Notebook

This episode guides you through some coaching you can do for yourself to help you be the productive writer you want to be. I share with you a tool I use in my work life, and you can get a free copy of the PDF to use as you coach yourself by going to zoerichards.co.uk/35 and signing up at the bottom of these Show Notes. Once you have signed up, the PDF will be sent to your inbox within 48 hours - so be sure to check your spam folder! In the episode I make reference to other episodes that you might want to go back and listen to, and they are, in the order that I mention them in this episode of the podcast: Episode 28 : Who Am I? Episode 32 : What We Can Do About Our Self Sabotage Episode 24 : How To Get Unstuck When You're Torn Between Two Writing Ideas (the split testing episode) Episode 2 : The 150 Rule Episode 14 : Help Yourself Get Unstuck With The 30 for 30 Technique Episode 33 : In Conversation with Philippa East (The Edit Episode) And I also make reference to the Cheshire Novel Prize, which gives feedback to anyone who enters the competition. It opens for entries for 2024 on 01/01/24 - don't wait until the competition opens to get your writing competition-ready. You can start now, and give yourself time to go back and improve it later. To find out more, go to the Cheshire Novel Prize website . Thank you for listening to Write, Damn It! the writing mindset podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, please take a moment to leave a star rating, write a review, or share the episode with others you know who will benefit from listening in. You can find me on Twitter, Threads and Instagram as @zoerichardsuk Happy writing, and may the words flow for you.

Philippa East grew up in Scotland and originally studied Psychology and Philosophy before training as a Clinical Psychologist. She writes psychological thrillers / psychological suspense novels, and her debut Little White Lies was longlisted for the Guardian's "Not-The-Booker" prize and shortlisted for the CWA Dagger for best debut of 2020. Her further novels include Safe and Sound, I’ll Never Tell, and A Guilty Secret. Philippa lives in Lincolnshire with her spouse and cat, and continues to work as a psychologist and therapist. What you can expect in this episode: 11:00 - failing as a writer, even when we do everything right 18:00 - Writing on brand, building a reputation and a profile as a writer 21:00 - Here's where we get into editing 26:40 - A first draft of a manuscript on paper can look exactly the same as a completely finalised manuscript 30:00 - Structural edits 43:00 - The editorial letter with the editors thoughts on your novel 47:00 - Tech tip: be sure to save the original document with a new name to work on with your edits 53:00 - It's a collaboration - your editor has your best interests at heart 1:00:30 - Failing better and the rungs on the ladder Philippa's books Little White Lies (Feb 2020) Safe and Sound (Feb 2021) I’ll Never Tell (Jan 2023) A Guilty Secret (coming Feb 2024) - available to pre-order Philippa's Twitter Tutorials Philippa's editing thread on Twitter Philippa's Story Grid thread on Twitter - and you can also search #PhilippasTutorials Philippa's social media links Twitter: https://twitter.com/philippa_east (@philippa_east) Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/philippa.east.7/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/philippa_east_author/ (@philippa_east_author) YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGmuYBbitKjO2yhfGSR4SgQ Philippa's Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Philippa-East/e/B07S3JQDGK Story Grid - Podcast , ( Podcast episode 1 on Apple ) Twitter , Book

The one where we get into talking about ADHD and neuro-diversity. This is a fascinating conversation with non-fiction author, Angela Kirwin, who has known she has ADHD from her late teens. After working for years in social care in prison, Angela left to write 'Criminal - How Our Prisons Are Failing Us All' which was published in 2022 with Orion Trapeze - the paperback came out in May 2023. She is now away on her new book which is all about ADHD - attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and how the condition has both helped and hindered her life. Angela blogs about the subject on Substack under the name Hyperactive Living. In this episode of the podcast we cover a raft of subjects linked to ADHD: At 15:20 - keeping the chaos contained so that the creativity can come At 21:00 - how non-fiction is a story your invested and interested in, that just happens to have facts and data to back up the stories of people At 26:00 - using the voices in our head in our writing At 29:00 - finding peace in the writing process At 32:00 - vulnerability and Brené Brown, and doing the work on ourselves You can find Angela here: AngelaKirwin.com Twitter Instagram Hyperactive Living on Instagram Substack Angela's book Criminal is available here: Criminal People Angela mentioned to follow on Twitter: Harriet Tyce Books Angela mentioned Rick Rubin : The Creative Act Brené Brown

Sarah Hilary is the guest I chat with on this week's episode - and forgive me for it being a longer than usual episode, but I couldn't bring myself to delete any of our conversation. Sarah is such an interesting person to talk with, and I'm sure we could have carried on talking for a while longer. Sarah's debut novel, Someone Else's Skin won Theakston's Crime Novel of the Year 2015 and was a World Book Night selection, a Richard and Judy Book Club pick, and a Silver Faction and Macavity Award finalist in the US. Her latest book, Black Thorn, is out now. Megan Abbott called it 'a mesmerising story of family and community, secrets and lies, psychologically rich and captivatingly told. Ann Cleeves called it 'immersive, claustrophobic, unbearably tense and quite brilliant'. And Sarah herself has been described by Marion Keyes as 'an astonishingly gifted writer'. Amongst a raft of interesting stuff that we cover in the episode, here are some highlights to look out for: At 16:15 Learn about the importance of the thin skin we have At 20:10 We get into responding to feedback At 23:00 Sarah talks about focusing on what we have influence over as a writer At 27:00 Sarah quotes Iris Murdoch - 'a novel is a great idea ruined' At 29:00 I share Amie Kaufman's wise words about adventures At 34:05 We get into being true to our characters and our readers At 39:49 Sarah says about the darkest stories that we can tell can illuminate people's lives and comfort them At 45:00 Sarah talks of the benefits of community as a writer At 52:20 We're reminded of the need to be social as an introverted writer Sarah's books Someone Else's Skin Book 1 of 6 Black Thorn The people Sarah mentioned to follow on Twitter, and as a Podcast: Megan Abbot and Jane Casey on Twitter Red Hot Chilli Writers Podcast Sarah's social media and web links https://sarahhilary.com https://twitter.com/sarah_hilary https://facebook.com/sarah.hilary.author http://instagram.com/sarah_hilary999 St Hilda's Crime Fiction Weekend - 11-13 August 2023

Fascinating conversation with JD Kirk, the pen name of multi-award-winning author, screenwriter, and writer of comics, Barry Hutchison. Born and raised in Fort William in the Highlands of Scotland, JD wanted to be a writer from the age of nine, when a kindly librarian wrote his name on the spine of a notebook in which he’d written a terrible short story and put it on the shelf. Since then, he’s written over 200 books and is now thoroughly enjoying murdering people as JD Kirk. We covered a raft of subjects in this conversation, and probably the most notable are JD's attitude to writer's block which resonates for me, his wonderful podcast episode he produced with his daughter, and how the publishing world works, which really got me thinking as someone out on submission. As such a prolific and well-known writer, JD gets asked a lot of questions about writing and recently started collecting questions from writers looking for advice. He is going to start answering these questions in weekly videos. The form to submit questions is at link.jdkirk.com/learn You can find JD Kirk on social media here: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jdkirkbooks/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/JDKirkBooks Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jdkirkbooks TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@jdkirkbooks You can buy JD's latest books here: The One That Got Away (DI Filson #1) – released 25th May – Crime Genre In Service of Death (DCI Logan #17) – due for release 25th July 2023 - Crime

I've been watching how my agent goes about her role within the editing process, and I've learned 4 really helpful things. As a result, I am now taking a different approach to my editing, and I think it's having a positive impact. If you're lost in the editing mire, listen in to find out what the 4 simple steps are that you can use straight away to improve your editing process. My agent is Clare Coombes, who I first met through an agent 1-2-1 session on a different novel than the one that led to her representing me. Although that first novel wasn't ready, she liked my writing style and I was then on her radar, so I genuinely believe that having an agent 1-2-1 is worth having - and she gave me incredible feedback that helped me improve as a writer. You can book a 1-2-1 with Clare through Jericho Writers or I Am In Print .

What if being too focused on getting an agent or a publishing deal is impacting on our writing? Product can become much more important than process and performance if we focus on outcome over experience. With that focus on the outcome, we may be missing out the practice stage - practice out-performs success every day, because we won't get success every day ... but we can practice every day and that practice helps up get better and better at our writing. Plus, if we focus on the experience, are we more likely to enjoy our writing? With our sights on getting an agent, getting a publishing deal, we may be missing out the practice stage, setting our expectations too high, leading to an inevitable disappointment, and missing out on the enjoyment. If you are not getting the outcome you crave, ask yourself, have you put outcome before experience.

A few years ago I was on a course and the tutor repeatedly told us that there are no rules ... and then in the feedback on my writing from the tutor and fellow students it became clear that there are rules, and I needed to know them. Some were about grammar, some about structure, some about pace ... and so much more. So I struggled being told that there are no rules when clearly there are. In this episode I delve into this maxim and consider whether it creates a problem for us as writers if we take the phrase of 'the rule is there are not rules' as a rule in and of itself. I look at how principles - rules to write by - can help us, how we can use rules to help us with our writing. If you want to sign up for the 200 Word Challenge use the link below: https://bestsellerexperiment.com/bxp2020/

Nigel Stewart is the guest this week. He's published 4 books, and is currently working on his 5th. His latest book is Justinian's Daughters, based in St Davids in South Wales. We talked about imposter syndrome, staying grounded, how writing lyrics helps with writing novels, phrases that keep us focused such as 'let's make this better', and trusting the reader. Listen in at 13 minutes to hear about trusting the reader Listen in at 22 minutes to hear about staying grounded Nigel's social media links http://Twitter.com/menigestew http://instagram.com/menigestew http://facebook.com/nigelstewartauthor Nigel's website Nigel's books - Justinian's Daughters; Secrets We Hide From Ourselves; The Lines Between Lies; Colouring In Things that came up in conversation: Episode 3 of Write, Damn It on writing and the 5 love languages Heidi James Podcast about writing The Sound Mirror Kolb's Learning Cycle

As we go in search of imperfection, it helps to understand the impact of cognitive bias through both the expert beginner syndrome and imposter syndrome, and what we can do about it. In this slightly longer short, I share the 4 things we can find ourselves doing when we hit a problem, and number 4 is the one we need to take most note of, as this will help us to learn and grow as a writer. Blog post I mentioned about othering rejection https://www.janefriedman.com/your-novel-has-been-edited-by-top-professionals-but-you-still-get-rejected-what-gives/ Seth Godin's blog post on imposter syndrom https://seths.blog/2017/10/imposter-syndrome/

Feedback is a bit of a rollercoaster, isn't it? I've had some that made me so happy, and others that made wonder why I've bothered writing. And I'll admit it, once I got feedback that stopped me writing for a few years. In truth, though, all the feedback I've received on my writing has got me to where I am now, and much of that is down to my attitude to feedback. Let's face it, if we don't ask the right things when we're getting feedback, we may end up getting responses from people that are no value to us, or that cover things we don't need to know about. I was coaching one client who was really confused with what I was telling her about the grammar norms for the UK, and what one of her beta readers was telling her. It turned out the beta reader had been a school English teacher, and was correcting the punctuation based on what the school curriculum prescribes ... and in case you didn't know this, that's not always correct for the world of publishing. My mum was a typing teacher and she drummed into me that I need to leave 2 spaces after a full stop - turns out that's not correct for the publishing world, and I have had to retrain myself too only leave 1 space. When it comes to feedback, then, unless you want guidance from a proofreading perspective, it's best to tell people not to do that for you, but instead to concentrate on the answers to specific questions. In this episode I go through 2 key types of feedback, and give you some questions you can use to help you get feedback that is helpful and meaningful. I also give you a couple of tips for when you get conflicting feedback - which you will do, for sure. I mentioned the Cheshire Novel Prize in the episode, which gives every entrant feedback on their writing. Here's a date for your diary - entries open on 01/01/24. It's well worth entering just for the feedback, and who knows, you may get long listed or shortlisted, like 2 people who have worked with me on the Writing Reboot. Here's the link to the Cheshire Novel Prize - https://cheshirenovelprize.com

My mojo took a hike. There's a good reason for it. My granddaughter arrived with a bit of a bang and a stay in the NICU, and then the heat climbed - my brain switches off in the heat. But for me, having no mojo, that's a time to write, particularly with these circumstances. I need a distraction. So write I will. The reason for this, I find that when I'm struggling to write I need to simply let the words flow. It doesn't have to be good writing, and it doesn't have to be writing my novel - it simply needs to be words. I can go back later and edit if it is part of my novel, and if it's not, well maybe in the future it will actually be words that fit into another story. It really doesn't matter if this is an Eric Morecambe/Andre Previn moment - remember that? In this context it's 'all the right words, just not necessarily in the right order'. What if the words still don't flow? Did you know that editing is writing? I heard that on a podcast and realised that I'm someone who uses editing as a way to get into my writing just about everyday. I revisit my work from the day before - not necessarily all of it, maybe the last 2-3 pages, and then I spend 10 minutes tidying it up before I start on a new section of my novel. For me, it's a great way to ease my brain into the writing process, and back into the story I'm telling. With blogposts, I find that if I just write something down, I don't need to publish it straight away, so I can come back and edit it when my mojo walks back in through the writing room door. Same with recording my podcasts When your mojo next takes a hike, try one of these three methods: Sit and write a stream of consciousness. Whatever is in your head. Just let it flow through your fingers and onto the page. You can edit it tomorrow or next week. Go back over something you wrote previously and edit it for 10 minutes. Then, when you feel like you have something new to write, simply keep writing. Set yourself a small target. I give myself 150 words with my 150 Rule. My usual for a day when I'm in work is between 500-1000 words. On a day off I generally write 1000-3000 words. Having a small target on difficult days gives us permission to stop. And if you exceed your target it gives you a small victory in your day. Considering my mojo was off walking Arthur's Seat (the eagle-eyed will have recognised that view in the photo) whilst I was in the Forest of Bowland, I'm impressed with myself that I put this blogpost together at all. Not bad for a mojo-less day, huh?

Failing as a writer is a given - we are going to fail. And brush ourselves off, and fail again. Every step of the way. Listen in to Episode 16, and join the failure train. It's all part of the journey. It's strange, though, isn't it? If your life has been anything like mine, we're conditioned to only look for success. How often have you been guided to see the benefits of failure? I know for me, this is something I've had to train myself to accept - that I can learn and grow from the failing experience. So, are you ready to fail with your writing? Listen to the episode below.

In conversation with Jeevani Charika who writes romcom under the pen name of Rhoda Baxter

Since school days, when my love for writing and reading started to mature under the tutelage of Mrs Hymers, I've been told to write what I know. Let's face it, though, you're not really that interested in a novel about the life of an NHS programme manager ... or are you? So what does it really mean when we're told to write what we know? Silly though it sounds, I only attuned to what the phrase means about 2 years or so ago. Writing what I know is not referring to my profession or what I do, but rather it's about writing from a place of knowing. If you know Liverpool like the back of your hand, then write about it, but if you've never been there it's maybe better to concentrate on a place that you do know - and if you've never been, come to Liverpool, visit the city. Believe me, it's worth it! We have 2 beautiful cathedrals - the catholic one designed by an anglican, the anglican one designed by a catholic ... see, something to know about Liverpool. There is something else about 'write what you know' and this place of knowing, and that's the role of research. It's ok for me to research something to the point where when I write about it, you think I have written about what I know. That means the research has to be hidden between the lines of the novel. Take the photograph at the top of this post. Flowers in a jug sitting on distressed wood. What do you know about roses? A metal milk jug? Distressed wood? Let's take roses - we know that some have a delightful scent, that they come in different colours and start with a bud. Some roses are as beautiful in their death as they are in their blossoming. They're often used as wedding flowers - and having photographed weddings, there's a lot I know about that. Roses can be bought at flower markets, but you have to get there in the early hours before most others have stirred in their beds. In fact I know a little about the Liverpool flower market as I've been there to buy flowers and plants on a really cold spring morning whilst most people were still snuggled up in bed ... and so we can go on. But if you ask me about distressed wood, well, I don't really know much about it, other than it's rough, with peeling paint and is very much in fashion. I don't know what else I'd say about it. It's something I can research, though. How is the paint applied to get this effect? What kind of paint is used? Does it need to be old wood or can you make new wood look distressed and old? Does it need wax or varnish applied on top? All of this is stuff I can go and find out. And research can be more than reading about it - for example, you could go on a workshop to learn the technique. And the milk jug? Well, that transports me back to my Nana's kitchen in Woodlands, my grandparents remote, cold, damp house in the countryside near Clitheroe - I loved that house. We'd get milk from the dairy farm next door, still warm from the cow. I don't remember the taste of it particularly, but I do recall that creamy, rich scent, almost earthy. And I recall the feeling of the cow's udder when, on occasion, the farmer let us milk the cows. I know I could write a scene that's connected to that milk jug, simply using my recollections from childhood. Looking at this photograph and writing what you know, what would it inspire you to write? What's your story? If, then, we're told to write what we know, and research what we don't, how do we use research in a manner that feels like we know it? I find it helps to immerse myself into the research. I might do hours of work to write one sentence, or a short paragraph. When I first started writing historical fiction (and hopefully that novel will see the light of day, one day), I overwhelmed the story with my research. Because I'd learned something, I felt the need to prove that I knew stuff, to 'teach' the reader through my writing. Yet when I write what I know, I skim over things, making assumptions that people will know things, leaving the reader to know for themselves, or to go and do their own research if they want to. With our researched material, we need to move beyond the point of excitement for what we've learned, and reach a place where the knowledge is wrapped up within us. That way, what we've researched becomes 'what we know'. I often need to write my way into using the research I've done - and then in the edit I delete most of it. In my novel that's out on submission, I had one chapter of around 2,500 words that I absolutely loved. In truth, it added nothing to the story, despite it being really well written. It slowed the pace down. That chapter is now a sentence of about 20 words. A WHOLE CHAPTER IS 20 WORDS! Oh boy, that hurt, killing my darlings, but it was absolutely the right thing to do. The research took over and it dragged the story down. I discovered through that chapter that it's ok to write my way into using the research - and it's ok to delete it all later ... or save it in a file for future use in another novel. One final thing - here's a little tip for you. I keep a 'know-how notebook'. I started this over 20 years ago when I doubted that I was ready to apply for a more senior role. I didn't think I knew anything. So I started to jot down what I did know in my field. I was shocked to discover I did, in fact, know a great deal. I've kept using the know-how notebook, and I now have one specifically for writing. I put down things about the craft of writing, as well as things I think I might use in novels at some time or other. For example, I recently went on a bookbinding workshop, and whilst I'm not going to write up the whole methodology for the library style of bookbinding, I found it interesting watching the tutor and how he wiped the glue off his fingers and onto his apron. That tiny motion is something I'm adding to my know-how notebook. I'm not sure when I might use it, or if I ever will. But I want too capture that moment in case it becomes useful in the future.

The 30 for 30 technique is simple and yet so effective. I base it on two old Navy sayings that my grandfather ingrained into us - don't put it down, put it away; and a place for everything and everything in its place. Both were aimed at keeping things ship shape and 'Bristol fashion' - neat and tidy. And they also save time too. Listen in to the episode to find out how you can make the 30 for 30 work for you, doing something in 30 seconds to save 30 minutes later - or doing something in 30 minutes that saves you 30 hours later. Like I said, simple, yet effective.

When I first started to write I just wrote, let the words flow with no idea where my story was going to go, and only the hint of something in my head about what I might write. I let the ideas develop themselves. Then I came across the 'Snowflake' method which got me thinking about how I could at least have an outline of a plan. And that's what got me realising that I work much better with a plan. From there I learned about having a flatplan from Holly Dawson through a webinar she ran for Jericho Writers. ​ I now have little prompts (you can just make them out in the photo above) which have the chapter, place, date, character list, what happens, and what the purpose of the chapter is. Using these prompts helps me to get my ideas out of my head. And more importantly they help me to keep working on my structure, making sure that everything fits together the way it needs to. By using this approach I spotted some glaring errors in my timeline, and realised that I had one of my characters doing something before a crucial action had happened. ​ Now when I hear people asking the question 'are you a planner, pantser or plantser' which writers seem to ask each other with regularity, I realise that I love to plan ... but I do allow a bit of plain old writing without a plan too, letting a character surprise me with something they do. I remember when Daisy, one of my characters in my work in progress, did something that was so unexpected I actually gasped! I hadn't realised she would do that, but it actually works, and I've kept it in - you'll have to wait to find out what I'm actually referring to, though. It's still a work in progress. The best way to know if you have selected the best approach for you is to ask these 3 questions: If you're a plotter, are you spending more time plotting than writing? Then you might need to just get on and write the story for you so that you can return later and work on the plot. If you're a panster, are you having to go back and put a lot of effort into working on the plot because it's just not working? Then it's possibly time to stop writing and get at least a skeleton plot down on paper. And for both plotters and pansters, how's that working for you?