The Daily Writer

If we look at growth as a natural byproduct of good habits we practice on a regular basis, the first habit is preparing the soil of your mind. The second one is planting. We writers deal with thousands of seeds. Those seeds are ideas. They are scraps of stories, articles, books, speeches, or workshops. Ideas come and go by the dozens every day. It’s hard to tell in the moment which ones are worth...

Everyone who has ever planted anything knows that you can’t just throw seeds on the ground. You must prepare the soil. Otherwise, the soil won’t be ready to receive the seeds. The seeds will die and all the effort and future potential will have been wasted. Your creative mind works the same way. It can’t just receive ideas and then cause those ideas to sprout. Your mind must be prepared. On this e...

In her landmark book Mindset: The New Psychology of Success , Dr. Carol Dweck argues that your mindset, far more than your talents or abilities, is responsible for your personal and professional success. To be more specific, she contrasts two approaches to life: a fixed mindset and a growth mindset. Over the next seven episodes/days, we will explore what it means to grow as a writer by using some...

Today I want to explore a topic that a lot of people ask me about. It's also a topic that, when you give it the attention it deserves, will transform your book-writing experience. When I mention the topic "how to build an amazing non-fiction book outline," it may not sound like the most exciting topic. However, if you're writing a non-fiction book, this is a critical topic beca...

It seems like such a simple question, but the answers are more profound than you realize: What is the thinking process a person goes through when they are deciding whether to buy your book? I'm excited to have my friend, Cathy Davis, here on this episode to walk us through some answers. Cathy spent the bulk of her career as a Designer and Creative Director at Bank of America’s Trust Division,...

Think about the last time you went to the eye doctor. You probably thought you were seeing just fine until the exam. It turns out your vision was blurry and you didn’t even know it. Our creativity works the same way. We get busy and distracted. We lose sight of the amazing world around us and forget to maintain a sense of wonder. Our hearts and minds get blurry. On this episode, you’ll discover wh...

We can all agree that being a writer is more complicated than it used to be. Back in the days before the internet was a thing, being a working writer essentially meant that you submitted your articles to magazines and wrote books for publishers. Now, things are more complicated. There is marketing, social media, self-publishing options, speaking engagements, courses, and many other ways you can sp...

As writers, we are constantly dreaming about what’s next. The next book. The next conference. The next interview. The next connection. The next source of income. The next five years. All you have is today, this moment, right here and now. Don’t keep your head so far in the clouds that you forget to keep your feet planted on the ground. On this episode, you’ll be inspired to be grateful for this pr...

You were born with a gift. You can think of it as a beautiful white pearl. This gift, this pearl, is meant to be shared with the world. As a child, you were excited to share your gift with others. But over the years, as you accumulate disappointments, rejection, and hurts, your pearl becomes dark and encrusted. Most people either get used to the lump or they simply throw it away. But a select few...

If we could give our modern age a name, it might be called, “The Age of Hurry.” Commerce and communication can happen instantaneously around the world. And when you look at your task list, you have messages to answer, deadlines to meet, material to write. It all feels like it needs to be done right now . Like everyone else, you have a busy schedule. But trying to go faster won’t help. Instead, you...

Welcome again to my monthly business update. As usual, I will focus on three areas: ghostwriting, The Daily Writer, and personal updates. Ghostwriting Here are three important lessons I’m learning: You probably need to raise your prices. Clients are not mainly concerned about your writing ability. Having the right connections makes a huge difference. The Daily Writer Let me highlight a few importa...

When you are writing straightforward how-to content, or perhaps writing for clients, it's fairly easy to put your mind in third gear and follow a standard writing formula. But what happens when you are writing about highly emotional or sensitive topics? How can you communicate effectively but also do it in a way that honors you, the subject, and your listeners? My guest today is here to walk...

In the Hero’s Journey storytelling template, we begin with the main character. He or she exists in what is called the “ordinary world.” The ordinary world is Luke Skywalker on Tatooine, Dorothy in Kansas, Frodo in the Shire, Michael Corleone before he gets wrapped up in the family business, and a thousand other examples from movies, literature, and comics. The ordinary world is a place where the h...

Have you ever had this experience? You’re sitting with someone you admire over dinner and mention that you completed a writing project that is important to you. You show them your finished project, they look at it for three seconds, shrug as they acknowledge that it’s cool, then go back to their food. These moments can be crushing, but only if you let them. So often, we look to other people for va...

You probably knew a kid in high school who was supremely gifted. They might have even been voted “most likely to succeed” or “most talented.” Everyone assumed their gifts would carry them on to great success. In most cases, this never happened. They went through life frustrated because the promise of their great talent was never realized. On today’s episode, you’ll be reminded why hard work trumps...

One of the most interesting characters in literature is the unreliable narrator. This character might be delusional, a liar, or is simply prone to exaggeration. Or, they might not have a firm grasp on reality because of their personality or mental state. Each of us has an unreliable narrator in our heads. This is the voice telling you you’re not good enough, you’re not gifted, or nobody will like...

William Goldman was one of the most successful Hollywood screenwriters of all time. He was the creative genius behind scripts for The Princess Bride and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid , among many others. In total, he had nearly three dozen scripts produced, which is remarkable by anyone’s standards. In his funny and insightful book Adventures in the Screen Trade , he famously said, “Nobody kn...

On today's episode, I dive into the topic of perfectionism. This is an area where so many writers struggle. We have this ideal of what we should be writing, or the kind of success we should be having, and then we get stuck because it seems unattainable. Perfectionism is not about the reader you're serving, it's about you. If you're obsessed with perfection to the point where yo...

A few months ago, I left my job as a full-time college professor after doing that work for 17 years. Even though I had a fair amount of discretionary time in that job, and I also worked from home during the summers, it has been a big switch to go from having a college office to now being able to work from anywhere at any time. I've found myself working a lot more in coffee shops the last few...

One of the most pervasive ideas in Western culture is the concept of “finding your dreams.” No one knows for sure where this idea came from. The idea goes something like this: the main purpose of your life, vocationally speaking, is to find your dream. The dream is what you are meant to do. It’s granted by some otherworldly force or power. Your task, should you choose to accept it, is to keep seek...

Do you struggle with being a perfectionist? Perfectionism is the tendency to get paralyzed by the idea that your work is never good enough. Perfectionists imagine there is a standard out there and they can never reach it. They have convinced themselves that they will be an utter failure unless they reach that unreachable standard. Therefore, they never take action and instead live in a perpetual s...

One of the most helpful perspectives we can adopt as writers is understanding that we don’t have an objective view of reality. This is hard to hear because most of us naturally believe we see things as they are. We assume we can see ourselves and everyone else clearly, as they are. We trust that our perceptions about our giftedness and other people’s talent are basically on target. But that’s almo...

There is a common trait among successful writers, and it has nothing to do with skill, talent, genre, or style. Instead, it has everything to do with taking responsibility for your own life choices. Most people are passive observers of their own lives. They accept the choices that life hands to them. They assume what they see other people doing is what they should be doing also. They go along with...

Have you ever sat in a coffee shop and listened to the conversations happening around you? It’s fascinating. 99% of the time, people are only talking about themselves. Almost everyone in every social situation makes a conversation about them. It is rare to hear someone who is listening empathetically to the other person who is speaking. In fact, communication experts have told us for decades that...

There are many keys to your success as a writer and author. Writing a great book is an important part of it, but there are other important things as well. One of those components is book marketing, which can seem like an intimidating and mysterious part of your business as a writer. While there can definitely be a lot of moving parts to marketing, it's important not to lose sight of the bigge...