What’s your book really about?
So you’re at a party and a new acquaintance asks ‘So what’s your book about?’ Should be an easy question right? But out comes the waffle: Um, well, it’s about podcasting, and how it shouldn’t be that hard to host, except that we let our mindset get in the way and then we underrate ourselves… […]
How to keep up your book writing momentum
Have you ever noticed that you start work on your book or a new creative project full of fire and enthusiasm, with huge faith that this idea will work out? And then…. Life gets lifey. Your kids/parents/dog get sick. A crisis on an existing project sucks up all your time. Your laptop dies; a pipe […]
Letting go of a half written book
What if you had to let go of the book you’ve halfway written…. To find the book you are meant to write? A few months ago, I spoke to a new client who had been approached by publishers and asked to write a book. Writing a book is something she’s always wanted to do. She’s […]
Does your squirrel need a cage?
When we lived in San Francisco, the huge tree in our backyard was a favourite with the squirrels. They would fly from branch to branch, dive from the fence to the tree trunk, to the picnic table, to the ‘trash can’, and back again. Their frenetic antics offered endless entertainment to my then baby boy […]
Why it is important to get help!
I had a call with a new client a few weeks ago. She’s writing a book next year, so she’d been doing some research on the writing process. Before our call, she asked three published authors for their best advice on writing a book. And the overwhelming theme was: Get help Get help GET HELP […]
Why art matters in difficult times
We are living in strange and difficult times. In my city here in New Zealand, we’re 10 weeks into lockdown and everywhere you look, there is tension. A public health crisis, a growing economic, geographical and political divide, businesses going to the wall. Some days I don a cloak of melancholy that’s hard to shift. […]
You are not the list! How to make yourself dispensable (lessons from lockdown)
Last year’s lockdown was a stressy time in our household. After the adrenaline of our emergency evacuation from France, and with so much uncertainty around the future, I worked early in the morning and late at night to complete a huge work project for a late May deadline. During the day, I tried to homeschool […]
Are you overlooking your own easy?
He looked up from the piece of paper clutched in his hand, a look of bewilderment on his face. ‘But I sound amazing’ he said, incredulously. Grinning, I nodded. ‘That’s because you are.’ It was 2010, and I’d been hired to write biographies for key staff members. The gentleman in question was in his early 50s, but he […]
Writing is not a solitary craft
The Facebook messages almost always come late at night. Sometimes it’s me, about to press publish on a post that I know will ruffle some feathers. Could she just take a quick look, give me a neutral perspective, tell me how she thinks this paragraph comes across, suggest a better headline? Sometimes it’s her, […]
You don’t need an Oscar-worthy story
We were sitting around the campfire when the story turned to ‘how we met our partners’. I didn’t know any of the women super well and most were a few wines down, so took to telling their stories in the gregarious fashion of the slightly tipsy. And oh what tales they had. A tale of […]
