In this episode of The Writing Coach podcast, writing coach Kevin Johns speaks with author and writing coach Brooke Adams Law.
Brooke Adams Law is an award-winning author and founder of the Writing Brave movement. Brooke helps creative, intuitive people claim their author identity so that they can start, finish and publish brave books.
Brooke’s debut novel Catchlight won the Fairfield Book Prize, was named a Best Indie Book of 2020 by Kirkus Reviews, and was featured on Good Morning America’s blog.
Through Writing Brave, she offers book coaching and publishing services for folks ready to get their dream books out of their heads and onto paper and give birth to their most empowered creative selves.
Listen now:
The Writing Coach Episode #205 Show Notes
You can visit Brooke’s website at www.wearewritingbrave.com and take her free quiz to discover YOUR writing routine personality type.
The Writing Coach Episode #205 Transcript
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Brooke, welcome to the show.
Oh, thanks so much for having me. I’m super psyched.
It’s always great to talk to another writing coach. It’s always interesting to see how people approach things differently and what sort of different modalities people bring to the job. So super excited to talk to with you today.
Likewise.
First off, tell me about your relationship with books. Was this something you loved since you were young?
Definitely, I was one of those kids who, like, I couldn’t wait to learn how to write my name. So this is before you could just had a computer you could print things out on. So my mom would spend, like, hours and hours dotting out letters, you know, my name, you know the street we lived on, and so I could just trace the letters. And she was like, Oh my gosh, so boring. And I was like, I’m a regular. You know, at four years old, I actually just found I was cleaning out a drawer at my parents house, and I found a certificate for a poetry contest I won in third grade, and I don’t think I’ve written any poetry since, but yeah, this is something I’ve loved reading since I was really little, and always wanted to be a writer since I can remember.
Is this something you pursued in your studies?
Yes. So I was an English major during undergrad, when I was in college, and then when I was like, right out of college, I started writing a novel, and I had a draft of it after like, maybe two years, and I was like, Wow, it’s so bad. Like, I was like, I know I could do better, but I have no idea how to do better, so I went and did a Master of Fine Arts degree in creative writing, and I don’t really recommend doing an MFA for most people, but for me, and at that time, I think that was really the path that I needed to take my writing seriously and to kind of really put an emphasis on honing my craft and all those pieces. And I think it really taught me I was working full time while I was doing that course, and it really taught me how to live like a writer, like I had to make time for my writing because I had deadlines and classes and all those things. And, yeah, it was something that I really pursued. And I don’t think it’s for everyone, but it did work for me.
Why wouldn’t you say it’s for everyone? And what were the aspects that did work for you?
Yeah, so I don’t think it’s for everyone, because I think my degree cost around $30,000 and I’m like, we just don’t, we just don’t need to. Most of us don’t need to incur that kind of debt. And I don’t think it’s something like where you go to medical school and you’re going to get hired at like six figures a year immediately afterwards. I mean, I have a lot of colleagues from my MFA program who are adjunct professors now, and I mean, they don’t, they don’t make a lot of money. It’s not a really high paying position. And so I think financially, for a lot of people, it’s, it’s not always the best investments. And I think for me, it was sort of like that was what I needed to take myself seriously as a writer, and to feel like I really learned enough to learn how to revise and how to write a novel and all those pieces. And I knew that for me, it wasn’t like I didn’t want to do an MFA just to go and get a professor position. I wanted to be to get an MFA so that I could be an author for my entire career. So for me, it was like, I want to write multiple books, like, I want this to be part of my life for the rest of my life, and so in that way, it made a lot of sense for me, and then I’ve been able to use it now to start my own business as a writing coach. But that took a long time also to figure out.
That first book that you were struggling with before the MFA, was that Catchlight, or was that a different manuscript?
Yes. So my first novel is called Catchlight, and it took me seven years to write it from start to all the way when it was done, done. So I first had the idea in 2007 I worked on it, like I said, for maybe two years, and then that’s what I worked on for basically my entire MFA. I started over. I remember, I went to my first workshop and I got feedback on the first chapter, and I was like, Okay, now we’re gonna start over from page one, and like, do this again. And it did. It took a long time, but I’m really, really proud of it. And yeah, it came out in 2020.
My master’s was in English Lit, and so, like you, I graduated and started writing my first novel. And do you know how long it took me?
Tell me.
Seven years. Sound familiar?
Oh, my gosh, we’re twins.
The thing I tell my clients is they’ll look they’re like Stephen King writes a book a year. Why aren’t I writing a book a year? And it’s like when you’re writing that first novel. You’re not just writing a novel, you’re writing a novel and learning how to write a novel. You’re doing two things at the same time, and it’s going to take longer. Yeah, for sure, for sure. So Catchlight was an award winning book. How did that feel to have your debut novel win the I think it was the Kirkus indie book of the year, and you got some USA Today attention. Was that anticipated? Were you shooting for the awards? How did that go?
I was not shooting for the awards at all. So it won something called the Fairfield Book Prize. And that prize is actually it’s only open to graduates of Fairfield University’s MFA, which is what I attended, but it’s like everyone who has ever gone through that program can enter so on the one hand, it’s like a smaller pool of people, but on the other hand, everyone has an MFA, and you know that they’re all like, really good writers. So I entered it in 2017 and did it like no attention at all. And I was like, okay, so then I queried 125 literary agents, and I got all notes, and I was like, Oh my gosh, maybe this is not going to be my first book that comes out, right? And it was really discouraging. And so I kind of put it in a drawer for a little while. I was working on some other things, and then I entered it into the contest again in 2019 having made absolutely zero changes. And it won. It won that contest. It won the award. And part of the prize was the book deal. And I was really gratified, because the judge for the prize was this guy called Phil klei, and he’s a National Book Award winner. And I was like, Oh my gosh, this guy had read one. Not only has he read my book, but he read my book and he chose it like to win. So I was just really, really proud of myself and the crazy story about the day that I found out, right? So it’s been like months, I think I found out that it was a finalist, but there were like, five finalists or something, and I was like, Oh, who knows. So I had my daughter, and nine days after she was born, I got a text from someone, and it was like, Hey, we emailed you a couple days ago, your book, one is a word. Can you please respond to our email? And I was like, Oh my gosh, I just had a baby. I have not been checking my email, but it was so exciting. I just like, and I started crying, and my husband came in, and he was like, what’s wrong? Is the baby okay? I was like, she’s fine. Oh, my book is gonna be published, right? It’s so exciting. Um, yes, and it was an indie it was one of the Curtis reviews named it a Best Indie book of the year. So I will just say there were 100 Best Indie books of the year, and I’m really proud of that, but it was not the best book. But, you know, in the in the top 100, which, which is still a big accomplishment. Hey, who says
Let’s dig into that query process for a minute, because I’m sure the people you work with, so like the people I work with, go through this query nightmare of endless rejections. What was that process like for you? Did you go into it with eyes wide open, or were you heartbroken throughout what allowed you to persevere to query number 102 let me know all about that journey. Yeah,
I love this. So I think for me, because I think there’s a lot of questions right now about rejection, how do we handle rejection? And like, if you’re not tough enough to handle it, does that mean you can’t be a writer and all those pieces? And I think it’s sort of a yes, and also, right? So I’m a really sensitive person, and so it was really hard to keep putting my book out and be like, Oh my gosh, all those people, nobody wants to read it, and then people would read it, and then be like, Oh, it’s not quite a good fit. Or, Oh, I have a similar book. Or, you know, it’s just I liked it, but I didn’t love it. You know, you hear a lot of that sort of lukewarm like, Okay, I don’t know what’s gonna happen, but I think for me, I was really confident that I had written the best book I possibly could, and whether that made it good enough to be published. I was like, I don’t know, but like, people that I trusted had read it and told me, this is a good book and it’s good enough to be published. So that was sort of what got me through, is like, I’m just gonna keep taking the next step. And when I hit 125 I felt really clearly, like I’m gonna take a break, like I’m that was that’s, that’s what I have in me. I’m kind of done. But then, like, some time went by and I started looking for other ways in, right? So I was querying small presses, I was looking at other contests, right? I was sort of like thinking about these different options. And the last piece that I will say is I actually have a course called published, and it’s all about publishing pathways, right? So it walks people through traditional publishing, self publishing, hybrid publishing, and I actually run a hybrid publishing press as part of my business. And so I’ll just say that for me, I was really clear that I wanted a traditional book deal and I didn’t want to Self Publish. And it’s a really good option, right? And it’s it’s something that I think some folks, especially maybe in the academic or MFA world, kind of look down on it still. And I think that’s honestly a load of crap, because I think we’re really lucky to live in a time where we have so many options of how to publish our work and different books and different books and different projects that I do, I really sort of think through like, do I want a different pathway for this specific book? And I think it really is book dependent, and sort of depends on your personality. But for me again, that first book, it was non negotiable. I wanted that traditional deal, and I did end up getting it right. I did publish through a small independent press in the end, but yeah, there is you do kind of need to have a little bit of that resilience to keep querying past, you know, 25, 3050, 100. You know, keep going absolutely
Jenny Nash from Author Accelerator, I took a course of hers once on querying, and she said with her clients, she has a rule, and the rule is you’re not allowed to complain at all until rejection number 50. She was like, one to 50 is just the process. Like, don’t complain to me. Don’t get upset. That’s the process. At 50, you can go, I’m a little frustrated. Yes,
I really like that, because otherwise it’s like you do 20, and you’re kind of whiny about it, and I don’t know people who have already published a book are like, come on. Like, yeah, that’s what it takes. So I really like that rule. I think I’ll adopt that and share that with other people. Well, I
I love your story about submitting to the same contest with the same manuscript and winning the second time, because so as I’m sure you know, so much of this process is just the right person at the right time, the right product. So many people view the query process as some sort of judgment on themselves as an author, but it’s really just, I don’t want to say it’s luck, but luck is a part of it, in terms of, like, finding that right agent at that right time when they have the right pile of things in their slash pile, and yours just happens to come through at that right moment.
Yes, it’s so true. And I think you see this. I mean, I just started a book club with two of my friends, and, like, we read the same book, and I love it and someone else hates it, right? It’s so clear when we’re readers like that, that’s allowed. Or you read some best seller and you’re like, This is not that good. Like, I get to pray and but you’re like, but other people are obsessed with it, right? So it really is really subjective. And I love what you said about kind of stopping your brain from making it mean that your book is bad, or you’re not meant to be a writer, all those things, right? It just means that you haven’t found the right person to represent it yet.
You obviously came at this as an author doing your MFA for your own writing. At what point did coaching get on your radar? Yeah,
This is kind of a funny story. So I worked in the nonprofit space for about 10 years, and I was at a point where I was really like, I wanted to do something different, and my husband had the job where we have to move around frequently, and I was like, I don’t have to keep finding a new job every time we move. I want something that can move with me. So I started studying and, like, researching different options, and I kind of tested two things at the same time. And one was copywriting, so writing like websites and marketing emails and things like that, and then the other one was writing for magazines, like magazine articles. And I started kind of pitching them both at the same time. And I was like, let me just see if any of these will gain traction. So the copywriting piece picked up really fast, like people that I knew were like, Oh my gosh, can you write my website? Can you do this? Can you write my blog different things? And I was doing that for a little while, and one of my business coaches said to me, like, you have an MFA and are about to publish a novel. Like, why are you copywriting other people’s blogs doing? And she was like, why are you teaching other people how to write books? And I was like, like, I’m allowed to do that. And she’s like, Yeah, like, you have a degree and a book. Like, yes, I think you’d be great at this. So the first thing that I ever did was something called the writing circle, and it was free hour on Monday mornings where we would get on Zoom and write together. And then people started being like, Well, can I hire you to read what I’ve written? And I was like, yes, you can, right? So, and I sort of just built it up from there. And my company is called Writing brave, and it is just the most fun. I love it so much. Well,
That idea of writing brave, where does that idea come from? And is that one of, kind of the key conceits of how you approach your teaching?
Definitely. I work with people who are writing both nonfiction and fiction, and I’m a fiction writer, and I really think there is a way to write brave and there’s a way to not write brave. And so there’s sort of two quick stories that I always tell about this. The first one is when I was writing Catchlight, I had the opportunity to be in a workshop with this author, Jacqueline machart, who was the first ever Oprah’s book club author back in like, the 90s. So she was a professor at my program. And I was like, Oh my gosh, she’s been on Oprah. Like, this is ridiculous, right? There were like, eight of us in the workshop, so everyone went around and was giving me feedback, and all the other students were like, This was so good. And I was, you know, feeling really good about myself. I’m like, Yeah, I’m getting better. Like I’m writing, you know, my writing’s getting better. And she just looked at me, and she was like, Listen, I’m like, Oh no. She just said, You’re, you’re a piece that you submitted. She said, It feels like this technically perfect piano player, like you’re hitting all the right notes, like you’re a really good writer. And she said, but it doesn’t have any soul in it, like, it’s like, I can’t feel you, like I just like, I see you doing things on the page, and stylistically, it’s really well written, but like, there’s no heart. And I was like, totally gutted. And I remember I talked to her later, and she was like, listen, like you’re protecting your characters from really feeling the emotion of the situation that you’ve put them in. You’re kind of holding back on what they would actually be thinking and feeling. And I thought about it, and I was like, Oh my God, she’s totally right. And so I went back to my draft, and I was like, okay, like, I’m gonna go all in, right? And the scenario of my book is a family dealing with their mother’s Alzheimer’s disease, and I had been kind of writing about it at this sort of surface level, right? And I really in the next draft, like, went in, and I was like, okay, like, I’m going to let them feel this devastation, and I’m going to let them make really bad decisions, and I’m going to let them, like, really screw up and, like, hurt each other and write all these things. And much later, when the book was coming out, I asked Jacqueline mincharge Do a blurb for it, and she just wrote me back, and she was like, it’s a really good book. Like you. She was like, you took that advice and you really wanted to ask yes, like, I did it, right? So that’s the one piece. And I think the second quick story is a couple years ago now, I got to be part of an anthology project, an anthology of essays. And I was, like, really excited. And there were a lot of, like, bigger name authors in there. And I was like, Oh my gosh, this is so cool. And I spent like, probably two months writing, I mean, it’s like, a 1200 word essay, and I spent months, like, trying to, you know, really go in and say something vulnerable and meaningful. And when I we had the big book launch party, and it was in Manhattan, in New York City, and I was like, Oh my gosh, this is the coolest thing in my life. And I went home, and I was reading through some of the other essays, and I was like, Oh my gosh. Like, these are really well written, but they’re not like, vulnerable, right? So they’re, they’re very, it was like, that sort like, a little bit more circle, very clever, very interesting, very well written. But I was like, Oh my gosh. And at first I was really embarrassed, like, Did I go too far? Did I did I go too deep for, like, what the situation was calling for? And I really thought about it, and I was like, This is what writing is for me. Is like going in that deep and really saying what I want to say and revealing myself on the page. And if that’s not welcome, then it’s not something that I want to be writing about anyway. And I ended up getting, like, good feedback from that essay, and people really resonated with it and but I was like, either way, I think that’s the most important thing about writing for me, is kind of writing brave and being vulnerable.
You use the example here of an essay, I assume you were digging into your own emotions in that essay, how do you translate that over into the world of fiction? How do you write brave? How do you write honestly about fictional characters that aren’t you and aren’t experiencing your emotions?
I think it’s like the example that I just shared about when I was working on Catchlight, just really letting my characters be messy on the page, like not be perfect, right? Have these really difficult emotions and experiences, right? One of my characters in Catchlight is an alcoholic, and I remember one of my professors read a chapter where he has a 12 year old son with his ex girlfriend. And so there’s a scene where he shows up and he was like, drunk the night before, and he shows up late to pick him up for the weekend, right? And it’s, you know, it’s really awkward. And my professor just said, Oh my gosh, like, I’m so worried about she’s like, I didn’t know he had a son, and, like, I’m so worried. And I was like, Oh my gosh, right. So then I made this decision where he he does something that harms his son because of his alcoholism, right? And before, I would not have been able to take that risk, right? But I was really like, this is, I think, what the character would do. And it was really painful for me, because I’m like, I’m writing this person. I like him. I don’t want him to make bad choices, but like, that’s what that’s what happens, like, that’s what real life is. So letting them be messy, I think, and really sort of plumbing, right, whatever the emotion is, right? If it’s shame or embarrassment or grief or anger, right? And some of those darker emotions, really kind of bringing them to the surface on the page is, I think, what it looks like in fiction.
I think that’s part of the maturation process as an author as well. On the opening page of my third novel, I have a character kill a cat, and I have a cat, or my had a cat. I love cats so much, right? And like, there’s no way I would have done that in my first book, right? But by by Book Three, I think I had the understanding like, these characters aren’t me. If I really want to bring these characters alive, they need to do things I would never do. They need to respond to things in a way I wouldn’t respond.
For sure. Yeah, one of my characters, um, cheats on someone they’re dating. My husband was reading it, and he was like, what? And I was like, I really felt like that’s what they would do in that situation. Like it just felt and, and I had other people tell me, like, they’re like, oh gosh, like that made it made sense to me, like I could see how they would do that. So it’s really interesting to kind of like, you said, like, put people in situations and have them make choices that you wouldn’t make, and it’s a bit risky, right? But I think it makes for interesting writing. So
That kind of writing, we’re digging even when writing about fictional characters, we’re digging into our own emotional experiences, or at least our own knowledge of human psychology. And so I often talked with my clients about how, like, the way a painter works with Canvas and paint, we work with emotions like that’s the form that we’re working in, but that can also be really emotionally grueling and draining, and can stir up traumas from the past, and there’s that whole managing your emotions while Working with emotions every single day, how do you approach supporting the writers you work with on that side of things?
Gosh, I love this question so much, and I actually talk a lot about this so a lot of my clients. So I, like I said, I work with a lot of fiction writers, but I also work with nonfiction writers who are writing, you know, often about traumas or things that happen to them that are, you know, really intense. And so a lot of what we talk about is sort of, I think there’s a few pieces, right? One is kind of the capacity to be with the emotion on the page, like you just described. And I teach a lot of Mind Body tools of how to gage how much capacity you have in a given moment, right? So one thing I talk to people about, and it sounds really basic, but I think it’s really important is like, Hey, don’t go into a really intense, emotional scene. If you have a client appointment in half an hour. Like, don’t do that to yourself, right? Don’t kind of put yourself in a position where you have to, like, pull yourself, like, Section yourself back out of something really intense and like, be present for something else that’s very demanding, right? So part of it, I think, is assessing what your capacity is like on a given day. And I think part of it, too is working with the emotion of the creative process, right? Because I always talk about like, some days you’re up, some days you’re down, some days you’re like, This is the best idea ever, and some days you’re like, this is never gonna work, right? So I think attending to both is really important, and making a lot of space for what is and not pushing yourself if you don’t have the capacity to write something really hard in a given day, like letting yourself veer off and do something a little bit lighter and come back to it when you have a little bit more capacity at a different time.
This idea of creative wounds is something you’ve spoken about before, and how this can lead to, actually, writer’s block and these challenges that writers come into or encounter. Can you tell us a little bit about this idea?
Yes, so this idea is, I kind of developed it, but it’s drawn from some of Julia Cameron’s work, particularly in The Artist’s Way. And, yeah, this idea of creative wounds, I define it as anytime you made something and it wasn’t received the way you had hoped, right? So those 125 agent rejections, right? Or the 50 right, like, however many you’ve had, like, making space for the fact, like, oh man, like that didn’t go the way I wanted it to, and sort of letting yourself feel all the way through the disappointment or the shame or the embarrassment or the sadness, right, or whatever it is. And those are things where, when we work, when I work with creative wounds, with my clients, we kind of go back in time, and people remember, like the picture they drew in second grade that their mom didn’t hang on the refrigerator for whatever reason, right? Or in high school, their English teacher told them they could never be a writer if everyone has a story like that, right? I just heard someone tell me that they wrote a dissertation for a PhD and put, like, months of effort. And the person was like, this is a bit shit, isn’t it? Like, this is pretty terrible. And they were just like, oh my gosh, this is like, a year of my life that I just spent like, pouring into this. You don’t even know me, and you’re going to criticize me, like, in this belittling way, right? So a lot of So, some of them come from kind of like, farther in the past or from schooling, but some of them are, like, very current, right? Like, so someone recently told me they they did a presentation for work, and it was really poorly received. And they were like, I put so much effort into this, like, I don’t understand why it didn’t go well, or they didn’t get a job that they interviewed for, that they really felt like they were good fit for, right? I actually tell a story of last year, I was invited to be on this, like, really big name podcast with someone who’s a big name in our industry. And I was so excited. And the person on on the day I was really sick, like, couldn’t talk, and they refused to reschedule me because it messed up their schedule too much. Now it’s just like, that’s so it was, like, so painful to me to be like, Oh my gosh. Like, you’re not good enough, you’re sick, you’re not good enough, with how it felt to me, right? And so just sort of like, I think sometimes we distance ourselves, of like, you know, I’m going to be professional, you know, carry on. But I think when we push away the emotion and don’t feel all the way through it, right, it kind of creates these scabs that turn into writer’s block later, right? Because it’s like, though, that voice kind of, you know, goes in the back of your mind, and if you don’t process it through, like, it’s always back there telling you lies, right? So, but I think if you let yourself feel the emotion from that wounding all the way to the end, right, it kind of releases a lot of its energy.
I’m very much a nuts and bolts writer. I always say, folks, I’m not very Woo. Never like, let’s find the Muse within. I’m always like, let’s use good craft fundamentals and let the views arrive in the doing. But I think you’re coming at things much more from this kind of discovery writer, intuitive writer side. So can you tell us a little bit about how to go about plotting if you’re not a planner, if you are more of a discovery writer? Yeah, I
love this. So I call myself an intuitive writer, and that means that I sort of, I am very Woo, and so I love that we’re having this conversation, because I think you can have good craft and also still be Woo and but, and also, but some people are not so whatever. If whoever you are listening, it’s like, you can kind of take what resonates for you. And I think that’s what’s so fun about writing, is you can be like, this works for me. This does not work for me, and you can kind of write, pick and choose. So in any case, I sort of practice, I call it like listening to my book, like I sort of have this sense that it already exists, and I can just almost channel what it wants to say through me. And so I used to get really frustrated, because if I try to plan my book too far ahead, I just sort of shuts down my process. Like, I just freeze up. And I was like, Oh my gosh. What’s wrong with me? Other people can, like, plan, like, so intricately, and I love reading books that are really intricately planned. And I’m always like, why can’t I do this? What’s wrong with me? But when I sort of embrace like, this is just not how my brain works and and then my process started working for me, right? So I will sort of listen to like, Okay, what? What characters coming through? Like, what are they about? Like, what? And I kind of move them around and like, what do they do? What do they want to say? Where are they going? And it’s through that process that I start understanding like, what do they want? What are they trying to get? Right? I can’t decide that ahead of time with my brain. It would be much more efficient if I could. But I sort of, like, move around and I’m like, okay, they’re here, they’re going here. They’re talking to this person. They’re having to fight with this person. But like, what are they what do they want? What are they trying to do? I sort of discover it as I go along, and then things come in over time that I could not have thought up in my brain, that I’m like, Oh, that’s not great. And I sort of like, see these interesting connections, and it’s sort of, it’s a slower process, but for me, it’s the only thing that works, right? So I always tell people, if you can plan and it works for you, like, please, like, carry on. Keep planning. But if you kind of make a plan, and then you show up to the page and your characters do something totally different, or you can’t write what you have planned, I think letting yourself kind of listen and move through it page by page, and not know everything ahead of time. If that works for you, like, let it be your process, and don’t feel like there’s something wrong with you because you can’t plan ahead.
I always say I am actually technique-agnostic with my clients. There is no like the Kevin Johns certified way, because I don’t believe there’s one way to do this that works for everyone. Everyone is so different, so unique, and every project is unique. So even if planning had worked for this project, it might not work for the next one, or if discovery right worked on that one, it might not work for this one. And so I see my role as just trying to let, like you just said, Let writers know there’s nothing wrong with you, no matter how you’re going about it, so long as you’re making progress, as long as you’re moving forward and hopefully having some fun doing so whatever works for you, I think it’s the way to go.
Yeah, for sure. I teach a six month mastermind every year, and we just finished, actually last week, so in June, and basically, like, my main job is people will come and be like, I’m having a great day, and I wrote so much, and it’s awesome. And I’m like, great. This is such a fun part of the process. And then they come the next week and they’re like, I haven’t written anything and everything is terrible. And I’m like, great. This is just part of the process, right? So it’s sort of just staying calm and being like, Yes, this is all part of it. And like, you can find your own way, and people do right, as long as they have space to figure it out. A coach
once said to me, Hey Kevin, welcome to the hard part. PS, it’s all the hard part. It’s all the hard part. Oh, my God, I just, I felt like that was so great for me, because it just made me realize, like, this stuff isn’t easy. You know, life never perfectly aligns. There’s gonna be struggles along the way. That’s life, and that’s art, and that’s writing, and so you’re gonna have those great days and you’re gonna have those bad days, and you just keep moving forward and you’re gonna get to where you want to go. Yes, I love that. Well, I think you have a quiz on your website that folks can take. Tell us a little bit about this quiz,
Yes, so this is actually dovetails perfectly with what we’re just talking about. So the quiz is called, discover your writing, routine, personality, and I was just doing a video about it the other day, because what I find is a lot of people who aren’t writing or who are who are stuck. It’s often because they have some rule in their head of what they think they have to do in order to be a writer, and it’s often something that just doesn’t work for them, like the advice to write every day, like, not everyone wants to or can write every day, the advice to write at least for an hour. Like, every day I’m like, I can’t do that. I have two little kids in a business, right? So, or even, like, just the piece about just how, yeah, how you show up to the page, right? So the I developed this quiz because people will have different personalities of how to make a routine work for them. And so you walk through, I think it’s five questions, and it’ll tell you what your routine personality type is, and then it gives you some specific things to start and stop doing. And also, each personality type has some pleasure boosters, or how to make your writing practice feel more fun. So people can find the quiz, it’s right on the homepage of my website, which is www.wearewritingbrave.com.
Fantastic, and I’ll include that link the show notes for this episode as well. Brooke, thank you so much for taking some time out of your day to join us on The Writing Coach podcast today.
This was so fun. Thank you.
