I’VE GOT A PROBLEM Once J.D. Barker began mentoring me on the Writers, Ink podcast, I knew my approach to storytelling would be forever changed. When he told me what I was going to have … Continue reading Using Nostalgia to Create Memorable Characters
Before we get into this month’s essay, I wanted to take a moment to thank all of you who provided me with feedback on January’s essay. Some of you loved it. Some of you hated … Continue reading The 30-day CHANGE MY FRAME Challenge
You, and only you, are responsible for your life and what you create. And in deciding what you want, by default, you are deciding what you don’t want. The modern myth of “having it all” … Continue reading The Frame: Where to Place Your Focus
A year in the author life. If you’re keeping track, I started with episode zero. So, yes, it’s been a full 52 weeks of posts. There were times when I didn’t feel like writing. Times … Continue reading Conclusion and a new beginning.
When I was planning to come to Nashville this summer for a Story Grid event, I knew that Steven Pressfield was going to be in attendance. Shawn Coyne and Tim Grahl had arranged for Steven … Continue reading Beating Resistance.
When we first set out to become a “writer,” we tend to keep that romantic notion in our head—a lone genius typing away on a typewriter or laptop in a remote cabin in the woods. … Continue reading The author mastermind group builds systems and habits.
Discipline is the ability to do what you know needs to be done, even when you don’t feel like doing it. It requires developing habits that you don’t have to think about, actions that are … Continue reading Discipline developed by an author mastermind group.
In this new, three-part series, I’m going to explore the secret powers of the mastermind learning model. Although I’m approaching it as a professional writer, mastermind groups have been proven to work across disciplines and … Continue reading An introduction to the author mastermind.
Zach and I have not published much fiction this year. I know it. He knows it. And so we don’t talk much about it. We haven’t done anything wrong, haven’t had a major failure or … Continue reading If you show up, the words will come.
I constantly find myself pulling Seth Godin’s The Dip off the bookshelf and thumbing through the yellowed, dog-eared pages covered in margin notes and scribbles. When you start a lot of things, you inevitably have … Continue reading Failure is an option.