WRITE, DAMN IT! PODCAST SHOW NOTES

Show Notes for Episode 35

Tue, 15 Aug 2023 10:47:35 GMT

Show Notes for Episode 35

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.

Show Notes for Episode 33

Tue, 08 Aug 2023 08:50:48 GMT

Episode 33 In Conversation With Philippa East

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

Show Notes for Episode 31

Mon, 24 Jul 2023 15:01:17 GMT

Show Notes for Episode 31 In Conversation with Angela Irwin

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

Show Notes for Podcast Episode 27

Tue, 18 Jul 2023 11:02:07 GMT

In Conversation with Sarah Hilary

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

Episode 23 In Conversation with JD Kirk

Tue, 04 Jul 2023 08:59:50 GMT

Episode 23 In Conversation with JD Kirk Talking About True Crime Podcast, Writer's Block and How The Publishing World Works

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

Show Notes for Podcast Episode 22

Sat, 01 Jul 2023 15:06:31 GMT

4 Thing I Learned About Editing From My Agent

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 .

Show Notes for Podcast Episode 21

Sat, 01 Jul 2023 15:01:01 GMT

Is Being Focused on the Outcome of Writing More Than the Experience Affecting Your Writing?

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.

Show Notes for Podcast Episode 20

Fri, 23 Jun 2023 11:00:00 GMT

Show Notes for Episode 20: The Rule Is There Are No Rules

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/

Show Notes for Podcast Episode 19

Tue, 20 Jun 2023 11:00:00 GMT

Show Notes for Podcast Episode 19

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

Show Notes for Podcast Episode 18

Fri, 16 Jun 2023 09:53:54 GMT

Episode 18: In Search of Imperfection and How Expert Beginner Syndrome Might Be Affecting Our Writing

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/

Show Notes for Podcast Episode 17

Tue, 13 Jun 2023 11:00:00 GMT

This is a subtitle for your new post

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

Mon, 12 Jun 2023 11:00:00 GMT

My Mojo Took A Hike

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?

Show Notes for Podcast Episode 16

Sat, 10 Jun 2023 11:00:00 GMT

Are You Ready For Failure?

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.

Show Notes for Podcast Episode 15

Tue, 06 Jun 2023 11:34:27 GMT

In Conversation With Jeevani Charika / Rhoda Baxter

'Read, read, read. Write, write, write. Submit, submit, submit.' Jeevani Charika shares her top tips for keeping motivated and getting the writing done, as well as sharing thoughts on the routine she set up for herself as a writer who is also a mum and carer, the issues she had with a contract and what she did about that, and how she set up The Debut Authors' Club with writers Janet Gover and Alison May to help writers on their journey to, and beyond, launch day.

Links discussed in the show:

Jeev's website: https://jeevanicharika.com

Jeev on Twitter: https://twitter.com/rhodabaxter

Jeev on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jeevani.charika

Jeev's latest book, Picture Perfect: https://books2read.com/PPerfect

How to Write Romantic Comedy: https://books2read.com/u/4AQBgk

Getting Published is Just the Beginning: https://books2read.com/IPBook

Contract checklist: https://rhodabaxter.com/contract-checklist/

Debut Author Club (discount code DACBETA will let you get June 2023 for free): https://payhip.com/b/rMqKP

Fiction Tutors: https://fictiontutors.co.uk

Write What You Know ... And When You Don't Know ...

Tue, 06 Jun 2023 07:38:33 GMT

Write What You Know ... And When You Don't Know?

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.

Show Notes for Podcast Episode 14

Fri, 02 Jun 2023 07:39:54 GMT

Help Yourself Get The Writing Done With The 30 For 30 Technique

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.

Plotting Pansting, and Something Inbetween

Tue, 30 May 2023 11:16:22 GMT

Plotting, Pantsing, and Something In Between: How you make sure you're using the right approach for your writing

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?

Show Notes for Podcast Episode 13

Tue, 30 May 2023 11:03:28 GMT

Show Notes for Podcast Episode 13: How to Create Habits That Work For You By Nudging Your Upper Limit

Did you know you have an upper limit? In this episode, I take you through how to work on your habits by understanding your upper limit, how your identity gets in the way of changing habits, and the technique of nudging habits along, a little at a time, so that you can make changes that stick.

I also give you some small tips you can introduce that will help make a difference for you.

Here are links to the 2 books I mention in the episode.

My Current Writing Read: Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott

Wed, 24 May 2023 06:39:59 GMT

For years I kept hearing about Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott and did the usual meant-to-get-around-to-reading-that. Then last month I realised I had a few credits on Audible that I'd not used, so picked this book off the wish list. It's brilliant. Aside from having a good dose of humour in it, Bird by Bird covers everything we need to know as writers, and more besides. One line in particular has stood out to me - when Lamott's friend, Pammy, was dying, the doctor told Lamott that she needed to watch Sammy closely. 'She's teaching you how to live.' And I realised, that's exactly what my sister did for me. It's such a wonderful reframe of death. Yes, my sister's death did teach me how to live. I've really got on with life in the last 10 years, all thanks to my sister showing me that life is short. Maybe I'd never have got around to writing, and becoming part of the wonderful and supportive community that writers are, had my sister lived through her 50s and on into her 60s.

Back to the book, if you want to read a down-to-earth book that will entertain you whilst also teaching you masses about writing, then Bird by Bird is for you. It's interspersed with stories from Lamott's life, but done in a way that shows you how she has used lived experience to influence her writing, and how this has taught her how to be a better writer. I truly wish I'd listened to all those people saying this is a must read long before I actually did get around to reading it - I've really enjoyed this read.

You can buy your copy here My Current Writing Read .

Sabotaging Your Own Success?

Mon, 22 May 2023 23:00:00 GMT

Things are going perfectly for you, you've never had it so good ... and then bam! You fall ill, you have an accident, you make a big mistake with something you know well. It's called the upper limit problem, something defined by Gaye Hendricks in his book The Big Leap (well worth a read, or a listen on Audible).Why are we talking about this here? Because during times of change we often find ourselves sabotaging those things that are working well for us. We get used to the status quo, the familia [...]

Will It Make The Boat Go Faster?

Fri, 19 May 2023 23:00:00 GMT

And why does this matter for us as writers? Because we all need a purpose in order to be motivated. There are few things we will do without some level of purpose, without being motivated to do it. We may be motivated by pleasure, or by pain, but the bottom line is, we need something that makes us work on that boat, making it go faster. So next time you find yourself scrolling through Twitter, ask yourself, will it make the boat go faster?

What I Learned From Entering Friday Night Live

Mon, 15 May 2023 07:39:08 GMT

How Analysing Other People's Writing Changed The Way I Write

Every summer, Jericho Writers runs the Friday Night Live competition #FNL. The competition is open to anyone who attends their Summer Festival of Writing, with a second opportunity at the York Festival of Writing. To enter, you submit the first 500 words of your unpublished novel - though I'm not convinced that everyone is using their first 500 words, but that's for another day.

I entered in 2021. I felt proud of where my writing had got to and saw the competition as a way to focus my mind on improving it even further so that I could submit something worthy of being long listed. As the date for the announcement of the long listees drew closer, butterflies crashed around in my tummy. Would my submission get through?

Reader, it didn't. I wasn't even on the long long list. But I still attended the webinars where the long listees read out their submissions for us all to vote on, and I listened intently. I wanted to know what was so much better about their writing than mine that they got through. What was it about these pieces that made them special? Was there anything I could learn?

To help you follow where I'm going with this, I've included below the first 120 words of my submission.

This is the start of what I entered:

'A gust of wind whipped around Frank and Queenie’s legs as they waited outside for the congregation to settle itself into packed pews. It wasn’t the warmest April. Frank watched as Queenie tucked a stray auburn curl behind her ear and shivered. The calf-length dress she and her Auntie May had spent weeks sewing offered her no protection from the cool sea breeze.

Frank rubbed his finger around his shirt collar and fiddled with the knot of his necktie, as if deciding which choked him more. He looked at his niece, his heart full of pride, and as he opened his mouth to speak, emotion grabbed onto his words, catching them like sawdust at the back of his throat.'

Hmm, even now, reading this, I see so many things I'd change if I was submitting this again.

Listening to the long listees, I heard great openings that captured you straight away. The prose was tight, and the voice strong. Few words were used to hint at great detail, and the sense of a conflict emerged early on. I revisited my opening and asked myself if I ticked these boxes. No, nothing like it - you can see that above. I fully understood why I got nowhere near the long list - or even the long long list of great submissions that didn't get through. I'd missed the mark, and I needed to do something about it. I'll admit, at first I was disheartened. Who was I to think I can write? Fool. (Ever had that inner critic chipping away in your head?)

I drowned my sorrows in a cup of camomile tea, and refocused.

My first 500 words were jumping about all over the place with points of view from 3 different people (not so evident in the above extract, but. trust me, I head hopped all over the 500 words). There was nothing to intrigue the reader because I filled in every detail they needed to know. My opening line was very ... meh. My prose was a long way from tight. Oh, you get it. What I submitted was just writing, and it wasn't good enough compared to what others were creating.

It took me about 4 or 5 rewrites, but eventually I got the writing to a better place. My opening was now something I felt was worthy of submitting - well, if it was June 2021 and I'd written this better piece back then, I'd have been happier submitting it. And so if I could live that summer over, this is what I'd have submitted based on the immediate learning - the opening 150 words.

'Daisy Doyle was dead. And yet here she was, standing on the wrong side of the church wall. Watching. Wishing.

Her auburn hair was hidden beneath an emerald green headscarf that she could ill-afford. What had she been thinking? Wasting precious housekeeping money on the damned thing. The colour was perfect for Queenie’s wedding. The wedding she wasn’t invited to.

Nobody invites a dead mother to a wedding.

Standing at the church door, Daisy’s brother, Frank, rubbed his hands together and spoke to the young bride. How old he looked. But then, how many years was it?

A gust of wind scattered the last of the cherry blossom like confetti across the churchyard. The bride shivered, tucking a stray curl behind her ear. Her calf-length dress would offer little protection from the May sea breeze. A pretty dress. Who made it for you, Queenie? Not me.'

Reading that now, I'm so tempted to do a further edit, but that doesn't show you the change I made to the writing simply from listening to the Friday Night Live long list.

So what, then, did I learn from the Jericho Writers Friday Night Live Competition? I reckon I learned how to write. I'm still learning as I carry on writing, and I'll probably always be learning, but analysing the work of others definitely helped me take my writing up to a new level.

5 Tips That Kickstarted My Writing

Mon, 08 May 2023 10:17:57 GMT

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I've tried to write novels for 30 years or more - plus I wrote magazine articles, poetry and short stories before then. But somehow I never got far enough to move from writing, to writing a novel. That changed in February 2020. My daughter, The Angelic One, asked me to join her at an event at Waterstones in Liverpool that was featuring 3 women authors. As one of the writers works in a genre I enjoy, I agreed. What transpired was that Mama Bear was the taxi, bought tea at Pizza Express, and bought all 3 books of the authors, with one of them being specifically for The Angelic One. And in the Q & A Mama Bear asked a question that lead to tips number 1 and 2 that kickstarted me writing my novel.

Since then I've listened to podcasts, Instagram Live sessions, webinars, and audio books and I have found that 5 tips resonate with me, so I thought I'd share them with you in case you find them helpful too.

Just write, have a go. You can't write something if you don't get started. This is a valid point - I would often say I wanted to write a novel, but it you don't do the writing, how are you going to turn the want into a novel?
Never finish your day's writing at the end of a chapter or scene. Start writing the next scene so that you've got somewhere to start from the next day. I find this incredibly helpful and possibly the most important tip I've picked up (thanks Amanda Brooke, author of The Widows' Club that I bought that night, which I loved).
Have an idea and see where you go with it. I've had ideas before, but they didn't go anywhere. Now I realise that's because they were probably the idea for a paragraph or a scene, if they even were an idea at all. They most definitely were not the idea for a whole book, which is possibly why the ideas went nowhere. Now, I develop a strong idea that I build the novel around, and it's been much easier to turn my writing into a novel.
Create your outline by starting with a sentence, then turn this sentence into a paragraph, the paragraph into a page, the page into a synopsis. I've found by outlining in this way I can be in the happy medium of being a discovery writer (a pantser) who has a plot outline. What this means is that I can produce a stream of consciousness that has a starting point on that particular day.
Editing is writing too. I'd never thought of this before I heard it on an IG Live session. I now start most of my writing sessions by editing a paragraph or two of the writing I put down in my last writing session, which then seems to open my mind to writing other parts of the novel.
In my work life I've always created the 'shitty first draft', the one that is likely to go in the bin. I've never approached my writing with that in mind. I heard Lucy Atkins, author of Magpie Lane which is a fabulous novel, saying that she works with a crappy first draft, and that you never send the manuscript to an agent until you have worked on developing your crappy first draft. Taking that approach has really impacted on my writing next.

So I'm constantly picking up new tips that help me progress my writing. I'd love to hear your favourite writing tip either in the comments below, or on social media - find me as @zoerichardsuk.

Hi I'm Zoe, nice to meet you

Sun, 07 May 2023 08:32:27 GMT

Hi, I'm Zoe, Nice To Meet You: A potted history of me

A little over 10 years ago, as I was approaching 50, I discovered that I became a legend at my school long after I left. I'm 'shiny shoe girl', the girl who was sent home from school for wearing patent leather shoes - apparently they reflect your underwear and, consequently, have an effect on the boys. Who knew? Little did I realise, at tender age of 14, that I'd become a local legend.

It's things like that in my life that I think I've learned most from - the unexpected. I do have more credits to my name though, thankfully. I've learned more from the 'bad' things that have happened to me than the good ones! Possibly the most important lesson I've learned? To be me - even if that's wearing patent leather shoes! And in that spirit of being me, let's start by getting one thing on the table straight away - I'm English. I work for the NHS. I live in the UK. I love being an English rose, and I am proud of my 'englishness'. I'm proud of being part of the NHS. This is me. There is no point in me trying to be anyone else, so here you get pure Zoe, the real me.

A potted history of what I've done then - well, I graduated with a Masters degree in Learning back in the 90s when my daughter was still in nappies, and from there I started my first business, coaching and supporting businesses on recruitment and developing their staff and teams. I became known as the person to turn to for help turning around dysfunctional teams and sorting out high staff turnover. In 1995, alongside my business, I accidentally got involved in the development of a new radio station, and became one of a team of 4 that set it up - we sold the radio station a couple of years later for over £2m. And at the same time, my husband thought he was being made redundant so we set up a retail business for him to run that turned over around £150,000 every year for 5 years. He wasn't made redundant, by the way, so we were really busy to say the least!

I have nearly 30 years experience of working in programme management, leadership, organisational development and Human Resources in industry, higher education and the National Health Service.

I spent over 10 years as a pundit on BBC Radio Merseyside, and I've written for my own and other blogs, as well as writing a monthly column on business and HR matters in national magazines. I wrote and self-published a short book in 2012, which won a small business book award in the same year.

As someone who has spent most of my career working on change and transformation in one guise or another - personal or organisational - I have a particular strength in coaching and supporting others who on mindset in the context of change.

On a personal level I think I might have a bit too much energy, which came from my recovery from a suicide attempt (more than 25 years ago now). Much of what I use in mindset coaching comes from the lived experience of my own recovery. More recently in life, I tried to do 50 things during my 50s ... some of them crazy like stand-up comedy, some of them thankfully very easy - sadly lockdowns prevented me doing the last few things, so I'm catching up on them now. I laugh a lot with my husband of over 30 years and we have a beautiful granddaughter and a crazy cockapoo, MillyMoo. Oh, and I still occasionally wear patent leather shoes!

And finally, as if I'm not doing enough already, I have written novel, and I am represented by Clare Coombes of Liverpool Literary Agency. It's bookclub women's fiction, covering themes of healing, recovery and community, and it's out on submission to commissioning editors at a raft of publishers. I'll let you know when there's news!

The Jericho Writers Self Edit Course Turns 50

Mon, 01 May 2023 11:18:15 GMT

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