The Daily Writer

I 'm honored to have my good friend, Jim Woods, on the show today to help us develop our storytelling chops. Jim is a novelist, story coach, and editor. He has worked with many authors over the years, including some whose books have been on the New York Times bestseller list. Jim is the host of the Finish Your Book Podcast. He is also the founder of Storycrafting, a coaching service that help...

What do powerful words look like?  When you think of powerful words, you probably imagine Abraham Lincoln delivering the Gettysburg Address, or JFK giving a speech about America’s mission to go to the moon. Or maybe imagine an author like Maya Angelou talking about how she overcame a difficult childhood. But powerful words aren’t just reserved for classic speeches or world-renowned books. You have...

One of the most popular episodes of the original Twilight Zone series is “Time Enough at Last.” Burgess Meredith plays Henry Bemis, a bank teller with thick glasses who is obsessed with reading. One day during his lunch break, he goes to the bank vault to read.  Suddenly there is a violent explosion, which knocks him out. He later wakes up to find that an atomic bomb has destroyed the world. He wa...

Every period in history seems like the worst for people going through it. 2020 has certainly been a challenging year on many levels. We’ve still in the middle of a global pandemic, we had a bitter election in the United States, the economy has been in upheaval, many people have lost jobs, and the list goes on and on … One look at your social media feed or any news channel will tell you that people...

Anyone who grew up in the second half of the 20 th century was familiar with two icons of pop culture: The Wizard of Oz and Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood . On the surface, these two couldn’t be more different. The Wizard of Oz was a 1939 movie about a young girl, Dorothy, who is swept away by a tornado and battles the Wicked Witch of the West in the land of Oz. Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood , on the o...

In the world of computers, WYSIWYG stands for “what you see is what you get.” It refers to an editing system or interface where the content you see on screen shows exactly how it will look when it’s printed or displayed elsewhere. But WYSIWYG can also refer to the writing life as a whole. What you see is truly what you get. On today's episode, Kent encourages you to put in the work and take a...

On this month's Listener Q&A, we tackle a number of great questions: How do you transition from writing as a hobby, to writing as a profession? Do you have to travel in order to be an author? How do I start making money as a freelance writer? How do I choose which book to work on next? Do you have any tips for marketing or how to build a platform? How do I start to market my writing and b...

When we consider the impact of our writing, there are many elements we pay attention to. We spend a lot of time thinking about our audience, our content, our strategy for reaching readers, our habits, our tools and technology, and so forth. But one important element of our writing that often gets overlooked is our "voice." According to my guest today, your voice is a vital element in you...

If you spend any time among a group of novelists, you will pretty quickly hear two terms: pantsers and plotters. Pantsers are the ones who prefer to write by the “seat of their pants.” They love to develop a great opening, then discover the story as they write. Pantsers get bored if they know where the whole story is going ahead of time. Plotters are the ones who have to carefully outline the whol...

Most young people only have a vague idea of who Johnny Carson is if they have even heard of him at all. But for anyone 40 and older, you probably remember him as the host of The Tonight Show. From 1962-1992, Johnny Carson ruled the airwaves as the King of Late Night. If you were a stand-up comedian in the late 70’s through the early 90’s, you got invited over to the couch to talk to Johnny after y...

If you talk to most writers, there is one thing they almost all universally hate: marketing. Most writers dislike the thought of promoting themselves or going through all the technical hoops they think they need in order to market well. Do you share this viewpoint as well? Do you hate marketing? If so, it’s no wonder because almost all of our firsthand experience with marketing tells us it’s dista...

If you recall your middle school history class, there were three distinct periods in ancient history, each one defined by the material they used to make weapons. The Stone Age came first. These weapons of stone were of course limited because stones are very heavy. They are also hard to shape if the only other tools you have are made of stone. Then came the Bronze age, when people began mining tin...

In September 1976, the American rock band Boston released their single called “More Than a Feeling.” The song tells the story of a young man who is listening to the radio, and a song comes on that reminds him of a former love. What he experiences is “more than a feeling.” But in a way, this song could also describe writers who are doing the work day by day. How many times have you heard writers wh...

If you've been listening to my podcast or reading my blog for any length of time, you know that I encourage you to do things that are scary. I've been getting into short story writing recently, and I recently dug this one out of the archives and dusted it off. This is the first time I have shared a short story publicly. I hope you enjoy it! *** If you enjoyed this episode, we would be gr...

When you think of ways to connect with your audience and add value to them, what comes to mind? What usually focus on the more flashy forms of marketing such as social media, Amazon algorithms or Facebook ads. But there's a way to connect with your readers that relies on a decades-old technology we use every day. It's not flashy, it's not the new, hip thing, but it absolutely works....

In a world of equality and opportunity, we usually talk about power as if it’s a bad thing. But power is like time, money, or any other resource. It can be used for good or for bad. Writers don’t think about what we do in terms of power. We use words like creativity, craft, platform, audience, and entrepreneurship. But power? It’s a concept that seems a little old-fashioned, if not outright outdat...

One of the tropes that seems to follow creative types around is the myth of the “tortured artist.” The myth goes something like this: creative work is very, very difficult, and it requires the artist to give their blood, sweat, and tears to their creative work. This tortured artist myth has been used to describe why so many creative types are depressed or otherwise messed up. And if you look at th...

Do you remember what it feels like to be criticized for your writing? Different memories come flooding back for different people. Maybe it was in junior high, when a teacher pointed out all your mistakes. Maybe it was in college when you submitted an essay to a contest, and you didn’t even place. Maybe it was more recently, when you published a blog post or wrote a social media post that someone d...

If you were to make a list of the most creative people from the last hundred years, Steve Jobs would be close to the top of the list. As the co-founder of Apple, he was in large part responsible for many of the devices and apps we use today, such as the Mac, iTunes, the iPhone, the iPad, and lots of others.  Especially in his later years, he was adored and admired for his visionary approach and hi...

What does it mean to be successful as a writer? It’s a simple question—you might say even deceptively simple. Why? Because we don’t often stop to think about how we define success. We are so accustomed to certain metrics that we seldom question our ideas of success. Like a dog chasing a car, we continue to run after it, never stopping to wonder if we should be chasing that particular car in the fi...

The holiday season is in full swing, and most everyone is thinking about the gifts they are going to give others. Just yesterday, my son and I were talking about some gift ideas for my wife. And my wife and I have certainly been talking about gifts to get our son. While we're probably spending a lot of time on Amazon or looking around local stores, the best gifts come from who we are, not jus...

There are a lot of challenging aspects of being a writer. But in my experience, some of the biggest obstacles come from inside. If we look at why we sometimes are not achieving the impact and success we want, it's because we are paying attention to the false labels that others have given us, and that we have given ourselves. My guest today is Bee Evans. She is a speaker, coach, and thought le...

Being a writer is a lot like living in The Wizard of Oz . Some days feel like you’ve lost your brain, most days feel like you’re holding onto your heart, and every day feels like a battle for your courage.  That’s how the Cowardly Lion felt just before he and the rest of the gang went in to see the Wizard in Emerald City. In one of the best musical moments of the whole movie, he says,  What makes...

Are you a glass half empty or a glass half full kind of person? If your answer is that you’re a glass half empty kind of person, it means you tend to focus on what you lack. If your answer is that you’re a glass half full kind of person, it means you tend to focus on what you have. So the question is not about what’s inside the glass. The question is, what’s inside of you ? It really comes down to...

Have you ever found yourself sitting, staring at the wall, thinking about that book you wanted to write? Then a few minutes later, you snap out of it and realize you were completely lost in thought? If so, you’re not alone. Probably every writer can relate to spending more time thinking about a book than actually writing it. But why do we do this? Why do we spend so much time planning, dreaming, v...