Ann Kroeker, Writing Coach

Show Notes Summary: When you wake up in the morning and dive into your to-do list—maybe you made it the night before, maybe in the morning, or maybe you make it up on the fly—isn't it gratifying to cross things off? It provides a sense of closure—of satisfaction—for getting something done. Then you move on to the next thing. It's a productive approach to make the list and check things off. But the tendency we can have is to continually look ahead to what we have yet to do, and never really stop, look back, and reflect on the day and say, "Look at all I got done!" So as writers, as we set out with a goal of writing 500 words or so many pages each day, at the end of that day it's almost like we press restart and look ahead to the next day rather than taking those few minutes to say, "Hey, I actually got that done!" Today I recommend you come up with a system to reflect at the end of the day on what you got done, so you can celebrate what's done! Productivity expert Claire Burge recommended to me an app cal

Show Notes   Summary: Last week I urged you to write that thing that scares you...and to get started by writing three sentences. Did you do that? Did you write those three sentences? I did. I dove straight into the thing that scares me and wrote three sentences. Then three more. Then a whole paragraph. And another. I got going and didn’t stop for two pages. Then, okay, then I stopped because I started to feel a bunch of feelings sloshing around inside me and I was sitting in the library and didn’t want to slosh out a lot of tears in front of the librarian helping a woman search for a biography. So I stopped writing for the day. The progress reminded me that a few sentences quickly grow to be a paragraph and another and next thing you know, you have a scene or a chapter. Committing to those first three sentences engaged my mind; once engaged, the ideas flowed. I would have continued had I been in a more private location. Another way of looking at those three sentences is that even if I’d managed only three

Show Notes Summary: Think of something you’ve really wanted to write...something that feels exciting to try, maybe a little risky to undertake...something you feel is urgent or important. And you haven’t written it yet because you’re scared. You could be scared for a lot of reasons: Maybe you’re a little scared because it’s a new style for you, or a new genre, and you feel you’ve don’t have the skills or experience to pull it off. Maybe you’re a little scared because it’s a new style, a new genre, and you’re afraid people may laugh at you for trying something other than what you’re known for. Maybe you’re a little scared because the subject matter is challenging or emotional. Maybe you’re a little scared because writing it will name other people and you’re afraid of the relational fallout. Maybe you’re a little scared because you start so many things and never finish them, you’re afraid this will be yet another project to add to the half-done list. You find it easier if you don’t start it at all. Yo

Show Notes Summary: This is the time of year when people look back at 2015 and consider how they did at achieving their goals, then they look ahead to 2016 and start to plan the year ahead. They decide the habits they want to eradicate and establish, and the goals they want to achieve. It happens […]

Show Notes Summary: My friend John, an entrepreneur, said to me years ago: Action creates clarity. I’ve passed this nugget along to many people who are just sitting on an idea, afraid to take action, worried they’ll get it wrong. Once you take action, you might feel like you’re stumbling or making mistakes, but what you’re […]

Show Notes Summary: One of my daughters has always been a playful, creative inventor, looking for ways to add tangible fun to her days. Once, she dragged a plastic bottle and paper towel tube from the recycling bin, grabbed a handful of rubber bands and duct-taped everything together to make a ukulele. It didn’t play, […]

Show Notes Summary: This is a time to dream up some big goals for 2016 and think about how you can expand your reach and stretch yourself, and I definitely applaud and encourage that. But it can also be a time to go small—to use your words to connect with one or two people at a time. By "small," I mean brief, but also "intimate." You could: pull out a note card and write a letter craft an email to an old friend pen a poem and slip it under somebody's windshield wiper leave a love note under a pillow Small, focused, writing projects have some side benefits beyond blessing the recipient of your writing. By writing to someone specific, you develop your voice. You’ll be a little more comfortable and relaxed when writing that note or typing that email for someone you know well. You might insert a little inside joke, tell a story, and play with a more informal style. You’ll probably keep it somewhat tight and brief; then again, maybe you’ll be a bit more leisurely. When you know your audience well, you ca

Show Notes Summary: During the holiday season, while traveling and hosting or visiting others, you may not be able to keep up your writing at the same pace. We discussed in the last episode the benefit of having a rut to run in, and yet as we head into these next couple of months, we may not be able to maintain our writing routines at the same level. Today I want to encourage you that even if you are unable to keep up even a modified version of your writing routine, you can still do one thing: pay attention, to draw attention. If you pay attention to the details, events and interactions surrounding you over the next few weeks and you have a way to collect and store them, you will be able to use all of that for later, when you’re writing, to draw attention. Oliver Burkeman in an article in The Guardian, highlights thoughts on writing from Steven Pinker, who points out that writing is inherently a psychological phenomenon, "a way that one mind can cause ideas to happen in another mind." So our job is to be

Show Notes Summary: A writer needs a rut to run in. If you're troubled by the construction, let me also say it this way: a writer needs a rut in which to run. But about this rut...you might be thinking, "Hold on, now, how can a coach who encourages curiosity and creativity be promoting a rut?" After all, People get stuck in ruts and never change, never take risks, never explore new possibilities. Ruts are things to get out of not to fall into. Ruts feel like tedium. Monotony. Boredom. And there’s some truth to that, but I’m going to try to convince you to think differently about the monorail experience. When you have a rut to run in, parts of your life switch to autopilot and you don’t have to reinvent every single day. It simplifies life and frees up mental energy for greater willpower and creativity. It steadies you. Think of a rut as a habit or set of habits—a routine—that automates parts of your life. In an article in The New York Times, John Tierney, who wrote the book Willpower with Roy Baumeist

Show Notes Summary: Hundreds of thousands of writers are in the middle of National Novel Writing Month, or what is affectionately known as NaNoWriMo—where writers have signed up with the goal of completing a novel draft of 50,000 words. If you are among the participants—or if you decided to tackle a nonfiction project during the same month, tapping into the resources and momentum of NaNoWriMo—you’re heading toward the middle of the month and, presumably, the middle of your project’s draft. The middle is hard. A lot of people stop in the middle of things. How were you doing on your New Year’s Resolutions back in July? How about some hobby or craft you started but stopped about halfway through, that’s boxed up in the garage or basement? The halfway point is critical, because you know what it took to get to that point, so you know you need at least that much effort to finish. It can feel overwhelming. It’s easier to just stop and shelve the project. Click save. Say you’ll come back to it someday, but you

Show Notes Summary: In the last episode, we discussed the urgency of acting on ideas. I quoted an editor my parents worked with who shouted, “Never, never, never sit on a story!” I warned you not to let somebody scoop you, because that idea was given to you. So take action, I said. And write. Today, I want to encourage you that if you waited a few beats too long and your idea was written up and sent out by someone else...you have some options. You can let it go, or let it grow. If you feel like you’ve been scooped, it’s possible you did get scooped and you need to simply let it go and move on to new ideas. But before you abandon it completely, maybe you’ll find you haven’t really been scooped—maybe you’ll see that your idea is quite a bit different from the piece that came out before yours. If so, you can continue with your idea as originally planned. And maybe you’ll see that your original idea did get scooped, but if you’re willing, you can let it grow, tweaking yours so it can find readers who have be

My parents were editors at a major metropolitan newspaper, and my dad often quoted his managing editor, who fulfilled all '50s and '60s movie newsroom stereotypes—puffing on a cigar, shouting across the newsroom. When this editor realized one of his reporters had been scooped by a competing newspaper, he shouted for all the newsroom to hear: “Never, never, never sit on a story!” Though I’ve not been in the newspaper business other than writing the occasional feature story, I’ve seen this in my writing life. I’ve learned this lesson. “Never, never, never sit on a story!” And that’s what I’m here to tell you today. The times I’ve done nothing more than toy with a story, talking about it with friends and family, tossing it around like I’ve got all the time in the world to develop it, someone else goes ahead and writes it. Seriously. It’s happened to me multiple times. If you’ve got an idea in you, don’t sit on it. Don’t just think about it or chat about it with friends and family. Do something today to ma

The last time we were together we talked about one thing writers need to succeed, and if you listened, you know that thing is grit. In this episode I'm posing several ways writers can increase grit, so if you feel like a low-grit writer, listen and try some of the ideas. I believe you can grow in grit to become a more productive and successful writer. In the words of Louis Zamperini: Be hardy! Key ideas from this episode: Grow in grit by looking for other areas where you exhibit grit and funnel it into your writing Grow in grit by creating small wins Grow in grit by developing stamina through training for a race that relies on incremental progress Grow in grit by minimizing distractions to increase focus Grow in grit by arranging schedule and space to reflect prioritization of writing Grow in grit through courage, taking risks despite fear of failure or rejection Be hardy! Resources mentioned in this episode: Louis Zamperini's USC interview * * * Listen for the full six-minute podcast. You ca

I help a lot of writing coach clients organize their writing lives or take a fresh look at their writing goals and projects. In the process, we often look at task management programs, time management systems, project management philosophies to find something they can implement that suits their personality. We experiment and almost always find some system that works for each person. This often helps the flow of their days and weeks so they make greater progress toward their goals. But there’s one thing writers need even more than a bullet journal or a filing system or Evernote or Asana or ToDoist or Wunderlist. One thing can make all the difference when facing a deadline, when sitting down to do the work, when sensing internal resistance to a project, when feeling stuck on something. One thing can help you succeed at your writing life more than anything else. This one thing sees you through hard times, when you’re questioning, distracted, discouraged or stuck. This one thing helps you achieve your long-ran

In our last episode we talked about finding and following the energy. But what if you don’t feel the energy? What if your writing feels stale? What then? That's what Julie asked in her Facebook comment. Is it possible to find and almost generate energy? I think the answer is yes. Whether we change the environment around us or the environment of our minds, if you will, we can open up new channels for energy to affect us. Key ideas from this episode: Play, especially through Artist Dates. Learn, through podcasts, books, and articles online. Read models of great writing in your genre. Read models of great writing outside your genre. Connect with other creative people. Challenge yourself toward mastery. Take creative risks. I hope this gets you energized and in motion, so your writing life can flourish! Resources mentioned in this episode: Darren Rowse's podcast episode where he mentions his two reflective questions on energy Julie's comment on Facebook about feeling stale and wondering how to fi

[The following is only a glimpse of the topic … not a transcription. This episode is about seven minutes long.] It is so hard to write something when there's no energy for it. Now, I don't mean lack of energy because you didn't get enough sleep or because you haven’t had your second cup of coffee yet. I mean, it’s hard to write when there’s no enthusiasm for the project—when there's no excitement for it. It’s hard to write when you’re missing that feeling of eager anticipation for digging in, when you’re lacking curiosity at what the finished product will be. I’m not saying you won’t have to work, but even when a project is challenging, I hope the writer still senses energy for it. One reason some writers secure a writing coach is because they’re lacking energy and trying to figure out why their writing lives or their writing projects are feeling kind of stuck and sluggish. They’re wondering where the energy is and how to find it. As a coach, I ask questions. I listen. And one of the things I’m listenin

[The following is only a glimpse of the topic … not a transcription. Also, this episode is about six minutes long.] The last couple of podcast episodes have focused how to affirm the writer in your life who has asked for input—and how to err on the side of encouragement. As a continuation of this discussion, I’d like to share with you an idea for how you can ask for input from individuals or groups. First, decide what level of input you truly want. Then ask the person or group to bless your piece, assess your piece, or press your piece. This bless, assess, or press idea originates with the National Writing Project for teachers, which I heard about from my friend Kris. Here's the basic idea. Bless If you want the reader to bless your work, you want encouragement for what is working, but not necessarily feedback on what’s not working. You ask for "bless" when you truly want your reviewer to only affirm, affirm, affirm. Assess When you ask the person to assess your work, you ask for assess one specific prob

[The following is only a glimpse of the topic … not a transcription. Also, this episode is about 6 minutes long.] In the last episode, I encouraged anyone who is in a position read and respond to a writer’s work to affirm, affirm, affirm what’s working. I’m not talking about a formal reviewer online or at a newspaper who is reviewing a book. I’m thinking of someone in a writing group who's workshopping a short story or a someone giving a friend feedback about a poem. If you’re in that kind of situation—helping steer someone and encourage their growth as a writer—I recommended you err in the direction of honest affirmation. Honest affirmation is kind of like clicker training for writers. It works especially well when you have the luxury of taking a long-range view, trusting that over time, the writer will self-correct the more confident he grows from knowing what he does well. Sometimes, though, we don’t get that much time and have to point out a few things that would ideally be changed, eliminated, twe

[The following is only a glimpse of the topic … not a transcription] As a coach, editor, workshop leader, and writing instructor, I’ve given a lot of feedback to writers at all levels. For several years I taught composition and creative writing to high school students. Working with students reminded me to deal tenderly with developing writers. Encourage them. Gently help them grow. Affirm in as many ways as possible. Because it’s so easy as a teacher to focus on correction and minimize affirmation but I learned I got far better results when I showed them what worked well in any given project. If I focused too much on what needed revision, they grew discouraged. So I tried to affirm, affirm, affirm. I’ve also worked with adult writers for over 20 years, giving input on their work, and I have come to realize adults can be as tender as teens. Writers producing any kind of writing—from a poem or personal narrative to a comedy sketch or brochure—they all need affirmation. Writers at every stage and every age

[The following is only a glimpse of the topic … not a transcription] A heads up: At over 13 minutes, this episode is significantly longer than my usual 3-6 minute podcast episodes. You sit down to write only to realize you've got a long list of tasks necessary to the work of writing, but after you check them off your list, you haven’t the word count to show for it. Let’s call these: “Non-writing Writing Tasks.”     If you’ve never really thought about this category of tasks or planned for them, you’ve probably felt frustrated. Even though this kind of work is a support or extension of our writing, we can resent it or feel like we’re wasting valuable time. But if we’re going to be the least bit serious about our writing, we’re going to have to do some non-writing, writing tasks. It’s part of the work. It’s actually good news: You’re a writer—you have non-writing tasks to do associated with your projects and goals and deadlines!   How to approach non-writing writing tasks: Acknowledge them Accept