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title: "From the Desk of Jennie Nash: Creating a Writing Habit"
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Planning to write a novel in November? Check out the free and discounted offerings from our certified book coaches

| View in browser Welcome to the October newsletter from Jennie Nash! If you know someone who may enjoy any of the content in today's newsletter, please feel free to forward this email along. They can also sign up for Jennie's monthly newsletter here. Creating a Writing Habit + Resources for Writing a Novel in November   Hi there,   For anyone looking to get into the writing habit, to explore what they want to write about, and to figure out what fires them up, I recommend my friend Lisa Tener’s new book, The Joy of Writing Journal: Spark Your Creativity in 8 Minutes a Day. It’s such a cool book – filled with stories and prompts and links to videos. Plus, who doesn’t have 8 minutes a day??? What follows is a Q&A I did where I asked Lisa all the questions about this book.   This journal is so much more than just a space to write. It’s an invitation to create a writing practice; an interactive teaching tool; and a way to stay accountable for 30 days. For someone who is hoping to get started writing, or wanting to get back to writing, or wanting to get past blocks around their writing, it’s a perfect way in. Lisa Tener, my colleague and friend, is a highly skilled writing coach who is bringing years of experience and wisdom to these pages. I just love this journal and had the chance to ask Lisa some questions about it. Jennie: Why do suggest writing eight minutes a day for 30 days? What about that constraint is effective for sparking a writing practice? Lisa: I have about 30 things that I know would make me a better person if I did them every day but I don’t — and can’t — implement them all, every day. I do journal or write close to daily and it’s had a profound impact on my life and my work as a writer, author, and blogger. Since I upped my journaling practice to a more regular habit, I have become a much more productive writer. Why 8 minutes? We don’t have a lot of time but we can all find 8 minutes. The beauty of 8 minutes of journaling is that if we only have 8 minutes, we can still experience an impact. Yet, sitting down and journaling for 8 minutes can often lead to more, or lead us right into working on an ongoing or new writing project. It doesn’t take much to get big results. It takes consistency. Jennie: Who is your ideal reader for the journal? Lisa: When I began writing The Joy of Writing Journal: Spark Your Creativity in 8 Minutes a Day, I had writers in mind — and probably one of my avatars was me in college. Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg sparked my own creativity as I worked through the prompts with my friend Anita Killian at the now defunct but once iconic Café Pamploma in Cambridge. But the beauty of this book is that it can help you wherever you are in your writing and journaling journey. If you used to journal but don’t so much anymore, The Joy of Writing Journal can reignite that fire for you. If you never or rarely journaled this journal offers an easily accessible entry point. And if you love to journal but want to try something different—ta-da! I wrote it to help writers who are looking to solidify their commitment and writing habit, but also for writers who feel stuck or want a tool to generate new ideas or want to explore how journaling can fuel their other writing. Jennie: The book is SO interactive. There are tons of QR codes that take you to downloads, videos, meditations, and tips. It's almost like an app, really. How did you decide on the format? Lisa: My colleague, Tamara Monosoff, who is now also my publisher, has been helping authors make their books interactive with QR codes for many years now. In fact, with her own books, she was a pioneer in using QR codes in books and convinced her publisher at the time, McGraw Hill, to incorporate video in her books. So I’ve recommended to several clients that they work with Tamara to incorporate multi-media when it seemed a fitting feature. At my suggestion, Dr. Lisa Langer used QR codes to incorporate meditations and videos into her book Deeper Into Mindfulness, which has won two book awards, and singer-songwriter Carrie Rowan incorporated her songs into her book, Tell a New Story, using QR codes. After a particular conversation with Tamara, during a client’s book launch, I began to wonder about incorporating QR codes into the book I was working on at the time. The next morning, I woke up with the seeds of a new book, The Joy of Writing Journal, and wrote down the bones of it — thirty prompts — in two inspiration-packed hours. I spent the next few weeks identifying how each prompt might lend itself to interaction: a writing tip from me, an audio meditation to access the inner muse, a video of a favorite author reading an excerpt from her work (relating to the prompt), or a video of various writers — from New York Times bestselling authors to fresh-out-of-college aspiring authors — responding to the prompt. I dreamt up this book (that’s how it felt when I woke up with the idea) in the context of COVID, when many of us, and maybe especially writers who already work in a solitary manner, felt increasingly isolated. While it wasn’t a conscious thing, I believe my muse was at work finding a way to inspire people, give them an easy-peasy tool for creativity and help them feel connected to other writers during a challenging time. And for those writers feeling especially stuck, the videos and meditations offer a way to tap into other people’s enthusiasm or passion or insight to nourish their own. Jennie: How did you bring it to life? How did you produce it? Lisa: My publisher and designer is Tamara Monosoff. She’s amazing. When she sent over the first few mock-up cover designs to choose from, she truly captured the essence of the book. And she didn’t mind tweaking the details for perfection. Tamara is a very collaborative person to work with. Tamara gave me templates to keep track of the videos and QR codes and helped me organize, which is crucial for an ADD writer like me. She took care of all the background work, like putting the videos on my website, on individual pages, matching the links to a QR code, and putting the codes in the book in a beautiful, organic way so that they are an integral part of the design and feel of the book. The video creation added a new dimension of work and needed skill sets. So it truly took a village…Dan Thibeault of Fast Twitch Media edited the videos and created animation. Portland Helmich provided media coaching, produced, and directed the videos where I provide insights, teaching, or tips. My 14-year-old son Luke Patterson did some of the initial editing, connecting raw footage and adding “lower third” text to put things in a format more easily used by Dan. I mentioned that I struggle with organization. Producing close to thirty videos wasn’t easy because I had to schedule calls with thirty or more colleagues and friends to shoot video interviews with them on Zoom. Jennie: What was behind your decision to self-publish? You and I share this — we help writers land agents and Big 5 publishing deals, and yet we sometimes choose to self-publish our own work. Can you talk about your decision-making process? Lisa: Yes. I was working on another book which I’ll be returning to after launching this one! I had been wondering whether to go the traditional route or to self publish. When I had that conversation with Tamara, I asked her whether she’d ever go back to traditional publishing after self publishing and she was adamant, “No way. Definitely not.” She told me she loved having full artistic control over a project. And, for this project, with the QR codes being a central aspect, that control was crucial to me as well. As it turned out, I so loved working with Tamara and I could not imagine a more beautiful cover and inner design. I could easily see doing more books together.   It’s possible I’d work with a traditional publisher on another book if I felt they brought enough to the table, particularly in terms of reaching readers. I’d need to know that they share my vision and to sense that it’s a great match.   It would be project specific. With clients, I’m not automatically an advocate one way or the other. I look at the author, their vision, their goals, their platform, what they’d need to do in order to attract a publisher, and help them make a decision based on all of that.   Jennie: You have a real sense of positivity around the act of writing — you talk about noticing the surprising things that might happen during your writing time, and the gifts that you might bring to writing. It's so very positive. Where does that positivity come from?   Lisa: My mom. Whenever anything bad happened, she always looked for the good, the gift. I’m not a Pollyanna. And I can be pretty negative around certain hot button issues (so don’t get me started on certain corporations that will remain nameless, or environmental issues, or the media, or the polarizing state of our society). Maybe, like most people, I’m negative when I feel disempowered and more positive when I feel empowered. Creativity is the ultimate power. That and love. So talking about creativity—that’s just euphoric.    Jennie: There is a lot of memoir in this journal — stories about your grandma and your friends and places you love. Was that a new experience for you to share those kinds of stories?   Lisa: I sometimes refer to my “blog voice” in a derogatory way. It’s that advice-giving voice that forgets to tell stories. But stories make things real. So, I make some effort now to include more personal stories in my blog from time to time.   Originally, I used the blog voice. But a friend and colleague, Joshua Home Edwards, suggested I share more of myself. I think my friend, writing coach Tracy Hart, suggested that too. The stories added so much. Beta readers are so important. And it points to the truism that we often enhance our creative projects by inviting creative input from others. The book I was working on when The Joy of Writing Journal nudged its way into my consciousness is more story-oriented. I’d been immersed in sharing personal stories as a way to share the wisdom for creativity that comes out of life experiences.   So, yes, I don’t know that I’ll ever write a memoir, per se, but I believe that my personal experiences enrich my how-to books.    Thanks for sharing your journal and more on your writing process with us, Lisa! Lisa Tener is an award-winning book coach, creativity catalyst, and author of the book The Joy of Writing Journal: Spark Your Creativity in 8 Minutes a Day. Lisa has helped thousands of aspiring writers and authors access their creativity, find their voice and write and publish groundbreaking books through her coaching services and courses. Dozens of her clients have won prestigious book awards and/or signed five- and six- figure deals with major publishing houses. For over a decade, Lisa has served on the faculty of Harvard Medical School’s CME publishing course. Discover more about her private book coaching services and award-winning writing courses at LisaTener.com. Resources for Writing a Novel Book coaching brings strategic thinking to the creative process so that instead of trying to write a novel or a nonfiction book without a framework, a writer has someone to guide them through a system that supports them to do their best work.   At Author Accelerator, we teach our book coaches a variety of tools for helping writers — the primary one being the Blueprint method outlined in my new book, Blueprint for a Book. This book presents a 14-step method for understanding the foundation of a story before you start to write it. It's short and prescriptive — a powerful guide for anyone planning to fast draft a novel or memoir during National Novel Writing Month. If you do plan on writing a novel during the month of November, it's never too early to get inspired. Take a look at the upcoming offerings from some of our certified coaches below, and see if there is anything here that speaks to you. As you prepare, you may find that having a framework for support that goes simply beyond writing a lot of words during the month of November can make an enormous positive difference in your experience during the month and your output at the end of it.       Upcoming Offerings from Our Certified Coaches Workshops and Courses Jennie will be joining Author Accelerator founding coach Susan DeFreitas in a free online event on October 7th. It's part of a four-day series on harnessing the power of fiction to support a more just and verdant world. Register here! Not sure National Novel Writing Month is for you? Try NaNoPlanMo, a hybrid course offered by coach Robin Henry. The course begins November 1st! Join coach Michelle Cox for a live, online Story Mining for People in Recovery class on October 21st. Uncover your brave recovery story using Michelle's W.A.V.E.S.© journaling technique and explore how you could parlay one of those stories into the basis for something longer, such as a novel or memoir. On October 12th, coach Sara Gentry is leading a 90-minute workshop for mom writers called Character Core. Attendees will have time to write, meet fellow mom writers, and receive coaching in a small-group setting. Freebies and Writing Contests Coach Grace Pelley is giving an e-book to everyone who signs up for a free 30-minute consultation. She is also giving four books to the first six people who sign up for her coaching services! Sign up for certified book coach Julie Artz's latest email series, 12 Weeks to a NaNo win! Coach Christy Yaros is offering a free 8-week program for kidlit writers. Learn more here. Calling all horror writers! Want to warm up your pen before you dive into writing a book? Consider entering HorrorFest 2021, a writing contest held by coaches Mark Krepps and Elli Comeau. Entries accepted until November 1st, giving you the perfect head start to your horror WIP! Coach Stephanie Dehtlefs has created a handy free guide called 10 Questions to Ask Before Starting Your Novel. Downloading the guide also gives you access to twice-monthly free Q&A sessions for writers. Special Coaching Rates November "fast drafting" isn't just for novelists! Learn the dos and don'ts of fast drafting your memoir from a pro who has been there. Book an Ask Me Anything Consultation from coach Suzette Mullen in October and receive $50 off. Go into November knowing exactly which book you want to write with coach Terri Thayer! She's offering a November Impetus limited offer, using Focusing techniques to get to the heart of your book. Writers of Mystery, Thriller, Suspense, and Horror: Don't write yourself 50K words into a hole. Get clarity on how to go from zero words to a complete first draft and avoid hundreds of hours of editing frustration later with coach Samantha Skal's pre-writing novel planning package. Writing a contemporary novel in November? Make the first draft count with book coach Stephanie Dethlef's 6-week intensive Know Your Story Inside Out. Space is limited! Coach Christy Yaros is offering a discounted rate for her 25 and 50-page reviews. She is also offering live writing sessions in October and November. For authors of spooky Middle Grade books, coach Janet Fox will read and give feedback on your 500-word synopsis, plus guide you through drafting a 2-page outline in two weeks! Coach Katie Wall is offering a four-week coaching package to help you hone in on the heart of your story, decide who should be your protagonist, narrow down point of view, characters, and more. Mention Author Accelerator to receive 15% off! If you're considering a writing coach as you dive into writing a novel, check out coach Michelle Cox's Try Me Out Special! Happy Writing!   Author Accelerator, PO Box 7716, Newport Beach, CA 92658, United States Unsubscribe Manage preferences |
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