Count Every Minute On a recent road trip, with my husband driving, I was staring out the window.  “What are you thinking, Jen?” he asked to make conversation.  “Nothing,” I replied, my mind blank.  “Really? I thought you said you’re … Continue reading →

Own What You Know The Dunning-Kruger effect is a cognitive bias where individuals with low ability in a specific area overestimate their competence, while those with high ability may underestimate their skills. This is because those lacking expertise don’t know … Continue reading →

Avoiding Procrastination Procrastination and me are old friends. In my journalism days, I lived by the mantra, “that’s what the last minute is for.” Great if you’re on a deadline, but terrible if you’re a writer and, well, the stakes are low.  … Continue reading →

Finding the Encouragement You Need At the gym, I was pushing myself hard, using heavier weights than I normally did. My efforts weren’t pretty, but I was doing it! Until the coach came along and told me to use less weight.  … Continue reading →

Reading the Numbers For all my talk about not fixating on numbers, I sometimes fall off the wagon. I was disheartened to see the percentage of people who open my newsletter had decreased. Were people no longer interested in what … Continue reading →

Drop the “Should” Recently, I carved out time for my work-in-progress. I try to practice what I preach, so, despite a crushing to-do list, I took time for my writing. Usually, when I’m finally at my computer, I can slip … Continue reading →

Writing is Hard! Part of my job as a book coach is to help keep writers accountable. Life always gets in the way. Jobs, family, children, parents. But the minutia of life also gets in the way: having space to write, losing … Continue reading →

Stories Are About WHO What if you just have nothing to say?  You want to write; you have ideas floating around your head, and maybe even that cursed cursor blinking disparagingly at you, your doc open, page blank. But it’s … Continue reading →

People, not Numbers In the social media world—actually, in the real world, too—we’re judged on numbers. Numbers of followers, numbers of likes, number of subscribers, number of sales, number of readers… For someone like me who is allergic to numbers … Continue reading →

The Raw Material of Writing Ideas are easy; writing is hard.  Ideas are what live in our imagination. They’re what we spool out of our head into a plethora of directions. They’re fun to think about, to work with, to … Continue reading →