Every night I read to my daughter.

The Hobbit, Harry Potter, The Dark is Rising . . .

Most recently, I’ve been reading her The Pages Turners trilogy (written by yours truly).  

It got me thinking about the process of rereading our own work and how our opinion about what is good, and what isn’t, changes over time.

In this episode of The Writing Coach podcast, I discuss how the ever-changing perspective we have about our own art functions at the macro and micro levels, and how you can use that perspective to get through those particularly challenging writing days.

Listen to the episode or read the transcript below:

The Writing Coach Episode #132 Show Notes

Get Kevin’s FREE book: NOVEL ADVICE: MOTIVATION, INSPIRATION, AND CREATIVE WRITING TIPS FOR ASPIRING AUTHORS.

The Writing Coach Episode #132 Transcript

Hello, beloved listeners and welcome back to The Writing Coach podcast. It is your host, as always, writing coach Kevin T. Johns.

I am recording this episode on Friday, August 19th. It’s going to be released today as well. How’s that for fresh? How’s that for a quick production? You’re hearing this the same day I recorded it. If you’re listening to the day it was released. Time, calendars, these are things that actually matter right now because given we’re nearing the end of August, it is the end of the summer. Kids are going back to school in a couple of weeks and the end of the year is only four months away. And now is the time to start asking yourself, did you accomplish the things you wanted to accomplish in 2022? If you started writing the first draft of a manuscript this year, I suspect you anticipated being done it by the end of this year.

Are you going to be, if not consider joining my FIRST DRAFT group coaching program, the outcome of the program is simple: I’m going to help you finish the first draft of your manuscript before the end of the year. And that first draft is going to read like a third draft, and it’s actually going to be fun to write. Inside FIRST DRAFT, we take distracted focus, and we turn it into focused progress on your manuscript. We take any existing skillset gaps in the fundamentals of writer’s craft, and we help develop that skillset. We fill your toolbox with craft tools that you can use to improve your writing. We take the emotional roller coaster ride with all of its ups and downs that is writing a book, and we turn it into a community environment where you are able to get your work completed with the support of a community of writers who are going to provide fun and friendship to the entire writing process.

If you want to get the first draft of that manuscript finished before the end of 2022, now is the time to join FIRST DRAFT. Head on over to my website and grab the free book I offer there: Novel Advice: Motivation, Inspiration, and Creative Writing Tips for Aspiring Authors. Get on my mailing list, hit reply, and let me know you are interested in learning more about FIRST DRAFT and I’ll get you all the information you need, but how we work, what the program offers, what dates we meet and all the information you need to make a decision about whether you want to finish that book this year or not.

Speaking of books, isn’t that what we always talk about here? For the most part,