Your Write Life Coach | Motivation and Momentum for Heart-Led Authors

Your Write Life Coach | Motivation and Momentum for Heart-Led Authors

By Alice Crider | Book Editor, Author Coach, Certified Life CoachArtsBooks
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Your Write Life Coach | Motivation and Momentum for Heart-Led Authors episodes

  • From Unpublished to Multi-Published: Angela Ruth Strong on Rejection, Resilience, and Writing Rom-Com at 35,000 Feet | Ep13

    I sit down with author Angela Ruth Strong — flight attendant, breast cancer survivor, and multi-published, award-winning writer of Christian romantic comedy — for a candid conversation about the real road from unpublished to multi-published.


    Angela shares her “victim ladder” framework for processing rejection, the moment a rejection nearly broke her, how she kept writing through chemo brain, and what she's learned about redefining success on her own terms.


    About Angela Ruth Strong

    Angela Ruth Strong is a multi-published, award-winning author of Christian romantic comedy (rom-com). Her books have earned a TOP PICK in Romantic Times, a Christy Award nomination, and the Cascade Award, and she has landed on Amazon bestseller lists more than once. Her novel Finding Love in Big Sky was adapted for film (aired on UPtv). Angela writes while working as a flight attendant, is a breast cancer survivor, and founded IDAhope Writers to support aspiring authors in Idaho, where she lives. Her newest release, Claire Holloway Is Winging It, is book one in her High-Flying Romance series.


    What You'll Hear In This Episode

    • The “victim ladder” — Angela's eight-step framework for moving through rejection, from denial and blame through acceptance, ownership, and forward motion
    • The rejection that “broke her” — and how that same publisher later became her publishing home
    • Why her most enjoyable book to write, Husband Auditions, came together during breast cancer treatment and chemo brain
    • How Angela wove comedy into her romance writing after the chick-lit market dried up
    • Her four examples of “spending styles” — enjoyment, stability, status, or control — and how each can shape what success looks like for a writer
    • What she wishes someone had told her: that writing is more about the personal arc than the finish line


    💎Favorite Moments


    "I felt like I had to prove myself. I felt like if I didn't become published soon enough, I'd give up on my dreams, and then they'd never happen."


    "Success for me is really enjoyment. I enjoy what I do. I enjoy meeting people. I enjoy the process."


    "It's more about my character growth, my personal arc, my personal story, than it is about success — than it is about getting to the end."


    🔖 About Claire Holloway Is Winging It

    Book one in the High-Flying Romance series, Claire Holloway Is Winging It, draws on Angela's real experience as a flight attendant — including, by her own admission, at least one real-life rogue orange juice carton.


    Connect with Angela

    🌐 AngelaRuthStrong.com

    💌 Sign up for Angela's newsletter and join her reader group on Facebook (“Strong Readers”)  for updates on new releases.


    Connect with Alice

    🌐 Website: alicecrider.com

    📗 The InkWell Collective — A community of heart-led authors, including regular writing sprints on Zoom https://www.alicecrider.com/inkwellcollective

    🐴 Coaching inquiries: [email protected]

    22 min
  • Just Say Next — Seven More Ways to Navigate a "No" | Ep12

    Before Chicken Soup for the Soul became a bestselling franchise, the original manuscript was rejected 144 times. Jack Canfield's advice for handling a pile of no's? "Reject rejection. If someone says no, just say NEXT!"


    Last episode, I talked about why rejection hurts and how to hold it as information instead of a verdict. This week, I'm back with seven more ways to actually walk through a "no" when it lands — plus a piece of my own early career story and an old baseball phrase that's changed how I think about staying in the game.


    In this episode, I cover:

    1. Let Yourself Feel It
    2. Get Curious Instead of Defensive
    3. "No" Often Means "Not Here"
    4. Reframe Rejection as Redirection
    5. Play the "What If Up" Game
    6. Don't Carry It Alone
    7. Recruit Extra Support

    Plus: the bottom line on remembering who you are, even when the rejections keep coming.


    Links Mentioned


    🔖 Mentioned in this episode: the story of Chicken Soup for the Soul's 144 rejections, as recounted by Jack Canfield (source: Literary Hub, "The Most-Rejected Books of All Time").

    🔖 Nervous system regulation list referenced from functional medicine practitioner Dr. Will Cole (@drwillcole).

    🔖 The "no hits, no runs, no errors" baseball phrase, referenced from the Baseball Almanac.


    Free Resources for You


    📒 Free Guide: Reader Avatar Worksheet Reconnect with who you're actually writing for — a beautiful reset when you've gotten tangled up in what everyone wants instead of who really needs your words. https://www.alicecrider.com/reader-avatar

     

    📒 Free ebook: Book Publishing Essentials A foundational ebook to help you navigate the publishing journey with clarity and confidence. https://www.alicecrider.com/book-publishing-essentials


    📒 Free Download: Your First 100 Readers Roadmap A step-by-step path to your first 100 true fans. No ads, no big platform, no guessing. https://www.alicecrider.com/100-readers-032026


    📗 Join The InkWell Collective — A community of heart-led authors, including regular writing sprints on Zoom. https://www.alicecrider.com/inkwellcollective


    ✅ Coaching inquiries: [email protected] or alicecrider.com

    13 min
  • Why Rejection Hurts (and What It's Really Teaching You) | Ep11

    That email. That phone call. "Thank you for your submission, but it's not a fit for our list right now." If you've ever felt your whole identity as a writer wobble after reading one of those, this episode is for you.


    This week, I'm unpacking why rejection cuts so deep — and why it doesn't mean what you think it means. I'm sharing the story of an author I coached through rejection after rejection, who eventually found her audience in the most unexpected way. I'm also getting honest about a "no" of my own that turned into one of the best collaborations of my career.


    In this episode, we talk about:

    • Why rejection is information, not a verdict
    • The very human reason rejection actually hurts
    • How to build a container for the sting, without numbing yourself to it
    • Why your identity was never supposed to depend on anyone else's approval


    Whatever rejection you're carrying right now, friend, I hope this episode helps you set it down — even just for a minute.


    🔖 Mentioned in this episode: Running on Empty Isn't Your Calling: A Whole Mom Reset for Mind, Body, and Soul (co-written with Tricia Goyer), scheduled for release April 2027


    Free Resources for You


    📒 Free Guide: Reader Avatar Worksheet Reconnect with who you're actually writing for — a beautiful reset when you've gotten tangled up in what everyone wants instead of who really needs your words. https://www.alicecrider.com/reader-avatar

     

    📒 Free ebook: Book Publishing Essentials A foundational ebook to help you navigate the publishing journey with clarity and confidence. https://www.alicecrider.com/book-publishing-essentials


    📒 Free Download: Your First 100 Readers Roadmap A step-by-step path to your first 100 true fans. No ads, no big platform, no guessing. https://www.alicecrider.com/100-readers-032026


    📗 Join The InkWell Collective — A community of heart-led authors, including regular writing sprints on Zoom. https://www.alicecrider.com/inkwellcollective

     

     

    Enjoyed This Episode? Leave us a comment or review!

     

    ⭐ Rate & Review on Apple Podcasts (iOS only)

    1. Open the Apple Podcasts app and search for the show. Tap the title to open the main show page.
    2. Scroll down to the Ratings & Reviews section and tap the stars to leave your rating.
    3. Tap Write a Review, enter your title, comments, and nickname.
    4. Tap Send to submit.
    15 min
  • What Horses Can Teach Writers About Winning Readers' Hearts | Ep10

    Readers don’t connect with your vocabulary — they connect with who you’re being on the page. In this episode, I break down three practical ways to help readers experience your writing instead of just understanding it: writing scenes instead of summaries, using concrete sensory detail, and letting vulnerability do the trust-building work that polish can’t. (There’s also a horse named Nugget involved.)


    In This Episode

    • Why readers connect with who you’re being on the page, not your vocabulary
    • The real difference between telling your reader something and letting them experience it
    • A careful, honest look at “mirror neurons” and what the science actually supports
    • Why concrete, sensory detail does more work than naming an emotion outright
    • How vulnerability — not polish — builds trust fastest
    • One simple, doable rewrite you can try in your manuscript this week
    • (Plus: what my horse Nugget unintentionally taught me about all of this)


    A Line to Sit With

    “They’re not grading your vocabulary. They’re feeling for your pulse.”


    Mentioned in This Episode

    ✍️ The line that sparked this episode — horse trainer Pat Parelli’s “Your horse is listening. Just not to your words.”


    Free Resources for You

     

    📒 Free ebook: Book Publishing Essentials A foundational ebook to help you navigate the publishing journey with clarity and confidence. https://www.alicecrider.com/book-publishing-essentials


    📒 Free Guide: Creating an Ideal Reader Avatar Reconnect with who you're actually writing for — a beautiful reset when you've gotten tangled up in what everyone wants instead of who really needs your words. https://www.alicecrider.com/reader-avatar


    📒 Free Download: Your First 100 Readers Roadmap A step-by-step path to your first 100 true fans. No ads, no big platform, no guessing. https://www.alicecrider.com/100-readers-032026


    📗 Join The InkWell Collective — for monthly masterclasses, workshops, and writing sprints. https://www.alicecrider.com/inkwellcollective

     

     

    Leave a review — it helps more heart-led authors find the show

     

    ⭐ Rate & Review on Apple Podcasts (iOS only)

    1. Open the Apple Podcasts app and search for the show. Tap the title to open the main show page.
    2. Scroll down to the Ratings & Reviews section and tap the stars to leave your rating.
    3. Tap Write a Review, enter your title, comments, and nickname.
    4. Tap Send to submit.
    15 min
  • Build Writing Momentum Without Burnout | Ep09

    From the outside, momentum looks like nothing's happening — until suddenly it is. In this episode, I take us back to my childhood, riding shotgun in my uncle's twin-engine Cessna, to unpack a truth every heart-led author needs to hear: the writers who actually finish their books aren't the ones waiting for a lightning bolt of inspiration. They're the ones who learned how to taxi — one small, repeatable action at a time.


    If you've ever felt behind, or like your progress is too small to count, this episode is your permission to keep rolling down the runway.


    In This Episode

    • The story behind my lifelong love of flying — and the slow, unglamorous taxi every plane takes before it ever lifts off
    • Four patterns I noticed in authors who build real, lasting momentum — and the doubts that usually get in the way
    • Why “one sentence a day” isn't really about the math — it's about becoming someone who shows up
    • What bestselling author John Grisham has to say about the discipline of daily writing
    • Why rest isn't the opposite of momentum — it's part of how momentum gets renewed
    • This week's micro-action invitation, and why noticing your small wins matters more than you'd think


    Quotes Worth Pinning to Your Wall


    “Most people watching from the gate can’t tell the difference between a plane that's about to lift off and one that's just rolling slowly down the runway.”


    “Momentum is made of quiet, reliable, almost boring consistency — the kind you can trust on your worst day, not just your best one.”


    Mentioned in This Episode


    Bestselling author John Grisham on daily writing discipline: “Write at least one page every day, without fail.” (a quote widely attributed to Grisham across interviews and writing-craft round-ups)


    This Week's Invitation


    Pick one micro-action — one sentence, one paragraph, five minutes with your manuscript. That's it. Not the whole chapter, not the breakthrough. Just the taxi.

    And then notice when you do it. Let yourself actually feel that small win — that's the very fuel that gets you back to the runway tomorrow.


    Free Resources for You

     

    📒 Free ebook: Book Publishing Essentials A foundational ebook to help you navigate the publishing journey with clarity and confidence. https://www.alicecrider.com/book-publishing-essentials


    📒 Free Guide: Creating an Ideal Reader Avatar Reconnect with who you're actually writing for — a beautiful reset when you've gotten tangled up in what everyone wants instead of who really needs your words. https://www.alicecrider.com/reader-avatar


    📒 Free Download: Your First 100 Readers Roadmap A step-by-step path to your first 100 true fans. No ads, no big platform, no guessing. https://www.alicecrider.com/100-readers-032026


    ***************


    📗 Join The InkWell Collective — live Zoom writing sprints and a community that cheers your small wins: https://www.alicecrider.com/inkwellcollective


    🔖 One-on-one coaching with Alice — reach out any time: [email protected] or alicecrider.com


    Let's Stay Connected


    If this episode found you today, hit subscribe wherever you're listening so you don't miss the next one. And if you have thirty seconds, a quick review helps another heart-led author find their way here, too.


    About Alice


    Alice Crider is an author coach, book editor, and certified life coach who has edited hundreds of manuscripts over the course of her career. She hosts Your Write Life Coach, a podcast for heart-led authors who are after both motivation and momentum. Her first book releases in April 2027.

    18 min
  • The Myth of Multitasking | Ep08

    You've been told your whole life that multitasking is a skill — maybe even a superpower. You put it on your resume. You wear your ability to juggle everything as a badge of honor.


    But what if it's been costing you more than it's giving you?


    In this episode, I share why multitasking is actually a myth, what it's doing to your writing, and the simple shift that can unlock more focus, more flow, and more finished pages.

     

    In This Episode

    • Why "multitasking" is really just task-switching — and why it matters
    • The hidden cost every interruption adds to your creative work
    • How fragmented attention affects the quality of your writing (not just the quantity)
    • Why multitasking steals the joy — not just the productivity
    • What Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi's concept of "flow" has to do with your manuscript
    • Four practical strategies for single-tasking your way to more meaningful pages
    • The invitation: one protected writing session that might just surprise you

     

    From the Episode

    "Friend, the well isn't dry. Your attention is just… fractured."

    "Momentum doesn't come from doing everything at once. It comes from doing the right thing, with your whole attention, over and over again."

     

    Your Invitation This Week

    Pick one writing session — just one — and protect it completely.


    Close the tabs. Put your phone in another room or flip it face down. Let the people in your household know you need an uninterrupted window. Then give that session your full, undivided attention.


    Notice what it feels like. Notice what you produce.


    That's it. Just that one experiment.

     

    Links & Resources Mentioned


    📒 Free ebook: Book Publishing Essentials A foundational ebook to help you navigate the publishing journey with clarity and confidence. https://www.alicecrider.com/book-publishing-essentials


    📒 Free Guide: Creating an Ideal Reader Avatar Reconnect with who you're actually writing for — a beautiful reset when you've gotten tangled up in what everyone wants instead of who really needs your words. https://www.alicecrider.com/reader-avatar


    📒 Free Download: Your First 100 Readers Roadmap A step-by-step path to your first 100 true fans. No ads, no big platform, no guessing. https://www.alicecrider.com/100-readers-032026


    📒 Join The InkWell Collective — A community of heart-led authors, including regular writing sprints on Zoom. https://www.alicecrider.com/inkwellcollective


    📗 Work with Alice one-on-one: alicecrider.com or email [email protected]


    📗 Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi's concept of flow — for further reading, his book Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience is the source

     

    Enjoyed This Episode? Leave us a comment or review!


    If this one resonated with you, the kindest thing you can do is leave a review wherever you're listening — it helps other heart-led authors find the show. And if you know a writer who's been living in the chaos of doing-it-all-at-once, send them this episode. It might be just what they need.


    ⭐ Rate & Review on Apple Podcasts (iOS only)

    1. Open the Apple Podcasts app and search for the show. Tap the title to open the main show page.

    2. Scroll down to the Ratings & Reviews section and tap the stars to leave your rating.

    3. Tap Write a Review, enter your title, comments, and nickname.

    4. Tap Send to submit.

     

    ***************************

    About Your Host


    Alice Crider is an author coach, book editor, and certified life coach. She has edited hundreds of books and spent decades helping writers move from stuck to published — with their voice, vision, and sanity intact. Her podcast, Your Write Life Coach, exists to give heart-led authors the motivation AND the momentum they need to do the work that matters.


    Find Alice at alicecrider.com.

    14 min
  • You Either Win or You Learn: Long-Term Thinking for Heart-Led Authors | Ep07

    What if the pressure you feel to make it happen right now is the very thing standing between you and a lasting publishing career?

     

    In this episode, I share one of the most powerful — and most overlooked — strategies in publishing: the shift from short-term thinking to long-term thinking. Through two contrasting author stories, a Nelson Mandela quote that reframes rejection entirely, and three qualities that show up in virtually every author who builds something that lasts, I unpack what it really looks like to play the long game.

     

    This isn't about slowing down. It's about building momentum that actually compounds over time.

     

    Key Takeaways

    • Short-term thinking shows up as the "now or never" mindset — rushing to publish, skipping craft development, burning bridges over rejection, and ignoring reader feedback.
    • Long-term thinking means every pitch, every rejection, and every fifteen-minute editor appointment is either a win or a lesson — never a loss.
    • The three P's of long-term thinking: Patience (with yourself, your craft, and the industry), Persistence (focus on the next right step, don't let rejection derail you), and Positivity (become someone people genuinely want to work with).
    • Authors who show up to serve — rather than to be seen — are the ones who build relationships that stand the test of time.
    • The publishing world is smaller than it looks. Editors talk. Agents remember. Who you are in the process matters as much as what you produce.

     

    Authors & Stories Mentioned


    📜 Robin Jones Gunn — Author of the Christy Miller series, which has been in print for 37 years. Her publishing journey began not from ambition, but from a desire to serve the young girls in her Sunday school class who couldn't find wholesome books to read.

     

    📜 Kathryn Stockett — Author of The Help, which sold more than 15 million copies worldwide and was adapted into a major motion picture. She submitted her manuscript to at least 50 agents before landing representation. (Writer's Digest has reported the number was closer to 60.)

     

    📜 Joanna Weaver — Author of Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World (over 1 million copies sold) and four additional bestsellers, written over 25 years.

     

    This Week's Invitation

     

    Take one area of your publishing journey where you've been operating from short-term thinking — a pitch you gave up on too fast, a manuscript you shelved after one rejection, a community you stopped showing up in — and look at it with long-term eyes.

     

    Ask yourself: What's the lesson in it? What's still possible if I stay patient and persistent?

     

    Free Resources for You


    📒 Free ebook: Book Publishing Essentials A foundational ebook to help you navigate the publishing journey with clarity and confidence. https://www.alicecrider.com/book-publishing-essentials


    📒 Free Guide: Creating an Ideal Reader Avatar Reconnect with who you're actually writing for — a beautiful reset when you've gotten tangled up in what everyone wants instead of who really needs your words. https://www.alicecrider.com/reader-avatar


    📒 Free Download: Your First 100 Readers Roadmap A step-by-step path to your first 100 true fans. No ads, no big platform, no guessing. https://www.alicecrider.com/100-readers-032026


    📒 Join The InkWell Collective — A community of heart-led authors, including regular writing sprints on Zoom. https://www.alicecrider.com/inkwellcollective


    Enjoyed This Episode? Leave us a comment or review!


    ⭐ Rate & Review on Apple Podcasts (iOS only)

    1. Open the Apple Podcasts app and search for the show. Tap the title to open the main show page.
    2. Scroll down to the Ratings & Reviews section and tap the stars to leave your rating.
    3. Tap Write a Review, enter your title, comments, and nickname.
    4. Tap Send to submit.
    13 min
  • Keep the Flame - You Don’t Have to Choose Between Your Life and Your Calling | Ep06

    You’ve probably said it. Maybe you’ve said it this week: “I just don’t have time to write.” In this episode, I lovingly, firmly push back on that story — because what looks like a time problem is almost always something deeper.


    Drawing on my own experience building an online course in the margins of a very full life, and honoring the legacy of my friend Beverly — a writer who published four books while living with a debilitating illness — I make the case that protecting your calling isn’t selfish. It’s an act of stewardship. And it starts with one decision: to stop treating your writing like it doesn’t count.


    What You’ll Hear in This Episode

    • Why “I don’t have time” is almost never really about time
    • My personal story of building my first online course in the margins of a full corporate life — and what it cost me, and what it gave me
    • The story of Beverly: a writer who published four books despite a debilitating illness
    • Why your calling is not one more demand on your life — it’s what fills you up
    • What “tending the flame” actually looks like in a busy, full, real life
    • The voice-to-text trick that keeps your creativity alive even on your most time-starved days
    • A permission slip exercise you can do right now — yes, even while you’re listening


    Key Takeaway


    “You don’t have to choose between your life and your writing. You just have to stop treating your writing like it doesn’t count — and stop treating yourself like you don’t count.” — Alice Crider


    This Week’s Invitation


    Pick one flame-tending ritual — just one — and put it on your calendar like an appointment you actually keep. Then tell someone. Accountability is how intentions become action.


    Some ideas to get you started:

    📗 15 minutes at the kitchen table before the house wakes up

    📗 A voice memo captured on your lunch break or school pickup run

    📗 One paragraph written before bed

    📗 A voice-to-text capture of your ideas on the go — then edit it later when you have time to sit


    Your Permission Slip

    As I say in this episode: nobody is going to give you permission to protect your calling. You have to give it to yourself.


    Finish this sentence — out loud if you can:


    “I give myself full permission to ________.”


    Write it down. Say it like you mean it. Because you do.


    Free Resources for You


    📒 Free Guide: Creating an Ideal Reader Avatar

    Reconnect with who you're actually writing for — a beautiful reset when you've gotten tangled up in what everyone wants instead of who really needs your words.


    📒 Free Download: Your First 100 Readers Roadmap

    A step-by-step path to your first 100 true fans. No ads, no big platform, no guessing.


    🖊️ Come find your people

    Longing for a community where authenticity is actually the strategy — not just a pretty word on a website? That’s The InkWell Collective. There’s a seat for you. → https://www.alicecrider.com/inkwellcollective


    🖊️ Go deeper

    Ready for the work that goes straight to the heart of what’s holding you back? I offer private coaching to help you become the dynamic author you’re meant to be — in your writing, on your platform, and in the way you talk about your work. → alicecrider.com


    Don’t miss what’s next

    If this resonated, hit subscribe wherever you’re listening. New episodes are on the way.


    You’ve got a story worth telling and a message to deliver. Keep writing, friend.

    11 min
  • Faith It ’Til You Make It: The Blind Spot Between You and Your Calling | Ep05

    What if the wall between you and the work you were made to do isn’t your writing, your marketing, or your platform at all — but something much closer to home?


    In this episode, I get honest about what this show is not about (writing tips, marketing hacks, the usual strategies) and what it’s really for: calling you up to your highest self-expression. I share my story of chasing my dream of becoming an editor, the fake-it-til-you-make-it season that nearly got me fired, and how almost losing that job became the catalyst that revealed the blind spots I’d built without even knowing it.


    Because here’s the hard-and-hopeful truth for heart-led authors: that glass ceiling? You put it there. And the moment a blind spot is revealed for what it is, it can disappear — leaving wide-open space you never dared to dream of.


    In this episode

    • Why the wall you’re fighting almost never lives where you think it does
    • The difference between striving harder and getting aligned — and why alignment is what actually creates momentum
    • How my near-firing became the turning point toward coaching, freedom, and her calling
    • Three honest invitations to move you forward this week (not a method — just truth)


    The three invitations

    1. Name your heart’s desire — if time and money were no object and you knew you couldn’t fail, what would you want? Don’t edit it. Just name it.
    2. Step into it — picture who you get to become when that dream is fulfilled, then do the one thing that person would do this week.
    3. Faith it ’til you make it — not fake it. Stop speaking against your dream and start standing in agreement with who you’re becoming. Faith isn’t denying reality; it’s trusting that the promise is greater than your present circumstances.


    “They were never the ones who hustled the hardest. They were the ones who got aligned — aligned with their calling, their voice, their truth. And alignment creates unstoppable momentum.”


    Free Resources for You

    📒 Free Guide: Creating an Ideal Reader Avatar

    Reconnect with who you're actually writing for — a beautiful reset when you've gotten tangled up in what everyone wants instead of who really needs your words.


    📒 Free Download: Your First 100 Readers Roadmap

    A step-by-step path to your first 100 true fans. No ads, no big platform, no guessing.


    Come find your people

    Longing for a community where authenticity is actually the strategy — not just a pretty word on a website? That’s The InkWell Collective. There’s a seat for you. → https://www.alicecrider.com/inkwellcollective


    Go deeper

    Ready for the work that goes straight to the heart of what’s holding you back? I offer private coaching to help you become the dynamic author you’re meant to be — in your writing, on your platform, and in the way you talk about your work. → alicecrider.com


    Don’t miss what’s next

    If this resonated, hit subscribe wherever you’re listening. New episodes are on the way.

    You’ve got a story worth telling and a message to deliver. Keep writing, friend.

    13 min
  • What Readers Actually Want From You (Hint: It’s Not Perfection)| Ep04

    You’ve poured yourself into your writing. You’ve revised, wrestled, and stayed up too late getting it right. And still — crickets. Polite nods. A readership that doesn’t quite connect the way you hoped.


    Here’s what I’ve noticed after working with writers and manuscripts for years: most of the time, the gap isn’t about the quality of the writing. It’s about whether the writing is speaking to what the reader actually feels.


    In this episode, I talk about felt needs — what they are, why they matter, and how learning to enter through your reader’s door changes everything about how you write and how deeply you connect.


    In This Episode

    • What a felt need really is — and why writing to it is the difference between prose that lands and prose that doesn’t
    • The pattern I keep seeing in gifted writers who aren’t yet connecting with their readers
    • Why readers don’t need you to be perfect — they need you to be real
    • Three things that work, every time: get curious about your reader’s interior world, be real before you are right, and lead them somewhere
    • The story of an author who transformed my life — by basically telling me I was the problem


    A Line Worth Sitting With


    “The writers who connect most deeply are not the ones with the most polished prose. They’re the ones with the most honest hearts.”


    This Week’s Invitation


    Think about your current project — your book, your blog, whatever you’re working on right now. Ask yourself honestly:


    “Am I entering through my reader’s door? Am I focusing on their felt need, or am I coming from mine?”


    You don’t have to rewrite anything today. Just sit with the question.


    Links & Resources


    📒 Free Guide: ⁠Creating an Ideal Reader Avatar⁠

    📒 Free download: ⁠⁠Your First 100 Readers Roadmap⁠⁠

    📒 Work with Me — If you’re realizing there’s a gap between what you’re writing and what your reader needs, Alice’s coaching helps you find the blind spots keeping you from the bigger picture: alicecrider.com

    💠 The InkWell Collective — A community of heart-led authors committed to writing with honesty and intention. Authenticity isn’t just a word there — it’s how members show up for each other and for their readers https://www.alicecrider.com/inkwellcollective


    *************************************

    Enjoying the Podcast?


    If this episode meant something to you, would you share it with a writer friend who needs to hear it? Think of someone who’s been pouring their heart into their writing and wondering why it’s not landing. Send it their way.


    And if you have a minute, leaving a review helps more heart-led authors find their way here. I’m genuinely grateful for every single one.


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    About Your Write Life Coach


    Your Write Life Coach is hosted by Alice Crider — author coach, book editor, and certified life coach. Alice has worked with hundreds of authors and manuscripts over the years, and she brings that perspective to every episode: not as the expert with all the answers, but as someone who has witnessed the full arc of the writing journey and knows what it looks like from the inside.


    New episodes drop every Monday. Subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts so you never miss one.


    Keep writing. Keep showing up. Your story matters. Your message can change lives.

    11 min

About Your Write Life Coach | Motivation and Momentum for Heart-Led Authors

From the publisher's feed

Welcome to Your Write Life Coach! A podcast where heart-led authors of non-fiction, fiction, and memoir go from stuck and overwhelmed to aligned and unstoppable.