Writing Your Book Already?

Want your book to be as good as it can possibly be? These articles are all about writing skills, editing like a pro, and how to write with a little more outrageous flair.

Never has pain felt so exquisite

Yesterday morning, I rigged my shiny new trapeze – the birthday gift my wonderful husband gave me back at the end of March, 4,380 years ago – and hung upside down from my feet.

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Neil Gaiman smiles

Writing Advice from Neil Gaiman

Every now and then I like to grab a favourite writer of mine (metaphorically speaking I do not assault authors) and share some writing advice I love.

This week: Neil Gaiman!

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? Haunted by horrific howlers

Writing a book isn’t just about the writing; it’s about the details, too. The fine points that mark you out as a professional. Stuff your readers may not notice on a conscious level, but if you get it wrong, they’ll feel it. They’ll know.

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Vicky hangs in a tangle of trapeze, not quite sure what she’s going to do next

The Magical Shitty First Draft

It’s a magical talisman, the first draft. It allows us to let go of our self-consciousness, let go of expectations, and play. And from it, we can make the thing we want to make.

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Why Am I Not Writing When I Want To Write?

People worry a lot about writing a boring-ass book.

And when I say people, I mean me. I worry. About everything, all the time—but specifically, right now, about writing a basic-bitch book.

Check out these 8 mistakes to avoid…

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Your body is incredible

Be grateful for what you can do.

Your body and mind (which are inextricably linked) are incredible. What you can do with them is wondrous.

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? we need tiny beetle steps not giant leaps

The thing about tiny beetle steps is, eventually they add up to great big leaps.

We get hung up on the great big leaps. We strive for massive improvements, to become an overnight success, and wish for miracles to happen fast.

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You are not your business

You are not your business. You are not your art.

Take the criticism. Allow the reaction. Then examine it carefully.

Is there a lesson you can learn and use to improve? Take it.

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Just be yourself okay?

Our brains are wired that way, to always see the bad – the problem – rather than the good. It used to keep us alive back when we lived in caves.

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13 Books That’ll Help You Become A Better Writer

Two questions get fired at me often:
How can I become a better writer?
What books do you recommend I read to get better at marketing my business?
My answer to the first question is: write. Write every day and don’t worry too much if what you write is sometimes crap. You’ll get better.
Write. Edit. Improve. Repeat.
And read everything you can get your hands on, good and bad.

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Choking the onions

I’ve put off weeding that veg bed for a bunch of reasons, none of them good. And so I’ve wasted more time worrying about the onions than it took me to just do the bloody weeding.

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? ? ? Tell me about yourself

“Tell me about yourself”

Four little words guaranteed to strike terror into most people’s hearts, especially if we’re standing in front of a roomful of people.

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How To Think Up Your Big Book Idea

The flash of inspiration you’re waiting for? It ain’t gonna happen. It is a myth; a myth that has stopped good writers from writing since humans first scratched their shopping list on the cave wall…

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Wooden clown

Stop Trying to Find Your Voice

We want to be good writers, right? *Great* writers? Entertaining writers? Writers that move people? Then write.

You already have a voice, and the only way to find it is to use it.

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You’re So Vain, I Bet You Published Your Book Yourself

“You’re an author? That’s *so cool*!”

“I self-published it, it’s not in Waterstones or anything,” I said.

This was a conversation I had—paraphrased, natch—a few years ago, just after I wrote my first book. I felt uncomfortable with the praise, like publishing my book myself was pure vanity. I’d forgotten about this conversation.

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Bestseller Badge Balls

In a world of hot-takes and kneejerk reactions, how do we introduce a little nuance? How do we reclaim critical thought and—yes—creativity?

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How Talking To Your Clients Helps You Beat The Blank Page

Ever had insomnia? Not just a little trouble sleeping, but the twitchy, panicky, staring into the void teetering-on-the-edge of madness insomnia?

Every now and then, it feels like you’re poised on the knife-edge of sleep—so you grab at it, wildly, desperately, only to feel sleep slip away, leaving you grinding your teeth.

To me, that’s what the Blank Page Of Doom feels like sometimes. When I have the seed of an idea I can’t quite hold onto—or too many ideas, boiling across my brain too swift to catch.

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Living with purpose

My purpose is to write. To share my stories and other people’s stories – especially those people whose voices are muffled and marginalised. People who stand up for humanity and thoughtfulness and against oppression and cruelty and blind adherence to a doctrine that makes no sense.

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Asking The Right Questions

Knowing what questions to ask when you start to write your book is the hardest part… We spend so much time looking for answers, we rarely stop to think if we’re asking the right questions. And sometimes we don’t know which questions to ask at all…

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Koala asleep on a branch

Are We Sleepwalking Through Life?

Just because I got elbowed in the face once in Primark doesn’t mean everyone who shops in Primark is an arse. Just because I got elbowed in the face once in Primark doesn’t mean everyone who shops in Primark is an arse. Repeat until I believe it.
Do you know how I rationalised that ugly little belief? By telling myself I don’t shop in Primark because it’s unethical and because I want my clothes to last for more than two washes. (Both those things are also true, it’s just not the true reason I don’t like Primark.)

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How Do You Come Up With All Your Ideas?

Ever look at those snazzy business owners in your inbox and on the internet and wonder how on earth they come up with all their stories, emails, articles, and podcasts? Wonder no more—you can do that too.

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Sometimes your words will be crap

For the past three days, I have sat at my laptop first thing in the morning and cried tears of frustration.

Every word I’ve written has been dragged out of my brain with forceps and no pain relief – and arranging those words on the page has been torture.

Almost everything I’ve written has been total crap by my usual standards.

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Vicky wears a faux-fur coat and is face down on a hotel bed in Bruges, being idle.

The Virtues of Idleness

This is a sonnet to laziness, idleness, loafing—a spirited rejection of the Puritan Work Ethic and all it implies. Read on and discover why idleness should be part of YOUR life.

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What do you want to do?

Don’t let anyone shame you into ridiculous productivity.

Don’t be pushed into doing more than you want to.

It’s okay not to be okay.

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On Keeping a Notebook

This is a sonnet to laziness, idleness, loafing—a spirited rejection of the Puritan Work Ethic and all it implies. Read on and discover why idleness should be part of YOUR life.

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Why the World Needs Your Book

Photo by Tom Podmore on UnsplashIf you’re considering not writing your book this year, think again. If you’re tempted to put it off for any reason—please think again. The world needs your story. If you are any kind of a misfit—if you don’t fit into the straight, white, male, cis-het, neurotypical, elite world, or if you have a message and

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a look of horror

The 67,000 mile-an-hour Book

We all have the same amount of time in the days, weeks, months, years.

So why do some people get tons of writing done, and others struggle to make any progress at all?

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Writing for Joy

Right now we could all use a little more joy, and fun, and space to do something just for ourselves, just because we want to.

Not because it will be useful or profitable or productive, necessarily.

But for the sheer joy of it.

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3 top tips to get book reviews on Amazon

You’ve written a great book, you’re getting wonderful feedback on it, people are contacting to tell you how they’re getting on and how much they love the book, and yet on Amazon… it’s crickets.

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The morning monster cure

If you want to write your book, you need to build a good writing habit or you’ll never manage it.

What are you struggling with? What feels horrible?

What if, instead of saying you’ll write 500 words a morning, all you have to do is make a cup of tea, open your document, and scribble down what you’re going to do next?

Make it easy and make it attractive.

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Roast potatoes for brains

Post-festive-sludging and I feel like my head is stuffed with roast potatoes.

I am struggling to form a coherent thought, let alone write about one.

This is extraordinarily vexing to someone who writes for a living.

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But WHY are You Writing this Book?

Why are you writing your book?

Is your Big Idea for your book setting your heart on fire? Do you feel butterflies when you think about creating it?

I’m asking because your WHY is important.

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Start Writing Your Book Today

I'm on a mission to create 1,000 business owner-authors and help them transform their lives and businesses. Join us: get started with the 29-Day Writing Challenge. Fill out the form below and get writing...

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