Ann Kroeker, Writing Coach

Show Notes   Summary: Episode #39: Manage Your Writing Space to Be a More Productive Writer In the last episode I introduced four areas we writers can begin to evaluate and inventory in order to increase productivity: our writing space, time, energy, and attention. My hope is that through this series we see ways to prioritize our writing—and ourselves as writers—so that our decisions reflect that...

Show Notes   Summary: Episode #38: Manage Your Space, Time, Energy and Attention To be a more successful writer, you're probably going to have to be a more productive writer. To be more productive, it's best to learn to manage several things, including the space in which you work, the time you have to work, your energy levels, and your attention, or focus, on any given thing. I'm going to introduc...

Show Notes   Summary: Episode #37: How Good Does My Writing Need to Be Online? Not long ago, writer, poet and blogger Christina Hubbard asked me, “How polished should a blog post be?” Shortly after she asked that, I saw a presentation by a successful young online entrepreneur who suggested that blogs can be a little sloppy; people reading online don’t mind an error here or there. Blogging’s casual...

Show Notes: Episode #36: Why Writers Need Five Fat Files Years ago, I heard about author Elizabeth George’s five fat files. Her idea is to pick five areas you’d like to grow in and even develop into an expert in, and focus your resources on those five areas. They could be five ideas, topics, themes, or skills, and they are five areas you can live with for a long, long time. Because you’re investin...

Show Notes Summary: Episode #35: Want to Be a More Creative Writer? Get Curious! Curiosity can distract us from our work and disrupt our productivity. Curiosity can tempt us to waste time watching Buzzfeed and Upworthy videos, discover our friends' latest Facebook updates, tag trends on Twitter, and obsessively check weather reports. But curiosity is a powerful force—an energizing force—that can f...

Show Notes Summary: When you wake up in the morning and dive into your to-do list—maybe you made it the night before, maybe in the morning, or maybe you make it up on the fly—isn't it gratifying to cross things off? It provides a sense of closure—of satisfaction—for getting something done. Then you move on to the next thing. It's a productive approach to make the list and check things off. But the...

Show Notes   Summary: Last week I urged you to write that thing that scares you...and to get started by writing three sentences. Did you do that? Did you write those three sentences? I did. I dove straight into the thing that scares me and wrote three sentences. Then three more. Then a whole paragraph. And another. I got going and didn’t stop for two pages. Then, okay, then I stopped because I sta...

Show Notes Summary: Think of something you’ve really wanted to write...something that feels exciting to try, maybe a little risky to undertake...something you feel is urgent or important. And you haven’t written it yet because you’re scared. You could be scared for a lot of reasons: Maybe you’re a little scared because it’s a new style for you, or a new genre, and you feel you’ve don’t have the sk...

Show Notes Summary: This is the time of year when people look back at 2015 and consider how they did at achieving their goals, then they look ahead to 2016 and start to plan the year ahead. They decide the habits they want to eradicate and establish, and the goals they want to achieve. It happens […]

Show Notes Summary: My friend John, an entrepreneur, said to me years ago: Action creates clarity. I’ve passed this nugget along to many people who are just sitting on an idea, afraid to take action, worried they’ll get it wrong. Once you take action, you might feel like you’re stumbling or making mistakes, but what you’re […]

Show Notes Summary: One of my daughters has always been a playful, creative inventor, looking for ways to add tangible fun to her days. Once, she dragged a plastic bottle and paper towel tube from the recycling bin, grabbed a handful of rubber bands and duct-taped everything together to make a ukulele. It didn’t play, […]

Show Notes Summary: This is a time to dream up some big goals for 2016 and think about how you can expand your reach and stretch yourself, and I definitely applaud and encourage that. But it can also be a time to go small—to use your words to connect with one or two people at a time. By "small," I mean brief, but also "intimate." You could: pull out a note card and write a letter craft an email to...

Show Notes Summary: During the holiday season, while traveling and hosting or visiting others, you may not be able to keep up your writing at the same pace. We discussed in the last episode the benefit of having a rut to run in, and yet as we head into these next couple of months, we may not be able to maintain our writing routines at the same level. Today I want to encourage you that even if you...

Show Notes Summary: A writer needs a rut to run in. If you're troubled by the construction, let me also say it this way: a writer needs a rut in which to run. But about this rut...you might be thinking, "Hold on, now, how can a coach who encourages curiosity and creativity be promoting a rut?" After all, People get stuck in ruts and never change, never take risks, never explore new possibilities....

Show Notes Summary: Hundreds of thousands of writers are in the middle of National Novel Writing Month, or what is affectionately known as NaNoWriMo—where writers have signed up with the goal of completing a novel draft of 50,000 words. If you are among the participants—or if you decided to tackle a nonfiction project during the same month, tapping into the resources and momentum of NaNoWriMo—you’...

Show Notes Summary: In the last episode, we discussed the urgency of acting on ideas. I quoted an editor my parents worked with who shouted, “Never, never, never sit on a story!” I warned you not to let somebody scoop you, because that idea was given to you. So take action, I said. And write. Today, I want to encourage you that if you waited a few beats too long and your idea was written up and se...

My parents were editors at a major metropolitan newspaper, and my dad often quoted his managing editor, who fulfilled all '50s and '60s movie newsroom stereotypes—puffing on a cigar, shouting across the newsroom. When this editor realized one of his reporters had been scooped by a competing newspaper, he shouted for all the newsroom to hear: “Never, never, never sit on a story!” Though I’ve not be...

The last time we were together we talked about one thing writers need to succeed, and if you listened, you know that thing is grit. In this episode I'm posing several ways writers can increase grit, so if you feel like a low-grit writer, listen and try some of the ideas. I believe you can grow in grit to become a more productive and successful writer. In the words of Louis Zamperini: Be hardy! Key...

I help a lot of writing coach clients organize their writing lives or take a fresh look at their writing goals and projects. In the process, we often look at task management programs, time management systems, project management philosophies to find something they can implement that suits their personality. We experiment and almost always find some system that works for each person. This often help...

In our last episode we talked about finding and following the energy. But what if you don’t feel the energy? What if your writing feels stale? What then? That's what Julie asked in her Facebook comment. Is it possible to find and almost generate energy? I think the answer is yes. Whether we change the environment around us or the environment of our minds, if you will, we can open up new channels f...

[The following is only a glimpse of the topic … not a transcription. This episode is about seven minutes long.] It is so hard to write something when there's no energy for it. Now, I don't mean lack of energy because you didn't get enough sleep or because you haven’t had your second cup of coffee yet. I mean, it’s hard to write when there’s no enthusiasm for the project—when there's no excitement...

[The following is only a glimpse of the topic … not a transcription. Also, this episode is about six minutes long.] The last couple of podcast episodes have focused how to affirm the writer in your life who has asked for input—and how to err on the side of encouragement. As a continuation of this discussion, I’d like to share with you an idea for how you can ask for input from individuals or group...

[The following is only a glimpse of the topic … not a transcription. Also, this episode is about 6 minutes long.] In the last episode, I encouraged anyone who is in a position read and respond to a writer’s work to affirm, affirm, affirm what’s working. I’m not talking about a formal reviewer online or at a newspaper who is reviewing a book. I’m thinking of someone in a writing group who's worksho...

[The following is only a glimpse of the topic … not a transcription] As a coach, editor, workshop leader, and writing instructor, I’ve given a lot of feedback to writers at all levels. For several years I taught composition and creative writing to high school students. Working with students reminded me to deal tenderly with developing writers. Encourage them. Gently help them grow. Affirm in as ma...

[The following is only a glimpse of the topic … not a transcription] A heads up: At over 13 minutes, this episode is significantly longer than my usual 3-6 minute podcast episodes. You sit down to write only to realize you've got a long list of tasks necessary to the work of writing, but after you check them off your list, you haven’t the word count to show for it. Let’s call these: “Non-writing W...