If you’re sailing on stormy seas (literally, writerly, mentally, or otherwise), you’re going to want Jarod K. Anderson as your guide. Author, poet, and creator of The CryptoNaturalist podcast, Jarod shares his insights with us this week on his writing process, the impact of mental health on creativity, and his unconventional path to publishing success.

If you’ve ever found yourself stuck in an endless loop of edits, rewrites, and revisions, this episode is for you. We’ll explore how fear can sneak into our writing process via perfectionism, the difference between necessary and compulsive rewrites, and how to build gentle systems to finish your work and move forward with confidence.

What is a writer’s most important asset? A good teacher? A quiet room? An infinite book budget? An expensive pen? While all of these are nice, today I’m focusing on the one asset that everyone can access, freely and easily: their sense of curiosity. Even if you believe your curiosity has been stomped out long ago, we’ll talk about how to rekindle and cultivate this amazing ability.

Sometimes, when things get tough, when the haters hate and the doubters doubt, it can be difficult to summon the motivation, courage, energy, or inspiration you need to write. And sometimes, when that happens, the only thing we have left to turn to is SPITE. Find out why — and why it’s not necessarily a bad thing!

Listen: (Full episode transcript...

Listen: (Full episode transcript...

Whether you’re a seasoned novelist or a newcomer to the craft, we all come to the page and need to BEGIN. It’s easy to say “Just start,” but it’s often not that simple. This week, I have some fresh encouragement and practical tips to help you start writing with confidence.

How do you decide when to publish your creative work? Is there a point at which you say it’s “good enough”? Or do you have a tendency to polish and play around with those “last final tweaks” indefinitely? This week, we’re talking about what it means to do your best in a world where “best” is subjective and perfect doesn’t exist. Get ready!

Have you ever felt hopeless, helpless, or disillusioned about goal-setting, or found yourself asking, “Why bother?” This week, we’re looking at what happens to make us feel that way, and how to set our writing lives on the path to success going forward.

Have you ever wondered if you should self-publish your book, or go through a traditional publisher? This week, we’re weighing the pros and cons of each to figure out which method is best for you.

Do you ever struggle to focus on your writing — even on a project you actually enjoy? Whether due to internal or external factors, distraction comes to us in many different forms, for many different reasons. This week, we’re talking about tools, strategies, and habits we writers can use to find our focus again.

Have you ever noticed a disconnect in what you say you want to do, and what you actually end up doing? Because I have! This week, I’m talking about some of the reasons we might experience a gulf between our desires and our actions — and what to do about it.

This week, we’re talking about expectations and how they tint our reality and shape our experiences… and what we can REALLY expect if we want to write full-time.