Writing Secrets

“How Do I Write About Other People’s Stories / Experiences with Integrity?”

July 1, 2026 by Lisa Tener Leave a Comment

The Conundrum

In “Get Your Writing Done” last week, a lively discussion ensued about writing other people’s stories, such as in anecdotes, in our work. Can we write about other people’s experiences with integrity? Are there some “power issues” that come into play when we do so? Is it taking advantage of people? Here’s much of what we discussed, along with some of the solutions and experiments we came up with.

It began with the last ten minutes of class, when we often have one writer read an excerpt they would like feedback on. Colleen Wahl, a professor of dance and somatic educator/coach (and author of the textbook, Laban/Barenieff Movement Studies) read an intriguing anecdote, filled with curiosity and metaphor. After the feedback, she raised an interesting question/concern, which we discussed. In writing up the discussion for the Get Your Writing Done community, I realized that this concern might be relevant to you as a reader of my blog, as well.

In response to a suggestion that she include her students more in the description of her experience, Colleen said she’s tired of just telling her own stories, but she’s concerned about sounding like “the expert” when it comes to people’s somatic experiences. Many people in her field write that way—and some make a lot of money off other people’s stories. That doesn’t feel right to her.

“I don’t want to seem like I have some great secrets—such as ‘I’ve healed someone.’ These are ideas we all have access to. It’s so common in my field to write about other people as if you have the secret to life and have helped someone in such a profound way. I think there’s a way I can do it honestly, and I need to find that way.”

Permission: Grappling with Telling People’s Stories—or Not—and Integrity Concerns about Anecdotes

I reflected that, in my experience with her writing, Colleen approaches the page with curiosity and awe—qualities that come across and do not sound like “I’m the expert.” I suggested she experiment; give it a try and ask yourself those questions (How do I do this in a way that’s authentic and in integrity?).

Kaye Michelle Pezzini, a yoga/meditation teacher and practitioner of energy medicine and mind-body therapies, whose book, Your Body Knows, is coming out in early 2027, offered an interesting suggestion. Her idea felt to me like it came straight from the story’s subject (which explored various aspects of her personality as embodied in her left and right hands): “Find out what part of you is objecting and what part isn’t?” Explore.

Author, somatic educator Colleen Wahl — Author, somatic educator and coach, Colleen Wahl

I also suggested that Colleen can create composites of students/clients so she isn’t actually taking someone’s full experience (and make that clear with a disclaimer at the beginning of the book). Another option is to ask permission to use someone’s story. If you get permission to use it (anonymously or not), then share with them what you wrote, and ask them to see if that reflects their experience and to feel free to clarify or change any aspects of it before you publish it.

Kaye shared that, “I felt uncomfortable sharing what gets told to me in trust as well, but I wanted to illustrate to others what’s possible, so I changed their names and other identifying information and also asked their permission. All but one person loved to be included. One person said she was very private, so I turned part of that story into a composite with permission.”

Kaye also gave Colleen the feedback, “You come off humble and inspiring, not like a know-it-all. [When I read your work, I feel] like you’re figuring it out on the page with us. Some people have an ability to open the door a little wider for the rest of us. You are that person! By the way, I struggled with that too (Who am I to write this?).”

Time to Draw from the Pool of Stories and Experiences

Colleen’s conclusion: “I’m so tired of writing just my own stories. I witness so many interesting things in others. I think there’s a way I can do it.”

How about you? Are you including other people’s stories? If so, how are you bringing integrity to the process? If not, is it time to consider it (particularly if you are writing a self-help book, how-to or textbook, but even for narrative nonfiction, such as memoir)?

Do you have any additional thoughts or ideas to add to the discussion? If so, please share in the comments below.

Writing Exercise: What We Truly Want Our Readers to Experience

April 21, 2026 by Lisa Tener 2 Comments

A profound writing exercise

I just began year two of my poetry mentorship with Nadia Colburn. And something interesting happened when I practiced the writing exercise in our homework. I think it can be an equally powerful exercise for my readers who are writing memoirs, self-help books, business books, fiction, essays, articles…anything! I invite you to read about my experience and then try this writing exercise on your own!

Choosing authors

Part I of the assignment: Choose three authors (in my case, poets) to spend time with over the next year. Read many—or all—of their books. Place the books where you can easily pick them up—the kitchen table, your desk, by your bed (you should see my piles in these three places (and on the floor of my office, as well!). The only spots I haven’t placed books are our minuscule kitchen (no table) and the bathrooms.

I chose Ross Gay, Rumi and Billy Collins. I considered Mary Oliver, but I’d recently read a fair amount of her work and felt like going back to something else. I did wonder why I chose all males and judged myself a bit as a bad feminist. I also judged myself for not wanting to return to Mary so soon. It’s that Aries temperament that wants to move on to something new (in this case, old-new, but still).

Yet I stuck with my choices. And then I thought of my beloved e. e. cummings. I might have to add him to the stacks of poetry books.

Choosing specific writing to learn from (3 poems, an essay, a chapter…)

Part II of the assignment: Write out three poems by hand (if your genre isn’t poetry, consider three pages, or one chapter, or three anecdotes or scenes, or a full article or essay).

As simple as it sounds, I have terrible handwriting and do not enjoy the act of writing unless I am writing a poem of my own (i.e., taking dictation from the cosmos). But it was time. I’d committed.

Who would be the lucky poet?

Rumi? Nah. Not quite in the mood for ecstasy!
Billy? Nah, I don’t have his short poems on me and if I were to choose, that’s what I’d pick, because…Aries.
Ross? Maybe…

But yesterday, during our final class in a year-long study of “The Way of Virtue” — Qigong Master Robert Peng‘s most recent course offering, an experiential and practical way of understanding the Tao through meditation, visualization, sound, and the six-organ systems of the body, the cycles of organ function and nature…I could go on, but this is becoming a long sentence—Robert shared two readings from the Tao Te Ching—the first poem and the twenty-fifth.

Last night, I grabbed one of my copies of the Tao Te Ching (or Dao De Jing in more recent Mandarin spelling) for bedtime reading. I started with the two poems Robert had read in class and drifted into the darkness of sleep with these immortal words:

Poem 1

The Tao Te Ching
by Lao Tzu
Translated by Stephen Mitchell, 1988
1
The tao that can be told
is not the eternal Tao.
The name that can be named
is not the eternal Name.
The unnamable is the eternally real.
Naming is the origin
of all particular things.
Free from desire, you realize the mystery.
Caught in desire, you see only the manifestations.
Yet mystery and manifestations
arise from the same source.
This source is called darkness.
Darkness within darkness.
The gateway to all understanding.

Writing the poem by hand in full—first “try.”

This morning, as I deliberated about which poet and poems to choose for my writing exercise, my thoughts returned to the Tao Te Ching. I felt a certain excitement as I retrieved my copy of Stephen Mitchell’s translation from my bedroom and returned to my office to write. I not-so-painstakingly wrote the first poem by hand. I observed some of my usual challenges—rushing the handwriting, an overactive mind running off into the future. I returned to the present and read the words again.

I knew that by thinking about something else, though related, I’d run away from the present moment. So I rewrote the poem again, by hand, again, this time staying focused, not allowing my monkey mind to hijack the present moment.

Well, that was my intention!

Two lines in, I lost focus, crossed out my writing and started again. This time, I would read the words aloud as I wrote to help me stay with the words.

Again, I wrote. This time I recognized promptly when I began to drift; I returned to the poem.

As I spoke the words while writing, the poem became alive in me.

I could feel the meaning of the words, not just in my head.

In my body, I experienced something deeper than the words. Like a primordial sound, resonating and informing my cells and organs of a deeper meaning that cannot be known by the words, the naming alone.

Ah.

Ahhh.

Kind of what the poem was actually talking about!

Mind blown.

Writing exercise—just for fun

I wondered what it might be like to sing the poem I’d just “copied.”

I’d love to tell you I became enlightened, but it felt more like a distraction. I tried it a few times, with varied “melodies,” if you can call them that.

By the third round, I read one line in my head, then closed my eyes and sang it. I wouldn’t say I didn’t gain anything from it, but the process of writing by hand was more profound. Still, try it with a poem of your own choosing and see what happens.

I’m thinking I might also try the practice by dancing and singing or saying the lines.

And I might do it outdoors in nature rather than in my extremely messy office.

I do wonder whether incorporating these practices—singing, movement and nature—into our own work might yield interesting results. Lao Tzu’s work is unlikely to be improved upon, but our own work might benefit from different ways of experiencing it in our minds and bodies.

If you try that, I’d love to hear your results. I promise to share any results I get when I return to revising my poems (right now I’m immersed in organizing my chosen poems into a book that has some order to it–a starting point, a journey, a place to look back on the journey (ending doesn’t seem quite right here).

Insights from the writing practice

It struck me that what happened when I wrote Lao Tzu’s poetry by hand is what I am attempting with my own poems—to offer readers an experience beyond the words and their meaning.

I intend for the syntax, rhythm, sounds, metaphors, movement and dance (if you will) to come together to give you, the reader, an experience that goes beyond words and everyday meaning.

I want my writing to uplift, to make whole, to heal, to envelop the reader in love, wisdom and vitality (the three treasures of Humanity Qi, as taught by my teacher).

In Qigong Healer Training with Robert Peng, I experienced how our intention, supported by the Tao, invites the person experiencing healing to open to their body/mind/spirit’s inner wisdom. In my understanding, in the healer role, we are not healing but offering a spark, if you will, that ignites the person’s innately intelligent Qi (life force energy). This is how they heal themselves.

So much of writing is like that—whether we are writing poetry, memoir, self-help, business, essay, etc. We invite our readers to experience something that goes beyond the words themselves.

And in that invitation, they go on their own journey of personal growth, insights, new understandings and new ways of viewing the world.

Some of the most effective books (or poems) don’t necessarily instill our views, beliefs or systems in our readers. Instead, they offer readers a jumping off point for their own insights, perspectives, habits and processes.

Your Turn

Please share your experiences, thoughts, ideas, questions, poetry—you name it—in the comments below!

By the way, Happy National Poetry Month! Here’s a very short poem I wrote last year, inspired by the very short poems in Musical Tables by Billy Collins.

How the Earth Breath Can Inspire and Support Your Writing

October 2, 2024 by Lisa Tener Leave a Comment

Last week, I delivered a keynote address for The Living Now Book Awards Ceremony: You’ve Won! Now Tap Your Creative Spark for Next Steps. Near the very start of my presentation, I shared “Earth Breath,” one of my favorite practices for creative flow.

I wanted to help participants relax, focus and feel energized so they could tap into their creativity as they considered how they want to reach readers, spread the word about their award-winning books, and create new opportunities for sharing their wisdom with the world. Earth Breath seemed perfect for that task!

Using the Elemental Breaths to Enhance Writing

I learned the Earth Breath almost three decades ago, when I lived in Boston. I’d been diagnosed with chronic fatigue, and in my search for healing, I came upon a system called “Polarity Therapy” that led me on a path to health and vitality. I became curious about how this “energy medicine” worked to heal me, and I began studying at the Polarity Institute under Doug Janssen in Watertown, MA, to understand the seemingly miraculous way it worked.

In Polarity Therapy training, we learned five types of elemental breath: Earth, Water, Fire, Air and Ether. The breaths are simple:

Earth: Inhale through the nose; exhale through the nose.
Water: inhale through the nose; exhale through the mouth.
Fire: Inhale through the mouth; exhale through the nose (like a fire-breathing dragon!).
Air: Inhale through the mouth; exhale through the mouth.
Ether: inhale through nose and mouth; exhale through nose and mouth.

Interestingly, each breath helps you experience qualities related to the different elements. I found that they could be applied in exciting ways to experience useful attributes of a particular element when those qualities came in handy for writing and creative tasks: Air can lead to fanciful flight. Fire can help you get in touch with your passion or anger. Water breath is excellent for flow. And Earth breath grounds you.

How Earth Breath Can Support Your Writing

In today’s post, I’d like to share how Earth Breath, in particular, can support your writing and various writing tasks such as:

Foundational work like clarifying the scope and focus of your book or writing project.
Outlining.
Identifying examples or stories to make the material more concrete for readers.
Developing experiential exercises that help your reader embody and experience the teachings you share.
Helping you access the bodily sensations to describe a scene or anecdote.
Editing and excavating!

Along with the applications above, you can use the Earth Breath when you:

Feel too spacey to write and want to be more present in your writing.
Need to access sensory detail to bring it to life for your readers.
Are writing about earth-related topics – nature, earth, gardening, somatic practices.
Feel exhausted and wish to energize.
Are stressed and need to relax.

In Breathe. Write. Breathe.: 18 Energizing Practices to Spark Your Writing and Free Your Voice, I share several elemental breaths in audio and/or video recordings that guide you through the easy and simple breathing practices.

For Earth Breath, I made a video that helps you experience the qualities of Earth through both the breathing practice and a simple qigong practice for connecting with Earth Energy or “Earth Qi.”

Try It Out Now

Try Earth Breath now by practicing along with the video and writing afterward. See how Earth Breath affects your writing. Share any observations as a comment below or in a social media post linking to this post (and thank you for sharing!). If you have a copy of Breathe. Write. Breathe. you may want to try some Earth-related writing prompts in Chapter 10! Don’t have a copy yet? Get yours here. If you buy the digital version, you can access the prompts instantaneously!

What qualities do you think of when you think of Earth? How might these qualities help your writing and when might you use them? What did you experience with practicing the Earth Breath?

Writing Prompts Made Her Freeze

August 19, 2024 by Lisa Tener Leave a Comment

In a recent workshop, Pat asked me, “What if I freeze up when I’m given a writing prompt? They don’t help me at all. I just feel stuck. I prefer the blank page.”

Good news: There’s no Prompts Police.

When Writing Prompts Work

Many people love writing prompts. In my 20s and 30s, prompts were my thing. They got me past resistance and stuckness and into flow mode. Prompts gave me an easy starting place and often led me into unexpected territory. In my early 20s, Writing Down the Bones was my bible.

I still love a good writing prompt.

These days, though, I go through stages: I mostly draw inspiration from writing in a blank journal or using a detailed book outline. Yet, when I travel or know I’ll be places where I may need to wait, I keep a prompts journal in my car or bag so I can tap into creative flow anytime, anywhere.

Other Ways to Get Moving and Unblock

If, like Pat, prompts don’t work for you, don’t use ’em!

You may want to:

Outline.
Mind map.
Doodle and write.
Listen to music.
Visit your muse.
Use mindful movement and breathing practices in Breathe. Write. Breathe.

You don’t have to use prompts at all.

Ever.

Here’s a fun and easy movement practice from Qigong to stimulate creative flow:

Find Your Way

We all have our ways of tapping into creativity.

If someone tells you their way is THE way, walk the other way. There is no “the way.” There’s just what works for you at this moment. And in the next moment (which may be different).

So, be free. I was going to say, “I give you permission,” but that didn’t feel right. You need to permit yourself to do what makes your heart sing and feel free to ignore anyone else’s advice, including mine!

Rekindle Your Writing Dreams

March 1, 2023 by Lisa Tener 2 Comments

Perhaps you dream of writing a book. Or starting a blog. Or reading your poetry on your favorite radio station one day.

But today, it doesn’t feel like you’ll ever get there.

This post is for you if:

You’ve stopped writing altogether.
You write infrequently.
You write, but you just don’t feel inspired. Maybe you even hate what you wrote.
You’re not quite connecting to the original project. Something’s changed and it’s holding you back.

Revisit Your Writing Dream

When you started your book or blog or poetry or journaling, what did you dream would happen?

Did you envision your writing might change you and your life in some ways? How?
How did you envision your writing would affect your readers (if you envisioned a public project and not just writing for yourself?
What impact did you hope your writing might have on your community or the world?

Consider these dreams again. Perhaps they’ve changed a bit. Maybe you no longer want to write nonfiction but you want to return to a childhood love of poetry. Or maybe your audience is shifting from a broad audience to a more niche group of readers? Maybe your personal or business goals have changed. If so, it’s time to revisit your dream and revise!

Dream Deeper

Imagine you’ve completed the writing project and published it or read it publicly.

author speaking with book — Carrie Rowan’s book Tell a New Story led to training and speaking gigs where she sings on stage!

Where do you share it?
What does it feel like to publish or share your writing?
What do you imagine people saying afterward about how your book or other writing affected them?
What new activities do you find yourself enjoying since publishing your work?

Now go even deeper, close your eyes for five minutes and daydream about it. Then try one or more of these lists:

List five emotions you would like to feel when you publish or share your work. You can choose from this list of emotions.
List 5 activities or opportunities that your writing may open up for you.
List 5 places you might go to share your writing or teach the lessons in your book, etc.
List 5 people you’d love to be interviewed by.
List 5 wonderful things people might say to you about your writing.
If your old project isn’t doing it for you, list 5 new things you might write or write about.

Now pick a couple of these possible experiences and write about them as you imagine them in detail.

Are You Inspired Yet?

You can also reinvigorate your passion for writing by reading some of your previous work. Don’t judge but read rather for delight. Find words or phrases you enjoy. You may surprise yourself!

Once you feel re-inspired by your writing dreams, you may want to troubleshoot, to see if you need to change your thinking, your habits or your support network to stay connected to your writing dreams and to stay on track to realize those dreams.

Make Time

schedule time — Photo by Windows on Unsplash

The first thing to do is make time for writing. This may likely involve taking some things off your plate to make more time for writing.

You can also find time by going to bed a half hour earlier and waking up a half hour earlier to write.
Schedule writing time in your calendar and keep it sacred. Otherwise, it’s too easy for your day to come and go with no writing progress made.
Consider making writing a daily habit (or a 5-day-a-week habit).
Return to your writing dreams any time you find yourself drifting off course and neglecting the writing.
Find a way to be accountable: a writing accountability partner, a writing coach/editor or a writing community.

Fire Your Inner Saboteur

Almost all writers have experienced that inner critic that says, “You’re not good enough,” “No one will ever read this,” “Boring,” “Blah” or feel free to fill in your negative self-talk _______________________________________.

Thank the critic for its opinion and beg to differ. Some new replacement thoughts you can choose include, “I know I have this passion for a reason and I’m going to pursue it,” “I enjoy writing and I’m just going to see where it goes,” “I can write a crummy first draft and get feedback from beta readers or editors to improve it later,” “I remember when I won that poetry prize; I must have some skill,” “The more I write, the better my writing will get,” or, “I’m just going to experiment and have fun writing today; no pressure.”

Just Start Writing

Set an alarm with a commitment to start writing when it rings. Use your outline to find a place in the project you feel inspired to begin with today. Or use a prompts journal if you don’t have a specific project in mind. Journaling can serve as a gateway to new ideas or can spark creativity before diving into your bigger project.

You can time yourself and say, “I’ll just write for 15 minutes,” for example. Set a timer. When those 15 minutes are up, stretch a little, take a few deep breaths and then reset the time to write more. Small increments can make it feel easier.

Your Turn

What’s the best advice you’ve ever received when you felt stuck? Or what advice have you given yourself or others to get back in the flow of inspiration? Share your advice in a comment below.

How to Overcome 7 Common Writing Struggles & Setbacks

February 22, 2023 by Lisa Tener 2 Comments

It happens to everyone. You write and write and feel inspired and then boom.
Or thud.
You’re just not writing.
Maybe you avoid it.
Maybe you sit at your desk but nothing comes.
Or maybe you are writing but hate it. The passion has leaked out of you and you’re left with blah blah blah.

There’s hope.

How to Overcome the 7 Most Common Writing Struggles

Setback #1: You Just Can’t Make Time

time to write — Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash

Does this sound like you? You vaguely have this writing goal, but you don’t actually sit your butt in the chair to write.

Solutions: You need to get that butt in the chair. What can help? Reconnect with your passion and reasons for writing.

Then schedule the writing time into your calendar with specific dates, locations and times.

Too much on your plate? Unless you’re a wizard with magical powers to stretch time, you’ll need to clear some commitments off your plate or delegate so you can create the time and space for writing. This needs to come before scheduling time or you’re likely to just berate yourself over not making it.

Setback #2: Lack of Inspiration

You actually sit butt in said chair but nothing comes.

Solution: Do you have an outline or structure? With a strong outline, you don’t actually need to write things in order. Go where you feel most inspired and work from your outline.

If you still don’t feel inspired, try a writing prompt and use the prompt exercise as a gateway into a state of flow for your bigger writing project. Or maybe the prompt will even inspire a new project.

Setback #3: Feeling Overwhelmed

If you’re feeling overwhelmed, you’re in good company. The bigger the project, the more likely you are to feel overwhelmed at some point.

Solution: Break the work up into smaller phases or steps. (“Bird by Bird,” as Anne Lamott would say).

An outline helps here, too.

Setback #4 Feeling Lost

One type of overwhelm happens when you don’t have a sense of the structure or scope of your writing.

Solutions: At the risk of sounding like a broken record, a strong outline can help you overcome this lost feeling and get a sense of your bearings. Your outline may change. You may feel unsure of it. It doesn’t matter. Just work with it, or let it change. Just having an outline, no matter how dynamic it is, should help you feel more grounded.

If scope is the issue, consider whether your book is too ambitious in scope. Are you trying to capture more than one target market? If yes, that’s a no-no.

Consider, too, what your target market most needs and wants; trying to give them everything on the topic may not just make you feel lost, but it may overwhelm your readers as well. “Less is more” rings true! Save some of the details for a paid course or another next step your readers can take when they finish reading your book.

Setback #5: Hating What You Write

You put so much of yourself into your writing. When you hate what you write it can feel completely deflating. “Why am I even writing a book?” “My writing sucks.” Critical self-talk can be nasty. So just tell that voice to take a hike!

imagine a reader — Photo by Bryan Delgado on Unsplash

Solutions: One tip I love is to imagine writing to one reader in your target market. It could be a real person (your sister-in-law) or an imaginary avatar you’ve created in your mind. When you do that, the writing automatically becomes more intimate and specific. You may see a marked difference from that one change alone.

It’s also important to realize that your first (or second or third) draft is not the final product. You’ll be getting input from beta readers and an editor or two. So, if you’re on a first rough draft, give yourself permission to write something that stinks. You’ll make it amazing when you edit – and I have lots of editing advice to help you do that.

If you’re already in the editing stage, then read this article for 7 tips to make your writing tighter, or these 3 tips to make the writing more compelling.

Another option is to get into a playful mood. Consider the writing an experiment. Remain curious to see how it goes. No pressure, dude.

Setback #6: Self-doubt or Imposter Syndrome

Most writers experience some form of self-doubt from time to time (or even consistently).

Solution: The key is to let go of that critical voice – thank it for its opinion and move on. Remind yourself why you want to write. Get in touch with the transformation you’re making possible for your readers. When you take the emphasis off you and whether you’ll look bad (an ego and fear-based problem) and focus on the difference you want to make for your readers, you’ll find it easier to write.

If you question the value of what you’re writing about, remind yourself what knowledge, wisdom and skills you have that can help your readers.

If you’re worried about your writing skills (as opposed to your credentials for writing about this specific topic), remember that you can hire an editor to help you polish the writing later.

Setback #7: The Loneliness of Writing

It’s easy to downplay the loneliness of writing. We often think something along the lines of, “If I were truly a writer, I should be able to write any time, regardless of the circumstances.

The truth is that it can be hard to maintain momentum if it’s all up to you. Most people need more support than that (especially some of the most successful writers). Support can mean:

A writing coach
A writing course
A writing community: a group, which can be something informal on Facebook (such as my private (and free) Facebook Group or a group that meets consistently over zoom or in person)
Some other kind of writing program
Beta readers
A writing buddy/partner

I’d like to especially highlight my program, Get Your Writing Done, in case it’s a possible fit for you to uplevel your writing progress and complete a book or other project.

In Get Your Writing Done, you get:

#1 An Online Super-Inspiring Writing Group

One of the most important elements of success: a regular time and place to meet online and write
Guidance and a system for getting into a state of flow so that you write your most inspired work.
The support of the group energy and a committed guide (me!)
The opportunity to ask questions of a seasoned expert, share challenges, get help solving your biggest writing problems and more.

#2 My most effective resources for writing, self-editing, book writing (in particular) and publishing

Self Study classes to walk you through everything from a book concept and structure to completing a first draft (resources that normally cost $97 – $1297
Exclusive videos, audios and articles with my best advice plus tips and knowledge from industry insiders, including top literary agents, publishers and more.
Guidebooks for writing a book proposal, self-editing and more.

Find out more about Get Your Writing Done or email me to set up a call to see if this program is for you.

Why Her Creative Muse Kept Waking Her at 1 am!

November 30, 2020 by Lisa Tener 1 Comment

Stephanie Meyers hadn’t planned on a “meet your creative muse” meditation. In fact, we got on Zoom to shoot a quick video for my forthcoming book, The Joy of Writing Journal: Spark Your Creativity in 8 Minutes a Day.

After we shot the video, Stephanie confessed that she didn’t know what to do about a recent problem: her creative muse kept waking her at 1 am. I didn’t have an answer either. Usually, the inner muse wakes people when they haven’t been making time for their writing or creativity.

That wasn’t the case with Stephanie. In fact, she’d gone to her office on a Saturday to write her next chapter, undisturbed except for our video call.

The Pressure of Deadlines After Signing a Book Contract

After we had worked together on Stephanie’s book proposal last year, she signed with a literary agent and recently signed a book contract with New Harbinger Publications. She was now working away quite diligently on her chapters so as to meet her deadlines and her publisher’s expectations.

At a loss for why her creative muse kept disturbing her otherwise restful sleep, I suggested I lead her through the guided meditation I call, “Meet Your Muse.”

I guided Stephanie through the imaginary path in a meadow, into the woods and then a clearing with a little building within which her creative muse awaited.

“Ask your muse what it needs from you,” I suggested.

“Trust. Believing in myself. My muse says I’m wanting to please my publishing team and feeling like a little kid trying to please teachers by working in overdrive.

What the Creative Muse Needs

“My muse wants to me not to try so hard. To trust that my message is still available to me.

Creative Muse Gratitude journal — Your creative muse needs your gratitude

“As I think about it, I’ve fallen off the final step you taught us for creative flow—gratitude. I’m trying to get writing done. I need to resume writing with gratitude, not churning out batches. My muse says to stay with my purpose and the underlying reason I started on this journey.”

“My muse would appreciate respect, too. It’s waking me up in the night to prove that it’s working hard and helping me stay on top of my writing and the publisher’s expectations, while also letting me know that it wants its spirit to be honored in the process.”

How to Honor the Spirit of the Muse

“It’s eye opening to realize my muse just wants to be honored. The 1 a.m. wake ups were a sufficiently quiet time to get my attention, but consistently waking at that hour made me aggravated and perturbed.”

Creative muse wakes you up — Does your muse wake you up?

That’s when I prompted Stephanie to ask her creative muse how she could honor its spirit.

“My muse is trying to send me the message that it’s present, accounted for, okay.

“When it wakes me, I can make a sincere vow: ‘I see you! I know you’re here. We can rest now. We’ll join forces again in the morning.'”

“My muse says, when I signed the book deal, I prioritized deadlines and producing a product over my creative perspective and purpose. I feel a sense of relief, recommitting to feeling gratitude, embracing my creativity and honoring my muse whenever I write.”

Focus on Creative Gratitude

gratitude journal — Keeping a gratitude log

Stephanie created a daily gratitude log that she uses before and after writing. She said, “It helps me in so many ways! From finding my voice to collecting my energy and focusing so I can write with clarity. It gives me a boost of courage when I’m feeling vulnerable and helps me keep my commitments to myself, no matter how big or small.”

When her gratitude practice fell off, it impacted her writing. “I’m thankful you helped me revisit the muse exercise today because it led me to dust off my gratitude journal. It’s a fitting time of year to get back on track [with gratitude].”

How Will You Honor Your Creative Muse?

These questions may help you get back on track if you’ve been prioritizing productivity over creativity:

Are you pushing yourself to churn out chapters?
Are you honoring the spirit of your muse?
Do you remember to practice gratitude when you write?
What else helps you connect with your muse?

What can you commit to right now to honor your muse and welcome creative flow?

“Write From Your Magic”

May 29, 2020 by Lisa Tener 2 Comments

Book coach Lisa Tener — Photo: Paula Schonewald

I shared a post a few months ago about embodying your book, after my inner Muse had told me to, “Be your book,” and “Write from your magic.”

Here are some more musings about embodying the book, a rough excerpt from the book I am writing for you!

Your Book Breathes

See your book as alive, as a breathing being, radiant with life.

Ask it questions, preferences. Ask for support and advice from your book.

Trust it.

Love it.

Feed it.

Let your book answer this: If my book were alive, which it is, it would say ____________________________.

Whether you are writing a book, a blog post, a poem, an essay, a journal entry, a letter to the editor, a short story, a personal letter, or even an inspired email you can embody your book.

Your Book Speaks

book magic — Photo by Josh Hild on Unsplash

Look at me—I am so beautiful—a living, breathing part of you. I live in a library of possibility and I am changing, growing, becoming more and more me, as you write, ponder and edit. I am your Pinocchio—only, I won’t lie.

Breathe with me.

Stay with me.

Breathe your life into me.

Yes, I come from your heart and you fashion me from some alchemical mixture of heavenly orb and Earthly qi.

Let these energies connect in your heart. Breathe into me, your open book.

Watch me grow wings and fly away and return, bringing you the nectar of some sweet flower whose neck is too deep and narrow for you to travel without my butterfly-like antennae. I gather nectar for you and return.

Breathe it in.

Smell.

Taste.

Open.

I come from a magical place within you, deep as the flower’s neck and vast as the night sky with a splash of stars twinkling in the dark.

Write from your magic.

Yes, Write From Your Magic [bctt tweet=”Write From Your Magic” username=”LisaTener”]

write magic — Photo by Greg Rakozy on Unsplash

We write for many reasons:

to know ourselves
to heal
to change within
to connect with others
to teach
to change minds and hearts
to ignite a spark in someone
to make activists of our fellow humans
to succeed at work
to transform how we show up in the world
to change the world

In all our writing, whether a 200 page book or a three-line haiku, there is an alchemy possible when we allow our hearts and minds to open to those things we deeply know.

writing book magic — Photo by Brittany Bendabout on Unsplash

You may write stories and truths you have shared before in other forms, and share insights you know you know—and these are important. Yet, all of a sudden, even more powerful, your writing will take you into new territory, new words, new images, new language. It will take a surprising turn, tunnel underground, carry you to the mountaintop, or even leave you at the edge of a cliff.

The Alchemy is this astonishing mixture of what you knew you knew, what you didn’t know you knew, and what you know now that you had not known a moment ago. The Alchemy rests also in the words that come to you, the unexpected image that catches your breath.

Looking for more ways to engage your creativity? Here are 9 Ways to Connect with Your Creative Muse.

I hope you’ll join me for a chance to hear your book speak to you! Let’s do some creative warm ups to connect with our inner muse and then write together in community.
Join me for this free writing workshop:

Get Your Writing Done

June 4 at 3 pm ET, 12 noon PT

by Zoom

It’s free.

Choosing How to Tell a Story: A Conversation with Mitch Albom

November 13, 2019 by Lisa Tener 3 Comments

[bctt tweet=”Mitch Albom on How to Tell a Story #FindingChika” username=”LisaTener”]

When it comes to telling a story, whether fiction or memoir, Mitch Albom is one of the most effective writers I know of. If you’ve ever read anything by him, you’ll know why it thrilled me to interview Mitch for Jewish Rhode Island. Mitch’s books have such heart and soul.

Mitch’s new memoir Finding Chika is one of those rare books that you finish and know that you will be carrying the characters—in this case real people—around in your heart for life.

I had so many questions for Mitch about his new memoir, Finding Chika: an Earthquake and the Making of a Family that it wouldn’t all fit in one blog post! So, here on my site you’ll learn about the writing process of the author of the bestselling memoir of all time (Tuesdays with Morrie), an author who’s sold over 40 million books worldwide to date! Mitch shared details about his process for how to tell a story, discovering the starting place, finding the voice for a particular book, and the thinking behind his writing decisions.

You’ll find the rest of my interview—about Chika’s influence on Mitch’s life, the role of faith in his journey and how to “revel in the funny business” in the midst of life’s biggest challenges—at the Jewish Rhode Island website.

“Tell Me My Story.”

Lisa Tener: Chika asks you to, “Tell me my story.” And then you start talking to her like a child and she interrupts to ask you not to speak to her like a child. What happened in that moment when your voice shifted?

Mitch Albom: I figured, she’s really in heaven now, as I believe she is. Language isn’t a barrier anymore and I also wanted to be able to tell the reader the story and not the way you might tell a six or seven year old. It made sense to shift: If you really can understand everything I’m saying, I’ll speak like a grownup.

On Finding the Voice

Lisa Tener: And how did it develop to tell a story in three distinct voices, to Chika, to the reader in the reading present, and to the reader but going back in time?

Mitch Albom: I felt that there are three parts to making a family member – you, me and us, us being what happens when you and me come together. I thought, as I shift between perspectives, I would call it you, me or us.

Lisa Tener: It’s hard to pull off three distinct voices or points of view, from the same narrator. Yet it seems seamless in your hands. Did that take a lot of work to place things or figure out which of the three voices it was in?

Mitch Albom: It wasn’t difficult. I could shift around to perspective. When I though it worked better addressing her in second person, I would do it that way. When it felt more historical, I’d tell it in the first person.

It’s a rhythm thing—the rhythm of the book, the rhythm of conversation.

Lisa Tener: So, telling the story this way was intuitive, organic.

Mitch Albom: Exactly.

“How Do I Tell This Story?”

Lisa Tener: Chika helped you slow down and see the miraculous in the ordinary. How did that impact you as a writer?

Mitch Albom: Well, at this stage in my career, I sort of know how I want to tell a story and the different ways I have at my disposal to tell a story. It’s more about, “Which method am I going to choose for this particular story?”

So it was , “How do I tell this story? What tone I want to take. Do I want to use flashbacks?”

I’ve written about a lot of themes of this book in my other books, like Tuesdays with Morrie– life and even death. But writing about a child, how a child talks, how a child looks, how to describe her, impressions, how to get across to readers how she sounded…it’s easier to play a video.

It’s hard to write about cuteness. Hard to write about how a child sings without just hearing it. I had to work on my writing skills about how to get a child across to a reader.

“I Had to Get Personal About My Own Story.”

Lisa Tener: It seems Chika is the heroine of this story; yet she is also a muse. Would you say you have an experience of a muse when you write each book?

Mitch Albom: No. This was a very distinct book—a conversation between sort of a father and his daughter. Though we were not father and daughter, it’s the closest thing I can relate it to.

I had to get personal about my own story. The way a father speaks to his daughter is different from how he speaks to a business associate or a friend over dinner.

This was a unique voice I had to settle into, and then let the world in on our conversation.

Lisa Tener: Chika directs you to write the book to her—to tell her story to her. Did that make it easier or harder to write? Is that how you started or is that something that developed later?

Mitch Albom: No I foolishly dove right into it. As I wrote in the book, I made myself physically sick towards the end. I thought I was having a stroke at times but I felt so anxious about getting the story right, it was causing panic attacks.

[bctt tweet=”Meet Mitch (and Chika’s Indomitable Spirit) #FindingChika” username=”LisaTener”]

Lisa Tener: Readers, after reading Finding Chika, I think you’ll agree that Mitch got the story JUST RIGHT.

I’ve loved many of Mitch’s books—Tuesdays with Morrie and The 5 People You Meet in Heaven are two of my favorite books. Finding Chika tops the list!

Read the rest of the interview at Jewish Rhode Island for Mitch’s deep sharing about what he learned from Chika and the other children at Have Faith Haiti orphanage, the role of humility in accepting our limitations, coming to terms with the adversity children sometimes face, and the ways his experiences with Chika and the other children have informed his faith and opened his heart.

Join Mitch Albom on November 21 at Temple Beth-El, Providence, an event hosted by Reading with Robin’s Robin Kall Homonoff. General admission tickets are $40 per person and include a book; VIP tickets ($100) include noshes, meeting the author, and a copy of Finding Chika.

All proceeds from the event, as well as all of the author’s proceeds from sales of Finding Chika, go to the Have Faith Haiti Orphanage in Port-au-Prince. So, buying a few extra copies as gifts makes it the ultimate gift that keeps giving!

Buy Tickets Here.

About Mitch Albom

Mitch Albom is a bestselling author, screenwriter, playwright and nationally syndicated columnist. The author of five consecutive #1 New York Times bestsellers, his books have collectively sold more than forty million copies in forty-two languages worldwide. Tuesdays With Morrie, which spent four straight years atop the New York Times list, is now the bestselling memoir of all time. Four of Albom’s books, including Morrie, The Five People You Meet in Heaven, For One More Day, and Have a Little Faith, have been made into highly acclaimed TV movies for ABC. Oprah Winfrey produced Tuesdays With Morrie, which claimed four Emmy awards including a best actor nod for Jack Lemmon in the lead role. Albom has founded six charities in and around Detroit, including the first-ever twenty-four-hour medical clinic for homeless children in America, and also operates an orphanage in Port-Au-Prince, Haiti. Albom lives with his wife, Janine, in metropolitan Detroit.

How to Engage Modern Readers Through Voice, Style and Tone

July 30, 2019 by Lisa Tener 2 Comments

Voice, Style, Tone: these tools of the writer can help you engage the modern reader. Ignore recent changes in reading preferences and reader’s needs at your peril!

Less Time; Less Bandwidth

woman reading — Photo by iam Se7en on Unsplash

Modern readers are strapped for time. Authors of the 19th and 20th centuries had the luxury of readers who often liked to work hard to understand a work. Working the brain served as entertainment.

Nowadays, outside of academics, readers want you to make it easy for them. They have less time to read. They often multitask and don’t focus in the same way. And they’re used to being entertained. They also often want to experience something, rather than just be fed instructional information without context, nuance and integration.

Today’s tips will help you fine tune your voice, style and tone to support the modern reader, her habits and her needs.

[bctt tweet=”5 Style Tips to Make Your Writing Easy for Readers to Understand Quickly” username=”LisaTener”]

matthew-payne-unsplash
Pepper your writing with stories and examples that make information easy to grasp.
Forget the fancy vocabulary words unless they truly add important nuance to the meaning. Instead, opt for everyday words and simplicity.
Aim for one idea per sentence. Sentences that attempt to convey multiple ideas require too much parsing. Break up a long, involved sentence into multiple sentences for clarity and ease.
When you refer to “it” or “them” make sure that it’s clear what “it” refers to. If the most recent noun is something else, consider replacing “it” or “them” with something more specific.
Aim for shorter chapters and a shorter book. Generally, you’re more likely to attract modern readers with a 200 page book than a 500 page book!

Accessibility Means Tapping into More than Mental Learning

In a recent phone conversation with a client, I pointed out that her manuscript was largely instructional. She asked me, “What’s wrong with instructional?” Nothing. However, if a work is almost all instructional, it can wear the reader down. Pacing helps. Mix the instructional with the tips below.

[bctt tweet=”5 Ways to Help Readers Understand, Engage and Integrate” username=”LisaTener”]

Photo by Eye for Ebony on Unsplash
Stories help readers take in more information and integrate it.
Sensory detail helps bring the material to life.
Examples help readers apply abstract information more readily.
Exercises and journaling help readers “own” the information and apply it to their lives.
Features such as sidebars (for quotations or scientific research, for example), tip lists, images, cartoons, QR codes that connect to video when scanned, white space and other features help break up the text (and the mental energy to process it) and provide a more textured, varied experience that’s easier on the brain.

[bctt tweet=”Let’s Define Terms: Writing Voice, Style and Tone” username=”LisaTener”]

What do we mean be your writing voice?

Voice refers to the characteristics that come through your writing: your personality, the tone and style, how you engage your readers and more. Voice is not necessarily something we can always pin down and people experience voice differently and can harbor varied opinions about a writer’s voice. So, what follows is my take on voice.

You may write with an academic voice, which tends to have complex sentences, more abstract thoughts, passive voice and a preference to certain sentence structures.

Or you may write with a more conversational voice meant for a trade audience, with shorter sentences, more active verbs, and more varied sentence structures. A conversational voice can tend to have more humor or entertainment than an academic voice (though I am generalizing here).

What do we mean by your writing style?

elements of style — Picture from the New York Times

You convey style by:

Choice of words
Sentence structure
Metaphor, examples and other figurative language
How you set up, structure and arrange sentences, paragraphs, sections, chapters, etc.

Your style may tend to be descriptive, narrative, prescriptive, or persuasive. But style is more than that. It’s

You may be familiar with the classic book by Strunk and White, The Elements of Style. In this brief and engaging book, two brilliant writers offer their years of experience and sage advice, still applicable over 50 years later.

What do we mean by an author’s tone?

Tone is your attitude to the work, how you express yourself. Is it serious? Playful? Scientific? Intellectual? Nurturing?

How do you convey tone?

The words and phrases you choose
Viewpoint (Are you writing in first person? third person?)
Syntax (arrangement of words and phrases)
How formal or informal the language (Is it conversational? academic?)

In choosing a tone, consider your audience. Not sure who your readers are? Here’s how to choose and understand your audience.

Let’s Hear From You!

modern reader — Photo by Ali Yahya on Unsplash

Please share your comments and questions below:

What else do you observe about modern readers, their needs and preferences?
What tips do you have for using voice, style and tone to engage readers?
Anything I left out or that you’d like to add?

Special Sales: Think Creatively and Sell Your Book in Bulk!

August 14, 2018 by Lisa Tener 17 Comments

“I think this book is a great idea—a fun idea. I can already imagine which publishers would respond to it.”

My morning began on a conference call with my client and a literary agent who has sold several of my clients’ books to publishers, a colleague from Harvard Medical School’s publishing course.

The high-powered agent shared her vision for the book and we loved her ideas. They expanded the potential audience and built upon the fun-factor. And I especially liked that she nudged my client in an area of great potential—special sales.

Special Sales, Think Creatively

special sales how to meditate and why — Special sales gave this award winning book new life!

One of the agent’s requests was to get commitments now from organizations to purchase books in bulk (also called special sales). I had suggested this to my client at an earlier stage but she didn’t feel comfortable asking her contacts at the time. She also felt sure the nonprofit organizations she had close connections with, and whose conferences she spoke at, were in no position to order books in bulk as part of their budget.

As my client and I debriefed after the call, I realized we needed to think creatively. “How about so-and-so?” I suggested. Maybe he’d buy books for the organization.

A former relative-by-marriage, actor and activist had fallen in love with the idea of my client’s book and offered his support. As both the actor-activist and my client are supporters and volunteers for one of the organizations, I suggested she ask him if he would buy 500 copies of the book at a discount (usually 50%) and donate them to the nonprofit. The nonprofit could then either sell the books full price, gift them to donors, or find another creative fundraiser for the books (perhaps a fundraiser focused around the book theme (which they were already planning) with the book as a gift to anyone who purchased tickets to the event.

“I think he’d like this…”

What are Special Sales?

Special sales in the book publishing world means selling books outside of the traditional retail channels (bookstores and Amazon). Essentially, readers can find the book in places where they buy related items, rather than having to go to a book store looking, specifically for a book. A pregnancy book in a maternity store or a book on running in a sports store offer examples of special sales.

Special sales go way beyond retail stores, however. Corporations can gift your book to employees, clients, potential clients or specifically employees in a training program or seminar. Non-profit organizations may sell your book for a profit or give it to donors to thank and honor their contributions. Associations, hospitals, universities, schools, gift shops, museum stores, catalogs and libraries are all potential opportunities for special sales.

Think creatively. Would flowers.com package your book with a bouquet on Mother’s Day (or offer it for moms allergic to flowers)?

Zoos or museum gift shops that sell Behavioral Veterinarian Dr. Vint Virga’s The Soul of All Living Creatures, offer an excellent example of the targeted special sale, since many of his stories in the book are about zoo animals. What a perfect way to reach his target audience–the people who come to see those animals!

Mara Zimmerman convinced the airport bookstore in San Francisco that her independently published, multi-award-winning book, How to Meditate and Why, was a perfect fit for stressed travelers and now Compass Books ( in connection with Books Inc. ) carries her book in the San Francisco airport, terminals 2 and 3.

authority marketing, bulk sales — Adam Witty and Rusty Shelton offered bonuses to those who placed early bulk orders for Authority Marketing

While speaking at a conference, Adam Witty, co-author with Rusty Shelton of Authority Marketing, told the audience that anyone who pre-ordered 500 books or more would get a free Authority Marketing workshop from himself or Rusty for their company. Three people took advantage of the offer–that’s a minimum of 1,500 books. Rusty offers that, “The key was offering it for a limited time at a conference—it brought a sense of urgency right after a speech where the crowd was fired up.”

Says Rusty, “I suggest people have a bulk sales menu where each level of order has different “freebies” associated with the size of the order.” For example, you might offer a free webinar for those who order 25 or more books, a free consultation for 100 or more books and a free workshop, in person, for 500 or 1000 books or more.

[bctt tweet=”Why Publishers Love Special Sales ” username=”LisaTener”]

Imagine you are a publisher. It’s a tough business. Bookstores return books that don’t sell and you actually lose money on those books. It can take significant resources to acquire a customer, but you only make some percentage of the $20 or so cost of the book. Plus, bookstore sales are on the downswing.

Enter special sales. Here’s why publishers love special sales:

A Bigger Market: Special sales suddenly expands your market dramatically.
More Revenue: More books sold means more money for the publisher.
Acquisition Cost is Less: Special sales offer a focused way to bring in new customers and those customers are more likely to be repeat customers for second editions or other books the publisher brings out.
Decreased Production Costs: The more books the publisher knows they can sell, the more books they can print, saving money on cost per book by economies of scale.
Lower Returns: Remember that pesky problem of bookstore returns you read about earlier? Most non retail venues don’t return books. It’s not likely in their purchase agreements, nor is it something they would likely want to do.
Print to Order: Publishers can print based on the number of books ordered and don’t have to guess about sales in a bulk situation.

compass books special sales — Compass Books in the San Francisco Airport

And here’s why you should love special sales:

You can generally sell way more books in a few hours spent generating a special sale than you will in a multi-city visit to bookstores, a week of PR or days plugging away on social media (unless you have a crazy-big social media following).

Don’t Let Special Sales Intimidate You

People get intimidated when I suggest they line up bulk sales ahead of time. It’s uncomfortable asking people or organizations to commit to something that doesn’t yet exist. However, to publishers, it’s a huge vote of confidence that the book will earn back its advance and contribute to the publisher’s bottom line.

And special sales could be the issue that tips the scales in your favor and leads to a book deal–or even a larger advance from the publisher.

The story of my client shows that even if an organization doesn’t seem to have the resources to buy your book, you can find creative ways to make it happen through a third party devoted to your book’s mission and the mission of the organization in question.

One challenge I run into is that writers aren’t particularly comfortable asking for a commitment before it’s complete. Yet, agents and publishers want to see those commitments before making an offer.

In the case of my client this morning, I suggested she make it clear up front that the person has an easy out. “I have a request and want you to feel free to say, no.” This is a tip I learned in fundraising, back when I was executive director of Hospitality Homes. You need to feel completely comfortable with a no.

If you feel comfortable with “no” the person you ask will feel that level of comfort and the interaction should not be awkward. If you feel worried about asking, if you worry that they’ll say no, they will pick up on that fear and discomfort. One way to let go of the fear, particularly the first couple of times you ask, is just to give them permission to say no. It gives you permission for them to say no and for you to be okay with their no. Sigh of relief.

Once you ask a few times, you’ll find it much easier. Another trick? Blame your book coach. “Normally, I’d ask you this once the book is published, but I discovered that’s not how publishing works. We’re ready to send my book proposal off to agents and my book coach informed me that agents want to see bulk sales commitments in the proposal. Would you be open to looking at the proposal and considering a commitment up front?”

If you speak regularly to organizations or companies; volunteer on their behalf; play golf with the CEO; consult regularly to museums, hospitals or schools, this is a natural fit and a professionally wise request. If your book’s mission aligns with theirs, promoting, selling or gifting your book could be a big win for them. Is your brother racking his brain for the best birthday gift ever, or is your sister-in-law owe you one looking to pay back a favor? Present this opportunity to support you.

I know it can feel scary to make the ask, but I also know another adage from fundraising. If you don’t ask, you don’t get the gift.

You Can’t Fake Bulk Sales

Years ago, sometimes publishers got burned when an author claimed a commitment for special sales that never came through. That doesn’t happen now. If you claim a commitment to special sales, be prepared to have that written into your publishing contract (book deal). If the organization doesn’t come through and pony up, you’re responsible for the purchase of those books.

It’s okay. Take a deep breath. Just be honest in your proposal and up front with your potential bulk buyers. Ask for a commitment in writing if you’re not sure they truly are committed.

Focus on Your Personal Connections

Literary agent Jody Rein, co-author with Michael Larsen of How to Write a Book Proposal, 5th edition says,

“Pre-submission special sales commitments can enhance the value of a project, but they can also be hard to obtain, so focus on those places where you have real connections versus trying to build new relationships, especially with large, branded corporations like PetSmart or Home Depot. The major publishers have special sales departments that aggressively pursue such sales with the big chains or online retailers.
“Smaller presses don’t generally have the staff to pursue special sales, so any bulk orders you can bring to those houses will be welcome.
“If you have a strong personal connection to a small chain of local stores, or to a lesser-known trade organization or nonprofit, and can get a specific commitment to purchase a quantity of books in advance, go for it!”

Read more tips on how to write a book proposal. And here are 17 Steps to Get a Book Deal. Ask your questions as a comment below or share your experience with special sales. As always, I’m grateful for your comments and social shares!

Beta Readers: How to Find Them & Questions to Ask

February 27, 2018 by Lisa Tener 7 Comments

Book Coach Lisa Tener gives advice on beta readers — Book Coach Lisa Tener with today’s advice on Beta Readers

Beta readers, also known as pre-readers, are a writer’s best friend—or can be.

What are Beta Readers?

Beta readers are people who will read a sample chapter (or the whole book) and give you feedback, while you are in the writing or editing phases of your book.

When to Look for Beta Readers

Generally, you want to have a fairly strong draft to send to your readers. That way, you make the best use of their time and will get the most benefit. However, if you feel stuck and feel you need feedback before your chapter is polished, that’s fine. Perhaps you are in the early stages and trying to figure out what content to include or what tone to strike.

In that case, you may even want to meet with the beta reader to ask them questions. Another option is to have the pre-reader read out loud to you. That’s a good way to hear when the reader is not interpreting a sentence the way you intended— identifying the need for a comma, clarification or restructuring of a sentence, for example.

Who Makes a Good Pre-Reader?

baby beta reader — Not your average beta reader

Your most important beta readers are people in your target market. They will have a similar orientation to the majority of your readers and can most easily catch issues of tone, structure, confusion, what’s missing, etc. They understand your readers because they are them.

It can also be helpful to have a trusted colleague read and provide feedback on any professional issues. I’ve had clients say that their colleagues were very helpful in pointing out additional information that would enhance the book, for instance.

An editor is not a beta reader. Their job is as a professional who can edit your writing for style, clarity, punctuation, tone and plain old improving the writing. Editors can also teach you to write better.

It’s important to choose pre-readers who will give you constructive feedback. Obviously, someone who is just going to tell you how good your book is because they don’t want to hurt your feelings is not going to make a good beta reader. However, equally important is not to ask someone overly critical. They are likely to just make you feel badly and often the super-critic is not even terribly objective. Instead they are the master of the put-down. Stay away from these folks. You want constructive critique, not trauma!

Where to Find Beta Readers [bctt tweet=”Where to Find Beta Readers” username=”LisaTener”]

Clients, consistent readers of your blog (especially those who comment and engage frequently), friends of friends can all be beta readers. It is important to make sure you trust the person. After all, you are giving them unpublished work that you want them to keep confidential. If something feels a little off, trust your instincts. Don’t ever feel desperate.

Questions to Ask Your Readers

checklist for beta readers — Give your beta readers a checklist

You don’t want to overwhelm them, ask just a few questions. Start with something positive to set the tone.

I suggest giving readers one chapter at a time, maybe 2 if short, because people can get overwhelmed with a whole book and end up not giving you any feedback. If you know you can depend on a particular reader to read the whole book, that’s fine, too.

Here are questions to ask:

What do you like?
What do you want more of?
What’s missing?
Where do you get bored?
Where do you get confused?
Any feedback on the structure or way it’s organized?
Anything else you want me to know?

Feel free to shorten this list of questions if you want to keep it even simpler. If you have very specific questions you want to answer you can add them, but remember that if you have too many questions, you can overwhelm your readers.

Be sure to write a nice thank you note to beta readers and acknowledge them in the acknowledgements section of your book.

For additional tips to please your readers, read this post to help you Connect with Your Readers and Avoid These 3 Phrases That Push Readers Away.

Share your questions as a comment below! Also feel free to add suggestions or other comments.

How To Write A Great Book

February 4, 2018 by Lisa Tener 8 Comments

Someone asked me recently how to write a great book. She wondered, “Is there a formula?” Rather than a formula, I would suggest there are important guidelines to help you get started to write your book. Get clear on these before you get writing—or as soon as you are able—and you are more likely to write a great book! Here’s the most important thing to know:

Yes, You Can Write a Great Book!

I’m sure you want to write a book that makes an impact—inspires, supports, guides, creates positive change for readers. The kind of book readers share with friends, buy as gifts, and recommend on Facebook and Goodreads.

Most of my clients write books that powerfully transform some aspect of their readers’ lives. Here are just a few examples:

Consider the Nautilus Award-Winning book, The Soul of All Living Creatures, by Dr. Vint Virga. This great book offers stories about animals that open our hearts, minds and souls to the four legged creatures we share our planet with.
Success Without Stress: Simple Steps to Finding Calm for Women Business Owners became a finalist for two presitgious awards: 2017 Next Generation Indie Book Awards and 2017 New Generation Indie Book Award. This great book helps women business owners reach their goals calmly, amid the chaos of the entrepreneurial lifestyle.
On the Verge by Cara Bradley gives readers tools to make mindfulness a daily practice. It was recently featured on the Oprah Network with a four page reprint. Imagine how many people that book is impacting!
Arts Awareness, by Dr. Patricia Hoy shows how readers can apply the principles used in the arts to expand their everyday consciousness.
Full by Kimber Simpkins is also a Nautilus Award-Winner. Full offers readers a glimpse into how the author shifted her relationship with her body over time and overcame an eating disorder.
Feedback First won two Stevie Awards from the American Business Awards (For Best Business Book and Best Business E-Book). This gem by Huibert Jan Evekink and Steven Becker teaches team leaders and members to give and receive constructive feedback within multinational and multicultural teams, taking into account different cultures and the expectations of millenials, in particular.
The Creativity Cure, by Drs. Carrie and Alton Barron, offers a “Prescription for Happiness” and delivers!

Imagine the impact each of these books is having on their readers!

What about your book? You may wonder how to bring your wisdom and brilliance onto the page? How can you help your readers transform their lives?

How Do You Write a Great Book? What Are These Authors’ Secrets?

Writing a great book starts with a vision and a plan.

Before you ever write a word, get crystal clear on your vision for what you want readers to experience.

And to get clear about that, you need to identify who your readers are, and deeply understand what’s going on in their minds and hearts.

For instance, in Success Without Stress, Teri had a clear image of her reader: a business owner with a vision for how her business should be and where she wants her business to go, but who’s juggling so many priorities and projects, she constantly in a state of stress, unable to get out of crisis mode. The reader is a victim of her own success. And she desperately wants to change that.

Keeping that image in mind helped Teri write in a conversational, supportive and humorous voice that immediately captivates her readers and makes them open to the strategies she shares. She makes it feel doable—easy, even.

Sometimes identifying your reader is so obvious you miss it! Dr. Carrie Barron had a working title of I’m Creative But I Can’t Create. That title implies readers that they’re creative and who see creative blocks as their big problem. Yet, as Carrie spoke to me about her clients, it hit me that this was really her market—and a huge market—people who were depressed, anxious or unhappy.

That clarity led to a great title—The Creativity Cure. Knowing her readership and the “promise” offered in her title helped Carrie and her co-author write a great book.

This article on How to Clarify Target Market offers 9 Keys for Clarifying Your Readership.

Don’t Forget The Features

Features can make a book engaging, accessible and fun. They can also help readers benefit more deeply from the book’s material by making the reader’s experience more real or deep. To write a great book, the right features can be crucial.

Graphs or charts can help make the abstract more tangible, or can provide lots of information in an easy-to-access format.
Journaling prompts or exercises can help readers experience the work directly, perhaps even causing an inner shift in perception about something, or creating an aha moment.
Cartoons can add humor and make difficult material more palatable, enjoyable even.
Quotations can inspire.
Scientific information can be put in sidebars so that it’s there for those who want it, but others can skip the more technical parts.
Stories or anecdotes can make the material come alive with examples that readers can relate to.

In On the Verge, Cara Bradley offers an “At a Glance” summary of each mindfulness practice at the beginning of each chapter. Readers immediately learn the purpose and benefits of the practice addressed in that chapter, as well as a brief version of the “how-to” of it.

While you’re probably more accustomed to finding summaries at the end of a chapter, this excellent feature quickly inspires and motivates readers to dive into each chapter by providing an idea of the benefits they’ll get out of reading about and applying the practice. With a book that has a strong experiential element (exercises or practices), it’s important to make sure readers have the support to jump in and try things, rather than just read.

Next Step: Structure!

Then there’s how to structure and organize your book—another essential element to write a great book.

Teri settled on short chapters, knowing how frazzled and busy her readers were. And the book itself is short, just over 140 pages, and each page about 3/4 the size of a typical self-help book. Even visually, this book says,”You can do it!”

Cara spent lots of time working out her structure. At first, it was just too complicated and we agreed that it could easily overwhelm her readers, so we spent time simplifying. In this case, structure was something she came back to refine several times.

Even if you have a structure that changes, you will still save so much time by virtue of just having a structure.

When people start writing without a tentative structure in place, they often end up with quite a bit of material they can’t use and a harder time figuring out the structure when they do finally get to it.

You, Too, Can Write a Great Book: Starting with Clarity is Key!

Of course, writing a great book requires time spent editing and getting input from both readers (from your target market) and at least one seasoned editor.

However, when you get clear on vision, market, tone, features and structure BEFORE you start writing, you tend to write a great book—the right book—the one that matches your vision and goals. With that clarity and strong foundation, you also tend to write a book much more quickly, and a book that succeeds in resonating with your readers. Your book is more likely to have the impact you envision.

That’s why I often recommend that before someone even have a book concept consultation with me, they work through Quick Start to Kick-Start Your Book. Because this is the self-study book writing program that will bring you clarity on all those elements mentioned above. Plus, Quick Start provides the tips you need to make the time to write a great book, stick to it, stay accountable and get support.

I often hear from authors that working through Quick Start was one of the most powerful, practical and helpful steps in getting their book written and published:

“Quick Start saved me from writing the wrong book!”

“I thought I knew what my book was until I worked through Quick Start. Then I really knew my book!”

“I had already written a first draft and it was a mess. Quick Start helped me rethink the book and write a much better second draft.”

What Do I Get with the Quick Start to Kick-Start Your Book Self-Study Program?

You will receive:

A downloadable PDF or a physical spiral workbook—your choice!
Emails to support you in the program and you can time these emails to your preferred pace—daily, every other day or weekly
An Audio CD or MP3 to guide you through the crucial exercises of visioning and clarifying your book concept
The BONUS special report: Empowered Author: How to Avoid the 10 Worst Mistakes of New Authors
The BONUS special report: Writing Breakthrough: 5 Powerful Steps for Inspiration and Flow, which teaches you the same 5 steps I use in my popular Writing in the Zone Program.

And as questions come up, you can ask on my blog and get answers directly from me in a forum where the whole community benefits.

As incentive to get started on your book for summer, I am offering a FREE BONUS of the downloadable special report Secrets of Compelling Writing, which will help you self-edit your book for starters and make your writing come to life for your readers.

The downloadable Quick Start Program is just $97 and you can find out more and purchase it here.

How About a Consultation with Your Quick Start, Sir (or Ma’am)?

Once you complete the lessons and exercises in Quick Start, you may well wonder whether your Book Concept is the best it can be:

Will it resonate with readers?
Have you chosen the right audience?
Is it marketable?
Are there features that would make it fresher? More powerful?
Does the structure work or is there a better way to organize it?

I hear you. And I absolutely LOVE helping authors get clarity and take their book concept from good to great (or even from chaos to clarity)! Here are three options below:

Option 1: Purchase Quick Start on its own and receive The Secrets of Compelling Writing as a free bonus.

Option 2: Purchase Quick Start plus a full-hour Book Concept Consultation (you will receive preparation questionnaire that you and I will both use to prepare for our call and you will receive The Secrets of Compelling Writing as a free bonus). Use both links below:

Option 3: Purchase a 1.5 hour Book Concept Consultation plus preparation questionnaire. Get Quick Start (download version) free, as well as Secrets of Compelling Writing.

Note: This special offer is not widely available, so if you purchased with this link, please inform me by email to get your complimentary copy of Quick Start, which is normally $97 for the download version, and Secrets of Compelling Writing).

Questions? Feel free to email me.

What They Say

Dr. Jeffrey George recently purchased Quick Start to get started on his book.

Here’s what he said:

“Quick Start to KickStart Your Book helped me clarify my vision, set aside time for writing and develop a working title—all within a week. When I shared my title with Lisa she loved it and called it, ‘spot on.’

“Lisa’s down-to-earth style and supportive tone helped me immensely in getting started on a lifelong dream—to write a book.

“Lisa’s daily emails provided practical tips to guide an aspiring writer and Quick Start and the accompanying Meet Your Muse exercise offered the emotional support needed to overcome obstacles that have blocked me for years.”

– Dr. Jeffrey George

Here’s what Eileen Wilder, author of The Brave Body Method, Said About Her Single Book Concept Consultation

book author Eileen Wilder wrote a great book — Eileen Wilder Wrote a Great Book , Featured by Barnes & Noble and Got National Publicity

“When I hired Lisa Tener I was SO nervous… I didn’t really know what I was doing, but felt in my heart I really wanted to write a book.

a great book — Eileen’s book — featured by Barnes and Noble

“Through one coaching call, Lisa honed my book idea, gave me feedback on my title, and gave me the strategy for how to market my message. I self-published within the year, and then it got picked up by a publisher!

“Now I’m being booked for National Television Interviews and out-front placement in Barnes & Noble. Lisa’s advice was nothing but catalytic— she made my dream come true.”

– Eileen Wilder, author of The Brave Body Method

Next Steps to Write a Great Book: Strong Writing and Editing

Once you get clear on your book concept, you can write your book. Here are a few articles with writing tips. You may decide to bookmark this page for future reference and return here once you’ve settled on your book concept.

These articles will help you with the next steps of writing and then editing:

Writing Tips and Editing Advice: These tips will help you become a better writer and self-edit your work.

Each Chapter Better Than the Last: This article shares three great writing tips that Micaela Karlsen used in her book, A Plant Based Life, chosen

How to Find an Editor: Once you’ve written the whole book, or you feel you need feedback on one or more chapters before proceeding, it’s time to work with an editor. This article explains the different types of editing, as well as how to find an editor.

One step at a time. I don’t want to overwhelm you with instruction here. Perhaps you want to bookmark this page for next steps in the process of writing a great book.

Grappling with Your Book Concept and Other Writing Challenges

January 9, 2018 by Lisa Tener Leave a Comment

writing a book, book concept — Working on Teri’s book concept during her VIP Day.

I love this time of year. As I gear up for teaching my Bring Your Book to Life® Program, several early-bird registrants have had their first book concept consultation this week. Common themes emerge—perhaps some themes you are grappling with yourself:

“Who am I to write a book? Can I do this? Will anyone read it?”
“I’m not even sure what this book is. It feels so vague right now.”
“Who’s my target market? Moms? Business owners? I can’t decide.”
“I have so many ideas. What’s the right one?”
“How do I find my voice as a writer? How do I make this book stand out from everything else out there? Is there a way to find my essence as a writer?”

These are all great questions to be asking. And, yet, if you ask them from a place of fear, or wanting to control the process or a sense of rigidity, they will muddle everything. If you think there is one right answer and you need it now, you push the clarity away. If you ask from a place of openness and curiosity, of ease and gentleness, not needing an immediate answer, you draw the clarity to you.

You will get clear. Maybe not right way. You may need to play around, experiment, trust.

And then, it will come.

Book Writing Advice

Be relaxed. Stay open and curious.

So much of the time, we are in our heads when thinking about our books—overthinking. Our best writing comes from our hearts. I don’t mean fluffy or vague ooey-gooey writing. Just writing from a place where you embody your book, your stories, your teachings, your wisdom and knowledge.

You may want to practice walking in nature, running, qigong, tai chi, yoga, dance, lifting weights or meditation before writing. In that way, you tap into a more expansive sense of who you are and your connection to all that is. You can let go of the part of the mind that strives and embrace the part of you that exists in a state of flow.

Try it! And feel free to share any practices that help you get clarity. Or ask any questions you have about writing a book.

Finding Your Writing Voice by Taking Risks on the Page

May 22, 2017 by Lisa Tener 3 Comments

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rhea discovering her writing voice — Rhea at Machu Picchu

At 72, Rhea Atwood found herself in her comfortable California apartment feeling her bed was “too soft.”

“I decided to listen to my bed and waited a few days for it to tell me what to do about it.”

Rhea spent the next four years following in the footsteps of the French Huguenots across the globe, visiting 17 countries and 5 continents, and surfing on a number of couches through couchsurfing.

Previously a cautious risk taker, Rhea became, in her own words, intrepid. At times she had no money and no place to stay. Can you imagine? And yet she persisted.

Now, Rhea is writing a book about her experiences.

Although Rhea has written a walking guide and a book of historic photographs–Boston’s French Secrets and Upper Beacon Hill–her current project is her first foray into more narrative writing (the self-help memoir). With a change in genre comes the search to find her writing voice.

My advice? “Take risks on the page. In the same way you took risks by traveling alone at 72 through 76, not knowing where you’d stay or sometimes how you’d pay for it, you need to be adventurous on the page.”

How to Take Risks on the Page

Experiment with syntax: try super-short sentences or paragraphs in one chapter. Play with rhythm. Write a prose poem in one chapter. Or think jazz in Paris, African beats in Morocco.
Play with dialogue: try a whole chapter around dialogue.
Imagine: If you don’t remember how you felt or what you did, ask yourself, “What might I have felt?” You can always change it later, but this exercise can open the door to memory.
“Get Carnal” (Mary Karr‘s advice in The Art of Memoir): Keep asking yourself how something felt in your body, where in your body you felt it, how your body reacted to something, what you did with your body. These questions will help your readers experience the event along with you, as first hand.
Practice another point of view: The hotel concierge in Rome, the archivist in Transylvania, the stray dog in Nice.
Innovate around features: How about offering creative exercises, questions for reflection, sidebars, videos or cartoons?
Try on new forms: a prose poem in one chapter, a song in another.

These are experiments. Some–maybe many–of them will fail. Perhaps, miserably. Yet, in the experimenting, you will find your voice.

How Risky Should I Get?

I found myself in a related conversation just an hour later with another client, a therapist, who is about to speak with a publisher interested in his book. He admitted that he tried to retain a fairly neutral voice. After all, that’s his training.

He wondered though:

What if he didn’t hold back so much?
What if he put himself out there?
Was he doing the right thing by meeting his readers where he assumed they are?
Or should he be bolder, more vulnerable, share his spiritual orientation?
Would he alienate his readers if he shared his religious and spiritual side?

Would the more prescriptive book have broader appeal? Or should he share his deeper thoughts and experiences?

We agreed he would pick one chapter and experiment. He could always change it back. But if he never tried, he’d never know.

He can explore this question again with his acquisitions editor, once he signs a contract, but just playing with a chapter and seeing what happens is the perfect place to start, to take a risk, to see writing as a true adventure.

My Turn, Your Turn: Take Risks Together

Me in Bangkok taken with the world’s worst phone camera (Samsung J3)

In less than 48 hours I begin my second trip to Bangkok to teach another writing workshop and do some writing of my own.

Last trip was an adventure in spontaneity and trust. The same intention I brought to my travels opened up my writing. I tried things I’d never tried before. Some of it didn’t work at all. Other parts, I’m kind of excited about.

So this trip, I’m tempted to return to the places I visited. To look with more trained eyes. To go deeper. So I can write in more detail.

But I’m letting go of that.

Aside from the day I teach at NIDA Business School, I’m going to play, be open to adventure and see what happens in my travels and my writing.

I’m bringing several writing projects but planning on working on none or all or some. I don’t know. I may just journal.

I’m enjoying the sense of freedom of allowing myself to not know, to be open to infinite possibilities, to wait and see what draws my eye, my ear, my pen.

How about you? Any risks you feel inspired to take? Any adventures that helped you find your writing voice? Please share your comments.

The Most Powerful Personal Growth Tool Around

January 25, 2017 by Lisa Tener Leave a Comment

What’s the shortcut to personal growth?

Hint: Maybe it’s not exactly a shortcut.

Answer: Yes. You got it. Writing a book.

[bctt tweet=”How Writing a Book Changes You (for the Better) ” username=”LisaTener”]

One of the joys of being a book coach is seeing people’s lives expand, grow and deepen in remarkable ways as they journey from aspiring author to published author.

After writing and publishing her first book, Amy O’Brien, a Bring Your Book to Life® Program graduate admitted that, “Writing a book was something I thought was reserved for other people. I honestly didn’t believe I could do it.” Once Amy broke through her own doubts, she went on to write two books, Stuck with Mr. Wrong and Star in Your Own Life Story. You can imagine how exciting it was to see her inner writer—freed!

book photo author in bookstore — Victoria Dunckley finds her book on the shelf of her local bookstore.

Another Bring Your Book to Life® Program graduate, Victoria Dunckley, MD, confessed that she was terrified of being on TV. Yet, in service to her book and the good she knew she could accomplish with it (and with the hope of attracting a publisher) she overcame that fear and appeared on the Today Show as a mental health expert—twice! Now, Reset Your Child’s Brain is a reality, published by New World Library, and her work has influenced other bestselling authors, creating a movement around reducing screen time for kids.

Carol Lambert, MSW , author of Women with Controlling Partners, shares, “I ran the Boston Marathon at 42. Writing and publishing a book gave me a similar sense of empowerment, like, ‘What can I take on next?’ Both achievements make me hopeful that when I break down tasks and master them I can get to the finish line. That’s how I approached the marathon and approached my book.

“Since becoming an author, I continue to feel more and more confident in my professional life, and have greater ownership of what I know. I’m becoming the expert that people see me as. I had to grow into it and I’m still growing into it. ”

Writing and publishing Feedback First gave Huibert Evekink the confidence he needed to leave his job in a multinational company in order to start his own consulting business, something he’d contemplated for years. Less than four months after publishing, he is helping teams boost performance by improving communication skills. His clients come from both the private and public sector around the globe.

And you?

book rebuild your immune system — This book by Bring Your Book to Life® graduate Linda Mercer was just published!

When you write a book, you say “yes” to:

Your dreams.
Your abilities.
Your gifts.
Overcoming self doubt and old habits that hold you back.
Sharing your wisdom and experience.
Making a difference for more people.
Creative self expression.
Being a mentor.
Giving back.

I can promise you, this will require some stretching on your part. We all have some “ego-consciousness,” “stinking thinking,” and habits that keep us from playing as big as our potential.

We also all have a spark of genius—actually, a bright light. We all have access to creativity, inspiration, passion, wisdom, knowledge.

Every time you say yes to working on your book, you are saying yes to the light within. Every time you doubt yourself and let that stop you, you are giving into that voice of ego, inner-critic, saboteur.

It should be an easy choice, but it isn’t always. Is it?

Sometimes you need tools.

Ta-da.

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Another recent product of my Bring Your Book to Life®Program
Feel the Fear and Do it Anyway: It’s okay. Let that voice chatter away. Sit in your chair and write anyway.
Create Community: Surround yourself with people who are also committed to embracing their creative spark, perhaps even those writing a book!
Reach Out: Having a tough time? Connect with a trusted friend or colleague you know will be supportive.
Have a Plan: Schedule specific dates and times to write; plan with an accountability partner; join a book writing course or class (yes, I have one coming up!). A plan will help you write even when you don’t want to. It will give you structure and support to stay the course.
Spend Time in Sacred Space: Both sacred inner space and sacred environments will support the brilliant writer part of you. Spend time in nature, meditate, sit quietly in a church or temple or yoga class—any places that will inspire you. Remember, too, creating that quiet time and space can also crowd out the critic. I guess space behaves more like a gas than a vaccum in that way, but there’s my nerdy side showing up. I digress.

Back to You, Personal Growth and Writing Your Book

Bring Your Book to Life graduate® Kimber Simpkins at one of her first book signings. Shortly after, her book, Full, was picked up by a traditional publisher.

Personal growth may not be your number one reason for writing a book, but when you look back on the experience, it will be a very rewarding one.

Imagine it now. You hold your book in your hands. Someone says to you, “I always wanted to write a book.”

And you say, “Do it. It will change your life. For good.”

What are your reason for writing a book?

It’s not too late to explore my Bring Your Book to Life® Program for 2017. I only teach this book writing course once a year. You’ll find that support, accountability, momentum, plus guidance from a seasoned coach who loves helping aspiring authors discover the sparkle that makes their books distinct. And more. So much more. Read more more more about Bring Your Book to Life® here.

Update: My new program, Get Your Writing Done, occurs every week! Join us and learn how to get in a state of flow with ease and write your best stuff! Get the support and accountability you need to write a great book, finish and publish it!

Has writing a book changed you? Share your experience?

7 Quick Writing Tips (and Editing Advice) to Bring Your Words to Life

January 4, 2017 by Lisa Tener 14 Comments

Writing Tips from Real Life

Writing tips can help you transform ho-hum writing into a big Hallelujah! After I sent some feedback and writing tips to a client, I spent this morning editing her revised manuscript. I was thrilled to see the author’s writing improve so dramatically from one draft to the next.

writing coach Lisa Tener — Your Book Writing Coach

Eureka! Whatever I told her, I realized I should share with you today. Every writer loves to know what she (or he) can do better to improve her writing and make it sing. These writing tips can make a world of difference in your own revisions.

Today’s writing tips all focus on making the words leap out from the page and form a picture for your readers. Whether you are writing a how-to book, memoir or even a novel, you will truly draw your readers in if you paint a scene and share stories.

Sure, your book may have its abstract moments, but here we will focus on 7 writing tips that make your stories come to life—whether you are writing brief anecdotes that support your self-help tools or part of a larger narrative, such as a memoir.

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writing desk — Paint a scene from the get go, so your reader isn’t playing “catch up.”

Paint the scene at the beginning. Have you ever had the experience of reading a story and imagining the character in one place, only to find three paragraphs later that the room was dark, not light; the character was surrounded by people, not alone as you had thought; and that it took place in the car, not the office? Not only does such construction confuse your readers, it frustrates them and takes them out of the magical world you are creating (yes, even in a brief self-help anecdote!). Instead, picture the scene in your mind and make the essential details clear up front.

Be specific about placement: Don’t make your readers have to guess whether your sister stood above you, sat next to you or put her head in your lap as you spoke. You can clarify placement by the verbs you use (“she sat” “she stood”). You can also clarify it by picturing the scene in your mind very clearly and then writing. Don’t overdo this (“She used her right hand to reach for the object on her right.”). Keep it simple and sparse, yet clear.

Use specific verbs to imbue actions with emotion and motivational cues: “She went to the store.” – WEAK! “She walked to the store.” – BETTER. “She sprinted to the store.” – GOOD. “She dragged herself to the store.” EVEN CLEARER.

Let your readers draw the conclusions. Don’t you go telling me that he was nervous and she was nuts. Instead, have him do something that shows he’s nervous—a tic, a stutter, wiping the sweat from his hands. Have the dialogue show how nutty she can be. As a reader, I get to draw the conclusion of what the action means and now I’m engaged, rather than hearing some ho-hum account with the life sucked out of it.

Avoid overuse of adverbs. Swiftly, slowly, angrily—these are shorthand ways of conveying information without much life. Instead, tell me she sprinted or ran; that he shuffled; that she threw a vase.

Take the time to find the perfect word. In a first draft, feel free to be lazy and allow the words to flow quickly without weighing them. However, in your next draft, look for the places where you used a word more than once, or used a word that doesn’t feel as precise as you might like. Use a thesaurus and see if you can get at “le mot juste.”

Read aloud. Reading aloud always helps you hear what works and what needs work.

Writing vs. Editing

In an initial writing phase, it’s fine to keep this information in mind, but you can also let it go and just focus on getting your words on the page. Once you have a draft, use these 7 tips to edit that draft and make the writing more powerful, specifically painting a picture your readers can see, hear, smell, taste, feel and sense!

Here is more advice on how to tighten your writing. You may also hit a point when you’ve done what self-editing you can and it’s time to find an editor to take you further along that path. This post will help you hire an editor, know what to look for and what to ask them.

Your Bonus Writing Tip

Enjoy yourself. When you have fun writing and editing, your readers get to share in that fun. Write or edit outside (if it’s warm enough). Or write and revise somewhere cozy and inspiring. All the things you do to bring yourself into a light and happy space will bring light into the writing and reading experience—without your having to try. Your writing just naturally picks up your state of being.

One thing I do to get myself into a state of flow before working on my blog posts, articles and books is to journal. The Joy of Writing Journal: Spark Your Creativity in 8 Minutes a Day can help you get into a state where writing flows with ease. Check it out!

Do you have any writing tips or anything you recently did that improved your writing? Please share. Feel free to ask your questions below as well.

8 Blogging Tips to Reach Readers & Impress Publishers

July 25, 2016 by Lisa Tener 4 Comments

Tip: Blogging Can Help You Reach Readers & Lead to a Book Deal!

book writing coach Lisa Tener — Your Book Writing Coach

I’ve seen first hand what blogging can do for authors:

My clients have been approached by publishers and signed a book deal, because of their blog.
Several clients grew their following quickly—from almost no followers to a significant “platform” worthy of a book deal.
My website and many client sites now come up on page one of a Google search because of the relevant content in our blogs.

In my experience, blogging is often the easiest way to grow your author platform and develop the kind of following agents and publishers now require for a book deal.

Of course, it’s easy to waste one’s time writing a blog no one reads. This post will help you write a blog that takes off among your target readership.

Here are a few of the tips I give my clients, many of whom have leveraged their blogs for successful book deals

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niche audience for a blog: new moms — New moms would be considered a niche audience (and, yes, this photo is a few years old)!

Blogging Tip #1: Pick a Niche Audience. For your blog to support book sales, target your blog posts to the people who will buy and read your book. In addition to considering what your readers are looking for, think about specific age range, gender, interests, values and/or professions of your readers. Your tone, how technical or deep you go, and your examples should be appropriate to that target audience. Others will read your blog, too, but if you try to write for everyone, you’ll end up writing for no one!

Some bloggers have success combining more than one interest—food and writing, business and spirituality, yoga and cats. Such a dual approach can work to attract a niche readership, but it can also narrow your reach too much. You can lose many readers if they’re interested in your yoga posts but not your cat posts. If you have many interests, try to tie back in to the central interests of your readers.

Blogging Tip #2. Start Small and Experiment: You may have a longer term goal of blogging for a national news site or network. Starting with a blog on your own website allows you to experiment to see what readers respond to, what questions they have and what types of posts do well in terms of sharing and engagement. Starting with your own blog will also:

a) Develop content for your site, which helps your site be found in Google searches.

b) Make your site more valuable and useful to visitors who may likely stick around longer and get to know you.

c) Establish your writing ability and reliability for potential blogging sites . For reliability, post regularly, at least once every other week.

Blogging Tip #3: Think Big. After experimenting with your own blog, set a goal for one or two larger forums to approach:

A broad-based site, like the Huffington Post,
A more targeted site like WebMD (health information), Psychology Today (mental health information), or MindBodyGreen (wellness, alternative health and spirituality)
A niche site, specific to your target audience, such as Parenting (for parents), Autism Speaks (for parents and caregivers of children with autism) or The Yoga Blog (yoga).

Blogging Tip #4. Connect with Other Bloggers and Pay it Forward. If you want to eventually write for the Huffington Post, WebMD, Forbes or Psychology Today, read posts from bloggers in your field. Subscribe to their column to know when they post something new. Comment thoughtfully.

Spread the word about posts related to your expertise through social media. This way, you’ll:

a) Get a sense of the type of posts that blog picks up.

b) Become part of a blogger’s community and begin to develop a relationship.

c) Be recognized as a trusted voice in your area of expertise.

If you’re quick to comment on a blog post that goes viral, your comment (and accompanying link you share) may go viral as well. This happened to Dr. Victoria Dunckley when she commented on a Huffington Post article I sent her.

Quick Tips

Blogging Tip #5: Invite Blog Readers to Engage. Old fashioned news is static. Blog posts allow interactivity and can generate valuable discussion. Take advantage of the full power of blogging by inviting readers to engage in the discussion.

Invite your blog readers to share their experiences, posts their questions or offer their own opinions. In this way you develop a tribe—an engaged community—and your author platform.

Blogging Tip #6: Make Sharing Easy. Include social share buttons at the top and bottom of your post! Consider adding click to tweet to your blog posts!

Blogging Tip #7: Go Easy on the Eyes. Use images, white space, headers and short paragraphs to make it easy to read. Make sure your blog uses a responsive design—easy to read on any device.

Blogging Tip #8: Give Something Away. Offer a free report at the end of a post. This can help you stay in touch with readers. It will grow your mailing list (another author platform builder), as long as you require an email address and name to opt-in. For example, Download My Free Report: 5 Must Knows Before You Get Started on Your Book.

Your Turn

Bloggers: Please share the blogging tips and strategies that work for you. Detailed examples are welcome.
New Bloggers: What are your burning questions and biggest challenges?
Would-Be Bloggers: Not blogging? What’s holding you back? What do you need to move forward?

Writing a Compelling Self-Help Book: 3 Tricks You Can Borrow from Bestselling Novels

July 12, 2016 by Lisa Tener 1 Comment

You’re writing a self-help book. Is fiction relevant?

I believe so—and not just in order to justify my recent habit of staying up late reading beach novels. (Good ones, of course. The kind you can’t put down.)

Hear me out.

I’m still thinking about the characters, wondering how the plot will resolve in Beatriz Williams’ A Hundred Summers as I make my morning smoothie. The book stays with me. I want to get back to it and find out what happens next.

My friend, Robin Kall, introduced me to Williams’ novels through the Summer Reading with Robin author event at the Dunes Club last year (and again this year).

One reason Beatriz’ books are so compelling is her mastery of suspense. Both A Hundred Summers and the Along the Infinite Sea alternate between past and more recent past, two periods in time. As the more recent story unfolds, we get closer and closer to the distant past that has led us to the current situation.

So, how does this all apply to writing a self-help book? Here are 3 tips you can borrow from Beatriz Williams—or another adept novelist.

Get your readers to care. A novelist gets us to care by creating characters we relate to, characters who are both believable and vulnerable. You can get your readers to care by sharing stories of real life characters. Their stories take the information you share and bring it to life. The more of a picture you develop of the people in your anecdotes, the more your readers will connect and care. Another way to get readers to care, when you’re writing a self-help book, is to invite your readers to reflect on their pain or passion. Perhaps offer an exercise or journaling prompt where readers can explore why they want and need this self-help book—and what results they hope to achieve.
Be intimate. An academic tone keeps your readers at bay. Invite your readers in with a conversational tone and warmth. Imagine you are writing to one specific person (rather than a roomful of people) and your tone will naturally be more intimate.
Create suspense. You may wonder, “How do I create suspense with a self-help book?” Don’t give your readers everything at once. Teach step by step. Hint at what readers will discover later in the book. Lead up to the gifts of the final chapter. Not only will you create some suspense but your book will be better organized and more accessible. After all, readers can only digest so much information at once.

What are some of your favorite devices of a good novel? How might you employ them in writing a self-help book? I know I’ve only touched the tip of the trilogy. I invite you to think about additional secrets of novelists that you can engage to make your self-help book compelling—and share them here on the blog as a comment!

Connect with Your Readers and Avoid These 4 Phrases That Push Readers Away

June 10, 2016 by Lisa Tener 2 Comments

connect with your readers says Lisa Tener — Your Book Coach, Lisa Tener

When you connect with your readers, your readers feel more motivated, your book has more impact and you create loyal fans.

Yet, most of us have little idiosyncracies in our writing that can push readers away. The problem is that, if we are not aware of them, we can’t even see them to fix them.

In this post, I share four common ways authors push their readers away so you can check for them in your writing, particularly when editing—and repair the error—to connect with your readers instead. I see these errors all the time in people writing books, so don’t feel embarrassed if you make these errors.

The fixes are easy and they do the opposite. They draw your readers closer to you. They inspire your readers and strengthen your relationship with them.

When you connect with your readers, you offer them an experience they want to continue and they will read your book, finish it, get the most out of it and recommend it to others.

When you push them away, you may lose them forever. So, let’s empower you and make sure that doesn’t happen.

[bctt tweet=”Attitudes and Phrases That Push Readers Away” username=”LisaTener”]

#1 The Flub: “Most of you…” “Many of you…”

Example: Many of you have trouble saying “no.”

As you read a book, especially one that draws you in, don’t you feel as if the author is speaking directly to you?

For most readers, there’s a conversation going on. When you write “you” the reader feels connected. As soon as you write “many of you” or “most of you” your reader is taken out of this experience and you create distance between you and your reader.

#1 The Fix: Stick with “you.”

If you find yourself imagining speaking to a large group of people, you’re on the wrong track. Imagine an intimate conversation between you and each individual reader.

Example: If you’re like most people, you probably have trouble saying “no.”

#2 The Flub: “I want…” “I want you to experience…” “I want you to change…”

Example: I want you to love your hair.

It’s not about you and what you want. “I want…” feels a bit pushy.

#2 The Fix: Think like your reader.

Instead, think of what the reader wants. Offer the benefits of a particular behavior.

Example: With the right hair products, you can spend as little as ten minutes a day on your hair, receive compliments on a daily basis, and enjoy your curly tresses.

Much more inspiring and motivating, right?

#3 The Flub: “You must…” “You need to…”

Example: You need to stop thinking about him.

Ooh. This one’s even pushier than “I want…” You probably don’t like being told what you need to do. I know I don’t.

#3 The Fix: Inspire with possibilities.

Example: Once you learn to stop thinking about him, you’ll be back in the driver’s seat of your life. Rather than obsessing about him, you’ll be able to enjoy time spent with friends, alone and in nature.

I will say, in a somewhat humorous tone, it is possible that the phrase “You need to…” will work—in moderation. When in doubt, ask your beta readers.

#4 The Flub: “You [do x]” “You [think x]”

Example: You eat too much fat.

I’m guessing you don’t like when someone makes assumptions about you. Assumptions turn off most readers, especially if the assumption isn’t true.

In addition, we can’t know whether our assumptions about our readers are true.

There’s no need to make assumptions about your readers to make your point. The following phrases offer respectful and comfortable alternatives.

#4 The Fix: “You may…” “Perhaps you…” “Do you…?” “Many people…”

Example: If you are like x% of Americans, you eat way too much fat.

Another example: Perhaps you, like many Americans, eat too much fat.

[bctt tweet=”How to Connect With Your Readers” username=”LisaTener”]

connect with your readers through imagination — Close your eyes and imagine a reader. Then write to that reader, still picturing the person in your mind’s eye.

One of the easiest ways to connect with your readers is to imagine one particular person you are writing to. It can be a real person or someone you imagine. Each time you sit down to write, imagine the person and write as if it is a conversation.

The result? Your readers will feel as if you are speaking directly to them—each and every one.

Here are 3 Super Tips to Rock Your Writing, two of which go beyond the discussion in today’s post. And here are some more tips from me and seven other authors for finding your voice for self-help and memoir authors.

As a reader, what phrases jolt you out of a cozy conversation with an author? What do some authors do that create distance?

How do you personally connect with your readers on the page?

Please share your comments and ideas below.

Writing Secrets

The Conundrum

Permission: Grappling with Telling People’s Stories—or Not—and Integrity Concerns about Anecdotes

Time to Draw from the Pool of Stories and Experiences

A profound writing exercise

Choosing authors

Choosing specific writing to learn from (3 poems, an essay, a chapter…)

Poem 1

The Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu Translated by Stephen Mitchell, 1988

1

Writing the poem by hand in full—first “try.”

Writing exercise—just for fun

Insights from the writing practice

Your Turn

Using the Elemental Breaths to Enhance Writing

How Earth Breath Can Support Your Writing

Try It Out Now

When Writing Prompts Work

Other Ways to Get Moving and Unblock

Find Your Way

Revisit Your Writing Dream

Dream Deeper

Are You Inspired Yet?

Make Time

Fire Your Inner Saboteur

Just Start Writing

Your Turn

How to Overcome the 7 Most Common Writing Struggles

Setback #1: You Just Can’t Make Time

Setback #2: Lack of Inspiration

Setback #3: Feeling Overwhelmed

Setback #4 Feeling Lost

Setback #5: Hating What You Write

Setback #6: Self-doubt or Imposter Syndrome

Setback #7: The Loneliness of Writing

The Pressure of Deadlines After Signing a Book Contract

What the Creative Muse Needs

How to Honor the Spirit of the Muse

Focus on Creative Gratitude

How Will You Honor Your Creative Muse?

Your Book Breathes

Your Book Speaks

Yes, Write From Your Magic [bctt tweet=”Write From Your Magic” username=”LisaTener”]

[bctt tweet=”Mitch Albom on How to Tell a Story #FindingChika” username=”LisaTener”]

“Tell Me My Story.”

On Finding the Voice

“How Do I Tell This Story?”

“I Had to Get Personal About My Own Story.”

[bctt tweet=”Meet Mitch (and Chika’s Indomitable Spirit) #FindingChika” username=”LisaTener”]

About Mitch Albom

Less Time; Less Bandwidth

[bctt tweet=”5 Style Tips to Make Your Writing Easy for Readers to Understand Quickly” username=”LisaTener”]

Accessibility Means Tapping into More than Mental Learning

[bctt tweet=”5 Ways to Help Readers Understand, Engage and Integrate” username=”LisaTener”]

[bctt tweet=”Let’s Define Terms: Writing Voice, Style and Tone” username=”LisaTener”]

What do we mean be your writing voice?

What do we mean by your writing style?

What do we mean by an author’s tone?

Let’s Hear From You!

Please share your comments and questions below:

Special Sales, Think Creatively

What are Special Sales?

[bctt tweet=”Why Publishers Love Special Sales ” username=”LisaTener”]

Don’t Let Special Sales Intimidate You

You Can’t Fake Bulk Sales

What are Beta Readers?

When to Look for Beta Readers

Who Makes a Good Pre-Reader?

Where to Find Beta Readers [bctt tweet=”Where to Find Beta Readers” username=”LisaTener”]

Questions to Ask Your Readers

Yes, You Can Write a Great Book!

How Do You Write a Great Book? What Are These Authors’ Secrets?

Don’t Forget The Features

Next Step: Structure!

You, Too, Can Write a Great Book: Starting with Clarity is Key!

What Do I Get with the Quick Start to Kick-Start Your Book Self-Study Program?

How About a Consultation with Your Quick Start, Sir (or Ma’am)?

What They Say

Dr. Jeffrey George recently purchased Quick Start to get started on his book.

Here’s what Eileen Wilder, author of The Brave Body Method, Said About Her Single Book Concept Consultation

The Tao Te Ching
by Lao Tzu
Translated by Stephen Mitchell, 1988