B is for Book Coach

Once upon a time, and somehow just yesterday, I hosted a season or two of another podcast. The theme was parenting, but through the lens of the “young witch” archetype in literature. And we did it all in a weekend, holed up in an AirBnB in Memphis, TN, with stacks of books all around us and the rain quietly falling outside.

Witches or no, that work was magical.

One of the stories we centered on came from Women Who Run with the Wolves, which I hadn’t read in full before that weekend. And then I still didn’t read it in full during it…or after…for literal years. Some books need to be digested slowly, and for me, this was one.

- The slowness of story as medicine

- The intention it requires

- How the book landed for me as I finish a big project

- How finishing a big writing project might land for you

- Parting words of wisdom for the slow work of writing

I'm building steady containers to support you and your book through the slow “becoming” that is authorship. Subscribe to stay close.

Welcome back to B is for Book Coach. I'm B, midwife of big ideas and book development partner for nonfiction writers and non-writers alike. For the next few minutes, you are my author. And today, we’re making space for vulnerability.

Think about your favorite books. What are those books about?

If you sit with that question for a minute, you might come up with a long-ish answer about the depth that impacted you, the stories you were wowed by, the connections that they made.

Good books are hard to put into words.

- Pitfalls of replicating other authors

- Why we can't really know what vulnerable writing looks like

- The real role of details

- Reframing what books are about

- How boundaries make books work

Subscribe on Substack or wherever you listen to podcasts. When more of your book is ready to emerge, the space we made today will be here waiting for you. And so will I.

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A Hannah Gadsby 5 Minute Outline

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Welcome back to B is for Book Coach. Today, we’re making space for a special guided 5 Minute Outline. And this time, we're not going to outline anything at all.

There’s nothing wrong with producing things, of course. Making something tangible out of the intangible is magic, by definition.

But there’s a difference between alchemy and sleight of hand—and a true flow state is never an illusion.

There is a not-so-small part of me that wishes I could finish this episode with a formula for you. That the 5 Minute Outline or some other tool had finally unlocked the doors to the Realm of Creativity, where all is flow and flow is all.

But creativity simply needs white space, like the margins of a good book.

Inspired by Will Keiper

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In the board game Candyland, who remembers getting stuck in the Molasses Swamp for ages and ages until you finally drew a double color? It's very possible that my family or friends or even I had made up some kind of masochistic house rule in order to make the game more difficult. But it seems so clear in my mind: if you were stuck in the Molasses Swamp, you were stuck-stuck.

I would love to hear from you if you have any recollection of this game.

More importantly, I would love to hear from if you feel *stuck-*stuck on your book.

Listen through for reasons that you could be stuck that have nothing to do with procrastination, hustle, or trying to make it to the "finish line" of editing or publishing before accessing outside help.Subscribe for more

Welcome back to B is for Book Coach. Today, we’re making space, for beginnings.

I won't tell you that beginnings aren't important. The entire writing world can't be wrong (can they?). But neither will I spend time on how they are important. You already know. And that's the problem.

- The pitfalls of the pressure to get first lines right

- Why they're actually hard, and why that's ok

- Permission to start elsewhere, and where that might be

Subscribe here for weekly encouragement and insights, or subscribe on Substack for added support while your book emerges: bisforbookcoach.substack.com

Welcome back to B is for Book Coach. Today, we’re making space for more. digging.

We often face down the topics we're writing about while we're writing them. I don't mean “yes I'm writing this so of course I'm thinking about it.” I mean ordering pizza while stressed out during the last push of your book about healthy eating. Overworking while writing about the dangers of overwork. Hitting a new set of growth challenges while writing about entrepreneurial growth.

- What it looks and feels like to get in over your head on a writing project

- Revisiting a Braiding Sweetgrass metaphor

- Differences between surface level writing and deep dives

- So. much. mud.

Ready for your book to emerge? Get the Momentum you need with an upgraded subscription on Substack.

Welcome to B is for Book Coach. I'm B, midwife of big ideas and book development partner for writers and non writers alike, and today, we’re making space for a guided 5 Minute Outline.

Before I finalized this exercise and decided to go ahead with the episode, I looked for any insights Robin Wall Kimmerer had already given about her process of writing Braiding Sweetgrass. If there were contradictions or things that might make this exercise feel constraining or contrived, I wouldn’t do it.

Happily, I found what I already suspected to be true about this exercise: no matter who you are and how you write, it’s simply about bringing yourself to the page.

- Context for Mirroring Braiding Sweetgrass

- Highlights from an interview with Robin Wall Kimmerer

- Breakdown of the structure and flow of Braiding Sweetgrass

- 5 Minute Outline for an introduction based on Braiding Sweetgrass

Mentions: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=in80NAbp7Xg, https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/may/23/robin-wall-kimmerer-people-cant-understand-the-world-as-a-gift-unless-someone-shows-them-how

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Welcome back to B is for Book Coach. Today, we’re making space for digging.

Confession time: I do not think of myself as a writer.

An editor, yes. A story nerd, definitely. A creator, sometimes. An operations director, once. A mom, a doula, a midwife-in-another-life, a bit of an herbalist, a bog witch? Sure. I know I'm an excellent ghostwriter. I do not think of myself as a writer. I see something different in the nature of writer that I don't relate to.

- Writers and non-writers

- The difference in challenges

- Seeing these challenges and writing anyway

Writing a book is a weird gig, friend. If you’re feeling stuck, you’re in good company. Whether or not you’re ready to dive into writing quite yet, remember that the best authors show up fully, just as they are. That’s all it takes—and you're already doing it. Subscribe for weekly encouragement

Welcome back to B is for Book Coach. Today, we’re making space for frogging.

As a process-knitter, the product at the end just feels like a bonus compared to the process of the knitting itself. And I believe in the power of process-writing.

- What "frogging" means in knitting and in writing

- How to cut the melodrama around cutting content

- What you need to enjoy the process of writing

Hey, you. With the book that won’t leave you alone, but that you don’t quite know how to finish? Yeah, you. Don’t stay stuck alone. Subscribe on Substack for free episodes and added ways to stay supported while you write.

Welcome back to B is for Book Coach. Today, we’re making space for community.

Braiding Sweetgrass is both an ecology book told through an Indigenous lens and a book of Indigenous wisdom focused on ecological topics. And if you're like me and catching up on all of the incredible reads that made waves while you were barely treading water—I highly recommend moving this one to the top of your list. In this episode, we're going to unpack a core lesson that I learned—and am still learning—from her wisdom.

- The Ceremony of the First Salmon, and the climactic content of a nonfiction book

- Turning Attention to Intention, the importance of marking milestones with ceremony, and my mixed feelings about it all

- Where Communities Emerge, and the difference true community makes in our writing journeys

Writing for purpose first, product second? Welcome home. Subscribe for free at bisforbookcoach.substack.com for regular encouragement and an editable copy of my discovery workbook, or upgrade for more direct support.