The Daily Writer

One of the most vital questions we can ask in our writing is, “What can I cut out?” This is a great habit to adopt because cutting makes your writing sharper, crisper, and cleaner. When you write, go back through it and take out all unnecessary adverbs, filler, and padding. Longer does not mean better. Longer usually means the piece is more diluted. On today’s episode, you’ll learn a simple way to...

As a ghostwriter, I live and die by word counts. Page numbers mean very little because pages come in all sizes, and fonts and spacing can be increased or decreased. Word count is the best way to measure your progress and productivity. If you don’t have a daily word count for your current work in progress, may I suggest 250 words? That is very doable for almost anyone. It amounts to about a page pe...

Have you ever seen someone make pottery? It’s actually quite fascinating. It’s fun to watch them at work, and it’s often breathtaking to see the beautiful pots, vases, bowls, and other works of art they create with their bare hands. But what comes before the beautiful, finished product? You guessed it—putting a messy lump of clay on the table and getting their hands dirty. On today’s episode, you’...

Years before he was known as the star of the beloved sitcom Seinfeld , Jerry Seinfeld was a successful stand-up comedian. For comedians of his era in the 1970s and 1980s, the golden key to success was appearing on The Tonight Show , hosted by Johnny Carson. Carson ruled the late-night airwaves for thirty years. He was the most important Kingmaker in American culture. If you were invited to do a 5-...

Writers want lots of things. We want to have successful books. We want to be acknowledged for our creative work. We want to make a difference in people’s lives through our writing. We probably want to make a little money if we can… or even a writing-based business that supports our family. There is another thing that many writers want, especially the introverts who have a limited amount of emotion...

Have you ever avoided doing something that scares you? As writers, we face this every day. After all, writing is scary! Our most important task is to "slay the dragons" that keep us from our writing dreams. My guest today is T.K. Johnson, and she's a fiction author who is here to help us do just that. She is the author of riveting plot twists, fantastical worlds, and spellbinding re...

Yesterday, we looked at ten habits that make writing harder. The list was pretty depressing because most people have most of those habits in their life. It’s not all bad news, though. You can implement better habits into your life that make writing a lot easier. Writing doesn’t exist in a vacuum. It exists alongside other systems and dynamics in your life. Just as with the human body, everything a...

Writing is hard enough already. We are constantly fighting against deadlines, self-confidence issues, the need to market versus being productive, distractions, and so much more. But sometimes we make it even harder by sabotaging our own success. On today’s episode, Kent shares 10 habits we writers often have that make writing harder. ***     Are you looking for a community of enthusiastic, generou...

Yesterday, we talked about the value of hitting singles. The main idea was this: if you focus on getting small wins every day, you will eventually win the game. Let’s look at this from another perspective. Recently, I was doing a little 90’s musical reminiscing and listening to the Backstreet Boys (Don’t judge me). It dawned on me that I only knew a couple of their songs.  That got me thinking… th...

Today, I want to use an analogy from the world of baseball to help us understand the value of putting in the work every day. One of the greatest reputations you can acquire as a baseball player is that of a home run hitter. Everybody loves the player who can reliably step up to the plate, crack the bat, and send the baseball flying into the stands.  I was curious about how many major league baseba...

Most people, including myself, create a task list each day. We also call this a “to do” list. These are things we must do. And in a world that increasingly demands our attention every second—in a world filled with ever-increasing opportunities and connections—this list seems to get longer all the time. The antidote to all this is to create a “stop doing” list. These are things you are NOT going to...

Although this podcast is called The Daily Writer , the reality is that many people don’t write every day. They may set aside time every couple of days or once a week to work on their writing. I want you to know that this is totally legitimate. You shouldn’t take the concept of the “daily writer” too literally. The main point is to write regularly, whatever that looks like for your schedule. The mo...

Do you have trouble focusing and getting your writing done? It's a common problem almost all writers face. On today's episode, we'll explore how to focus and be more productive with your writing using cutting-edge science. My guest is Dan Clark, CEO of Brain.fm , a company that takes a science-first approach to creating music that sounds different, and affects you differently, than...

In the previous episode, I mentioned the importance of finishing a first draft of your book. But the urgency doesn’t stop there. I’m not saying you should be sloppy or rush through things. You should make your book, or any writing for that matter, as good as it can be. But the fact of the matter is that we all have limited time on this earth. On today’s episode, you’ll learn that one of the best w...

Why don’t people finish goals that are important them? There are probably many answers to that question, but an obvious reason is that they simply get tired and don’t see a lot of discernible progress toward the goal. Take writing a book, for example. If you tend to be a perfectionist, writing a book can take a very long time because you’re trying to both write and edit as you go. On today’s episo...

One of the reasons why we sometimes get stuck in our writing is that we see how much there is left to do. Let’s say you’re writing a 750-word blog post. You would typically write this in sections—an introduction, two or three main points, and a conclusion or call to action. So really, this is a collection of pieces that are somewhere between 100-200 words each. You can have trouble getting motivat...

Whatever you’re working on right now, you’re bound to get stuck at some point. When you stumble upon our old friend, lovingly called “writer’s block,” here are ten tips to keep the words flowing. On today’s episode, you’ll discover 10 ways—plus 2 bonus tips—for how you can overcome writer’s block. ***     Are you looking for a community of enthusiastic, generous writers to help you build better ha...

Most people listening to this podcast are located in the United States, so let me focus on that crowd for a second. Part of our culture here in the U.S. is what we call the “Protestant work ethic.” Even though not everyone is religious, or even Protestant, we still abide by this standard today. The Protestant work ethic basically says that we believe the way to a more fulfilled and God-honoring li...

I hope your 2022 is off to a great start. Here it is, the end of January, and we've had a solid month to get some meaningful work done toward our goals. How are things going for you? At this point, a lot of people give up on their goals and say, "Maybe next year." But I want you to know that it's never too late to make significant things happen in your writing, your life, and y...

Once you make the decision to start writing, and you do it on a regular basis (hopefully every day), over time you will build up quite a collection of half-baked ideas and unused pieces of material. It might be blog posts, book chapters, social media posts, podcast material, or in the case of myself, I’m sorry to admit, entire books you have written but never released for one reason or another. I...

We've talked about it many times here on the podcast, but it always bears repeating: one of the most powerful skills you can learn is storytelling. We are wired as humans to tell, and to crave, powerful stories. My guest today is John Bucher. He is a mythologist, writer, and storyteller based out of Hollywood, California. John serves as the Creative Director for the Joseph Campbell Foundation...

If you have ever watched behind-the-scenes documentaries for movies, you have probably heard directors talk about the impulse to keep tweaking a movie. Sometimes they will say, “The studio had to come and take the movie away from me.” What’s this all about? It’s pretty simple, really. When you’re working on a big creative project, whether it’s a book or a movie, you always see what needs to be fix...

A common problem we writers have is how to get started. We have a rough vision of what we want to create, but we’re afraid to take that first step. What if we go in the wrong direction? What if we discover we aren’t really talented? What if someone thinks it’s no good? What if this whole thing was a giant mistake? On today’s episode, Kent shares the best way to conquer a blank page. *** Are you lo...

If you get heavily involved in the writing community, you have to be careful. Why? Because there is a whole sub-industry devoted to writing tools that supposedly help you be more productive and creative. Are many of these helpful? Yes, of course. But it’s important to not get too obsessed with specific writing tools. The only measure you should use to determine whether a tool or app is good is whe...

One of the difficulties of creative work, which includes writing, is that we sometimes have vague ideas about our goals. We haven’t determined ahead of time what it means to win or lose. Therefore, no matter what we do, we never quite know if we have hit the mark. This is a surefire way to get discouraged and confused because we don’t have a clear idea of success. When you lay your head on the pil...