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Writer’s Block, the Inner Critic, and Limiting Beliefs

Are You Self-Sabotaging Your Writing Goals?

Whenever I talk to writers about how anxiety shows up during the writing process, I usually ask them if they’re experiencing the most anxiety during the first draft stage, the editing stage, or the stage where they begin to share their writing with other people. And always, quite a few writers tell me that they experience the most anxiety before they even start ANY of the stages. It’s when they are thinking about beginning a writing project, or pushing themselves to actually sit down and do it, that they feel the most freaked out.

This strong, underlying anxiety about the writing process is rooted in perfectionism, and it causes writers to self-sabotage their writing goals before they even begin. Continue Reading

23 March, 2023 by

How to Conquer a Lack of Writing Motivation

Lack of writing motivation is one of the biggest silent killers of creativity. I say “silent” because so many writers don’t talk about this issue, and that’s because a lot of us feel deep shame when we can’t get motivated. It’s very common for writers to suffer from this problem and blame themselves, and it’s hard to reach out for help or find support when you’re in a shame spiral about a lack of motivation.

When most of us experience lack of motivation, we usually assume that we’re being “lazy.” Or that we’re not that creative and that inspiration is something we might never see again. However, this is absolutely not true. Lack of motivation is something we can rarely control, and without outside support, it can feel impossible to move past. Continue Reading

21 March, 2023 by

Feel Like You’re Going Nowhere with Your Writing?

One of the biggest problems I see writers struggle with is that we often feel like we’re going nowhere with our writing. We may feel like we’re not making any actual progress, or we’ve been working on a project for a really long time, and still, we’re not seeing measurable results. When we’re in this painful place with our writing, we often feel alone and like we lack support, and like we also lack the structure we need to keep going with our writing. Continue Reading

19 March, 2023 by

When Writing Isn’t Fun Anymore

I was working with a new client who had come to me because she said she hated her writing life. As I sat with her on Zoom and asked her questions about her writing, I watched her face change as she described how she used to feel about writing when she was much younger, and how she felt about it now.

She looked troubled, and sad. And also confused. Why was writing so hard for her now? she asked. She didn’t understand why it felt like pulling teeth to sit down and crank out 500 words. Writing had always been something she loved. She didn’t understand why it now filled her with so much dread.

As we dug deeper into the layers of her problems with writing, the truth became more and more clear. Continue Reading

24 January, 2023 by

Write a Book that Serves the World (This Works Great for Procrastinators!)

Over the years, I have worked with many writers who dream of writing a book that will help serve humanity. Much of the time, the writer has experienced some sort of deep trauma, gone through a healing journey because of that trauma, and then come out on the other side with a unique perspective on everything they experienced. Usually in these cases, the writer realizes that what they’ve learned could greatly benefit others who are currently going through the same sort of trauma they experienced, and that the best way to get this knowledge into the hands of other people is to write a book that contains all of the insights the writer learned the hard way.

However, it can be confusing to write this kind of book that serves the world when you have no idea what direction you need to go in to even start. Some writers feel it’s important to include extremely personal pieces of their own journey (memoir), and some want to focus more on learning strategies for the reader (self-help). Some feel like they might want to do a mix of the two, but they’re unsure about how to pull that all together. Continue Reading

31 December, 2022 by