Any act of creativity will activate your fear in a big way. That’s how you know it’s working. Creative acts involve a swirling kaleidoscope of emotions, ranging from vision, exhilaration, industriousness, boredom and grandiosity to sheer terror. Sometimes there is shame too. We rotate through all of them along the way, repeatedly, throughout any creative act.
Everybody loves the fun part; the exhilaration, grandiosity and industriousness. These ... keep reading
Almost every successful writer has some kind of writing routine. Not only does a routine help you get into the mindset of writing, it ensures you have some time to actually put the pen to paper. We’ve found five components that most great writing routines share, but before we pass them on to you, we have a couple of disclaimers. First, your writing routine doesn’t need to feature all the pieces, but it should include the ones that work for you. Second, don’t wait around for t... keep reading
LifeTree author Mary Wong understands the pain and frustration that come with infertility issues. The Toronto-based TCM practitioner has faced her own difficulties conceiving, and has spent her career educating and assisting thousands of would-be parents, the vast majority of whom struggle with gynecological disorders, fertility challenges, and pregnancy-related symptoms or issues.
When Mary started her clinic, she had a goal of treating each patient the way she would want to be treated—wit... keep reading
Using yourself as a case study in your nonfiction book can be a great way to bring your messages to life, especially if your book is about personal development or business advice. When you’re sharing a true story of your own, you don’t need to gain anyone else’s permission to use the material. You can be as nuanced, revealing, colourful, specific, shameless, frank, self-deprecating, shocking or insightful as you like. And because you’re describing a first-hand experience, you’ll find it easy to bring the story to life with kind of detail... keep reading
It’s Tuesday, which means I am working on my forthcoming book about writing. To inspire you to work on your own book, I promised to share my process and also offer a sneak peek at the work-in-progress along the way. Here’s a little excerpt from today’s chapter about self-editing. Do you hate editing your own work? Let me know what you think ... keep reading
Writing a blog can be rewarding for its creative and meditative properties, and we believe that once you start, you’ll come to enjoy writing for yours. Of course, when it’s your career you’re looking at, it’s nice to have other, more career-focused motives. So what reasons will you have to blog? Take your pick:
1. Expert status. Having a blog helps you to become known as an authority in your field. As your audience and even your peers turn to you for your information, you’ll become known as a go-to person in your industry, and if you share and discu... keep reading
I was working on my book this Tuesday morning before work when I got stumped by this question: What is the difference between a writer and an author? I believe there is a distinction between the two, but I was struggling to define it. So I put the question out to the all-seeing, all-knowing social media.
The answers I go... keep reading
Social media is nothing new. Most of us have been on Facebook for close to ten years now; even my eighty-two-year-old auntie is on it. But if you’ve been using social media solely for cultivating personal connections, making the shift to using it as a professional author platform is not always easy or intuitive.
When you use social media in a personal way, it feels like hanging out in your living room with your best friends and family members. Conversations are candid, intimate, and full of inside jokes and personal references. When you start using it to court the attention of fans... keep reading
It has been too easy to push my book writing project to one side. After the initial buzz I got from sharing my outline wore off, I turned my attention elsewhere. I thought, I’ve got lots of time, and lots of other things calling out for my attention. There is urgent client work to complete, special projects to push forward on (Paris and I are creating an online course in how to build your author platfo... keep reading
If you had the opportunity to pick the brains of your favourite bestselling, award-winning, TED talk-giving author, what would you ask? Would you take the practical route and ask them what steps they took to achieve their success? Or would you beg them to switch bodies so you can have their amazing career?
Well, we can answer the first question, and if you take our advice to heart, hopefully you can skip the second question altogether and create a dream career of your very own. Here’s the scoop: Although it all starts with writing a great book, that alone is no longer enoug... keep reading
