Ann Kroeker, Writing Coach
254 episodes - English - Latest episode: 3 months ago - ★★★★★ - 112 ratingsReach your writing goals (and have fun!) by being more curious, creative, and productive. Ann provides practical tips and motivation for writers at all stages to improve their skills, pursue publishing, and expand their reach. Ann keeps most episodes short and focused so writers only need a few minutes to collect ideas, inspiration, resources and recommendations to apply to their work. She incorporates interviews from publishing professionals and authors like Allison Fallon, Ron Friedman, Shawn Smucker, and Jennifer Dukes Lee to bring additional insight. Ann and her guests cover everything from self-editing and goal-setting to administrative and scheduling challenges. Subscribe for ongoing coaching to advance your writing life and career. More at annkroeker.com.
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Episodes
Ep 123: This Is How to Write Real Copy for Real People
October 17, 2017 12:00 - 7 minutes - 6.88 MBA lot of my clients are preparing nonfiction book proposals to send out to agents and publishers. One of the sections they have to think through is their primary audience or target reader. We have to identify who this book is intended to impact. It’s a must for any writing project, big or small. We must know our audience to use the best language to connect with them. To understand what they already know about our topic—and what they need to know. To build a relationship with them and conti...
Ep 122: The Role of a Gatekeeper in the Publishing World
October 10, 2017 12:00 - 8 minutes - 7.56 MBIn Monty Python and the Holy Grail, we follow the saga of King Arthur and his knights when, at one point, they encounter the Keeper of the Bridge of Death. Arthur explains that the Keeper of the Bridge of Death asks each traveler three questions. He who answers the three questions may cross in safety. Sir Robin asks, "What if you get a question wrong?” Arthur answers, "Then you are cast into the Gorge of Eternal Peril,” which appears to be a fiery, hellish pit shooting up flames now and the...
Ep 121: Out of Ideas? Be an Idea Machine
October 03, 2017 12:00 - 6 minutes - 5.58 MBWriters have to churn out content of all kinds, from blog articles and guest posts to magazine pitches and book proposals. You never want the well to run dry, yet you may have faced days when you opened your laptop and stared at the screen without a single idea. It’s kind of scary. You think, “That’s it. My career is over. I’ve used up the creativity I was allotted in life. Now I need to go flip burgers at Mickey D’s." No, no, no. Let me assure you that’s not how it works. The well never ne...
Ep 120: Plotters and Pantsers for All Genres
September 26, 2017 12:00 - 7 minutes - 6.72 MBIn fiction writing, we refer to plotters and pantsers: those who like to outline their plot and write in an organized manner, the “plotters"; and those who write-by-the-seat-of-their-pants, the "pantsers.” Each approach reflects when and how you do your thinking. I know every writer has specifics to his or her approach, but here’s the general idea. Plotter, Pantser The plotter is imagining his characters and thinking through their struggles up front, before he writes a single word, planning...
Ep 119: If a Writing Nemesis Holds You Back, It’s Time to Be Free
September 19, 2017 12:00 - 6 minutes - 5.79 MBIn Rumors of Water, L.L. Barkat recommends a book to her daughter. Barkat is out in the garden with her girls, who are pulling weeds, and one of the girls, Sara, has decided she hates Bishop’s Weed. Barkat tells Sara, “It’s your nemesis…Every gardener has a nemesis.” She continues with her own reflection on the impact of having a nemesis—a garden nemesis or otherwise: It’s not going to cause psychological distress and end up in her memoirs. But it’s not going to go away either. She’s going t...
Ep 118: How Inexperienced Writers Can Supercharge Their Growth
September 12, 2017 12:00 - 8 minutes - 7.62 MBYoung people graduate high school or college, apply for positions, and get stuck: no one will hire them because they have no experience, but they can’t get experience because no one will hire them. So they get a job at Starbucks to pay bills, gaining experience with cleaning espresso machines, still unable to land the job they really want and still unable to gain relevant experience because no one hired them in their preferred field. If only they could gain experience, they would be marketab...
Ep 117: How to Dredge up the Memories You Want to Write About
September 05, 2017 12:00 - 5 minutes - 5.04 MBLast time we talked about taking a cue from Dani Shapiro and attempting to tell the story as we’re inside of it—potentially before the story has become a story. This requires us to write about life as it’s unfolding, trying to find the story in the actions and interactions that take place. We begin “capturing the living moments,” to borrow a phrase from Anais Nin. What if the events we want to write about took place long ago, before we thought about writing anything down? What if we must rel...
Ep 116: Can You Write Your Story Before It’s Become a Story?
August 29, 2017 12:00 - 5 minutes - 5.04 MBIn her recently released memoir, Hourglass, Dani Shapiro says she used to teach her students that writers need distance from the event or events they intend to explore in memoir. I was quite certain that we could not write directly from our feelings, but only the memory of our feelings. How else to find the necessary ironic distance, the cool remove? How else to shape a narrative but from the insight and wisdom of retrospect? (93) Distance Leads to Fading I've heard this same advice from many...
Ep 115: You’ll Write More When You Use an Editorial Calendar
August 22, 2017 12:00 - 10 minutes - 9.46 MBLast time we discussed a writing pipeline, representing the phases or stages a project moves through, from the initial idea to completion—including when it's been published and you save it in a portfolio. Now let’s talk editorial calendars. Life Without an Editorial Calendar For years I got by writing on the fly. I'd have a few minutes free, think up an idea, whip out a draft, and with just a little more time that night or the next morning, I could edit the piece into a solid article to se...
Ep 114: Make the Most of Your Time with a Writing Pipeline
August 15, 2017 12:00 - 8 minutes - 7.78 MBHave you ever sat down at the computer when you finally carved out time to write, only to discover you have no idea where to start or what to say? You end up wasting a lot of precious time if that’s your approach. In times like that, it’s nice to have a plan, a process, a system of some sort, that helps you take your projects from start to finish. The Writing Pipeline: Taking Your Projects from Start to Finish I’d like to recommend you develop a writing pipeline: a process with phases or stag...
Ep 113: An Easy Solution for the Writer with Big Goals and Little Time
August 08, 2017 15:44 - 6 minutes - 5.82 MBIdeas pop into my head all the time: while walking, doing household chores, waiting in a carpool lane, sitting poolside, or even as I'm just falling asleep. If I have paper and pen, great. I can write them down. Or if I have time to pull out my bluetooth keyboard and type them up, cool. We discussed some of my favorite writing tools last week. But if you have a lot of ideas or a rich, detailed memory comes to you, wouldn’t it be nice to record it fully and quickly, before it evaporates or yo...
Ep 112: My Best Writing Tools to Get More Done (at Home and on the Go)
August 01, 2017 12:00 - 10 minutes - 9.69 MBI once asked a photographer the best camera to use. Before he shared his opinion, he said a common answer to that question is, "The best camera is the one you have with you." In other words, it doesn't matter how fancy your equipment is if, at the moment a hawk lands on a fence post next to you, your Canon EOS 5D Mark IV is sitting in the trunk of your car. At that moment, you slowly lift up your smartphone and, as quietly as possible, snap the photo with the equipment you have on hand. I t...
Ep 111: Build Your Email List with a System That Fits the Way You Think
July 24, 2017 06:00 - 10 minutes - 9.57 MBYou may already use a system to collect emails so you can communicate directly with readers who want to hear from you. If you’re unfamiliar with email marketing systems, they offer a powerful way for you to interact with your audience. If you have a new book coming out, for example, these are the people who would want to know about it. If you’re doing a poetry reading, you can send a note and readers in that city will be glad to hear about it and might make plans to attend. If you have a spe...
Ep 110: You Want to Be a Writer Who’s Read? Learn Something New Every Day.
July 18, 2017 16:05 - 6 minutes - 5.97 MBThe publishing world is evolving, and no one knows quite when it will end and what it will look like. As a writer, you've probably been spotting new trends, new entry points, new expectations, new leaders, and new technology, wondering how you can possibly keep up with all that change. Well, you’re not alone. Everyone’s seeing all that new—all that change—and wondering how they can possibly keep up with it all. There’s only one way to have a chance at keeping up—and it’s the same way any of...
Ep 109: Improve Your Writing with a Growth Mindset
July 11, 2017 12:00 - 8 minutes - 8.23 MBMy mom, a journalist, was talking with a friend. She beamed at my brother. “Charlie, he’s the writer of the family. And Annie? She’s…” Here, I felt my mom hesitate. Then, “Annie’s the athlete.” My brother excelled in everything involving words—from composing song lyrics and essays to dominating Scrabble games and inserting witty comments into conversations at just the right moment. I played softball and ran track. And I rode my yellow Schwinn ten-speed down country roads stretching between c...
Ep 108: When Writers Compare – The Good, Bad, and Ugly
July 05, 2017 12:00 - 13 minutes - 12.5 MBAs we seek out mentor texts to imitate or emulate, we encourage the mindset of comparison. When I suggested you search out writing you admire, you’re going to be drawn to a writer you look up to, whose work dazzles when you compare it with your own. Naturally, this writer naturally seems superior to you in some way—otherwise, why would you select this author to learn from? It’s appropriate to admire skilled authors, which is why Ben Franklin's method and straightforward copywork help us lea...
Ep 107: Learn from the Best: Copywork for Grownups
June 27, 2017 12:00 - 9 minutes - 8.49 MBChildren used to be assigned copywork so they could practice penmanship and be exposed to great poetry, sayings, and passages from literature. But copywork’s not just for kids. You may recall from Episode 106 that Ben Franklin’s method is similar to copywork: He picked an essay or article he read and admired, took a few notes on each sentence—just a word or two—set aside the original, and some time later tried to recreate the original using the hints he had written down. Like I said, it isn’...
Ep 106: Learn from the Best – Imitate but Don’t Plagiarize
June 20, 2017 12:00 - 11 minutes - 10.2 MBA brief word of warning: this is a longer-than-usual episode. Instead of falling within the typical five- to eight-minute range, this episode clocks in at over 11 minutes. Are you a carnivorous reader? Francine Prose says in Reading Like a Writer: I’ve heard the way a writer reads described as “reading carnivorously.” What I’ve always assumed that this means is not, as the expression might seem to imply, reading for what can be ingested, stolen, or borrowed, but rather for what can be admi...
Ep 105: There was never yet an uninteresting life – Visiting Mark Twain’s Hannibal, Missouri
June 13, 2017 12:00 - 8 minutes - 7.33 MBWe stepped inside the cave entrance and followed our guide down narrow passageways to see its wonders. The Mark Twain Cave, a national landmark just outside Hannibal, Missouri, was the cave Samuel Langhorne Clemens explored in his youth and used as inspiration for the cave featured in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer when Tom Sawyer and Becky Thatcher separate from the group that had scampered up the hill to play hide-and-seek inside. Our guide kept us moving along a corridor coined Grand Avenue...
Ep 104: Learn from the Best – The Book Is Yours When You Write in Its Margins
June 06, 2017 12:00 - 7 minutes - 7.06 MB"If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot.” ~ Stephen King You’ll hear that advice a lot. You want to write? Read a lot and write a lot. Simple as that. But is it that simple? Do we simply open the book, read and enjoy the story or helpful ideas, and automatically absorb the content? Or do we need to read with a plan or a strategy of some kind? Is there a way to take in and retain the content, be inspired by the style, and learn method...
Ep 103: The Trouble with Memoir Is a Wiggly Mind
May 30, 2017 12:00 - 7 minutes - 6.97 MBMemoir depends upon memories, yet memory is a living thing—a slippery, unreliable thing. In her book The Art of Memoir, Mary Karr describes memory as "a pinball in a machine—it messily ricochets around between image, idea, fragments of scenes, stories you’ve heard. Then the machine goes tilt and snaps off" (Karr 1). How can we trust this tilting machine to deliver something whole and wholly reliable? If we want to incorporate even short memories into our work to serve as illustrations, Karr...
Ep 102: Grow as a Writer – Surround Yourself with Excellence
May 23, 2017 12:00 - 8 minutes - 7.33 MBI heard Seth Godin interviewed on a podcast. He said: The fact that the market is noisy is not the same as the fact that your work is mediocre. Mediocre work is mediocre work! And we have a choice instead to dig super deep and bring stuff to the table that is worth talking about. And it’s not easy and it won’t happen right away. It’s hard to take time to dig deep and bring to the table writing that’s worth talking about. Excellence doesn’t usually spill out of an untrained, undisciplined, ine...
Ep 101: Energize Your Writing by Memorizing Poems
May 16, 2017 12:00 - 6 minutes - 5.58 MBMy brother memorized the poem "Jabberwocky" when he was a teenager, and I thought that was so cool. At the time could not think of anything to memorize other than "The Purple Cow," so I decided to copy him. I memorized "Jabberwocky" with its Bandersnatch and the slithy toves and that vorpal blade. I thought I was so cool. Not long ago I heard Neil Gaiman recite it, and I thought he was so cool. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDLac7sAFsI So you see, poetry can be cool. It can be weird and...
Ep 100: Submissions – How to Bounce Back After an Editor Turns You Down
May 09, 2017 12:00 - 7 minutes - 6.42 MBIn the last episode, I urged you to send out your work even though it means you’re risking rejection—because to get a yes, you must risk a no. I even offered a case for embracing rejection as your goal, especially in the realm of literary journals, because by setting a rejection goal, you’re increasing your odds of an acceptance. A Plan to Process Rejection But you might need a plan for how to process those rejections. You can laugh it off as part of your master goal, but it'll still sting....
Ep 99: Submissions – To Get a Yes, You Risk a No
May 02, 2017 12:00 - 7 minutes - 6.72 MBYou’ve written something, edited it, polished it, and decided to send it out. Depending on your project, you’ll be shipping it off to a literary journal, magazine, agent, or publishing house. When you do, you risk rejection. You’ve probably heard about Stephen King’s rejections from his book On Writing. He says, “By the time I was fourteen...the nail in my wall would no longer support the weight of the rejection slips impaled upon it” (29). You Must Risk a No to Get a Yes Rejection is part o...
Ep 98: Quick Fixes for Comma Splices
April 25, 2017 12:00 - 4 minutes - 4.52 MBYou may be tired of comma talk, but I want to toss one more punctuation post out to you before I move on to other topics. This one’s about the comma splice. To fix a comma splice, you first have to know what it is. A comma splice occurs when you connect or “splice” together two independent clauses with a comma. As a reminder, an independent clause can stand on its own as a sentence, with a subject and verb. For example: The writing conference invited my favorite author. That’s an indepen...
Ep 97: How a Simple Comma Can Save a Life
April 18, 2017 12:00 - 3 minutes - 3.5 MBNow that we’re down to later-order concerns, examining our work at the detail level, I thought we might talk some more about punctuation. We’ve already covered the serial comma, also known as the Oxford comma. Let's cover yet another comma: the direct address comma. The direct address comma will be review for many readers, but it’s a fun one to offer as a refresher. Friends, we cannot neglect this comma or leave it out of our stable of punctuation. With it, we save lives. Without it, the u...
Ep 96: When You Really Need Next-Level Edits
April 11, 2017 12:00 - 6 minutes - 6.35 MBLet’s say your writing group or an editor has given you the high-level editorial input on your content that we talked about in episode 95. They’ve offered structural and developmental edits for your piece. And you’ve incorporated those recommendations—deleting, rewriting, and rearranging material as needed so that your overall idea or message is stronger than ever. You’ve revised per their suggestions, and the organization of the piece reads more smoothly than before. It feels complete and c...
Ep 95: Focus on Your High-Level Edits First
April 04, 2017 12:00 - 7 minutes - 6.65 MBLast time we talked about commas. In particular, I brought to you the serial comma, or the Oxford comma. I emphasized the fact that details—even commas—really do matter to writers. This was on my mind because of that court case ruling hinging upon how workers, an organization, and the state of Maine interpreted its statutes as a result of a missing Oxford comma. As I warned at the end of episode 94, however, this is a detail-level edit. Don’t let concern over comma placement stall the writin...
Ep 94: Grammar Matters: Why Concern Ourselves with Commas?
March 28, 2017 12:00 - 5 minutes - 5.31 MBIf you’re new to writing, you may be unaware of the fierce debate among writers, editors, teachers, and grammarians over the use of the serial, or Oxford, comma. If you’ve been around the world of words a while, you know the tension, the arguments, the passion associated with this tiny punctuation mark used—or not used—in the specific scenario of a series. The Oxford Comma The serial comma, also known as the Oxford comma, is the last comma you’d use in a list that includes three or more words...
Ep 93: Why I’m Committing to the Work-Ahead Advantage
March 21, 2017 12:00 - 5 minutes - 5.25 MBI didn't publish a single post last week. I volunteered to serve at a four-day tournament, and my commitment left no free time. I couldn't write anything new, and I had no blog posts or podcast episodes in reserve. So last week, I published nothing. May I serve as a cautionary tale? Work Ahead on Content If you're a blogger or regular guest columnist for another publication, I urge you to do what I failed to do: write several articles or blog posts and store them up—better yet, prep and sch...
Ep 92: How to Compose the Perfect First Draft
March 07, 2017 13:00 - 5 minutes - 4.59 MBBefore we revise, we need something to revise. We must compose the perfect first draft. How? We write without worrying about every comma splice or misplaced modifier. We write with abandon and get the story down. The Writer Hat During the prewriting and creation stage, we must consciously separate the writer self from the editor self. It’s as if we need to wear two hats—literally two different hats you can wear at the appropriate times. In episode 91, I mentioned my literal editor hat: a ...
Ep 91: Your Writing Needs Revision (but don’t be afraid)
February 28, 2017 17:40 - 6 minutes - 5.73 MBStyle, for example, is not—can never be—extraneous Ornament…. [I]f you here require a practical rule of me, I will present you with this: ‘Whenever you feel an impulse to perpetrate a piece of exceptionally fine writing, obey it—whole-heartedly—and delete it before sending your manuscript to press. Murder your darlings.’ (Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch, in the 1916 book On the Art of Writing) Writing Needs Revision When I taught composition and creative writing to high school students, many of them...
Ep 90: The Long-Term Results of a Faithful Writing Life
February 22, 2017 19:40 - 5 minutes - 4.79 MBChristian author Eugene Peterson wrote a book called A Long Obedience in the Same Direction. He explains where he got that phrase. Christians, he says, are looking for quick results, but shortcuts don't lead to Christian maturity. Peterson writes, "Friedrich Nietzsche, who saw this area of spiritual truth at least with great clarity, wrote, 'The essential thing 'in heaven and earth' is . . . that there should be long obedience in the same direction; there thereby results, and has always resu...
Ep 89: The Rush to Publish – How to Pace Your Career
February 14, 2017 19:35 - 4 minutes - 4.4 MBIn chapter 7 of On Being a Writer, my coauthor Charity Singleton Craig highlighted what L.L. Barkat calls the “Fifteen Years of Writing for Your Grandmother Rule” (On Being a Writer, 86). Charity included this excerpt from Barkat’s book Rumors of Water: It is not uncommon for writers to seek a large audience too early in their writing journeys. The idea of being published is a dream promoted by a cluttered market of writing books, writing conferences, and vanity publishers…. I love working w...
Ep 88: How to Develop Your Own Self-Study Writing Course
February 09, 2017 18:55 - 5 minutes - 4.59 MBAs you go about the work of writing, and the business of writing, don’t forget to study the craft of writing. Find ways to continually learn and improve. A lot of writers feel a strong urge to enter an MFA program to do this. If you feel compelled to pursue that, by all means, research it and see if that’s the right next step for you. But what I’m suggesting is you set out to invent a kind of self-study writing course using resources readily available online or at your local library. You'l...
Ep 87: You Can Impact Readers Right Now through Social Media
February 03, 2017 04:57 - 6 minutes - 6.2 MBIn episode 86, we discussed first steps you can take to launch your social media presence. I suggested you could start simple and slow by establishing a bare-minimum presence at each of the big social media platforms. I encouraged you to secure your avatar, your handle, your username—ideally using your author name—and fill out your profile or bio at the places you think sound fun or useful for the writing you do (and where you think your readers will hang out). All of this was in the contex...
Ep 86: Your Writing Platform – First Steps to Launching Your Social Media Presence
January 26, 2017 18:20 - 6 minutes - 6.1 MBWhen people talk about building a platform, they often think immediately of social media. I suppose it’s because the word “platform” is often used to describe them: Facebook is a social media platform, Twitter is a social media platform. It’s referring more to the technology that makes it possible for that service to run. But no wonder it’s confusing to talk about our writing platform and to toss the words “social media” into the mix. We can build a writing or author platform in many ways u...
Ep 85: Now Is the Time to Start Building Your Platform
January 18, 2017 13:00 - 5 minutes - 4.59 MBThere’s a proverb that says “The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.” It’s true of so many things, isn’t it? We would be in such a different place if only we had started years ago. Building a platform might feel a little bit like that, but it’s not too late. If you haven’t already begun, the best time to start is now. Most of our platform-building efforts are like dropping coins and stuffing the occasional bill into a jar to save money for a vacation. So...
Ep 84: Your Writing Platform – Do People Expect Writers to Be Speakers?
January 13, 2017 02:03 - 5 minutes - 5.42 MBLast week I volunteered to serve at a speech and debate tournament for junior high and high school students. One of the women I served with asked if I thought writers were expected to speak more than ever before, whether through all the video options that are popping up like Facebook Live, or in person at events. I thought back to the late 1990s, when I was pitching my first book to a publisher. The editorial team took me out to lunch, and someone on the team asked if I would consider speaki...
Ep 83: Your Writing Platform: What’s the Definition of Platform (and Do I Really Need One)?
January 04, 2017 04:24 - 6 minutes - 5.58 MBAt a writing conference a few years ago, I attended a panel discussion that included acquisitions editors from several publishing houses and a couple of literary agents. I’d been wanting to meet one of the agents, so after the session, I stood in line to introduce myself. I told him I was a writing coach working with several authors who were developing book proposals. These authors had questions about platform. “What kind of numbers are agents and publishers really looking for?” I asked. “A...
Ep 82: Plan a Sustainable Year for Your Writing Life
December 30, 2016 13:15 - 7 minutes - 7.15 MBIt’s that time of year when everyone is working on their annual business plans, intentions, resolutions, habits—or even big, hairy, audacious goals, those BHAGS. Or “stretch” goals. A lot of writers are thinking through their goals for the year ahead. You may be measuring and drawing out calendar grids in your bullet journal or shopping for a bright, new, fresh yearly planner. You’re organizing and reorganizing Evernote tags and Notebooks. You’re trying out productivity apps. You’re going t...
Ep 81: A Gift of Writing
December 21, 2016 19:42 - 3 minutes - 3.61 MBLast time we talked about our writing as a gift to the world, but our writing can be a gift in a more specific, focused way when we write for individuals we know and love. When our writing is sent out to the world, it's usually enjoyed by one reader at a time, so in a way, all of our writing is for individuals. What I mean here is you can sit down and write for someone in particular—an individual who will be the only intended recipient of a given project. Maybe you write a long letter to a ...
Ep 80: Your Writing as a Gift
December 14, 2016 03:45 - 4 minutes - 4.2 MBIn this season of giving, it seems apt to talk about our writing as a gift. "Hold on, now," you say. "I was kinda hoping to make some money at this whole writing gig, so are you saying we have to give our words away?" Whether we're paid or not, isn’t viewing our words as a gift…isn’t that how we begin the process of connecting with people? We toil over our message and send off something for a reader to consider. “Here. I wrote this for you.” I recently published a blog post about the long...
#79: Your Writing Platform: Who Is Your Who?
December 07, 2016 02:07 - 6 minutes - 5.92 MBWhen building a platform, we might be told to build our email list or increase our social media numbers, so we're tempted to do a lot of things maybe before we’re ready—some people advise writers to buy a bunch of Twitter followers or set up an Instagram account even if we don't like taking pictures. We get so busy trying to follow somebody else’s plan, we forget that before any of those steps, we need to get the basics down. We need to have a solid idea of the main Whos involved. The First ...
#78: Your Best Material – The Practice of Remembering
November 30, 2016 03:40 - 6 minutes - 6.25 MBThis week I want to encourage you to dip into memories and memoir. Even though this veers from the more obvious platform series we’ve been in, it may, eventually, reveal more about who you are and what you want your platform to be about. I believe it’ll be time well spent. Think back to an event that seems small, yet feels packed with emotion. You don’t have to fully understand it all. Just remember it. Something changed due to that event. It may have been subtle or seismic, but you emerged ...
#77: When You Don’t Know What to Say, Try Poetry
November 15, 2016 21:12 - 7 minutes - 6.97 MBLast week on my blog I shared an excerpt from Mary Pipher’s book Writing to Change the World: I left it up to readers to decide what it meant for them, but I did hope her thoughts would encourage us to listen closely, to realize the power of our words, and then, when we choose to use them, to use our words well and use them for good. The Power of Poetry On Friday, I wrote a post for Tweetspeak Poetry that highlighted the healing power of poetry. I shared an interview with Gerda and Kurt Klei...
#76: Your Writing Platform – How to Confirm Your Niche
November 08, 2016 23:56 - 7 minutes - 7.25 MBYour writing platform will have a lot of elements, but it starts with you, the writer, and what you’re about or what’s your thing, your topic, your niche. We’ve talked about establishing an online home, because you want to have a place to welcome people who are searching for your niche or your name. When people arrive, they should have some idea of your focus. “Ah, I see that Alice Author writes about the Arts.” The visitor—whether editor or reader—won’t be surprised to find the image of a ...
#75: Your Writing Platform: What Fascinates, Captivates, and Energizes You?
November 03, 2016 01:43 - 7 minutes - 7.18 MBIf you’re writing nonfiction, you’re probably trying to zero in on a category or topic that you’d like to write about and be known for. You’re trying to find your focus. If you haven’t already been exploring the possibilities by writing blog posts or articles, you’ve probably had some inkling. If not, look for clues. When you’re leafing through a magazine, what articles catch your eye? What do you rip out and stick in a folder? When you’re skimming your Twitter or Facebook feed, what do you...
#74: Your Writing Platform – The Need for Focus
October 27, 2016 13:26 - 7 minutes - 6.81 MBBack in 2004, I was on the phone with my publisher and he told me I should start a blog. "It’s what authors are doing," he said. So, I tried to figure it out. I started learning about blogs and paid particular attention to the sub-category of mom-bloggers because my first book was for moms and it felt like the right world to run around in. Rather than using the mom’s name in association with the website, these mom-blogs would often be named things like, "Patience and Pacifiers,” or “Som...