Reader, Over the past week, I combed through nearly four years' worth of my email newsletters. I cringed in anticipation as I made my way back to the very first emails that I sent. But you know what? As I read them, I thought they were actually pretty good. A lot of those early newsletters didn't make the cut for my first book draft, but that was because they aren't related to The Thrill of Writing. What WAS embarrassing was my discovery that, just over two years ago, I made this...
9 days ago • 4 min read
Reader, "Who is your reader?" This is arguably the most challenging question I pose to clients and students. It's scary to describe our reader with any level of specificity. What if we alienate someone that might actually read and like our books? What if we define our reader only to discover that no such person exists? To ward off the insidious fear that we're writing for an audience of none, we cheat with faux particulars: "My book is for anyone who wants to change the course of their...
17 days ago • 3 min read
Reader, "What do you want?" In The Coaching Habit, Michael Bungay Stanier (aka MBS) suggests this simple question "lies at the very heart of adult-to-adult relationships." Yet it's one we rarely ask or answer truthfully: Even if you do know what you want, what you really really want, it's often hard to ask for it. We make up reasons about why it's not appropriate just now to make the request; it's because the timing's not right, or the person's only going to say No, or Who are you anyway to...
24 days ago • 4 min read
Reader, A few weeks ago Wow, nearly two months ago, I sent y'all a poll. It was the beginning of summer, and I was jonesing for a project. "I know what I'll do," I said. "I'll write a new resource for my website. I can easily knock that out in between road trips and family visits, right?" Yeah, about that ... In the poll, I asked y'all to help me choose one of three options: Turn Your Content into a Book - a guide for writers who want to collect their short-form writing (blogs, emails, social...
about 1 month ago • 3 min read
Reader, What are you wearing right now? I'll start. As I write the first draft of this email, I'm wearing: A Jimmy Eat World t-shirt, black, emblazoned with an orange outline of the cover of Surviving A pair of green athletic shorts from Target that sport zipper pockets A pair of dark blue Kanes with deliberately splotched soles This outfit is mostly of my design. (If I had my druthers, the Kanes would be more colorful.) It captures my casual spirit. It declares my fandom for a band that many...
about 1 month ago • 2 min read
Reader, In a past life, I worked as an estimator for a painting company. Our focus was repainting large multi-family properties—townhouse complexes, apartment buildings, and hi-rises. As an estimator, a big part of my job was traveling to those properties and assessing what would be required to deliver a successful repainting project. It wasn't just a quantity survey, though. Yes, I was responsible to measure up the buildings, primarily to ensure we allowed for enough paint. However, the...
about 2 months ago • 2 min read
Reader, Every few months, I lead a pair of workshops in an old mobile building with rackety air conditioning and thin walls. It sits on the campus of a local ministry that helps men re-enter society after a stint in prison. (Multiple stints for many.) For ninety minutes, we gather around plastic folding tables arranged in a broad circle. The men aren't showing up to improve their writing. They're showing up to do some expressive writing. I doubt any of these men knew these workshops were part...
2 months ago • 1 min read
Reader, It's summertime. Or at least it feels like summer here in Middle Tennessee. The kids are out of school, road trips are just around the corner, and turning my attention to my neglected website. If that doesn't scream "summertime," I don't know what does. One of my summer goals is to spruce up and redecorate my website. Specifically, I want to add some helpful resources. The kind of things that benefit writers like you as you tackle your projects. So, would you mind filling out this...
3 months ago • 1 min read
Reader, There are two ways to be a perfectionist. One is entirely focused on what other people think. This is understandable if you consider how we typically define the word "perfect." We think it means to be error-free. To be tpyo-free. To connect all the right dots in the right order. To stay inside the lines when we color. To win the argument unanimously, in a way that compels everyone to beam big smiles and declare, "You are absolutely right!" This is what the experts call "maladaptive...
3 months ago • 2 min read