Shows / The Daily Writer
The Daily Writer
The Daily Writer is a podcast for writers who want to live a more intentional and creative life.Hosted by author and ghostwriter Kent Sanders, each episode offers practical insights, encouragement, and inspiration to help you build a consistent writing habit, overcome creative obstacles, and become the author of your own story.Whether you’re writing a book or trying to make progress on work that matters, The Daily Writer will help you take the next step. Learn more at DailyWriterLife.com.
Episodes
The Daily WriterMarketing is All About People
Remember the 1980’s movie “Field of Dreams” with Kevin Costner? He plays a farmer who is roaming out in his field one day, and he hears a voice. “Build it and…
The Daily WriterThe Introverted Writer’s Dilemma
There are many advantages to being an introverted writer. You enjoy being alone, which is a big benefit when trying to get your writing done. You’d mostly…
The Daily WriterMelissa Bloom on Moving Past Fear, Doubt, and Overwhelm
Welcome to the weekend edition of the Daily Writer. For a while now, I’ve been wanting to do a series of conversations focused around mental health for…
The Daily WriterBecky Kopitzke on Making Money and Serving God with Your Writing
If you’ve been listening to this podcast for a while, you’re probably familiar with my story. I used to be a pastor, then I was a teacher at a Christian…
The Daily WriterFundamentally Trustworthy
Much has been written about the voice that lives in every writer’s head. We normally think and talk about this voice as a bad thing. So, it’s not a surprise…
The Daily WriterHow to Instantly Multiply Your Ideas
John Steinbeck said, “Ideas are like rabbits. You get a couple and learn how to handle them, and pretty soon you have a dozen.” Writers are known for their…
The Daily WriterBe a Person of Value
Every writer talks about wanting success, but what does success actually mean? How do you measure it? Is it even a worthy goal in the first place? Those are…
The Daily WriterAre You Listening to Your Life?
Author and teacher Parker Palmer wrote a profound little book called Let Your Life Speak. In the book, he writes, “Before I can tell my life what I want to do…
The Daily WriterMake Your Own Luck
The greatest superhero movie ever made is 2008’s The Dark Knight. The movie is admired for many reasons, the biggest of which is Heath Ledger’s amazing…
The Daily WriterWhose Advice Are You Taking?
One of the most fascinating aspects of being a writer is that lots of people are eager to give you advice. In fact, there is a giant industry of books…
The Daily WriterWriting The Go-Giver Marriage (with John David & Ana Mann)
Picture this: You are the co-author of an enormously successful business book series. You want to write another book in the series, but it’s on a very…
The Daily WriterFrom the Shelf to the Stage: Hosting a Powerful Live Event (with Phyllis Jenkins)
I’m excited today to feature a conversation with my good friend Phyllis Jenkins, who is here to help authors get a handle on how to put together a powerful…
The Daily WriterThe Art of Letting Go
Let’s talk about one of the hardest truths to swallow. Here it is: the circle of relationships that brought you to where you are is not the circle of…
The Daily WriterAre You Ready to Invest in Yourself?
If you really want to grow your network and reach a higher level of success in your life as a writer, you must invest in yourself. There is a lot you can learn…
The Daily WriterSuccessful by Association
Let’s talk about one of the more uncomfortable truths of the author life. It has nothing to do with books, but it has everything to do with how others perceive…
The Daily WriterHow Can You Help?
Jealousy causes us to be inwardly focused. The more we fixate on what others have, the more angry, resentful, and bitter we become. You can’t be at your best…
The Daily WriterWhat Do You Offer That is Unique?
As writers, sometimes we see another person’s success and believe we should have it as well. But when you stop and think about it, the logic doesn’t add up…
The Daily WriterWhat Can You Learn from a Successful Writer?
In the previous two entries in this series, we have taken a look at the destructive nature of jealousy, and why you should focus on what you can do to make…
The Daily WriterLessons from Publishing My First Book (with Ken Hannaman)
I’m thrilled to feature this conversation with my good friend Ken Hannaman. Ken is a Possibility Mindset Coach who has a never-ending thirst for knowledge and…
The Daily WriterAsk What, Not Why
Have you ever felt like you live in a room with invisible walls that have you trapped? You’re trapped by questions like this: Why does that so-and-so writer…
The Daily WriterTheir Success Doesn't Mean Your Failure
If you’re alive and breathing, you have struggled with jealousy. It’s part of the human condition. But for most writers, jealousy is more than an occasional…
The Daily WriterCreate Your Own Podcast
In yesterday’s episode, we talked about the power of being a guest on other people’s podcasts. Today, we will turn the tables and talk about the importance of…
The Daily WriterBe a Podcast Guest
Being an author in our media age isn’t just about creating books or written content. It’s also about creating a media platform that can consist of video…
The Daily WriterNew Book Release: 18 Words to Live By
I’m thrilled to share with you that my brand-new book, 18 Words to Live By: A Father’s Wisdom on What Matters Most, is available today! 18 Words is a compass…
The Daily WriterThe Room Where It Happens
In the musical “Hamilton,” Aaron Burr sings a number called “The Room Where It Happens.” He is upset that his rival, Hamilton, has been invited into the inner…
The Daily WriterDanielle Cook: The Power of Owning Your Story
As writers, we spend a lot of time focusing on helping other people tell their stories. Maybe you do client work, coaching, run a writing community as I do, or…
The Daily WriterThe Power of a Handwritten Note
There are few things in life as powerful as a handwritten note sent through the mail. Why? Because we all want to feel noticed. We want to feel special. We…
The Daily Writer5 Ways to Support Other Writers
One of the most critical truths of living in the modern world is that we are all connected. As the poet John Donne wrote, “No man is an island.” (And neither…
The Daily WriterAn Easy Way to Reduce Friction
All of us deal with a certain amount of friction as writers. Even under the best of circumstances, there are obstacles and problems that threaten our…
The Daily WriterHow Writing Actually Gets Done
One of the reasons that writing feels so hard to many people is because their expectation doesn’t match the reality of how a clean draft actually gets written…
The Daily WriterIt Can’t Be Done… or Can It?
If someone gave you the assignment to write a sentence without the letter E, how would you respond? Would you think it’s too difficult, or that it can’t be…
The Daily WriterThe Middle 50%
Have you ever thought about why do so many writing projects get started, but never get finished? Lots of people want to write a book, start a podcast, create a…
The Daily WriterJennifer Zahourek: How to Create Custom Print Books
We all know that Amazon and other print-on-demand companies give authors an amazing opportunity to get our books out into the world without having to stock and…
The Daily WriterYour Book Cover Keeps the Vision Clear
One of my very best friends is a guy named Eric Elder. He is a musician, author, and creative genius who runs TheRanch.org. A few years ago, we were on a call…
The Daily WriterOne Block at a Time
Some 4,500 years ago, tens of thousands of Egyptian workers descended upon the Giza Plateau to begin a massive construction project like the world had never…
The Daily WriterSlow & Steady Wins the Race
One of Aesop’s best-known fables is “The Tortoise and the Hare.” You’ve probably heard the story before. The hare challenges the tortoise to a race, confident…
The Daily WriterThe Pebble in Your Shoe
There’s something that has been bothering you. It’s like a pebble in your shoe that irritates you just enough that you think about it all the time. It…
The Daily WriterAre You Grateful for Your Critics?
This is the seventh and final entry in our mini-series on dealing with rejection. Rejection is not fun, but it still has an important place in our business and…
The Daily WriterIt Only Takes One Match to Burn a Bridge Down
This is the sixth entry in our mini-series on dealing with rejection. When your writing has been rejected—or at least when you perceive that it has—you respond…
The Daily WriterJournal of a Memoir #1
In this episode, I begin a series on the making of my Father’s memoir of his experiences in Vietnam. I’ll be writing it with him over the next year or so. I…
The Daily WriterBrigitte Cutshall: The Formula for Publishing a Quality Book
Whenever I talk to new writers, the most overwhelming emotion I sense from them is confusion. There are so many options and resources for writing and…
The Daily WriterStop and Check in With Yourself
This is the fifth entry in our mini-series on dealing with rejection. If you saw the 2009 movie Star Trek, which was, of course, a reboot of the classic TV…
The Daily WriterYou’re Being Prepared for Something Great
This is the fourth entry in our series on dealing with rejection. One of the biggest paradoxes of feeling hurt is that everyone experiences it, but when you’re…
The Daily WriterYou Don’t Need a Gatekeeper
This is the third entry in our mini-series on dealing with rejection. The publishing world has changed radically in the last fifteen years or so. In the past…
The Daily WriterTomorrow’s Gonna Be Another Day
This is the second entry in our mini-series on dealing with rejection. It’s happened to all of us. You had your heart set on an opportunity and it falls…
The Daily WriterThe Seed of Truth
Today’s episode is the first in a seven-part series on dealing with rejection. As writers, we deal with rejection in many forms. You can be rejected by a…
The Daily WriterKeep a Lid on It
Have you ever noticed that writers like to talk about the things they’re working on? It’s a strange habit, isn’t it? Maybe it’s because we like to get feedback…
The Daily WriterJennifer Harshman: How to Write Your Book in 12 Weeks
We've all heard the stories about people who take years to write a book. In some cases, that's necessary, especially if the author is writing a very large book…
The Daily WriterWhat You Really Wanted to Say
If writing is a house, each of us lives on two levels. The ground floor is where we invite people in. We share things we think people want to hear. Underneath…
The Daily WriterIt All Goes Back in the Box
The way some of us writers shrink back from a challenge, you’d think we live forever. We hesitate to write that book because we fear what others will think. We…
The Daily WriterWhat's Luck Got to Do With It?
When you begin studying the lives of the great writers, one of the most surprising things you’ll learn is how well aware most of them were regarding their…
The Daily WriterBelieve It All Over
One of the curses of being a writer is that we are too rational. We pride ourselves on reporting the facts of a situation accurately. We love the idea of…
The Daily WriterCelebrating 100,000 Downloads!
I want to take a moment to let you know about an important milestone we just passed here on the podcast in the last couple of weeks. We hit 100,000 downloads…
The Daily WriterNo Such Thing as Objective News
Every day, you are surrounded by news—news on the internet, news on television, news in the newspaper, news that other people deliver. Have you ever thought…
The Daily WriterBest Of: Choose Yourself
This one is for all the kids who were always picked last in middle school gym class. You remember what it was like: You’d stand there awkwardly with the group…
The Daily WriterBest Of: The Land of a Thousand No's
We writers live in a world of “yesses.” We love to say yes to that podcast interview, that new idea, that speaking opportunity, or that client work. There’s a…
The Daily WriterBest Of: Your Scars Are Part of Your Story
There is a good chance that you know someone who has a tattoo, or you have one yourself. What is the purpose of a tattoo? It’s a way to mark your identity. But…
The Daily WriterBest Of: The Rest is Just Details
Why do we make writing so difficult? When you get down to it, writing is a very simple thing. We take a pen and write on paper or in a notebook. We sit in…
The Daily WriterBest Of: Are You Master of Your Domain?
One of the most famous episodes of Seinfeld is “The Contest.” In this episode, Jerry, Elaine, George, and Kramer compete to see who can demonstrate…
The Daily WriterBest Of: You're So Close to Success
One of the most inspiring stories from the music world during the last few decades comes from the rock band the Foo Fighters. Dave Grohl was the drummer for…