At the Surrey International Writers’ Conference, Hallie Ephron gave us writers some great advice, including, ‘Hold your nose and write.’ Isn’t that a fantastic saying? 

Watch the video below to find out how to hold your nose and write. 

 

Hello my lovely writers, how are you?

I attended the fantastic Surrey International Writers’ Conference in Surrey, British Columbia, Canada. If you’ve not been to it, I absolutely recommend you go because there were some top class authors and speakers there. 

One of my favourites was Hallie Ephron and she said an amazing thing to us writers. She said, ‘You’ve just got to hold your nose and write.’

Hold your nose and write

Hold your nose and write. Hallie made the excellent point that your first draft, no matter what you write, is never going to be good enough for you. 

That’s a really interesting and important distinction. Your first draft is never going to be good enough for you. It might be good enough for somebody else, it might even be good enough for a reader, depending on how experienced a writer you are but, essentially, at the beginning, it’s never going to be good enough for you and that’s why Hallie says it’s so important to revise.

Write that draft you know is not going to be good enough for you and that you know you’re not going to be entirely happy with because then you get to revise it and make your work that little bit better. 

Revision is where it happens but, in the first instance, you’ve just got to hold your nose and write.  

Unlock your creative block

If you’re somebody who struggles to hold your nose and write, there’s something much deeper going on that stops you from doing the writing you want to do, or even just getting started at all.

If, when you think about writing, a wall of resistance comes up and prevents you from writing or keeps you in that procrastination safe zone, I have a resource to help you. It will unearth what’s really holding you back and where that writer’s block is really coming from. 

It’s called Unlock Your Creative Block. 

In the meantime, hold your nose and write. 

Emma xx

Emma Dhesi

Emma Dhesi is an author mindset coach and bestselling author who helps writers let go of perfectionism, self-doubt and writer’s block through her signature programme, Unlock Your Creative Block.

She is the host of the YouTube Channel, Emma Dhesi, where she interviews debut and experienced authors alike.

Through her 1:1 coaching programme, Emma helps new authors start and finish their first novel.

Emma provides personal written feedback on their pages and guides them through the emotional rollercoaster that is writing a novel!

We all have off days, days when the words just won’t come. But if you stay close to the fire and keep in touch with your work in progress, that’s still progress. 

Watch the video below to find out how staying close to the fire is still working on your book. 

 

Hello my lovely writers, how are you? 

Not every day is the day the muse hits us. Not every day do we wake up feeling the joys of spring and want to get to our desk. There are days when that absolutely does happen but there are other days, like today has been for me, where it’s just not been happening at all. 

I just can’t wake up today. I don’t know why. I had a good night’s sleep, I woke up bright and early but I just can’t quite wake up. I’ve been for a walk but still I’m feeling groggy and uninspired. 

It’s been raining here for the last four weeks with maybe a brief interlude here and there and, when you wake up day after day with heavy clouds, grey skies and the rain pouring down, it doesn’t do a lot for one’s spirits. 

I’ve just not been in the mood to write today

So, today I’ve just not been in the mood. But writing’s what I do. Writing is what I love. It is how I hope one day to be making my way in the world and making my mark on the world, which I’m sure is the same for you. 

What do I get to do on days when I feel like this? I get to still show up at my desk. I get to sit down, open my document, have a look through it, do some thinking about it, make some notes here and there and just be with my work-in-progress. 

And that’s what I did. I didn’t spend as long on it as I would have liked to have done. I didn’t write anything new today but I did keep in touch with my book. 

Stay close to the fire

I did what one of my coaches calls staying close to the fire, which means I opened the document, I read it through, I had a look at it, I thought about my characters, what’s going on for them, their motivations and generally how things are progressing in the book.  I kept close to my book.

I’m sure you know as well as I do that, if you take too long a break from your work, you begin to forget it. You lose the momentum, you slip off the wagon and it can be difficult getting back on it. 

I wanted to share that with you because you may be feeling that way today as well, or there might be a day where you’re just not with the muse, she’s not come to visit you but you know you’ve got to do it anyway. 

If you stay close to the fire and keep in with your work by keeping in touch with it, opening it up to have a look at it, to read through it and think about it, that is still progress. 

Writing a book is work and that is still doing the work required to write a novel. It’s not all about what goes on the page, so much of it is what goes on in your brain and mulling it over. That is where the vast majority of the work happens and then, when you’ve mulled it over enough, you get excited and you put it down on the page. 

If you’re not feeling the passion, the love, the muse today, don’t worry, it will come back. Just stay close to the fire and you’ll get there. 

Emma xx

Emma Dhesi

Emma Dhesi is an author mindset coach and bestselling author who helps writers let go of perfectionism, self-doubt and writer’s block through her signature programme, Unlock Your Creative Block.

She is the host of the YouTube Channel, Emma Dhesi, where she interviews debut and experienced authors alike.

Through her 1:1 coaching programme, Emma helps new authors start and finish their first novel.

Emma provides personal written feedback on their pages and guides them through the emotional rollercoaster that is writing a novel!

Procrastination is a nice safe place to be in, isn’t it? I know I find myself hiding behind it sometimes. 

Watch the video below to find out how to be courageous and get out of the procrastination safe zone. 

Hello my lovely writers, how are you? 

A few more words of wisdom about what it is to be a writer. What it is to be a creative and to keep on going because, what’s going on in your head is just as, if not more, important than what is actually going on on the page. 

It’s important to work on your heart and your head to keep yourself in the game and to keep yourself writing. To stop yourself giving up before you’ve finished so you can finish that story, novel, or book and go on to publish it or find yourself an agent or whatever path is right for you. 

One thing I’ve noticed about a lot of writers – and I will hold my hand up here as I do this myself from time to time – is we get stuck in procrastination and keep putting off our writing.

Procrastination is a safe place to be

The reason we do that is because procrastination is a nice, safe place to be, isn’t it? When we’re umming and ahhing about things, weighing up the pros and cons and heading down that research rabbit hole, it’s a very safe place to stay. 

It’s not necessarily the most fun or fulfilling place to be. It’s not going to get you where you want to be, which is a finished book with readers who love your stories. But it feels safe because it doesn’t require risk. It doesn’t require putting ourselves out on the skinny branches and taking a gamble on ourselves.

So we stay where we are. We stay procrastinating. We stay umming and ahhing and thinking about things because it feels safe. 

The only way you’re going to get to where you want to be with this vision you have for yourself as an author who has published books, who is selling books, who has readers, who has an agent or who has a publisher, is to stop procrastinating. Take the gamble on yourself, get out there on those skinny branches and be courageous. 

You’ve got to be courageous

You’ve got to be courageous. Even when you’re imagining the worst things in the world, even when you’re imagining people are going to say horrible things about your writing and about you for even daring to want to do this, you’ve still got to take a deep breath and do it anyway. That is the only way you’re going to get to where you want to be. 

If you want help to leave the procrastination safe zone, I’m the lady to come to. I’m the one who can help you. If you want to know how I can help you leave procrastination behind, send me an email at emma@emmadhesi.com.

It’s only by being courageous will you get to where you want to be.  But do you know what? You can do it. You can absolutely do it. 

Emma xx

Emma Dhesi

Emma Dhesi is an author mindset coach and bestselling author who helps writers let go of perfectionism, self-doubt and writer’s block through her signature programme, Unlock Your Creative Block.

She is the host of the YouTube Channel, Emma Dhesi, where she interviews debut and experienced authors alike.

Through her 1:1 coaching programme, Emma helps new authors start and finish their first novel.

Emma provides personal written feedback on their pages and guides them through the emotional rollercoaster that is writing a novel!

If a writing routine sounds like drudgery, a bit of a chore, this video will change your mind!

Click the video below to watch, or read the transcript underneath it.

 

Hello my lovely writers, how are you? 

I want to talk about habit and routine today. This is a subject that’s been on my mind and I’m conscious it’s not something everybody finds appealing or glamorous.

A writing routine, or schedule, is something I often talk about along with how it’s really imperative, particularly in the early days when we’re learning, to invite writing into our lives. We need regular time slots to form a writing habit and one of the easiest ways to do this is to schedule in the time to write. 

Making habit sound more glamorous

But how can we make habit, scheduling and routine sound more glamorous? A little more exciting, a little more inviting? You can do this by not thinking of writing as a chore you’ve got to do and by not thinking of it as drudgery or something you must do like going to work.

Rather, a writing routine is something you are making space for so you can invite creativity in. If you create space to let creativity come in and do its thing, it will come in and do its thing. 

But we’ve got to give it that space to do so. We’ve got to create a little ring around some time, a ring around some space. We need to take a breath and let the creativity come to us because it will come. I promise you the creativity will come if you allow it to. 

The more time and space you ring fence for your writing and the more time you hold sacred for this in your week, the easier and the quicker that creativity will come. 

Writing will become a habit

Writing will become this effortless habit and, even on those days where it feels like it’s going to be more challenging, you know you can do it because you’ve done it before. 

You’ll have the evidence that you are a creative being, that when you do sit down and you do have thirty minutes to give over to your writing, even if you only write for fifteen of those, you’ve given yourself the breathing room you needed to get those words down on paper. 

So, rather than thinking of routine and scheduling in your writing as drudgery or a chore, think of it as a luxury you get to have. A luxury and an experience you get to put into your week that feels good, fun and exciting. 

Emma xx

Emma Dhesi

Emma Dhesi is an author mindset coach and bestselling author who helps writers let go of perfectionism, self-doubt and writer’s block through her signature programme, Unlock Your Creative Block.

She is the host of the YouTube Channel, Emma Dhesi, where she interviews debut and experienced authors alike.

Through her 1:1 coaching programme, Emma helps new authors start and finish their first novel.

Emma provides personal written feedback on their pages and guides them through the emotional rollercoaster that is writing a novel!

If you’re lacking in confidence, this video is for you as I discuss how even some of the most successful people in the world, such as Leonard Bernstein, can suffer with imposter syndrome.

Click the video below to watch, or read the transcript underneath it.

Hello my lovely writers, how are you?

Today I’m talking about how even the most successful writers amongst us are lacking in confidence. 

I’ve been watching a movie called Maestro, based on the life of Leonard Bernstein and his wife Felicia. There’s a scene where a journalist is asking Leonard Bernstein about his career and you can see Leonard sitting in his chair feeling angsty. 

Even Leonard Bernstein lacks confidence

By this time in the movie, Leonard Bernstein has written West Side Story, On The Town and various other things. He’s also been conducting at the Philharmonic for a decade by then, but he’s still sitting there angsty, saying, ‘I haven’t done enough. It’s not good enough. I should have done more by now. I should have done better by now.’ 

These words really resonated with me because I hear this a lot from writers I work with as they share their feelings of never quite having done enough, never quite being enough. 

As confident as Leonard Bernstein was on the outside, inside there was still a lot of insecurity and a lot of not being at ease with himself. He felt inferior and compared himself to others, always thinking he should be doing better and striving for something more. He couldn’t see he’d written some of the best music of his generation, if not the best ever. 

I see this in my writers who are looking to write a book. They want to write a novel, or non-fiction – whatever it might be – but they never feel they’re good enough. Their own feelings of insecurity around their writing really come to the forefront and it’s because they’re not doing the work on themselves from the inside. 

What matters is what you feel on the inside

I want to emphasise to you that it doesn’t matter what you write and it doesn’t matter whether you sell a million copies or ten copies of your book. 

What really matters is how you feel about that book on the inside. You’re always going to have success if you feel validated by yourself, if you feel that internal validation. Internal validation is something you must work on if you don’t already feel it. 

I know writers who have already published, either traditionally or self-published, and they’re doing well but they do not see it and they do not feel it. You’ve got to work from the inside out. 

If you recognise that in you, I encourage you to grab my 21 Days of Writing Inspiration. These are short little videos that arrive in your inbox every day for 21 days to help you feel motivated, feel encouraged, and help you start to build that self-belief you need if you want to thrive in the writing world. 

Click the link to get your 21 Days of Writing Inspiration. 

Emma xx

Emma Dhesi

Emma Dhesi is an author mindset coach and bestselling author who helps writers let go of perfectionism, self-doubt and writer’s block through her signature programme, Unlock Your Creative Block.

She is the host of the YouTube Channel, Emma Dhesi, where she interviews debut and experienced authors alike.

Through her 1:1 coaching programme, Emma helps new authors start and finish their first novel.

Emma provides personal written feedback on their pages and guides them through the emotional rollercoaster that is writing a novel!