How Writers Write by HappyWriter

Latest Episodes:

Monday Motivation - How I Organize My Writing Projects Jan 13, 2020

Show notes

Last week I discussed different kinds of composing tools, and how you can use them to get your work done. This week, I’m going to review the tools and tactics I use to organize my long novel in progress. I hope this talk can spark some organizational ideas for you. I, though, have only experimented with a small possibility of how a writer can organize a project. I’d love to hear from you! What are some of the ways you organize your work? What are the organizational tools you just have to use? Head over to the How Writers Write Instagram to share your organization tools.

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Episode 10 - How Eleanor Henderson Writes Jan 09, 2020

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Today’s interview is with Eleanor Henderson, author of Ten Thousand Saints and The Twelve-Mile Straight. I loved my talk with Eleanor, especially for the number of practical, useful ideas she gave me. In the podcast, you’ll hear me react live to an exercise she has her writing students run through that I had to work on staying present in the interview because I just wanted to think about how I could apply it to my book. Do you know that feeling? Where you hear something so good it steals your attention? There are tons of moments like this during the interview.

Thank you again to Eleanor for her time and wisdom. And now, here is the interview with Eleanor Henderson.

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(Rerun) Monday Motivation - The Waiting Place Jan 06, 2020

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This Monday I'm out sick because my wonderful daughters got me sick (again). Just listen to my voice in the intro!
I'm rerunning one of my favorite Monday Motivations -- The Waiting Place. Please enjoy and I'll be back next week with my normal schedule.

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Episode 9 - How Amy Harmon Writes Jan 02, 2020

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Today’s interview is with Amy Harmon. I was introduced to her work when I picked up her book What the Wind Knows. I loved the book and her style, especially for someone who loves historical fiction.

What I did not know is how Amy is a complete baller. I’m not going to give anything away in this interview, but Amy’s writing journey, her grit, and spirit are incredibly inspiring. In fact, when we ended recording for the interview, I asked if I could call her each week for a pep talk.

In this interview we cover the muscle it takes to write, we talk about Amy’s self-publishing journey and highlight one of the most important traits for a writer to have to be successful. I know you will love this interview as much as I do.

Without delay, here is the interview with Amy Harmon.

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Monday Motivation - Composing and Editing Tools Dec 30, 2019

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Welcome to Monday Motivation – Composing and Editing Tools

We are just a few days from 2020. New year, new decade. Boy oh boy, I am so excited I can hardly contain myself. To celebrate, on this Thursday, January 2nd at 7 pm I am hosting a free webinar on crushing your writing goals. The content is like the lite-lite version of the online course, but without the workbook and the full deep dive. If you want some quick pointers on setting your writing goals in 2020, if you want to ask some questions and get inspired, I’d love to have you join me. Check out my Instagram or Facebook page for the link to join. I’ll also add the link to the show notes.

Okay so coming off the heels of last week’s Monday Motivation, which was pretty intense, I’m going to do a series that is just super practical—aka the writing tools. These tools can be like cool software, mental models, little cheats, or just time-proven ways of doing things. I’ve been thinking about how to organize these talks, and I’m going to break up the tools into four buckets: composing and editing tools, organizational tools, concentration tools, and some ideas if you are a novelist, poet, screenwriter, or short-story writer. Now, I haven’t recorded all of these yet, so who knows how this change before it is all said and done. We’re all on this journey together.

Talking about being on this journey together, I’d love to do a kind of podcast hive mind on this series. I only use a fraction of these tools, so comment on our Instagram and Facebook posts to share your favorite tools, and I’ll pull them all together in a post for everyone to review. And just to say it, I am not sponsored or supported by anyway with any of the companies or tools I’m going to discuss. Just trying to give my honest reviews and opinions.

So, let’s talk about composing and editing tools. The bedrock of writing. We don’t need much to write, and tools are great until they aren’t, basically when the lack of the tool becomes an excuse why you don’t write. I do this so much. I don’t have the right pencil, or paper, or chair, or whatever. It’s all bullshit. No excuses. You gotta write with what you have.

Okay so when I think of composing tools, I think of a long line. On the left side of the line are the simplest tools. On the right side of the line are the most robust. As you move from left to right, you get more power, but also more complexity and a potentially steeper learning curve. There’s a tradeoff.

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Monday Motivation - How Goals Saved My Life Dec 23, 2019

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Welcome to Monday Motivation – How Goals Saved My Life

Before I get started, I want to thank all of the people who reached out with kind words about Marlowe. I am so touched by your support and stories. I recorded that episode barely a day after Marlowe died, and I was really, really raw. So, I want to say thank you for letting me share that moment and those emotions with you.

Today is the last of the Monday Motivations on goals, and I’ve been working myself up to this one. There’s a reason why I so deeply believe in the power of goals, and more than that in the ability for goals to help people recreate themselves.

I want to do a warning. In this Monday Motivation, I will talk about mental health. If you or someone you know is struggling with their mental health, please get support and help. Mental illness is no joke. What I talk about is my story and you shouldn’t it take as advise. It is my experience and my experience only. Get help if you need it.

My story starts on November 11th, 2011. I was working at an ad agency in Denver, CO. I was a miserable, awful employee. I didn’t want to work in advertising, but I had no other options at the time. Strapped with loads of credit card bills and student debt, it was best the best check I could get.

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Episode 8 - How John Freeman Writes Dec 19, 2019

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Welcome to Episode 8 – How John Freeman Writes

We are now just a week and a half away from the beginning of not just a new year, but a new decade. That means goal planning. For some of you, maybe you’ve set goals and haven’t been able to achieve them. Maybe you’ve dropped your goals, or not felt as if you had the right tools to accomplish them. If that is you, I’ve designed an entire online course just for writers on how to set and achieve writing goals. It is the first training I’ve published because, to me, setting and achieving your writing is so central to the writing journey. If you want to blast into 2020 and into the next decade if you want to take your writing practice to the next level, consider taking the course. Through December, the course is only $39. Use the code “podcast” at checkout to get that price through December.

I am so excited for this interview with John. As you can see, John has such a unique vantage point of the writing world, from writing his own non-fiction and poetry, as the executive editor of Lit Hub, as a professor at NYU, and so much more. John shares so much wisdom about his own writing process and about the writing life. As I produced this interview, I couldn’t help but smile at John’s burning passion for books and writing.

Thank you to John for hosting me in his apartment in Chelsea, which is a tribute to books. Bookshelves line all of the walls and trust me when I say they are completely packed.

This will be the last author interview of 2019. I’m taking a week off to celebrate the holidays with my family, but we’ll be back with an incredible line up in 2020.

And here is the interview with John Freeman.

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Monday Motivation - A Tribute to My Dog Dec 16, 2019

Show notes

I had originally planned to do today’s Monday motivation, the last in the series on goals, on the redemptive power of affirming goals, but I have to pivot. I just don’t have it in me to dive into such a huge topic. Sometimes life gets in the way.

Early last week, my almost ten-year-old-dog Marlowe started to breathe as if she had a small doggy cold. After a few days, we called the vet and they told us if she didn’t get better to bring her in the next day.

That next day was Thursday. I walked Marlowe to the vet, she got some tests and x-rays, and the vet told me that she had late-stage lung cancer, and at the most had a week to live before her lungs gave out. I took her home it complete and total shock, hoping to have a few days to love on her, take her to the park, make her as much bacon as she could eat, but her breathing got worse almost immediately, as if as soon as the news came out, as soon as we knew how sick she was, she let go of her charade. She didn’t make through the night on Thursday before we had to help her cross the rainbow bridge.

And so I’m going to wait a week to do the final episode on goals, because the topic is as emotional and important to me as anything I’ll ever discuss, and I just can’t record it when I am so raw and sad from losing my best friend. I wouldn’t do it justice.

So I’m going to take a moment to say thank you to Marlowe. She never left my side as I stayed up late starting this podcast, making the website, designing training materials. She was pure love, pure joy. She was my protector, my companion. I already miss hearing her snore as I work. I miss her checking in with me when it had been too long since I last pet her.

Life’s short guys. Seasons change so fast. You wake up with a dog who has a cold, you go to bed and she’s passed on. I guess in that way this motivation is not to wait. Take it from Brian in as raw of shape as you’ll ever hear me, pet your dog, kiss your partner, hug your kids, write your sentences. Because I’d already do almost anything to throw her ball and watch her dumb, happy face as she brings it back. But some doors when they shut, they shut. We can’t stop tragedy or pain, but we can live our short lives in a way that when those doors shut, we won’t look back with regret.

Thank you for letting me share a little about Marlowe. I’ll be back next week with the final Monday Motivation of the year. I hope you have a wonderful week of writing.

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Episode 7 - How Deborah Landau Writes Dec 12, 2019

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Welcome to Episode7 – How Deborah Landau Writes!

It’d be hard for me to imagine someone who sits in a more unique spot in the creative writing world than Deborah Landau. As I say in the interview, she sees an incoming crop of incredibly talented writers as undergrad and MFA students for NYU, but she also manages a world-class team of authors as faculty. Deborah sees the entire spectrum, from those of us who are starting the writing journey, to those further down the path. This perspective is far-reaching and rare.

Like a lot of lessons in life, Deborah’s advice to writers –especially writers who are early in their journey-- is simple and yet profound. I won’t spoil it now, and I’ll let her share it in the interview. But, at the end of the interview, take a moment to also think of all the things she didn’t mention as well. There is always wisdom in the things we don’t say.

Thank you to Deborah for hosting me in her office at the NYU Townhouse and carving out time for me in her incredibly busy schedule.

Here is the interview with Deborah Landau

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Monday Motivation- Six Reasons to Set Writing Goals Dec 09, 2019

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Welcome to Monday Motivation – Six Reasons to Set Writing Goals

My experience with writers is that we generally look at things like structure, process, and goals as being antithetical to the writing life. And to some people, maybe they are. Writing is so deeply personal, that to try and do a one-size fits all approach to how, when, or why you write would be laughable… at best. Some people need goals, some don’t.

That said, I believe that the wonky, underbelly parts of writing like structure and goals can be tremendously helpful to many—maybe even most—writers. Yes, some people can sit down and just write rainbows, but for many writers, myself included, we need a bit more structure to get our work done.

Without writing goals, I spin. I’ll have a half-dozen, half-finished projects, none of which achieve the level I want from them. It’s frustrating, and taken to the extreme, has sometimes even challenged me to ask if I am a writer at all. I mean, if I can’t finish a project, if I can’t get something done, why am I spending so much time alone in the early morning to write? What’s the point?

All that to say, writing goals fill a huge gap for me, because goals put guardrails over what, when, and why I write. Yes, goals constrict my creative freedom, but I am comfortable with this tradeoff because, ultimately, I want to see projects finished at their highest potential. I’m willing to say no to the one thousand ideas that pop into my head each day in order to push towards the goal of creative completion.

There are tons of reasons to set writing goals, but if you are on the fence and wonder if you should set writing goals in 2020, I want to talk through six reasons of not having a writing goal.

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