Tim Cahill in Sense of Place, a collection of interviews with travel writers put together by Michael Shapiro, said this: Whether you are writing, or preparing a journey to a new country, it helps to have a good idea of what your quest is. 🌍 What are you going to try to do?🌍 What are […]
What’s your Quest? Read More »
In November, I’m hoping to be on a ship on the Atlantic, delving deep into my next book. It will be a two-week journey of discovery: internal and external. Very like book coaching, though it takes much longer than two weeks. People can be put off by not knowing what actually entails, step by step.
How 3 writers embarked on their book journeys Read More »
I help to clarify writers’ goals coaching when they work with me to write their books. The goal of writing a book, I advise, should never—solely—be to publish it. It’s great to want to publish it. It just shouldn’t be your sole reason for writing it because, if it is, you probably won’t get to
A new way of looking at progress Read More »
When Thomas Jefferson went about arranging his libraries in Monticello, Virginia, he used a taxonomic system based on one created by Francis Bacon. There were three headline categories: Memory Reason, and Imagination Memory was history. Reason was philosophy and emerging science. Imagination was the world of Fine Arts, and also the slowly growing genre of novels. We think a lot about defining
Alternative book systems Read More »
Do you start, and inexplicably stop? Let me offer this thought. The symptoms of the struggle to write are things like staring at a blank page. Not wanting to get up for that 5.30 am writing slot (Eurgh. Whoever thought that was a good idea?). Resistance, showing up in the form of doing anything but
Do you ever struggle to write? Read More »
Tolkein, as a young man falling in love with language, liked the euphonious sound of the words cellar door and because of that, when he wrote the Silmarillion in middle-age, he called one of the principal characters ‘Selador’. If a character’s name doesn’t jump out at me as soon as I’ve shaped a character, I
Choosing characters’ names Read More »
Dr Sharon McLaughlin, MD, FACS, asked if I was interested in joining her on her podcast to talk about writing your first book. Sharon’s podcast’s a big deal. I was up for it! What you don’t hear is what happened before the microphones rolled. With typical British reserve, I thought Sharon only wanted me to
PODCAST: A Book Coach and a Doctor walk into a bar Read More »
How do you want your reader to feel when they put your book down? David Cornwell, better known as John le Carre, wrote to Sydney Pollack about the Night Manager*: “…I wanted to give the reader the satisfaction of knowing that at some simple level personal courage and personal humanity had triumphed. I wanted him
How do you want your reader to feel? Read More »
Writing a book is: 20% writing 80% thinking/questioning/troubleshooting/staring out of the window/testing ideas/waking up at 3 am to scribble illegible ideas on a bedside pad.
This fact will stop you in your tracks Read More »
Writer, to me. ‘What does a successful book look like?’ The question stopped me in my tracks. What is the measure of a book’s success? Fame? How wide? Money? How much? 500 rave reviews on Amazon? Questions, questions. I asked the only relevant one. ‘What will make you feel this book has been successful?’ They thought. ‘For a stranger
How will you know if your book is successful? Read More »