Category: Writing + Blogging

The Writer’s Workshop Live & Small-Group Writing Circle

Posted on by Sarah K Peck

September 13th, 2017 — November 15th, 2017

This Fall, for the first time in three years, I’m teaching a live (still digital, but live via the Internet) gathering of The Writer’s Workshop. We’ll come together for eight weeks to practice writing and work through four key modules. The power of a writing group and live calls are designed to help you become better at writing, storytelling, and crafting content. And as a bonus: you’ll be assigned working groups to meet other writing friends in small, peer-to-peer writing circles.

The LIVE course also includes a writing circles, live discussion calls, and if you choose (see options below), an opportunity for 1:1 feedback on your writing and essays.

**Early decision closes August 18th, 2017.**
**Regular registration closes September 8th, 2017.**
Class begins September 13th, 2017.

Four writing modules, eight writing assignments:

We’ll work together through eight weeks of writing exercises, two assignments per module. Every week, you’ll get a lesson to read, an assignment to practice, and a bundle of extra resources to dive deeper on the topic of the week. The goal is to write one new assignment each week.

These are the four core modules:

  • Imagination: Unlock your creative potential through key exercises in visualization, imagination, and association. Learn how to get un-stuck, how to start writing, and how to tap into your inner creative. (2 lessons, 2 writing exercises.)
  • Storytelling: Learn three frameworks for great storytelling from the experts–from Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey to Nancy Duartes’ structures on resonance. Learn how to use each of these frameworks to create messaging that’s relatable, sticky, and moving.(2 lessons, 2 writing exercises.)
  • Craft & Content: Learn how to create story frameworks for blogging, how to write a standout introduction (and thank-you note!), and the art of asking for what you want. Get four customizable templates for everyday communication–never have to build an email from scratch again. (2 lessons, 2 writing exercises.)
  • Language: Learn how to use language to persuade, influence, and inspire others. (2 lessons, 2 writing exercises.)

After each module, we’ll meet for a live call (4 total):

After each module, we’ll come together for a live Q/A discussion call to talk about our writing progress, reflect on the assignments, share our work, and answer any questions you might have. The calls will be recorded and available for the duration of the course.

  • Live Call #1: Friday, September 29th at 1PM Eastern
  • Live Call #1: Friday, October 13th at 1PM Eastern
  • Live Call #1: Friday, October 27th at 1PM Eastern
  • Live Call #1: Friday, November 10th at 1PM Eastern

Small group writing circles:

You will be placed in a small group writing circle during the course, to meet and go deeper with fellow writers. I’ll guide you in the best practices for how to engage with your small group, when to meet, and the format to follow in your small group.

Each module, for example, you’ll read an excerpt of your piece out loud to the group.

Suggested times for the small group writing circle: Every other Friday, at 1PM (so that you block off eight continuous Fridays at 1PM for your writing group, alternating live calls with small-group sessions). Of course, you can re-schedule these with your group as needed.

The Writer’s Workshop Live! — $599

This small-group virtual/digital writing group will be capped at 30 people. Regular registration closes September 8th, 2017. Limited spaces available.

Early Decision: Register by August 18th for $100 off the program price — $499. Click here to register.

The Writer’s Workshop Live PLUS 1:1 Coaching — $999

Want to go deeper with your writing practice? Register for the Live Writer’s Workshop with personalized writing coaching—and get additional coaching and feedback on your writing. In addition to the live course, live calls, and small-group writing circle, you’ll also get:

  • Two (2) 1:1 coaching calls with Sarah to chat about your writing practice, and
  • Personalized writing feedback on two (2) of your essays during the eight-week course.
  • Only 6 spaces available.

Early Decision: Register by August 18th for $100 off the program price — $899. Click here to register.

A Look Inside My Writing Habits

Posted on by Sarah K Peck

Are you optimizing your writing habits?

We have a limited amount of attention, bandwidth, and energy. There are only so many “hacks” we can take before it’s going to become ever more important to cull the flow of information and set up systems that let us optimize for our strengths and internal design.

My writing and publishing is best done on a system that allows me to have some freedom, but within a structure. When I have a structure that I no longer have to think about when or why I’m writing, I’m then free to write without spending time wondering when I’ll actually do the writing.

What is a writing frame?

Frames are incredible important for both my own practice as well as for connecting to other people. A writing frame is a pattern or schedule that you stick to in your habit or practice. Some examples of writing frames are: publishing a new blog post every Monday at 10am, writing a monthly newsletter on the first of every month, or writing every weekday at 7am.

Podcasts, television shows, and great newsletters use these schedules to stay consistent. They also use them to communicate to the subscriber, reader, or viewer (you) when new content will arrive.

Think about the newsletters that you read. Do you appreciate ones that are regular and consistent? If it’s something you’re a fan of, you might be a regular reader: you know when your latest episodes of Silicon Valley go live, and when new episodes of your favorite podcast are released.

I’ve written previously about the 20 Mile March and why it’s so useful as a set-up for getting things done. Today I want to share how I’ve broken down my writing structure and why the frames are so helpful for me.

These are my personal writing frames:

A weekly blog, delivered every Monday at 10AM.

I publish a weekly blog at sarahkpeck.com/writing, every Monday at 10AM. (The newsletter ships at 10AM, but the post is scheduled to go live by 6AM Eastern time.)

I try to maintain a queue of posts that are ready to go for at least six weeks in advance, so I’m not operating at last minute. (This doesn’t always work out, but I do my best.) When I need a break, I follow the likes of Paul Jarvis and James Clear and announce that I’m taking a monthly break (this often happens in August for a summer sabbatical and in December/January, when most people are on winter holiday).

In the past, I committed to writing once per week, but I never committed to a specific date or time. This year, I’m increasing the rigidity of the structure by adding a day and a time to it.

Every Monday at 10AM, there’s a new post.

It’s my goal with this to get into a regular habit with my readers to deliver great essays right at the top of the week, when we’re primed to take action and set ourselves up for success.

A monthly newsletter, delivered on the 1st of every month.

On the first of every month, I write a popular newsletter that’s a round-up post linking back to all of the writing I’ve created, the best blog posts, and the newest offerings. I include a monthly writing practice, a review of best books I’d recommend, and links to the best articles I’ve read and think were worth sharing.

One of the things that’s important in my practice of writing a monthly newsletter is curating and culling. Finding ways to set up a structure and add limits allows me to reach for higher-quality work.

The structure of my newsletter is loosely based on the following:

  • A short opening essay (usually personal in nature)
  • A quiz or a question (”what should I teach or write next?”)
  • A round-up of top 4 posts, visually with links
  • Monthly journal practice
  • Book recommendations of the month
  • Quote of the month
  • Best of the web: top 10 links that are worth putting in your reading queue
  • Accountability: a tracker of my yearly goals and how I’m doing with them (books, meditation, exercise, and learning)

Here’s an example of a past newsletter that follows the structure above.

Daily, public journal.

Sometimes I just need a free place to write, free-form, to work through ideas. I’ve used this Tumblr at sarahkathleenpeck.tumblr.com for years as a place to house ideas, show my process, and write out new pieces.

Sometimes you’ll see an overlap as an idea develops here, and then moves to my more formal blog. Sometimes I take years off (see: having a baby in 2016), and then return to the writing practice time and time again. This frame is more of a house, or a home, and a place I know where I can always go to write. It’s not guided by a specific time but it’s a house all the same: it’s a place I can go write when I need to write in a flurry.

The components of a great frame:

Every time we reduce the amount of thinking we’re doing about the thing we want to actually be doing, we create more space to be doing what we wanted to do in the first place. Frames create a particular quality of freedom by removing the number of times you have to make a decision about how you’re going to behave in the future.

A work schedule is a frame, for example. When you’re committed to working between the hours of 10am and 5pm, that’s a specific pattern and your behaviors fall in line accordingly. (How you decide to spend the late evenings, when you get coffee, what you wear, etc, are all influenced by the work frame.)

A habit pattern or frame consists of the following:

  • A rhythm or a pattern tied to a specific recurring day or date.
  • A frequency (daily, weekly, etc) or total quantity (I will do this 100 times)
  • A specific time
  • A place where you do the work, and show up to do the work
  • A clear, actionable, specific (SMART) way to measure whether or not you’ve succeeded.

A writing frame that’s every Monday at a specific time (10AM), delivered via WordPress (my online home), publishing via blog and email, and looks like a published, live, blog post is a frame that works for me.

Past frames I’ve given up:

I’ve tried on other frames, like daily blogging, and that hasn’t worked for me successfully. I’ve tried publishing more frequently, and that erodes my available time for other things (like book writing, or running my Mastermind, for example).

What structures do you use to set yourself up for success? How do you plan out and map your own writing or creative practice?

One of my favorite things about the word “practice,” is that it reminds us that all we have to do is keep practicing. If we can optimize for making space to practice, with weekly rituals and reminders, then we’ll be doing the work.

Because doing the work is what matters more than almost anything else.

How will you set up your own frames for success?

Today! Get The Writer’s Workshop as Part of The Writer’s Bundle for $99

Posted on by Sarah K Peck

If you’re a writer, or your goals include getting paid to write, publishing a book, or developing your blogging, listen up. This week I’m part of a BIG thing you’ll want to know about and it’s called The Writer’s Bundle.

Every year, The Write Life puts together an amazing package of resources for writers. This year, they’ve bundled together 10 ebooks, courses and tools on freelancing, novel writing, self-publishing, marketing, editing and more.

It’s called The Writer’s Bundle, and you can download it here.

You’ll probably recognize a lot of the people in this bundle, including Ali Luke, Jenny Blake, Joel Friedlander, Carrie Smith, and more (including me!).

Normally my course, The Writer’s Workshop, retails for $300. I rarely, if ever, have sales. This is why it’s a bit ridiculous — you can get my course for a third of the price (just $99!). And you’ll get nine other writing, blogging, and book-publishing courses. What.

The 10 resources available through this year’s bundle normally retail for nearly $1,700. But through this deal, you can get your hands on ALL of them for just $99.

Here’s what’s included when you download The Writer’s Bundle:

  • Stress Less & Impress, From Leah Kalamakis (Course; retails for $247)
  • ProWritingAid, From Chris Banks (Tool; retails for $40)
  • Book Ninja 101: 5-Day Series, From Jenny Blake (Course; retails for $150)
  • Press Release Masterclass, From Joel Friedlander and Joan Stewart (Course; retails for $97)
  • 30 Days to Creative Courage, From Mridu Khullar Relph (Course; retails for $199)
  • Get Paid to Write for Blogs, From Catherine Alford (Course; retails for $497)
  • The Writer’s Workshop, From Sarah K. Peck (Course; retails for $300)
  • Convert More Clients, From Carrie Smith (Course; retails for $59)
  • The Blogger’s Guide to Freelancing, From Ali Luke (Ebook; retails for $29)
  • The 4 Foundational Pillars of Novel Structure, From C.S. Lakin (Course; retails for $49)

Download The Writer’s Bundle Here

The catch? The bundle is only available until Thursday, April 6 at 11:59 p.m. EST. That means if you want it, you should click this link NOW and grab it.

Enjoy, writers!

And yes: when I’m part of group sales like this, I get paid, too. If you’ve been wanting to check out my course and haven’t had the resources, now’s a great time to scoop it up because it won’t be on sale like this for a long, long time!

How to Link Your WordPress Website To Also Publish on Medium

Posted on by Sarah K Peck

You can publish once through WordPress and automatically create a post in Medium. Genius.

Earlier I blasted everyone on my RSS feed with a crazy post of a lot of type headers.

The email, “Medium cross-posting test from WordPress!” was meant to be a test post of publishing to both platforms.

It worked… way too well.

But amazingly, it also got a ton of emails back in my inbox:

How did you do this???

Can you tell me how you set up the Medium cross-posting? Is it a WordPress plugin?

A lot of people ask me what’s better for publishing: WordPress or Medium?

Both have pros and cons as platforms (Medium is beautiful right out of the bat and you can connect with more people sooner; WordPress lets you own your content and collect email addresses).

As far as maintaining ownership over content goes, WordPress has always been the one I stick with.

And then I go back over to Medium and publish there, too.

Fed up, I finally asked the my Facebook universe for advice. I got an amazing answer: use a brilliant plugin to publish to both places at once.

Genius.

Now, don’t do what I did, though — I set up a test post and promptly blasted both my email list and my Medium list with a silly test post with styles and type. There’s a case of systems gone way too well: my WordPress post published on Medium, blasted to Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, my personal page, Google+, and beyond. I spent a bit of time wandering around the social web to edit out the sample post.

That email, though, is stuck in your inbox forever.

Here’s how to set up your WordPress site to publish to Medium at the same time:

1 — Install the Medium plugin on your WordPress site.

If you installed WordPress on your own website (from WordPress.org, which means you’re not running a website through WordPress.com), then go to the plugins and search for “Medium.”

You can also get the plugin here:

https://wordpress.org/plugins/medium/

Install the plugin, and then click “activate.”

2 — Go to your user profile (Users > Your Profile) and find the Medium section.

3 — Get an integration token from your Medium page.

Go to Medium.com and under “settings,” scroll down to integrations. Create a new token and copy it exactly and bring it back to your WordPress site. Paste it into the empty field that says “integration token.”

** If this doesn’t work for you — it didn’t for me the first time — log out of your WordPress site and then log in again. It worked for both websites I installed it on after logging out and back in. **

4 — Select the settings you want from the user profile, (even the publication!). Then go to your individual post and confirm when you publish that you want this piece cross-posted to Medium.

This is what the publications menu looks like within an individual post (left).

You can select whether to notify people about the post, what publication you want to add it to, and whether or not you want cross-links.

 

 

More notes — How to set up styles to work with Medium:

  • The first line of your WordPress post should be an H4 to render as a sub-title on Medium.
  • H1 and H2 styles show up as the large text (T) option in Medium.
  • H3 through H5 styles should up as the small text option in Medium.
  • A blockquote shows up as a small quote in Medium.
  • I haven’t yet figured out how to make a big quote come through in Medium.
  • Once you finish a post in WordPress and press publish, any edits you make to the post won’t update over on the Medium site.

How to publish to both Medium and WordPress at the same time.

Posted on by Sarah K Peck

This was meant to be a private test of the Medium-Wordpress plugin. But I blasted everyone instead.

If you’re looking for how to post to both WordPress and Medium at the same time, check out this article I wrote all about it:

How to Link Your WordPress Website To Also Publish on Medium

30 Ways to Get Your First 1,000 Subscribers: Free List Building Guide

Posted on by Sarah K Peck

Here are a few ways to attract and grow your first 1,000 subscribers.

The hardest part of growing your product or business can often be the first part. How do you get your first few subscribers? How do you go from zero to one… to 10, 100, or one thousand?

Before I go any further, I have to reiterate what I say in my classes and other places the most important part of content marketing is creating content that is exceptional — valuable, useful, helpful, and share-worthy. If you don’t have great content, then the strategies below aren’t going to work.

Ask yourself: “Would I share this?” This is part of our metric for whether or not a post is great. We don’t always get it right, but we’re learning as we go. We want to deliver extremely valuable, useful, intriguing, thoughtful content that helps you get more of what you want. If we wouldn’t share it with our friends, then you probably won’t share it with yours.

Once you have great content, however, how do you share it?

How do you get your first 1,000 subscribers? Here are some of the tactics and tools that have worked for us across many of our projects:

1. Tell your friends and colleagues about it.

You would be surprised how many people build something and then… expect people to show up. You have to invite them to come see what you’re doing. Send people personal emails or messages telling them exactly what you’ve built, why you think it’s useful for them, and what you’d like them to do with it.

You probably are connected to at least 100, if not 300 people that you can reach out to and let them know what you’re working on. Don’t spam everyone over and over again, but definitely tell them once about what you’re working on.

The trick? Ask people directly to sign up. Don’t expect them to sign up. Write a note to them that says, “I’m starting a newsletter about [TOPIC] and I think you might enjoy it. I’d love it if you signed up!”

2. Ask your friends and network to share it.

Email them and say, “I’m building this new thing, and I’d love to reach more people who would find this useful. Would you help me spread the word by reaching out to 5-10 people who might find this really helpful?”

Email and referrals are two of the best ways to grow signups. One email from a trusted resource to 5-10 people will generate far more signups than a random Facebook post that most of your network misses.

3. Comment helpfully on related blogs and other posts with similar questions.

Content marketing is about creating relevant conversations, not about shouting from the rooftops. Join the conversation by finding active voices and contributing wisdom and ideas to the community.

4. Become an active member in existing communities doing similar work.

Want people to comment on your blog post? Go comment on other people’s work!

Don’t comment with spam or links back to your site. Be genuinely interested in what other people are doing and ask them about their work and projects. Give them feedback on their work and share tools and tips to help them, not you.

5. Use paid advertising (Google, Facebook).

It’s fairly easy to set up a Facebook or a Google Ad, and for a few hundred bucks, you can drive signups. Make sure that you’re driving traffic to a page that has a big sign-up button. Don’t drive traffic to get more “likes” on your Facebook fan page or to your website generally, however. Drive them exclusively to an offer (that they sign up with by email) or a place to sign up directly.

6. Make subscribing really easy to do.

It always surprises me when I go to a site and I have a ton of trouble finding out how to subscribe. Add a link in your website’s header, footer, sidebar, at the end of blog posts, in a feature bar, in the middle of blog posts, in the author bio, as a pop-up, as a hello-bar, etc. (You don’t have to do all of them, but do at least 4 different places and test which one is getting the most signups.) Add a page exclusively for signing up.

Psst: you can subscribe to this website right here:

[mc4wp_form id=”10463″]

7. Add a link to your social profiles.

Add a link to your newsletter or mailing list across all of your social profiles:

Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Quora, Google+, Reddit, etc.

8. Add the site to the footer of your email, and invite people to sign up.

Use every single email you send as an opportunity to tell people about your projects.

9. Build a landing page exclusively for getting subscribers.

Dedicate a landing page exclusively for signups, like The Merchant Home does here:

26-Ways-To-Get-First-1000-Subscribers-The-Merchant-Home-Sign-Up-Newsletter

10. Before you launch have only a landing page, dedicated to getting subscribers.

Put up a landing page before you launch. Create mystery and intrigue. Invite people to sign up before you’re ready. Use LaunchRock or another service to help you build this.

11. Force people to enter their email address before they get any content.

I don’t personally recommend this (in fact, I typically hate it), but it works for many people. I’d be remiss to not include it in this list. Use sparingly. People might hate you because of it.

If you’re more generous, use a smart opt-in that only shows people the banner occasionally, or remembers if they’ve already subscribed. (That *should* be the setting on this website, for example, so if you’re a subscriber, you won’t get spammed with requests to subscribe again.)

12. Add urgency or a deadline.

Tell people what they’ll miss out on if they don’t sign up right now.

13. Host a webinar or a free event.

People love getting free stuff, and we love seeing what’s happening behind the scenes. Set up a free webinar to share what you’re working on (or your “10 best strategies for X”) and have people sign up with an email address to be notified when the webinar launches and when you do similar things in the future.

14. Make the offer really clear. What do they get for subscribing?

Make a compelling offer for what people get by signing up. “Great content” isn’t a compelling offer. What, exactly, are you going to give to them? Why should they spend their precious time with you, and let you into their inbox?

Today’s inboxes are analogous to our living rooms. We don’t let just anyone come in. We invite people in that we want to have a conversation with. Why will they let you in?

15. Give away a free incentive for subscribing.

Make an offer that people can’t refuse. Some of our best signups come from our free offers — I’ve created a free yoga workshop (21 days of stick-figure yoga drawings), a free writing series, and am building an e-book all about the art of asking!

16. Get really clear on who you want to connect with and why.

Why do you want to connect with them? What is their pain point? And why what you have to offer is different, better, and crazy-useful to the people who need it?

17. Add exit intent popups/offers.

SumoMe is a great way to add a smart pop-up to your page, and PopUp Ally is also a great tool. An “exit intent” popup only shows up when the reader demonstrates an intent to leave your page (like moving their cursor to close the window or type in a new URL in the browser). You can “capture” people who are leaving with a bright, colorful exit-intent popup like this:

ScreenFlow

18. Get people to write for you.

Ask people to guest-post and publish with you. A great way to have people share your website is by asking them to contribute to it. Build your audience by utilizing other people’s existing audiences. They’ll share your site when they share links to their work that’s published on your site.

19. Syndicate your content.

Most of the content in the world, wide, web (that big old place) is only seen by a few thousand people, at most. Get your content shared by distributing it broadly. The same piece of content can be used in 10 different places — syndicated as a column, a blog, excerpts on LinkedIn, re-posts on Medium, etc. Content isn’t precious; you can share it in many, many locations.

But make sure you put a sign-up link in each of those locations!

20. Guest post, publish, and write for other people’s websites.

The best way to grow your audience is to play off of other people’s audiences that they’ve already built. Submit awesome content to sites that already have medium-to-big-audiences and watch your traffic grow.

21. Write a monthly column not on your own website, but a well-known website.

HuffPo, Forbes, and many other websites are often looking for monthly columnists and contributors. Build your web presence by writing for someone else — and capturing emails with a freebie on your own website.

22. Join social conversations.

Chime in helpfully in conversations and share your knowledge freely. Respond to and upvote other people’s work. This builds trust and reciprocity and people notice it when other people pay attention to them.

23. Use LinkedIn.

LinkedIn has often one of the best referral sources for our content and for business-related sharing. Use it to syndicate your content. Write blog posts on LinkedIn on a different publishing schedule from your regular content release schedule.

24. Go to conferences

A great way to connect with more people online is to connect with more people offline. A great way to meet a lot of people all at once is to go to a conference that’s about your subject area or business topic.

25. Go to meetup groups

Meet people, meet people, meet people!

26. Do a guerilla marketing campaign.

Sideway chalk up 100 different blocks in your city. Paste hundreds of stickers on the subway. Put fliers up at your local coffeeshop or doctor’s office. Get out, be heard, be seen.

27. Join online events, and join chats (like Twitter Hashtag chats) to meet more people in your target market.

Twitter chats are an awesome way to join a conversation and meet people without leaving your living room.

28. Write an email newsletter.

Give people something new to read every month, or a round-up of your favorite stuff on the web. You don’t have to write original content to have a compelling newsletter; if you link up the top 10 reads each month related to your subject area, that can be a great read. Email marketing is about connecting with people over email; it’s up to you to figure out what way you’ll use email to fit your businesses needs.

29. Do round-up posts with best-of-the-web shouts:

Write up a post with the “Top 10 Best Ways to Grow Your Email List,” and include, say, this post. Then write to each of the people you’re linking up and tell them that you’re including them in your feature article.

30. Make use of websites that share news and products, like Product Hunt or ThunderClap:

Get all of your friends and family onboard to help with a guerilla campaign to share your work in one big wave of energy. Time out when you’re sharing something on ProductHunt and then ask them all to like, upvote, or share the article at the same time. The dedicated attention will help push the new post up in the rankings and likely help get your project more visibility.

(But big warning: don’t link directly to your product, otherwise some websites will track those votes as spam. Hacker News and Product Hunt both dock you credibility if everyone’s voting from the same link. It’s way better to share with your friends that your product is up on the website, but have them search and find it themselves.)

And this brings us back to where we started, which is worth repeating:

31. Write amazing content.

This goes without saying, but can be very hard to do.

Give people a reason to read, use, and share your stuff. It’s worth the time — and it’s what builds your audience for the long-term.

Routine

Posted on by Sarah K Peck

Every night, after a day’s worth of pumping milk for my baby, my husband takes the pump from my hands and washes it out in the sink with the special brush.

He shakes it dry, clean, ready for the next day. He says it’s one of the ways he can help with this job that is so much mine. It’s our routine. I pump, he cleans it up. We tuck into bed.

Every morning, after I drop the baby at daycare, I exercise. First things first. I take care of my body. Leo and I walk down the sidewalks by the park and we buzz into the daycare center. I smile and wave at him and he babbles at the daycare ladies. Morning, baby, daycare, exercise.

It’s the routine.

On the weekends, we try to make a stew in the Fall on Sundays. Leo is currently napping, I’m in flannel, writing, and Alex is in the kitchen, chopping up vegetables for a fall stew. We got one creuset deep pot at our wedding as a gift from one of Alex’s mentors, and the blue pot has been filled with stews and soups and creamy vegetables more times than we can count. We fill the pot with a stew and eat out of it as the week goes by. It feeds us and it fuels us.

We enjoy the variation and we sink into the routine.

A routine is a sequence of actions, regularly followed. It can be a routine that you follow in a dance (like a tap routine), or a series of steps you perform as part of a program. It’s often done on the regular, rather than as a special occasion.

“He settled down into his routine of writing and work.” 

“She got into the daily routine of exercise.” 

The word comes from “route,” or a regular, carved-into-the-earth way of getting there. Roads are carved from steady use and repetition. The road becomes a regular way of being.

We carve out our routines, and then our routines provide space for our craft to expand.

My little one loves having a routine. He’s out of the newborn phase (although still a baby), and thrives when he’s given regular naps and feedings. A day of good naps can be the difference between a smiley, content baby, and my fussy, crying-and-wiggling baby. Both are the same kid, on different routines.

Designed well, a routine lets me get more of what I want. I am as many words as I make space to sit down and write. If I spend all of my time thinking about what I’m going to do and when I’m going to do it, I’ve spent my time thinking, not doing. The routine lets me forget the path and get into the substance.

A routine is a way of being. How do you show up in the world? What are the patterns of your life, of your work, of your being?

More than an intention for a day, or a desire for the week, is the importance of setting up good habits. A routine is the invisible structure that lets us dig into what we want to do. Rather than rely on motivation or inspiration — we can settle into the gold that is habit formation.
This Fall, I’ve been craving routine more than anything.

Putting on and choosing (or not choosing) your clothing is a routine. In our household, we’re eliminating most of our clothing (my husband and I share a closet together — one closet, and we each have half of a dresser). We stick to a few basic outfits to stay simple. Why? Because we want to choose ideas and creativity in our work over thinking about year’s worth of clothing choices.

I exercise at the same time every day as part of a routine.

A pattern for the day, a pattern for the work, a system of organization, a structure that provides clarity — and freedom. A cadre, or a frame, can be more freeing than the idea of unlimited freedom.

By creating a routine, I can expand.

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What’s your routine? What are your habits and ways of being? This post is part of the Monthly Writing Prompts — check out October’s theme, here.
Get monthly writing prompts in your inbox by signing up for the newsletter, here.

October Monthly Writing Group: Routine

Posted on by Sarah K Peck

Last week I posed a question in a few writing groups I’m in: would a monthly writing theme be helpful to you as a writer?

Do you want to write about a topic, a subject, or an idea together?

The answer was a resounding yes.

A monthly framework to write: join me for a new theme, each month.

So, let’s write together each month around a topic or a theme. Each month, I’ll put forward a topic for consideration with a call to write.

What’s in a monthly writing prompt?

  1. Read below to find out this month’s theme.
  2. Take the theme, explore it, and anytime this month (October 2016) write a poem, essay, or reflection of your choosing. You can take photos, post on Instagram, share on Twitter, or publish an essay.
  3. Leave a link to your work in the comments on this post. Share it using the hashtag #MoWriting (it’s short for “More Writing” and “Monthly Writing.”)

We can all read through the posts (check the links in the comments!) and get to know more of each other’s work and writing.

October’s writing theme: routines

Welcome to October, a time for introspection, reflection, and turning inwards.

Keeping in line with the idea of a monthly theme (which is itself a pattern and a routine), the first theme is all about Routine.

  • What does it mean to have a routine?
  • What does your routine look like?
  • What is routine, and what is not?
  • Does having a routine help you? When does having a routine not help you?
  • What are the routines in your relationships, your partnerships
  • What is your routine in your work?
  • Where do you want more, or less, structure and habit?

I find myself craving more routine as I take off on my next business adventure (yes, it’s happening already.) I’m drawing and detailing and designing in notebooks. I’m creating structures for expansion, creating places for community.

Why I’m creating this

Writing together has always held me accountable and let me dive deeper. Rather than flitting from one idea to the next, I want a way to dive deeper into a subject and explore it through multiple posts, as well as hear ideas from other authors, writers, and creators I admire. Using monthly themes and habits has been a successful tool in my own practice.

I’m borrowing these ideas from two organizations I admire greatly: Thousand Network has monthly themes for the Thousand Women’s Circle that I’m a part of, and Holstee’s Mindful Matter blog explores monthly themes, which I adore and have written for. So I will add to the room and create a monthly theme here on this website, for anyone who wants to join.

Going deeper with community

One of my desires is to find a way to bring more people together in community. Writing a blog alone is not enough; I want my business and my practice to bring creative people together. When we work together in creative ecosystems, collaborate on work (even if the work is first done solo), and find people to be in community with, our work grows richer and stronger.

Over the past few years, I’ve had a chance to see what happens with community through our writing groups, the Grace and Gratitude workshop, and in the private mastermind that kicked off a few weeks ago. (If you want to learn more about the next round of the Mastermind and put in an application for consideration, sign up here). Each time I admire how much you grow, especially as you learn from each other. If I can design things that bring people together — in community and around ideas — I’m content.

By finding and sharing your writing with each other — and by letting you discover each other through the comments and hashtags — I hope that you’ll all get to meet more of each other. I get to meet so many amazing people through writing on this blog, and I’m searching for ways to bring this community closer together over the coming years.

The prompts are free and the love is abundant!

So, go write about your routines, push publish on your essays and images, and leave a comment below with a link to your piece.

How to Give (and Get) Great Feedback On Your Writing

Posted on by Sarah K Peck

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A lot of people have asked me about how to get feedback on their essays. How do they publish it? Who should they ask? And why do they cringe and worry so much about whether or not people will be kind and say good things (or terrible things) about their essays?

Part of the fear in publishing is about being taken down by other people and having people hate what you make. Criticism can feel absolutely terrible and really sting. So how do you craft an essay — and share it — in a way that elicits positive responses?

While I can’t ban all internet trolls from existing, I can tell you some strategic tips about asking for feedback. We rarely do it, and it’s really helpful:

Be direct about the type of feedback you want.

How to ask for feedback (as a writer).

As a writer, it’s your job to proactively say exactly what you’re looking for with a review of your essay. It works really well if you are very clear about what feedback you’re looking for.

For example, here are some types of feedback you might be looking for:

  • Idea-based feedback: what do you think of the idea? Should I keep pursuing it? Is it a good direction?
  • Structural / developmental: does it make sense? Is it organized well? Should the ideas be re-arranged or sequenced differently?
  • Copyediting/proofreading: More fine-tuned, looking for lots of little errors and any last-minute typos.

If you’re looking for idea-based feedback, you might tell someone, “Hey, I have a draft with a bunch of typos in it, it’s not polished, but I want a gut-check that the idea is on the right track. Mind taking a look (and ignoring the typos) and letting me know if you think the overall direction is interesting?” 

Because there are so many types of editing and feedback, it’s hard to know whether you want another person to tell them your ideas on the right track — or to nit-pick through the commas and the punctuation.

You have to tell people what you want.

As a writer, it’s our job to give guidance to what we want. For me, this includes sending early drafts to friends that say, “Hey friend! I’m working on a piece and this is a super rough draft. I don’t need any heavy criticism just yet, but I’d love some words of encouragement and if you could tell me if you think this essay has some good pieces in it.”

I also love asking, when I’m ready, for people to “rip it up, tear it apart, let me know how it stands up to critique.”

How to GIVE feedback:

There’s a great essay and resource from the Facebook design team about how to give great feedback. There’s a difference between critique and criticism, and it’s important to understand the difference. From the article:

  • Criticism passes judgement — Critique poses questions
  • Criticism finds fault — Critique uncovers opportunity
  • Criticism is personal — Critique is objective
  • Criticism is vague — Critique is concrete
  • Criticism tears down — Critique builds up
  • Criticism is ego-centric — Critique is altruistic
  • Criticism is adversarial — Critique is cooperative
  • Criticism belittles the designer — Critique improves the design

This is a great list for understanding how to frame your feedback. Rather than saying “your idea is shit,” for example (although why would we say that!?), we could say, “It’s hard for me to understand the idea because the sentences are really long and winding. Can you try again with shorter sentences to unpack the idea more?”

Their guiding principle for giving feedback is that “critique should not serve the purpose of boosting the ego or the agenda of anyone in the meeting.”

When you give another writer feedback, you’re helping them to build up the essay. Consider yourself a collaborator and a coach that’s helping shape and tease out the best of their ideas. What questions can you ask that will help them clarify their ideas? How can they better explain things? Where do they need to give further stories and examples? What could be simplified or seems confusing to you?

This quality of feedback is immensely helpful, and when I get it from fellow editors, I am grateful.

What about you?

When have you asked for feedback? When have you received useful feedback on your writing? What works, and what hasn’t worked? Are you nervous about sharing your writing?

I Can’t Sit Still, But When I Write,—

Posted on by Sarah K Peck

I can’t sit still, but when I write,

When I write,

I lose track of time, and space. The numbers on the clock rotate and I fall out of the month, outside of the place, out the person.

Sometimes I lose an entire day, lost in ten thousand words of a story, one word at a time, an idea so mundane, a sentence of an idea, a piece of a frame. I go through the computer screen like the back of the closet in the escape to Narnia, setting off into the world of my writing, into worlds and patterns and daydreams, teasing and tickling small thoughts to take shape and formation.

My mind moves at a different pace. Sometimes when I write, I get so lost, I forget who I am, or where I am, my leg, numbing itself to sleep, tingling me back to the present, nudging me that I’m here. I’m not really here. Sometimes when I write, I write myself into an hour of tears, of crying, crying over people who I’ve lost, people who I’ve forgotten, people who are unfairly treated.

I’ve written so many unfinished essays on racism, and cried over them all. They are broken thoughts, fragmented essays, stuttering starts of inadequate “I’m sorry’s,” and “why am I apologizing,” and “what the hell do I do?”. I’m so sorry. My friends. My community. We need to talk. We need so much more than talking

I’ve been trying to write about how friendships end, and how new friendships are formed, and why acquaintances aren’t enough, why we need people, why we need each other, what community builds, for us all. I’m trying to grasp, handle, tell what I’m feeling, share what I’m seeing, unpack the wires in my brain, I’ve been trying to articulate

I’m here,

writing.