Ann Kroeker, Writing Coach

Louis L’Amour is attributed as saying, “Start writing, no matter what. The water does not flow until the faucet is turned on.”1 Sounds easy enough, but a lot of times we can’t even find the faucet. Or we find the faucet but fail to turn it on. Either way, we want to write, but no words flow. Is that you? Are you ready to begin writing but you don’t know where to start—you don’t know how to get the words to flow? I’ve got 10 options for you—ten faucets, if you will. I’ll bet one stands out more than the rest. Pick one. Try it. See if it gets those words flowing. 1. Start with a memory Think back to an event that seems small yet feels packed with emotion. You don’t have to fully understand it. Just remember it. Something changed due to that event. The change may have been subtle or seismic, but you emerged from it a different person.  The simple prompt “I remember” can get you started. Use it as a journal entry and see where it takes you, or go ahead and start writing something more substantial. When you reme

I was an English major with a creative writing emphasis. When I looked to my future, I saw myself writing. Over the years I managed to build a writing career, but as an English major, I wasn’t prepared for the business aspects of writing. Invoices, receipts, taxes? That was all foreign to me. Sharing my writing through speaking and social media? That’s not what I imagined when I launched my writing life. I thought I’d be…writing. But I had to understand and embrace the four key roles that lead to a flourishing writing career.  https://youtu.be/A2_iAAQm1Kk This is how I think of them: ✅ Decider ✅ Delegator ✅ Doer ✅ Declarer These four roles in a corporate setting might be something like: ➤ CEO The Decider is like the CEO, the Chief Executive Officer. That’s the top dog, the visionary, the decision-maker. ➤ COO The Delegator could be the COO, the Chief Operations Officer, the person who figures out how to run the business at a practical level. ➤ CWO The Doer could be the CWO, the Chief Writing Officer. Thi

If you're like me, you struggle to carve out time to write...you wish you could uncomplicate life and get more done. Good news! I have business coach and online business manager Kari Roberts on the show to help us think through simple systems that can unlock our writing productivity and creativity. "It's like you're on a treadmill," she says. "You're running in place, but you're not going anywhere. So you're not really getting anything done." Sound familiar? Kari knows our struggles and offers solutions. She says, "You might need to strategize or systematize other things so that you can make the space that you need to do the writing." Kari Roberts is a business coach and online business manager for creative small business owners. She helps them figure out time management and systems that allow them to grow their business while still having enough time and energy for work, business, and home life. Her business advice has been featured on VoyageATL Magazine, The Rising Tide Society, The Speak to

What if the stories we've been told about success are wrong? What if you could unlock secrets that shave years off your writing journey? In this interview, Ron Friedman demystifies the writing process and introduces a surprising path—a fast track, if you will. He says "it is the path by which so many writers and artists and inventors and entrepreneurs have succeeded." What's the path? Reverse engineering. To reverse engineer, we start with extraordinary projects and work backward to figure out how those writers pulled it off. "By comparing the ordinary against the extraordinary," Ron says, "we can't help but identify the elements that make extraordinary work succeed, and thereby improve our skills." With this book Decoding Greatness (June 2021), Ron hopes to offer "tools to not just execute at a higher level, but to embrace some of those dreams they've abandoned from, from their youth." Listen to our conversation for practical insights you can apply right away. When you hear

I watched the professor of my advanced poetry class open the lid of a metal box crammed with 3x5 cards. He wiggled out one of the worn cards covered with notes and held it up.  On this card was the title of one of his poems along with the date of the latest version. Below that he had written names of literary magazines where he’d submitted that poem, followed by their response. “One poem per card,” he said. He showed us how he tucked the card behind the month when he was supposed to hear back—a simple system to track and follow up with every submission.  He passed one of the cards around the room. I held it in my hand and studied the notes he’d scrawled on the front and back.  The Box There was no magic to his system. It was not fancy or expensive. Yet, he was a respected, prolific poet on campus for a semester, showing us how it’s done. When the last student finished looking at the sample card and handed it back to him, he slid it back in its spot.  I stared at that box. I was in a

About seven years ago, I partnered with Charity Singleton Craig to co-author On Being a Writer. While working on the draft, we often pulled up one of our shared Google Docs to review our drafts and notes in real time. In this way, we wove together our stories and experiences with relative ease. If we had a grade school report card at the end of the project, the teacher would have checked off “Plays nice with others.” Writing is most often a solitary act. But sometimes we get an opportunity to write with others. These occasions may involve brief connections or extended collaboration. Quite often, they're just plain fun. The Energy of the Inklings Have you heard of the Inklings? They met weekly for beer and conversation, according to Diane Glyer in an article at the official C. S. Lewis website. While they didn't officially collaborate, like Charity and I did on our book, their discussions affected the shape and direction of countless projects. Glyer writes in "C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkein, a

I listened to Allison Fallon’s The Power of Writing It Down while jogging through my neighborhood. Those weren’t my best runs, because I kept pulling out my phone to thumb-type a great quote before picking up the pace again. And yet they were fantastic runs, because Allison’s words inspired me to re-establish a daily journaling practice. On that first outing—with her voice in my ears—I listened through the first chapters and returned refreshed and motivated. Allison’s invitation to “unlock your brain and reimagine your life” spurred me to set a timer and launch the first 20-minute personal writing session I’d attempted in a long time. I continued the practice the following days and discovered I was indeed “getting limbic,” as Allison calls it—I was slipping past the nagging to-do list items and scheduled tasks to explore feelings, memories, and struggles. Nothing dramatic transpired (yet), but I’ve found myself diving deeper and opening up on the page, in private, before the day presses in. I’m not new to

[Ep 234] On this episode of the podcast, I hosted two novelists: Shawn Smucker and his wife, Maile Silva, for a literary discussion. Imagine you’re at a writing conference and we’re on stage to discuss the challenges they face as two writers at different points in the writing journey, living and working and raising a family together. How do they offer support and input? How do they find time to write? What are they proudest of? Shawn and Maile touch on topics like creative legacy, writing rejections, self-publishing versus traditional publishing, and being faithful to the work. Maile Silva and Shawn Smucker (used with permission) Shawn is an award-winning novelist by night and a collaborator and co-writer by day. He has an honors degree in English, and has been making a living as a writer for eleven years. Maile has an honors degree in English, has written three novels, and is currently in the querying process, so if that’s where you’re at, she knows your pain. She has raised six children in the last 17 y

When you seek traditional publishing for your nonfiction book, you don’t just write the book and send it off. Instead, you craft what’s called a book proposal—an essential business document expected by publishing professionals like agents and editors. With this document, you’re hoping to attract the attention and interest of industry gatekeepers so they’ll partner with you to publish your book. https://youtu.be/OqJNmiicPEQ (Watch, read, or listen—whatever works best!) Before the Book, the Book Proposal If you’re seeking traditional publishing for your nonfiction book, you do eventually have to write an entire manuscript. But before that, you have to land a book deal. To land a book deal, you need to attract agents and publishers to your project with a pitch that convinces them to request your proposal for review. A convincing pitch followed by a polished, professional book proposal will do the work of “selling” your book to these decision-makers. Its job is to convince these agents an

If one of your New Year’s resolutions is to write a book in the year ahead, you’re going to have to do several things. One of those things you’ll have to do is...some math. But don’t worry—I’ve got a calculator! We’ll do the math together to determine the number of words you need to write each day to complete your book in the year ahead. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised to find out that this number is within reach. You can pull this off. You can watch the video, listen with the podcast player above, or read the article. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mLvH9fJ7QUo Average Word Count for Trade Nonfiction Books The length of a typical trade nonfiction book can really vary: a memoir or biography can be quite long; a gift book, quite short. If you’re writing a typical trade nonfiction book, it might on average range between 45,000 and 55,000 words. This is arguable. You’ll find plenty of exceptions on either side of that range, and trends shift so that the average changes, but for the

[231] You're tackling a non-fiction book and you're making progress. You're doing research, you're writing, and now you're staring at all those ideas. Your book needs form. It needs organization. It needs...structure. But how do you land on the best structure? How do you create it, craft it, build it? While there's no one standard way to organize your material—there's no one way to structure your nonfiction book—I offer four approaches you can take to determine what will work best for your work in progress. To learn ways to structure your nonfiction book, you can read, watch, or listen. https://youtu.be/5ToyfQds11o Think about how different kinds of bridges are needed for different situations. To land on the best method of bridging a ravine or body of water, an engineer will study the surrounding landscape and obstacles to decide whether a drawbridge, suspension bridge, or arch bridge will work best. Just as an engineer needs to study the situation to address any given crossing

You're a writer, so you write. But do you read? Silly question, I know, because of course you read. A better question is how do you read? Do you read like a writer? There are ways writers can read that can be both inspiring and instructive, and that's what we're going to cover today, so you can see how reading, as Stephen King says, can serve as your  "creative center." As we learn to read like a writer, you might be a little afraid I'm going to ruin reading for you—that you'll no longer be able to read for pleasure, but don't worry. You'll still be able to read for fun and distraction. You can listen, read, or watch to learn more. https://youtu.be/cHaeAOVodaQ Read to Collect Ideas for Your Work If you want to read like a writer, you'll benefit from reading with an analytical eye, but before we get into that, the first way to read as a writer is to go ahead and read for inspiration and information, just like you always do.​ You need to understand a topic better, so you research and read about it. Y

You want to start out strong as a writer and succeed at your work. A lot of different strengths are at play to keep us at the keyboard or page, and the good news is—you may already have some of these strengths. If not, you can develop them over time. And some of them may surprise you. Let's look at five strengths you need to succeed as a writer: Today I'm trying something new, sharing this both in audio and video format. Let's hear from you: After you watch or listen, let me know in the comments what you see as your greatest writing strength—and if I've left off a critical writing strength, add to this list! Look, you can subscribe for free coaching!

[Ep 228] You have an idea for your next writing project. That's great! Before you get too far—before you write too much—you need to be sure this idea is going to fly with your audience. You need to validate it so you move forward with a concept that, depending on your purpose, will truly resonate, connect, teach, persuade, inform, or entertain. Let's look at three ways to validate project ideas: Validate “in house”: run it through personal filtersValidate through research: check what exists alreadyValidate through audience: ask, survey, and test the idea Validate “In House” The first method to validate is to run it through personal filters. Ask yourself if it fits with your brand, if it will serve your audience, and if it’s a fresh angle on your primary topics. This may take only a minute or two, but sometimes we rush past it in our excitement over an idea that captivates us. If we skip this step, we may create content that draws an audience uninterested in anything else we write

[Ep 227] Have you ever written a blog post and found it's growing too big and unwieldy? Or you set out to develop a book only to realize you don't have enough material to fill a 45K- or 50K-word manuscript?  If so, you're struggling with Goldilocks Syndrome: your idea is too big or too small for the project’s purpose and the way it’ll be published or shared with the world. You’re trying to cram everything you know about, say, computers into 800 to 1,000 words. You’ve got the makings of a book when you set out to write a blog post. How do you narrow it to a reasonable length? Or you’re trying to stretch the idea of cooking with crackers into a book-length project, but it’s not enough material. How do you broaden the concept to produce a compelling cookbook? What does it take to land on that just right length for your next writing project?  The 6 Right-Sizing Methods Test these six methods for narrowing—or broadening—your next writing idea and you’ll land on the perfect length, approach

[Ep 226] With my Back to Basics series, I'm providing tools you can apply to your next project in hopes it will make the writing process easier and the final product stronger than ever—so you can make an impact. Last time, we started by identifying a project's high-level elements—its Topic, Audience, Purpose, and Medium. After that, you can focus on the message of your project; that is, given your topic, what is this project’s IDEA. You’ve got your topic. It’s running, longevity, RV travel, cooking on a budget, stamp collecting, or social justice—whatever it is you write about. Maybe you’re known for this topic and it’s what your brand centers on, or maybe you’ve been assigned this by an editor. Regardless, you start with a topic, but you don’t stop there. You have to hone in on an idea: a narrowed idea suitable for this particular project and this particular audience. Your finalized idea will reflect the slant or angle you’re taking that will provide focus and set your project apart from

[Ep 225] You’re inspired. An idea seizes you and before the energy fizzles, you whip out a laptop, open a new document, and slam out words. Get it down fast—start writing and discover along the way what you want to say. I support this approach! Capture the core idea while your creativity sizzles—before your vision fades! At some point, however, you need to take a minute to be sure you know four key elements of this project or else your final product may miss the mark. For everything we write, we really do need to know: topic audience purpose medium Imagine if today’s article had been titled “Follow These 3 Rules to Organize and Optimize Your RV Kitchen.” You’d wonder if you clicked on the wrong link or cued up the wrong podcast. I do like RV travel and could probably write about it, but because this website provides writing input to readers, an RV article might suit the medium of a podcast that focused on RV owners, but it would not fit the topic, audience, or purpose of a writing coach podcas

[Ep 224] At the close of a brilliant blue-sky summer-warm April afternoon, a heavy thunderstorm swept across my state, pelting us with hail and hurtling branches across yards. We stared in awe at Zeus-explosive lightning strikes that flashed and boomed, backlighting trees that swayed like storm-tossed ship masts, nearly snapping. After a series of mighty cracks, the power went out and stayed out for eight hours. Cell service, too. During the strangest season of a lifetime, when staying informed and connected relies on a functioning Internet, we were completely cut off from the world for...we didn’t know how long. The storm felt even more ominous in total darkness. Wind gusts smacked limbs against the roof in haunting thumps and scrapes, like zombies clawing the shingles. We lit candles and sat in our family room, hoping the sliding glass door wouldn’t blow in and spew shards of glass across the room. We settled in but couldn’t rest. On high alert, we remained poised to head to the basement if we heard

[Ep 223] As I write this, a pandemic is spreading across the planet. I surely hope you and those you love are spared any sickness during this worldwide crisis. I’m stating this in part to document my day in the midst of these extraordinary circumstances. This is something we can do as writers: Document the days. Keep a Journal If You Can Record your story as it’s unfolding; capture and preserve—in real time, in your voice—what will become source material for future historians or for your own memoir. Dr. Shane Landrum wrote, in a series of tweets: Advice from a historian in the Boston area: Start keeping a journal today, ideally a hand written one if that’s within your ability. Write about what you’re seeing in the news, how yr friends are responding, what is closed in yr neighborhood or city or state or country. Save it...Sometimes you know you’re living through an event that will be in the history books very large...personal stories don’t make it into the history books unless people are writing them do

[Ep 222] My most effective year teaching high school composition was the one I began with poetry. From day one, I introduced literary devices through poems, inviting students to spot metaphor and simile, hyperbole and imagery, rhythm, rhyme, and repetition. With a focus on a single poem, we could zero in on just a few observations and they could use those as inspiration, even models, for their assignments. Later, armed with a range of literary tools and techniques, the students confidently integrated those into their prose. Their essays—even their research papers—showed they better understood how to lasso language to express their ideas. What’s more, they also readily spotted themes and ideas in the longer works we studied. They had more to say about the pieces we read. It’s as if poetry opened their minds to new ways of seeing the world, and in some cases, poets opened their minds to new ways of seeing themselves: students seemed to borrow words and phrases to express feelings and frustrations, disappo