Writing motivation from Ira Glass

“Do it now,” says Ira. ​

Don’t wait until you have the right support or even the right idea. “Just start making it now.”

Shoot the arrows now, Olav Hauge might say.*

But one of the reasons I find a lot of would-be authors don’t just do it now is that it’s really, really hard. What exactly is it that’s so hard?

Is it the writing itself? Finding the time? Maybe.

Here’s what’s hard for me: if I start, I have to make choices. Choice after choice after choice. As long as I don’t write my book, my potential is limitless. The thing I’m creating is nothing, so that means it could be anything!

From the moment I make my first choice, I whittle down that endless potential.

And it’s not just that the potential narrows from limitless to limited. (That should actually feel good, right? It’s taking shape.)

But the problem is that if the choices are the arrows in Hauge’s poem, you shoot one after the other, and they each miss the bull’s eye.

And ain’t that a bitch?

Yes, and it is also a feature of creativity, not a bug. Those arrows, as the poem points out, also are at the center of something. The center of what? I don’t know.

But might it not be nice to feel the sun on your back and the grass under your feet and hear the sounds of distant traffic and birds singing as you trot out to pick up all the arrows and walk back to try again?

The aiming, the trotting, the trying again. Those are the moments that make each of us—not a failure, not a fraud, nor an impostor—but a creative.

- Maggie

PS: If you need help settling in and making that first choice, there is always my book, Be About Something, to guide you.

* This is a poem I shared a few weeks ago that I am sharing again because I’m still thinking about it. Here it is if you didn’t read my last post (or even if you did).

Years of Experience with Bows and Arrows

by Olav H. Hauge, translated by Robert Hedin and Robert Bly

What you are supposed to hit

is the bull's eye, that black spot,

that precise spot, and the arrow

is supposed to stand there quivering!

But that's not where the arrow goes.

You get closer to it, close and closer;

no, not close enough.

Then you have to go out and pick up all the arrows,

walk back, try it again.

That black spot is highly annoying

until you finally grasp

that where your arrow stands quivering

is also the center of something.

from The Dream We Carry, Copper Canyon Press, 2018. Shared with me by Holly Wren Spaulding.

The imprecise art of writing and parenting

Years of Experience with Bows and Arrows

by Olav H. Hauge, translated by Robert Hedin and Robert Bly

What you are supposed to hit

is the bull's eye, that black spot,

that precise spot, and the arrow

is supposed to stand there quivering!

But that's not where the arrow goes.

You get closer to it, close and closer;

no, not close enough.

Then you have to go out and pick up all the arrows,

walk back, try it again.

That black spot is highly annoying

until you finally grasp

that where your arrow stands quivering

is also the center of something.

from The Dream We Carry, Copper Canyon Press, 2018. Shared with me by Holly Wren Spaulding.

****

One day, I was home with my son Morgan and who has spent the day either

- refusing to play

- playing with breakable objects

- playing with his toys in some "off-label" way.

Right now, I am watching him play with an old mop, a mound of dirt, a plastic baseball bat, and a bubble gun that has batteries (miracle!) but no bubbles.

A few years ago, I read that kids become more rigid in their thinking when they reach 5 or 6 years old.

You hand a 3-year-old a mop and they invent all sorts of games that have nothing to do with the mop’s form or function. A 6-year-old might invent a game, too, but it often has something to do with play around cleaning up or pretending the mop is a person.

When I read that tidbit back then, I had a 3-year-old and possibly another baby (that part of the memory is fuzzy) but I do have a sharp recollection of my reaction.

“Not MY kids! Right??! I mean, they’ll maintain their imaginative, flexible thinking NO MATTER WHAT I HAVE TO DO. My kids will remain flexible!”

****

That’s what they have in common—the way I write, and the way I mother, I mean.

The arrow gets close but then again, no, not close enough, and I have to go out and pick up all the arrows, walk back, try it again.

.

.

.

Have you missed "that black spot," but pierced the center of something else lately? What was it? Hit reply and let me know.

- M

Your book can't be for everyone: the importance of defining a niche

It’s easy for me to tell you, “If you get unsolicited feedback on your writing don’t listen to it.”

But do you want to know what I do when I get feedback?

If you selected “Ignore myself!” … yeah.

I got a lot of feedback on Be About Something, the book I wrote last year. All of the feedback that was not full of rave reviews made me question everything. Every. Single. Time.

I was a thin-skinned MFer.

Until I realized something.

Some of the feedback that was making me feel insecure was from people who told me they wished I had included this or that element in the book.

Those people were not beingnegative. They were asking for something that Be About Something doesn’t provide.

That’s not the same thing.

***

​
Suddenly, an analogy popped into my head: If I walk into a Volvo dealership and ask to see their sports cars, the salesperson will say,

“We don’t stock sports cars.”

And if I say, “Why not?”

They’ll say, “Volvo doesn’t make sports cars.”

Now! If I say, “Well, that’s too bad! Because I’m in the market for a sports car.”

What is the appropriate reaction from the car salesperson?:

A. Call up Volvo and tell them to make a bespoke sports car because “I’ve got a customer ready to buy.”

B. Take it personally that the customer is asking for a product Volvo doesn’t make, and whine, "But why do you want THAT when you could have a Volvo???"

C. Say, “Yeah, that is probably something you can get at a number of other dealerships, it’s just not what we do here.” (And if they feel like it, share some other dealerships off the top of their head who sell sports cars in Volvo’s price range.) ​
​

Only one of these three reactions is not crazy. (Weird!)

Anyway, once I saw it, I couldn’t unsee it.

In writing my book, I had taken my own advice and been about something. (The book ain’t called Be About Everything. Ha!)

***

Now how does this apply to your writing process?

So many people who are kicking around a book idea hold themselves back because they know their book’s point (aka, thesis) doesn’t answer all the possible questions that could be asked about their topic.

They think that because their book only helps certain people in a certain stage, they don’t have an idea that’s a winner. Even when experienced entrepreneurs who know all about niching down start their book, they want it to be all things to all people.

But it can’t. And it SHOULDN’T! You’re on the right track if your book idea will only mean something to a certain, DEFINABLE group of people.

If you can define

1. who you will help and

2. what aspect of their problem you’ll help them with

then some people will roll by your book on the shelf or on Amazon and think, “Oh that doesn’t answer my question.”

​Good!

They get to read other books. Yours doesn't help them. And that’s OK.
​
​

- Maggie

How will I know when I'm ready to write my book?

A few weeks ago, I wrote about mindset.

When it comes to struggling with writing, it’s true: mindset is a big factor. Working on my own mindset helped me complete two books over the past 18 months.

But also.
After working over the past few years with many clients who are first-time authors, I’ve realized that mindset is not the problem.

It’s that they don’t know the next right step to take after they come up with their book.

So, they dive into writing. And there they encounter gremlins.

Not the cute Ewok-type ones. The slimy, green, haunt-your-nightmares ones. Like…

• My idea isn't original enough, or that it’s not something enough to deserve to become a book.

• I’m not experienced/expert/successful/wealthy/wise enough to write this story.

• My first, unedited attempts are not as good as Becoming/Untamed/Educated/Small Doses, (even when they know darn well that each of those are whole-ass, edited and published books🧐 ).

And they quit.

...

​The funny thing is, I’ve written and published and worked with other published writers for over 20 years and if there is one thing I know: All published writers hear these gremlins and many more. Even when they’re on the right track.

Seasoned writers start and finish books all the time without defeating these gremlins first. Which means if you have gremlins, you can publish, too.

But if you dive into the writing without creating a roadmap first, you have to do two things at once:

1. Face your gremlins (on your own) without letting them derail you AND

2. Figure out (on your own) that “just diving into writing” was the wrong first step and figure out (on your own) the right first step.

​These can be lonely, discouraging experiences.

That’s why there’s Book Breakthrough.

Book Breakthrough ensures that you will not start your book with the wrong step. But it also provides the support of group members who are all working toward the same goal.

Plus my guidance, as a person who (yes I’m going to say it again) has written two books in the past 18 months.

In 8 weeks, you will leave Book Breakthrough with a detailed roadmap so you can start the writing with confidence. You’ll also have encountered your combo of gremlins, and you’ll learn how to keep going anyway.

How do you know if you’re ready?
You don’t know. You decide.

Lots more info here: writing and editing services

Maggie

​PS: The waitlist for Book Breakthrough is open. You can put your name on the list today! Book Breakthrough will be making a return later this year, and spots will be limited.

What makes a page-turner?

When I first started helping people write their books, I focused on their ideas.

“Your ideas are brilliant! Let’s just get them down,” I’d say.

It’s fun to help people articulate their ideas clearly. Not only fun, of course, but absolutely necessary to writing a book. Non-negotiable.

And...

Books filled with ideas but no story are unreadable.

***

If you're writing a book, you need a story. The first step in outlining your narrative structure (story) is to accept this fact:

A story is not a collection of things that happened, told one after the other.

It’s not!?

It’s not.

A story requires causality. Meaning: the thing that happens causes the next thing to happen in the story.

Of course it’s not just books that tell stories: movies do it, too. Something like:

Woman goes to bed. A freak lightning storm rages outside. The power goes out in the middle of the night, resetting her clock radio and the alarm. She wakes late, realizes she’s late for work. Now she’s in a rush! She’s halfway to work when she realizes she forgot her briefcase. She doubles back to her apartment only to discover....

You know exactly where this is going. But the storydoesn’t go anywhere unless the lightning storm happens.

See… If the freak lightning storm doesn’t happen, the power doesn’t go out. If the power doesn’t go out, her alarm doesn’t fail. If her alarm doesn’t fail, she’s not late. If she’s not late, she doesn’t forget her briefcase. If she doesn’t forget her briefcase, she doesn’t double back to her apartment. And if she doesn’t do that, she doesn’t find out about the affair.

***

That's just the first scene of the movie! We know these stories; we ingest them all the time. But when it comes to writing our own books, a weak grasp of story can screw up the whole process.

(BTW: Even if you are collecting a group of your essays into a book, I believe a story is necessary. Why does one essay follow the other? What’s the story behind their sequence?)

But if you’re writing a chapter book, the kind with one book-length argument? Then story becomes non-negotiable.

***

Without story, you may end up with a thing that is not actually a book, but a book-like object that has a title and a cover and interior layout and chapters but that no one can actually read past the first few pages.

😱​

That doesn’t have to be your book, though. (Phew.)

In Book Breakthrough you won’t just organize the information you’ll be sharing in your book, you'll outline your story, constructing the roadmap for a page-turner. ​
​

That’s one of the reasons I’m so excited to be offering Book Breakthrough to you later this year: to teach you how to build a narrative structure that will allow more readers to finish your book and therefore absorb your great ideas.

***

Your reader will get hooked on your book if she wants to know what happens next and she can't figure it out.

That’s all! But a hell of a tall order. Let’s do it together!
​

Maggie
​

PS: What is Book Breakthrough?

It's a new 8-week program I’ve created because I've seen too many highly motivated first-time authors either put off writing their book for years, or begin writing but give up before they finish.

You can read all the details of this 8-week group program here: writing & editing services​

Sign up for the waitlist today and be the first to know once the course opens again!

The Retinol method: too much, too soon

I just started using Retinol last week. It’s an anti-wrinkle skin cream. Yes, I know, they are all “anti-wrinkle” skin creams. But Retinol actually works moderately well.

Magic in a tube.

And on that tube itself is written the following recommendation:

“If you have never used Retinol products, begin use two evenings a week, then gradually increase frequency to every other night, and finally once an evening as tolerated.”

I’ve written before about people who go too hard too soon, exhaust themselves, and quit.

Retinol is apparently aware of this phenomenon, too. Retinol knows I want results. AND Retinol knows that if I start by applying Retinol to my skin every night, my skin will sting and peel and I’ll quit using it.

(It’d be more precise to say that whoever makes Retinol knows these things, but for the sake of argument let’s just attribute this intelligence to Retinol herself.)

It’s as if she knows I’ve tried Retinol already. Twice before, in fact. Each time, I’ve quit after a couple of weeks because Retinol stings. That’s why it’s written right on the tube.

DON’T DIVE IN WITH A COMMITMENT TO DAILY USE.

“I get it, you want results. But if you use too much too soon, you’ll end up quitting altogether. :( And you can’t get results if you don’t use me.”

***

(OK, that got weird.) My point is:

Too much, too soon, results in quitting. Better to subscribe to the Retinol Method. Start slow. Develop a tolerance.

Wouldn’t you know it? Writing a book requires the same ramping-up strategy!

***

That’s why in Book Breakthrough, my new 8-week program for first-time authors, we start with your idea and story and create a roadmap.

You do NOT have to write every day to achieve results in Book Breakthrough. (As Retinol might say, You can’t get results if you quit before you’ve developed a tolerance.)

I’ve designed Book Breakthrough as a way to ease into writing, so that you’re less likely to burn through all your momentum early and quit, not because you have a bad idea or because you “suck” at writing, but because you don’t know the next step to take, so more writing just makes you feel more stuck, like you're writing in circles.

Lots of energy, wrong direction. Book Breakthrough is here to help you stop the swirl and use your energy to move forward.

***

You can read all the details of this 8-week program here: writing and editing services

Join the waitlist today! Book Breakthrough will be opening again soon a little later this year.

Is mindset really the problem?

The other day, a mentor of mine brought up that as professionals (especially professional women+) when we’re struggling, we tell ourselves and we’re told it’s our “mindset.”

We’ve got the wrong energy. We’re not focusing on the right things. We’re “in our own way.”

When it comes to struggling with writing, it’s true: mindset is a big factor. Working on my own mindset, taking leaps, having courage, are all great things that have helped me complete two books over the past 18 months.

But also.

After working over the past few years with many clients who want to write, I’ve realized that mindset is often not their problem.

A lot of them have a book idea but just don’t know what exactly what to do next. So, they dive into writing. But their idea is often missing key components, and without those components they write themselves in circles, getting more and more confused about what they’re actually trying to say.

They want to write a book, but doing it this way is a bit like saying, “I want to build a house. Guess I should get over to Home Depot and buy some wood.”

I’m not a builder, but I’m pretty sure that’s the WRONG first step.

Let’s say you knew that was the wrong first step. How would you go about figuring out the right first step? You’re telling me you’d google building a house? 🧐

No, you’d hire someone OR you'd … ask someone who's done it.

If you've worked on the mindset but find you're still blocked, it might be because you just need guidance on the next right step to take to get your book out of your head and onto the page. 

I offer 1-hour consultation where we take that next step together so you can organize your idea and pinpoint the next step you need take to move your book forward. 

Find out more here: editing services and mention this blog post in your interest form for $100 off. 

Maggie

#Doubleduty and Use of Suspense in Nonfiction

Hola,

I don’t believe in multitasking; I believe in tasks that do double-duty. Multitasking is like slightly injuring one bird with five stones. Double-duty is killing two birds with one stone.

Double-duty is probably one of the big reasons I’ve stuck with cycling for so long. Exercise + transportation = 2 (birds). Bike = 1 (stone).

# Doubleduty all day every day.

Double-duty is why I’m speeding through the book Profit First by Mike Michalowicz after I had avoided coming anywhere near this book for the past three years. Despite the fact that no less than 12 small business owners recommended it to me over that time.

All kinds of blocks stopped me from taking their advice. “I’m just a freelancer,” I would tell myself. “That sounds like a thing you need if you have employees.”

Well finally, I started it. I am hurling Profit First at my flapping business-finance disorganization.

***

But, as soon as I saw the title for chapter 1, I realized I could use Profit First to send a second birdie to an early grave. (Sheesh. Apologies to birds everywhere.)

So what was that second birdie? What was it I saw in chapter 1? I saw the answer to the question, “Why have a dozen entrepreneurs recommended this book to me in three years? Why is it so popular?”

I’m talking about the real answer here. You might answer the book is clear or useful or that the method works, and that’s why it’s got such great word of mouth.

Those things—clear, useful, effective—are probably all true! But, many people have written clear, useful, effective books for organizing business finances (and personal finances). And I notice people don’t pass around those other books as much.

Therefore, clear, useful, and effective are NOT the reasons people recommend Profit First so often to each other.

You wanna know the real answer? You do?

.

.

.

The answer is SUSPENSE.

Michalowicz doesn’t start the book with Chapter 2, the chapter wherein he explains what the Profit First method is and how he discovered and developed it.

He starts with chapter 1: “Your Business is an Out-of-Control Cash-Eating Monster.” That is literally the title of chapter 1. You know why? Because that title (and the whole chapter) causes questions to well up in the reader. Such as:

IS IT? Oh shit!

Why didn’t I know that?

I actually feel like I’m doing OK financially. I check my bank balance every day and it seems… Wait. He’s saying constantly checking your bank balance every day is useless to determining your business’s overall financial health. Oh shit!

And finally: Well, if I shouldn’t be doing that stuff, then what do I do instead??

Bingo. Checkmate. YAHTZEE.

Now, he’s gotten you to care. You really care about finding out the answers to these questions. As you roll into chapter 2, you’re reading about this method not just to ***acquire information (zzzzzz)***, but to close an open loop in your brain. To relieve yourself of the suspense of not knowing the answers.

Yes, the answers themselves have to be clear, useful, and effective. But the way they’re revealed—that’s STRUCTURE.

***

Which brings me back to that second birdie: I have realized that Profit First is not just helpful for me personally, it is also my Ur-example of the difference structure can make to a nonfiction, non-memoir book.

If you thought suspense was only for crime novels and Dan Brown? Start thinking again.

I’m going to finish reading Profit First. Then I’m going to write a teardown of the whole book. Not a critique but a teardown. (Look it up.)

Helping me + Helping You = 2 (birds). Reading this book = 1 (stone).

Let's do it!

- Maggie

Book writing lesson from a poet

I heard Margaret Atwood (both a novelist and a poet) on the New Yorker’s poetry podcast with Kevin Young. She said: “Novelists look as if they're working. They are working. Poets, when they're working, don't look as if they're working. … Staring out the window, going for a walk, sitting in a cafe. ‘What are you doing? Why aren't you, you know, working?'​ “I am working.”

***

My book-writing clients don’t like to hear me prattle on about white space and looking out the window being part of the work. Of course they don’t like it! They want to get their book done. They’re not here to be poets. I know. ​

But I think that we book-writers can learn something from poets who stare out the window that can help us get that book done, too. Particularly in this season of summer.

For instance, if we’re working on a book, we are not always procrastinating in the moments when we are not putting words down on paper. Sometimes we are reacting to an instinct to allow a chemical reaction between time and a part of the story so it’s ready to tell. ​
​

And sometimes, we just are procrastinating. Fine! You caught us! But if we are, I mean… it’s summer! A season of rest can lead us to create things later that we wouldn’t have otherwise had the capacity for. ​

***

As for me this summer, I am still showing up to write, even on days I don’t feel like it. But not to make myself suffer. When I’m not feeling it, it’s more like the way I show up to a party. Maybe it’ll be fun?

I tell myself: Here’s what I’m gonna do: make it a goal to talk to one person here and then if I’m still not having fun, I can leave.

(Just know that if you ever see me at a party, this is what I'm thinking. That includes parties I throw 🥳.)

I don’t usually leave the party, but if I do, well, I’ll try again at the next party. ​

***

I think the middle of summer (and incidentally also the middle of winter) are moments when we can stand to baby ourselves a bit more than usual. What is the worst that can result?

I made a couple of videos where I talk through some aspects of what I mean by “babying” yourself while still staying engaged with your writing work.

​When You Write Something Bad 💩, Don't Fall For This Myth ​

​A Mistake You're Probably Making if You're Writing About Yourself​
​
​

Maggie

PS: Many thanks to Holly Wren Spauldingand Suzi Banks Baum who’ve taught me so much about poetry, summer, and winter over the past year or so. Can’t thank them enough!

Can you answer this question about your book?

I give a presentation called "The 5 Things You Need to Start (and Finish!) Your Book."

Thing #1: You need an answer to this question:

Why does this book need to exist?

I do worry that telling people this off the bat will discourage them. It sounds like an intimidating question.

But I don't ask it to talk anyone out of anything. I ask it to talk them into continuing.

*

The name of that presentation is "Start (and Finish!)" for a reason.

Starting is hard and finishing is also hard. (And also the middle is hard. 🙃)

Which means, as writers working on a book-length project, we're often finding ourselves about to quit. When that happens, the answer can often be to take a break.

Sometimes, after the break's gone on for a few days, you want to beat a path to the place where the fire of your book idea burns, so you can watch it and maybe poke at it a little.

I find that asking this question can help you do that.

Not, "Why am I doing this?" but "Why does it wanna be here?"

"Why does this book need to come out of me? Why can't it just stay inside?"

*

So maybe for you, the answer leads to imagining a person you'll help with it. It might lead to some kind of day-dreamy vision of a reader lifting your book off the shelf, opening and reading until a look of surprised knowing crosses their face when they read this thing that you say in only the way that you can say it. And they recognize something.

Getting curious about your particular answer to this question can sometimes lift you out of a muddy, stuck place.

Maggie

PS: Once in a while, I ask a comically small seashell or an Amazon box or a piece of Tupperware, "Why does this book need to exist?" and I put it to my ear and listen for the answer. #GetSilly.