPEAKER_00: You can get great editing for around$2,000.
39:28
SPEAKER_00: And then the interior layout and the cover design, you know, those could vary a lot in price, but you can definitely get great quality for$1,500, sometimes less.
39:38
SPEAKER_00: And I do want to say that I would not skimp on any of those things.
39:42
SPEAKER_00: Never put a book out there that has a bad cover.
39:44
SPEAKER_00: You know, don't put a book out there that has bad formatting, bad layout.
39:49
SPEAKER_00: It looks, you know, amateurish or it looks like you know somebody did a rush formatting job on Microsoft Word or something like that.
39:56
SPEAKER_00: Editing is really, really important.
39:57
SPEAKER_00: So I definitely don't want to advocate that we'd put something out there that doesn't look that good.
40:02
SPEAKER_00: And so this is why I appreciate your question because you're recognizing that, hey, this does take an investment to do well.
40:08
SPEAKER_00: So I think that's that's a really important thing a lot of writers miss.
40:11
SPEAKER_00: So that's one answer, but let me give you some other options as well.
40:15
SPEAKER_00: One option would be to pre-sell the book through something like Kickstarter or another crowdfunding platform.
40:21
SPEAKER_00: And that way you can raise the money for the book production, which is going to basically include cover design, layout, and editing.
40:28
SPEAKER_00: Those are kind of the big three things.
40:30
SPEAKER_00: Or you could do what a lot of writers have done, including me, which is you could do freelance work for other people, such as editing, you know, writing articles, ghostwriting, those kinds of things.
40:40
SPEAKER_00: And then you take the money you earn from that freelancing and you invest that into your own book.
40:46
SPEAKER_00: That's actually what I did with my previous book.
40:49
SPEAKER_00: I would do some work for people and then I would invest that back into my own self-publishing.
40:54
SPEAKER_00: Now, there's another option also, if you absolutely cannot afford anything, you can do a zero-budget book by having a group of readers carefully read through the book to spot errors.
41:05
SPEAKER_00: So get the book as clean as you possibly can with as few errors as possible.
41:10
SPEAKER_00: Then you can get on canva.com, c A-n-v-a.com, and you can use a template to design a good-looking book cover.
41:18
SPEAKER_00: And you can make the book using a Word document as far as the interior layout, make sure it looks really good.
41:24
SPEAKER_00: And then you can offer that for sale on your website as a PDF or you can upload it to Amazon and sell it there.
41:31
SPEAKER_00: Now, I'm saying you can do that.
41:33
SPEAKER_00: I'm not necessarily recommending that you do that because again, I think it's important to put a really high-quality product out there.
41:40
SPEAKER_00: But I'm saying you can if you want to.
41:43
SPEAKER_00: I would always recommend hiring professionals for that stuff.
41:46
SPEAKER_00: But if you don't have a budget, don't let that stop you from getting your book out there.
41:50
SPEAKER_00: Do the very best you can with the resources you have, get the book in the best shape possible, then put it out there, and then do the next one.
41:57
SPEAKER_00: I'm a big advocate of starting with what you have and what you can do.
42:02
SPEAKER_00: If you absolutely have no budget, if that's totally out of the question, then just do the best you can and put it out there.
42:08
SPEAKER_00: Now, I know some people will really disagree with me about that, but I'm a bit I'm just a big advocate of let's not wait around until life is perfect.
42:17
SPEAKER_00: Let's put it out there, see what the response is, and you can always go back and improve it later.
42:22
SPEAKER_00: You know, that's what I've done multiple times with my last book, The Artist Suitcase.
42:26
SPEAKER_00: Um, just recently I updated a revised file.
42:29
SPEAKER_00: I totally changed the interior layout of it just to make it better.
42:33
SPEAKER_00: Um, so in our digital world, you can always go back and correct stuff, which is nice.
42:37
SPEAKER_00: So don't let this stuff stop you.
42:39
SPEAKER_00: Um, if at all possible, if there's any way that you can find a way to get a little bit of money and pay those professionals.
42:45
SPEAKER_00: Kind of do what you have to do to get the book as good as you can.
42:49
SPEAKER_00: Our next question is by Ben Killoy, and he has a question about habits.
42:54
SPEAKER_00: He says, What are the three best mental muscles to exercise daily to build a good writing habit and have the mental pathway to tap into creativity more intuitively?
43:05
SPEAKER_00: Well, Ben, I love this analogy about building mental muscles because that's exactly how creativity works.
43:11
SPEAKER_00: Most people think creativity is some kind of woo-woo fairy dust thing, you know, that descends on the lucky few, and the rest of us just have to kind of figure it out.
43:21
SPEAKER_00: But I don't think that's how creativity works at all.
43:24
SPEAKER_00: Creativity is just the capacity to create.
43:28
SPEAKER_00: Creativity functions like a battery.
43:30
SPEAKER_00: A dead battery has no juice, it has no capacity.
43:33
SPEAKER_00: So, how do we give our creative muscle a daily workout?
43:37
SPEAKER_00: Well, you mentioned you know the three best things, so I'm going to stick with three points here.
43:41
SPEAKER_00: Number one is read every day.
43:43
SPEAKER_00: You've got to have input into your creative life.
43:46
SPEAKER_00: Pick whatever form of reading you like best, whether it's ebooks, print books, or audiobooks, but make sure that you're taking in good content every single day.
43:54
SPEAKER_00: Number two, write every day.
43:56
SPEAKER_00: Write social media posts, blog posts, book chapters.
44:00
SPEAKER_00: Podcasts, emails for an audience, whatever it is that you need to write.
44:04
SPEAKER_00: But we have to stop thinking of our writing as some precious kind of thing.
44:08
SPEAKER_00: We have to think of our writing as a blue-collar job.
44:11
SPEAKER_00: Whenever we sit down to write, we have a job to do, whether we feel emotionally creative or not.
44:18
SPEAKER_00: We have a responsibility to other people to get the words out there.
44:21
SPEAKER_00: So pick your form of writing that you want to do consistently, something that you can do consistently, and stick with it every day.
44:28
SPEAKER_00: And then number three is publish every day.
44:31
SPEAKER_00: If you don't publish, you won't get feedback and you'll miss the reward of knowing how you're impacting other people.
44:37
SPEAKER_00: Now, Ben, I know that you also have a podcast, so you already know about the value of publishing, so you're you're a step ahead on all this.
44:45
SPEAKER_00: You know, I think we really underestimate the value of small habits that are practiced every day.
44:50
SPEAKER_00: And for me, this podcast is the main way that I create content every day.
44:55
SPEAKER_00: And I've purposefully set it up so that I'm creating most days of the week.
44:59
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes I batch produce the show, you know, like I'll do several episodes on one day, but regardless of how I do it, I'm creating the vast majority of the time, you know, on most days of the week.
45:12
SPEAKER_00: So this is my avenue to help build my creative muscle.
45:15
SPEAKER_00: However, you can do that, whether it's podcasting or social media or blogs or whatever, I encourage you to do that.
45:20
SPEAKER_00: Read every day, write every day, and publish every day.
45:24
SPEAKER_00: Susan Stitch asks, how do you identify and further develop your personal voice or style?
45:29
SPEAKER_00: And Susan, I think this just comes through practice and repetition.
45:33
SPEAKER_00: Over time, the more that you write and communicate, the more that you can develop your own style.
45:38
SPEAKER_00: I think something a lot of writers struggle with is how they sound or how other people perceive them.
45:43
SPEAKER_00: But I wouldn't focus on that at all.
45:44
SPEAKER_00: I would just focus on helping people with your writing.
45:47
SPEAKER_00: I believe it does take time, though, to develop your voice.
45:51
SPEAKER_00: For example, when I started podcasting several years ago, I told myself that it would probably take about a hundred episodes until I felt really comfortable with my own voice and with my own way of presenting myself on a microphone.
46:05
SPEAKER_00: And that's about what it took.
46:07
SPEAKER_00: So it takes time to develop your voice and your style.
46:11
SPEAKER_00: But again, I go back to what I just mentioned in uh Ben's question just a minute ago about just doing it every day and you know, writing every day and creating.
46:20
SPEAKER_00: The more that you do it, the more comfortable that you get with it.
46:23
SPEAKER_00: I also want to recommend a great book called Voice by James Scott Bell.
46:28
SPEAKER_00: He is a he writes novels, but he also has written a lot of great little short books about different aspects of writing.
46:35
SPEAKER_00: So check out his book called Voice.
46:37
SPEAKER_00: And the author's name is James Scott Bell.
46:40
SPEAKER_00: Okay, a couple more questions here, then we'll begin to get into the home stretch.
46:44
SPEAKER_00: Mike Snyder asks a question about getting started.
46:47
SPEAKER_00: Now, his question is uh kind of long, so just bear with me here for a second.
46:52
SPEAKER_00: Mike says, Where do I start?
46:55
SPEAKER_00: I've had an idea and ideas for books for years.
46:58
SPEAKER_00: I've written a couple outlines.
47:00
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes I come up with a title that captures the essence of what I'd like to write about.
47:04
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes I just have a conviction that I start with what I'd like to write about.
47:08
SPEAKER_00: So where do I start?
47:10
SPEAKER_00: That's probably the big question.
47:11
SPEAKER_00: Do I need to have an outline?
47:13
SPEAKER_00: Do I need to have X amount of words written?
47:15
SPEAKER_00: How do I determine what the next steps are as I consider writing a book?
47:19
SPEAKER_00: Should I consider writing an ebook first?
47:21
SPEAKER_00: Do I start with a blog and then over the course of a year make a book from the blog?
47:25
SPEAKER_00: It seems like there's so many different avenues to take to get a book written.
47:28
SPEAKER_00: I'd be curious to see what your advice would be as to how to get started.
47:33
SPEAKER_00: Well, Mike, that is a great question, or rather a series of questions, I guess.
47:37
SPEAKER_00: Um, and I know a lot of people feel the same way.
47:40
SPEAKER_00: Where do you start with a book?
47:41
SPEAKER_00: It seems like such a big project.
47:43
SPEAKER_00: Well, my response is I would not just start writing a book without some direction.
47:48
SPEAKER_00: And I think you've kind of alluded to this in your question that sometimes we have an idea and we want to get started, but we've started and we don't really know where to go.
47:56
SPEAKER_00: And the reason is because we haven't planned out the book.
48:00
SPEAKER_00: So I would start with a book proposal, which is a document that you would present to a publisher.
48:06
SPEAKER_00: And this is a document that the author puts together before they write a book because it guides everything else from there on out.
48:13
SPEAKER_00: Now, even if you're self-publishing your book, you should always put together a proposal for it because that proposal clarifies a lot of things about the book.
48:21
SPEAKER_00: In fact, I just put together a detailed book proposal just for myself for a book that I'm writing now.
48:27
SPEAKER_00: And this document is just for me, at least for right now, but it gives me guidance as I write it.
48:32
SPEAKER_00: So here's what a proposal would typically include.
48:35
SPEAKER_00: This is not everything that would necessarily be in a proposal because you know it's going to differ a little bit from publisher to publisher, but here's a few general things.
48:42
SPEAKER_00: First of all, who's the audience?
48:44
SPEAKER_00: What type of person are you writing for?
48:47
SPEAKER_00: Number two, what's a two to three paragraph description of the book?
48:50
SPEAKER_00: What's the book trying to accomplish?
48:52
SPEAKER_00: What problem is it solving for the reader?
48:54
SPEAKER_00: You have to lay that out, particularly with a nonfiction book.
48:57
SPEAKER_00: Number three, what's the book outline?
48:59
SPEAKER_00: Be as detailed as you can get with your prospective book outline.
49:03
SPEAKER_00: Number four, how is the book different than other books on the market?
49:07
SPEAKER_00: If you're writing on a topic that a thousand other writers have written about, what makes your book unique?
49:12
SPEAKER_00: Are you coming at it from a new angle, um, from a new way of looking at it?
49:16
SPEAKER_00: How is your book different than what's already out there?
49:19
SPEAKER_00: All these things will help clarify the book in your mind, but I also want to say on the flip side, don't overthink all this.
49:26
SPEAKER_00: Don't get bogged down in the book proposal.
49:28
SPEAKER_00: Just take a couple hours, if you need to, and think through those questions and clarify what the book is in your mind.
49:35
SPEAKER_00: I think that is a phenomenal way to get started.
49:38
SPEAKER_00: Because sometimes what happens is that you've got an idea that you think is great, and then when you when you sit down to really map out an outline for the book or what the book is, then you figure out, you know, I don't really have that much to say about this topic.
49:50
SPEAKER_00: It seemed like a good idea, but there's really nothing here.
49:53
SPEAKER_00: And that's actually a good thing because then you're not wasting time on an idea that's going to fizzle out and that you're not really excited about anyway.
50:01
SPEAKER_00: Um so work on that proposal for the book.
50:04
SPEAKER_00: That will give you a lot of guidance as you actually write the book.
50:08
SPEAKER_00: Now you asked about an ebook, and yes, you can definitely do an ebook, and I would recommend maybe starting with an ebook since that's quicker and easier than doing a paperback book.
50:18
SPEAKER_00: You also asked about blogging your book, and I love this idea.
50:23
SPEAKER_00: Um, this is actually largely how I wrote my last book as a blog post.
50:27
SPEAKER_00: About half of the chapters in the artist's suitcase started out as a blog post on my blog a few years ago.
50:32
SPEAKER_00: And it's what I'm doing now with my weekday podcast episodes.
50:36
SPEAKER_00: These little short episodes that I do Monday through Friday will be compiled in a couple years into a book that I'm working on called The Daily Writer.
50:46
SPEAKER_00: So anything that you can do to repurpose your content is a great idea.
50:49
SPEAKER_00: I also want to recommend a phenomenal book by my friend Anna Ray Corter, and the book is called You Must Write a Book.
50:57
SPEAKER_00: It walks you through the whole process of writing a book.
50:59
SPEAKER_00: So, really, I should have just said from the beginning, just get her book because it's going to give you everything that you need pretty much.
51:06
SPEAKER_00: Let's go on to our final question, and this is by my friend John Stongy.
51:11
SPEAKER_00: John says, How important is the use of story to illustrate concepts in a nonfiction book?
51:18
SPEAKER_00: Would you recommend it?
51:19
SPEAKER_00: Would you caution against it?
51:20
SPEAKER_00: I'm asking this because I'm personally starting to use story more in my writing, but for a long time I was hesitant to do so.
51:28
SPEAKER_00: Thanks, John, for the question.
51:30
SPEAKER_00: And yes, I definitely recommend using stories as much as possible.
51:34
SPEAKER_00: Of course, as a pastor, you're already intimately familiar with the gospels and how Jesus taught, which was often in the form of stories more than anything else.
51:43
SPEAKER_00: And I just kind of figure if this was a good enough way for Jesus to teach, it's good enough for the rest of us.
51:50
SPEAKER_00: Now, specifically regarding nonfiction books, I think there's two critical parts in a chapter where stories can really help.
51:56
SPEAKER_00: Nick Pavlitas is my ghostwriting mentor, and he recommends using a story at the beginning of a chapter to illustrate the type of change that you want the reader to experience.
52:06
SPEAKER_00: So, for example, if you're writing a book about, let's say, prayer, and one of the chapters deals with prayer through journaling, you might have a story at the beginning of that chapter about somebody who tried prayer through journaling and was successful at it.
52:21
SPEAKER_00: Now, the second place to use stories in a nonfiction book chapter is by having one or two stories in the middle of the chapter to illustrate the concepts that you're breaking down within that chapter.
52:30
SPEAKER_00: The bottom line really is that stories are awesome.
52:33
SPEAKER_00: And of course, I've heard you speak before, and you're already an amazing storyteller.
52:36
SPEAKER_00: So I appreciate the question because this I always love talking about stories.
52:40
SPEAKER_00: So any chance I get to ask or rather to answer a question about stories is really, really fun.
52:46
SPEAKER_00: Now, for some examples of how to use stories well in a nonfiction book, I would recommend picking up a couple, picking up a couple of books by authors that are similar in style to the book that you want to write, and then reverse engineer their book chapters to see how they use stories and how they integrate the chapter content in with the stories.
53:06
SPEAKER_00: For example, two of my favorite authors are Ryan Holliday and Donald Miller.
53:12
SPEAKER_00: And you can look at each of their books to see how they use stories within their book chapters.
53:18
SPEAKER_00: Almost always they start out a chapter with some kind of a story.
53:21
SPEAKER_00: They both write very different kinds of books, but they both use stories really, really well.
53:25
SPEAKER_00: And they're both amazing writers and storytellers.
53:27
SPEAKER_00: So when I'm working on something, oftentimes I'll I'll look at their book chapters and I will reverse engineer how they how they have actually structured those chapters to include the stories, how they how they integrate transitions into the main content, how they use smaller stories throughout the chapter, and then how they wrap up the chapter.
53:47
SPEAKER_00: I know for a lot of people listening, all this sounds very kind of geeky, but that's okay.
53:52
SPEAKER_00: This is really how you learn to write is you look at what other people are doing whose writing that you like, and you break it down and you reverse engineer it and you see what works for them, and then you apply those lessons to your own writing.
54:05
SPEAKER_00: Now, a deeper question regarding stories as a teaching tool is why?
54:10
SPEAKER_00: Why do stories work so well?
54:12
SPEAKER_00: Why do we love them so much?
54:13
SPEAKER_00: And I think it's because as humans, we process information in the form of stories.
54:19
SPEAKER_00: Whenever we come home from work, we always say, You'll never guess what happened today, or do I have a crazy story for you about something that happened today?
54:27
SPEAKER_00: Our minds love stories so much that even when we're asleep, our brains are creating stories from bits of information running around in our heads.
54:36
SPEAKER_00: And of course, those stories are called dreams.
54:39
SPEAKER_00: In fact, I can vividly remember a dream that I had about a month ago.
54:43
SPEAKER_00: It actually involved you you all are going to think I'm crazy.
54:48
SPEAKER_00: This dream was I was in a for some reason I was in a small town in Illinois and I was sitting in an ice cream shop.
54:56
SPEAKER_00: And I was had my back to to this the windows.
55:00
SPEAKER_00: I was sitting at like a bar area they had, or a counter area they had, having some ice cream in a dish.
55:05
SPEAKER_00: I remember it was it was a glass bowl that was uh had some waves in the way the glass was made, and it was a scoop of vanilla ice cream with sprinkles on it.
55:16
SPEAKER_00: And I remember the kind of spoon I was using, one of those spoons like with a long handle that you eat ice eat ice cream with.
55:22
SPEAKER_00: And I was sitting there having ice cream, and all of a sudden, Phil Collins comes down Main Street on a float, like a parade float, uh doing his song in the air tonight.
55:35
SPEAKER_00: Now, that was an absolutely crazy dream.
55:38
SPEAKER_00: Probably my brain put that together because maybe I'd had ice cream the day before and I love Phil Collins and I listen to his music all the time.
55:45
SPEAKER_00: I have no idea what that dream meant um or what I should take from it, but I do remember that dream.
55:51
SPEAKER_00: We remember stories because our brains are so wired to love stories.
55:57
SPEAKER_00: So any chance that we can get to use stories in any kind of communication that we do, I think is wonderful.
56:04
SPEAKER_00: In fact, that's why I just told that story, is because uh I hadn't told the story in a while for a few minutes in this podcast episode, so I wanted to throw that story in there.
56:12
SPEAKER_00: And that's just the power of stories.
56:14
SPEAKER_00: There are a couple of books I would recommend about storytelling.
56:18
SPEAKER_00: One is called The Art of Storytelling by John Walsh, and that is practical steps to presenting a great story.
56:24
SPEAKER_00: It's a great short little book you can read quickly, but that's very, very practical.
56:27
SPEAKER_00: Also, there's a book called The Storytelling Animal by Jonathan Gotchall.
56:32
SPEAKER_00: And I think I pronounced his name correctly, I'm not totally sure.
56:35
SPEAKER_00: His last name is G-O-T-T-S-C-H-A-L-L.
56:40
SPEAKER_00: And the title is called The Storytelling Animal, and that's an exploration of why we love stories as humans.
56:47
SPEAKER_00: Really, really super fascinating book if you like to dig into the cultural meaning of stories and the anthropology and uh some of the psychology and so forth.
56:56
SPEAKER_00: Well, my friend, that is a wrap for this episode.
56:58
SPEAKER_00: Thanks so much for hanging in there with me.
57:00
SPEAKER_00: I know this was kind of long and we had a lot of questions, but I'm so grateful that you're still here, and I hope that you found this episode helpful.
57:07
SPEAKER_00: I also want to give a massive thank you to all my friends who submitted questions, and I hope that I've been able to help you in a small way through my responses.
57:16
SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much for listening to this episode.
57:18
SPEAKER_00: Again, I appreciate you tuning in and listening to this.
57:21
SPEAKER_00: And if you could take a few moments and leave us a review in iTunes, that really helps a great deal.
57:26
SPEAKER_00: And if you know of anybody who would enjoy these episodes, please go ahead and share it with them.
57:31
SPEAKER_00: Your one act of generosity might just change their life.
57:34
SPEAKER_00: Until next time, remember that your writing has the power to change people's lives.