September 24, 2025 • 41 mins
The biggest challenge for most writers isn't talent or ideas—it's simply showing up. Ever meant to write but somehow the coffee, inbox, or laundry won instead? You're not alone.
In this deep dive into the psychology of writing consistency, I explore the three major obstacles that keep us from getting our butts in the chair: fear, energy depletion, and what I call the "lizard brain." Rather than beating ourselves up for lacking willpower or discipline, I offer practical, proven strategies to make your writing sessions nearly inevitable.
Fear keeps many writers perpetually stuck in "research mode," avoiding the terrifying blank page. The solution isn't to "man up" but to break projects into baby steps small enough they no longer trigger fear. Finding community—whether through writing groups or mentors—normalizes your experience and provides both emotional support and practical strategies.
For energy struggles, I suggest examining whether your current project truly excites you and scheduling writing sessions as non-negotiable appointments at your peak creative times. As for the lizard brain's constant search for instant gratification over hard work? Develop a personal "showing up ritual" that bridges the gap between intention and action.
My own ritual involved bagels, coffee, and the New York Times before transitioning to writing. Yours might include meditation, journaling, or finding the perfect environment. Whatever works for you becomes your personal strategy for winning that crucial moment of decision when you're on the knife edge between showing up and doing something else.
The magic happens when you combine these strategies into a personalized weekly writing routine. Remember to be kind to yourself—the goal isn't perfection but a sustainable level of happy productivity.
Ready to transform your relationship with writing? Pick one strategy from this episode to test this week. Your future self (and manuscript) will thank you.
We're excited to announce the launch of our new website: 12weekyearforwriters.com
To celebrate, you can join the 12 Week Year Writers membership for 50% off the first three months.
ABOUT TREVOR THRALL & THE 12 WEEK YEAR FOR WRITERS
- Subscribe to get our free Quick Start Guide at 12weekyearforwriters.com
- Join our community at 12weekyearforwriters.com/membership
- Register for a live workshop at 12weekyearforwriters.com/events
- Connect with Trevor on Linked In
My team and I help writers get their writing done. If you're stuck, it's not a knowledge problem. It's not a skill issue. And it's not a motivation or willpower thing. You know what you need to do and how to do it. The problem is consistent execution: getting the writing done week in and week out.
With the 12 Week Year for Writers system, you'll create a routine that helps you write more, and more happily, than ever before.
Thanks for listening!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Hi, welcome to the 12-Week Year for Writers podcast
.
I'm Trevor Thrall.
If you enjoyed today's episode,please submit a review wherever
you get your podcasts and forupdates on the podcast and other
writing resources.
You can subscribe to thenewsletter at
12weekyearforwriterscom.
Have you ever had that morningwhere you meant to write, but
(00:24):
somehow the coffee or the inboxor maybe even the laundry won
instead.
Ah, yeah, me too.
We all want to writeconsistently.
It's easy to dream about it,but it's actually pretty hard to
get your butt in the chair.
I think it's a universalstruggle for writers.
So today I want to dig into whyshowing up is so hard and offer
(00:49):
some practical and provenstrategies you can use to make
your writing inevitable.
And by the end of this episode,I want you to take away at
least one tool that you can putto work this week.
Alright.
(01:15):
So why is it so tough to sitdown and write?
I mean, it seems pretty simpleSit down, write.
Well, there are an infinitenumber of reasons if you really
dig into it.
But today I want to focus onthree really major players that
I talk to writers about all thetime, and those are fear, energy
(01:37):
and your lizard brain.
Let's talk about fear first, andwe've all been there.
Starting a book or some projectthat you've always meant to
write but haven't started yetcan be terrifying.
Starting a master's thesis or adissertation is terrifying Heck
.
I remember being terrified ofwriting term papers in junior
(02:00):
high.
When you're scared, one of themost common reactions is just to
avoid the thing that's scaringyou.
Stuff it in the closet.
Come up with a reason.
You have to do something elsefirst, whatever it is, so that
you don't have to feel thosefeelings of terror.
And I've spoken to a ton ofpeople who have told me that
(02:20):
fear is a big reason that theydon't show up the way they want
to.
Second big reason I hear a lotabout is energy or motivation.
You know, we're all crazy busyand for many of us writing comes
after a long day of work,family exercise, other
(02:40):
obligations, and for as manywriters as complain about not
having enough time to write,just as many complain that they
don't have the energy or themotivation when they finally do
have time to sit down and write,and so they are often sort of,
you know, deterred from sittingdown because they don't feel
(03:02):
like they're going to have theenergy.
And I think that shades intoburnout when people just don't
have the energy to makethemselves sit down at all.
And finally, let's talk aboutyour lizard brain, and here I'm
talking about the evolutionarychallenge that our brains
(03:22):
present to doing hard things.
If you've read the weeklywriting routine workbook or
listened to the podcast for awhile, you've heard me talk
about this before.
But you is actually two peoplein the moment you and routine
you.
You know, in the moment you isthe one who wants to scroll
snack nap, allergic to hard work, love shiny distractions and
(03:42):
short-term rewards.
Routine you, on the other hand,is the planner, the strategist,
the part of you who knows thatwriting is important and isn't
allergic to hard work and isable to set things up so that in
the moment you doesn't have tofight so hard.
We're all, both people, but westruggle.
(04:04):
We struggle to show up when wedon't spend enough time.
As routine you thinking abouthow to make life easier for in
the moment you.
If we don't do that, then whenthe time comes to make the
decision to pick up your bag andhead to the coffee shop or to
sit down with the computer, openup your work in progress, in
the moment you is going to sayhey, wait a minute, that sounds
awfully hard.
I'd rather scroll through somesilly dog videos on Instagram,
(04:28):
and that's what you're going todo, right?
So just in brief, those arethree of the big reasons that,
in various flavors, I hear aboutall the time making it
difficult for people to puttheir butts in the chair and
write, and unfortunately, whenwe're dealing with these
challenges, most of us reach fortraditional I'll call them
(04:50):
traditional strategies that justdon't work.
When people feel fear, they yellat themselves to man up and get
over it.
It's silly to be afraid ofwriting.
When people feel burnt out or alack of motivation, they just
yell at themselves to getpsyched up.
Just do it.
You know you want this.
And when people let theirlizard brain talk them out of
(05:11):
writing, they yell at themselvesand tell themselves not to be
so lazy.
They make resolutions andpromise themselves that they'll
do it next time, and the endresult of all the yelling is A
people just generally feel worseabout themselves, but B they
become demoralized and even lesslikely to write.
And so the end result is thatthis doesn't solve any problems.
(05:34):
It often makes things worse,and the reason these approaches
the yelling.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
Fail is pretty simple .
Speaker 1 (05:42):
It's aimed at the wrong issue.
The problem isn't that you're awimp or unmotivated or lazy or
lacking willpower, and theanswer is not that you need a
personality transplant, right.
The key is that you need toolsand a routine that make life
easier on in the moment you.
That's the key to consistentexecution, to consistent writing
(06:05):
, and the good news is that, nomatter what your particular
challenge is today, whether it'sfear or energy or your lizard
brain, there are strategies thatcan help you rig the game in
your favor, right, and you don'tneed to change who you are.
You just need to change yourroutines.
So, let's just talk through somestrategies that use this
(06:28):
principle, build on thisprinciple to help you get your
butt in a chair on a regularbasis, depending on which of
these things you're dealing with.
All right, dealing with fearwhen I was early on in my
dissertation writing phase oflife.
When I was early on in mydissertation writing phase of
life, the dissertation was sucha big and complex project I had
(06:49):
never done anything close to ascomplicated before and I
actually had troublecomprehending the full scope of
the project in my head, like Icouldn't say the point of it and
I couldn't summarize it tidilyfor you like in an elevator
speech.
For a long time I would wake upevery morning and try to write
(07:14):
it over again so that Iunderstood the theory I was
trying to explain and theargument I was trying to make.
It was wiggly, squiggly and Iwas afraid it was terrifying.
And later, when I was workingwith graduate students of my own
, I came to call this the MountFuji problem.
If you look at the wholemountain at once and try to
imagine thinking about climbingto the top and you're staring at
(07:36):
the whole mountain, you knowthe whole majestic awesomeness
of it.
It's terrifying, right?
You don't tell yourself.
You know, climb a mountain isnot a task, it's a project.
It's a big, scary project.
And if you think about the big,scary project it's hard to
start, and so that kind of fearcan definitely be paralyzing,
(07:58):
and in the writing case inparticular, this kind of fear
has a very particular symptomwhich we see all the time, which
is people who are scared oftenstay in research mode for a very
long time.
Oh, I'm just taking more notes,oh, I'm doing more
world-building.
Oh, I don't have an interviewedenough people.
Oh I haven't got enough data.
Whatever it might be, youprobably do, but you're afraid,
(08:20):
right?
So this has happened to me onmy dissertation, for sure.
I was in research mode a lotlonger than I needed to be
before I started writing thedarn thing.
If I could do it over again,man, but anyway.
So there are happily somesolutions to this kind of fear.
So I just want to talk abouttwo strategies, and the first is
just super, super obvious, andthat is taking baby steps.
(08:41):
Right, it's not rocket science,it's just brain science.
You don't climb a mountain inone step.
You don't write a book in onestep.
You take thousands of littlesteps.
And so when you say I have towrite a book, it's scary.
But if you just say I have towrite a section, it's not so
scary.
Or if you say I have to createan outline for chapter one, it
(09:02):
doesn't sound so scary.
Or if you say I have to createan outline for chapter one, it
doesn't sound so scary.
Right.
And so my very strong advice ifyou are feeling scared is to
spend more time up frontchunking your project down into
chunks and tactics, small enoughthat they just aren't scary
anymore.
And if you know outlining allof chapter one sounds too scary,
(09:23):
make it outlining a section, orjust even free writing about
what the outline should looklike.
Keep breaking it down.
I remember reading a book atone point about weight loss and
exercise and stuff and going tothe gym.
That's scary for a lot ofpeople, and so just driving by
the gym could be a good firststep.
(09:44):
Go by the gym that's scary fora lot of people, right, and so
just driving by the gym could bea good first step.
Right, go by the gym, getcomfortable being near the gym
and then go into the gym.
Don't make yourself liftweights if that's too scary at
first.
Go into the gym, getcomfortable being there, right,
and baby step your way untilit's not scary, right.
So baby stepping is usefulbecause what happens when you
(10:06):
follow this approach is that youstart to get pretty good at
understanding what things areeasier or harder for you, and
you get good then at chunkingthings up in a way that will
help you show up and get thingsdone.
So the end result of that itjust gets much easier to get
your butt in the chair.
End result of that it just getsmuch easier to get your butt in
(10:27):
the in the chair.
The second strategy for dealingwith fear that I think is
underutilized by many writersbecause, again, I think many
writers operate in isolation isfinding community.
Um, I think going it alone,doing scary things alone, is the
scariest way to do anything.
Right?
Have you ever watched a horrormovie?
Being alone in that dark, youknow, haunted house is by far
(10:49):
more terrifying than being withother people.
Right, that's why there'salways a group of meddling kids.
Right, they don't travel alone,they travel in packs, because
it's scarier to be alone.
When you share the journey withother people, other writers in
particular, your fears aboutwriting will recede because
everyone's dealing with the sameissues, the same fears.
(11:10):
You share stories, you sharestrategies.
It seems normal because it is,and your fears can just sort of
slowly fade to normal size.
Like I have challenges, I don'thave, you know, fear anymore.
I think, doing most things in agroup and I don't mean writing
(11:30):
the thing with someone else,although that might work for you
too, but doing things with somekind of writing group where
you're checking in on a regularbasis.
Just talking about the journeycan be a huge fear breaker.
And another great form ofcommunity is a mentor or a coach
, someone who's been through allthe same struggles and had all
the same fears, who can justreassure you.
(11:50):
Look, you're on the path.
It's totally normal in yourphase, you know, to have these
kinds of fears.
I had them too.
Here's how I dealt with themyada, yada.
And as you do that again, itnormalizes.
It's just something we all gothrough, and here's some actual
practical things you can do towork through it, and I bet
they're going to share both mypieces of advice too.
(12:13):
Benefit at every step ofmentors who could help.
When I hit walls and this isespecially important for me as a
young professor, when I did notknow you know what I was doing
most of the time when it came tobeing a productive publishing
(12:37):
academic and I, you know, beat apath down to a couple of my
senior colleagues' office doorsbecause I had lots of questions
for them and they were super,super, super helpful, and I've
always felt infinitely betterafter speaking to them.
Okay, all right, let's move onto challenge two lack of energy
(12:58):
or motivation that's keeping youfrom sitting in the chair, and
for this, you from sitting inthe chair, and for this, two
strategies to consider.
Right, and the first is to mindyour mojo, and what I mean by
that is that I think it'ssometimes the case that when we
(13:18):
find ourselves just uninterestedin getting our butt in the
chair like you, look over thechair and you're just like nah,
i'm'm not feeling it, I don'twant to.
That is often, in my experience,a sign that you are not very
motivated by the project inprocess, that it's not doing it
for you, and there can be a lotof different reasons for that,
(13:42):
um, but uh, you know, if it's awork project, for example, it
might just suck.
If it's a personal project, itmight be because it's not going
the way you wanted it to.
If it's because you're writingto make money and you're aiming
to try to write to the marketinstead of writing the stuff
(14:04):
that you really like, it mightbe because you don't like what
you're writing right.
And so what I would ask you todo is just to sort of do a quick
reflection about your goals,and this is you know again why
we start the 12-week year forwriters with your goals for life
.
What is your vision of yourlife, where are you trying to go
and how is the stuff you'reworking on every day and you're
(14:27):
writing getting you there right?
and if you're writing, is notgetting you where you want to be
.
That's where your energyproblems.
That's why you don't want tosit down, because you're not
excited about it.
I think you know.
To me, the goal is to beputting things on your desk to
write that you are super excitedabout, because they're either
exactly what you want to doright now or because they're
(14:49):
exactly the thing you need to doto get to where you want to be,
and when you're working on oneof those things you're in great
shape.
um, I know I've said this beforein many different venues, but I
I was a terrible student, inpart because it was hard for me
to motivate when things weren'tinteresting to me and you know,
(15:11):
it's not that I didn'tunderstand the theory that I had
to build skills in a number ofdifferent areas to get good
things and so on and so forth.
But you know, when you're youngyou're ornery about such things.
I got better at that later, butearly on, if it didn't seem
obvious to me, that was thething I needed next to get where
I wanted to go.
I didn't want to do it, and Ididn't do it very well.
(15:31):
Typically, and as I got youknow, further and further in my
academic career as a student, Igot closer and closer to things
that were very clearly helpfulto me, and so I got to grad
school and I was finally takingcourses that were directly
aligned with the things I wantedto study as a professional.
I was very excited, and when Ifinally took a stats class later
(15:56):
, when I was actually already aprofessor, because I had a
project that I wanted to do thestats for but I didn't know how
yet, I took that stats classover a summer and I was like the
most motivated I'd ever been.
It was very easy to get toclass and do that stuff right.
So I would say look, do it, doit.
Do honest self reflection.
Do you really wanna be writingthe thing you're writing?
(16:16):
And if not, throw it away,start something else if you can,
and if you can't, right, thenis there a way to find a framing
of what you're working on thatyou can be motivated by and try
to find some additionalmotivation there?
And if you can't, then you'regoing to have to reward yourself
more for doing it.
(16:38):
That's another discussion.
But that's, I think, certainlysomething to think about.
Right is are you actuallymotivated by the stuff you're
asking yourself to do?
Second way to tackle the energyproblem is to schedule like.
(16:58):
Writing is the boss.
You know I say this all thetime, but everything else is
louder than writing.
Writing is the quietest.
You know activity, this all thetime, but everything else is
louder than writing.
Writing is the quietest.
You know activity on the planet, and everything else is every
other kind of distraction.
Interruption is louder, moreurgent, and it's very easy to
put off writing to, to pick oneof those things up.
(17:20):
And so the problem with that isthat many of us end up
rescheduling our writingsessions on a dime oh, I'll
write tomorrow at 2.
Oh, no, tomorrow at 7.
Oh well, I'll push it tillThursday.
Well, this week I won't, butI'll write twice as much next
week.
That is terrible.
That is terrible for yourconsistency and it's hard to
show up, because the more of ahabit you make of making it OK
(17:43):
to change your writing schedule,the less likely you are ever to
to go sit down at the scheduledtime.
On the other hand, when you havea consistent schedule, when
this is like church, I am goingto writing and it's Monday,
wednesday, friday, from 3 to 5,and it doesn't matter what else
is happening, the world could beending.
I will be at my desk writing.
When you do that, your, yourbrain's ready, you're ready.
(18:05):
It's easier to go.
It becomes a habit.
If you don't, it's not a habit,it's easy to skip, it's very
difficult.
So scheduling like you'rewriting is the boss is key, and
I think I'll slip anotherthought in there as well, which
is that you know all of us havedifferent rhythms, different
(18:25):
points of the day and the weekand the month and the year when
we're, you know, feeling sharpand motivated and energized, and
we have other times when we'refeeling, you know, slower, like
summer maybe, maybe just feellike vacationing, right, and you
got to respect that.
So you don't want to askyourself, you don't step over
yourself on the way to a writingsession.
So, so, as you're schedulinglike writing is the boss, also,
(18:46):
remember to don't act like youare a robot.
You are a human who has rhythmsand you need to respect those
as well.
So, two ways to tackle the lackof energy kind of problem.
All right, last, last challengeis the lizard brain, and you
(19:08):
know the entire weekly writingroutine workbook is really
designed to grapple with thisproblem of in the moment.
You so I'm not going to offer acomprehensive list of
strategies and tactics here.
You know, really I can just saygo see the 12 week year for
under system.
But.
But I do want to help today.
I want to focus on helping youwin the moment of decision as I
(19:32):
like to think of it right, thatmoment when you have to commit
to sitting down or you're aboutto do something else instead,
because I think you can oftenfeel yourself on that knife edge
of like Am I about to go or amI about to not?
go.
The main strategy I want totalk about here is the showing
up ritual.
I would just call it a ritual.
(19:52):
I don't want to freak anyoneout.
I don't mean a voodoo ritual orsome kind of weird cult thing,
I just mean a routine.
But ritual sounds cool.
So I use the word ritualBecause you can have all sorts
of plans, but if you don'tactually just sit down, you know
nothing happens.
And that's where this ritualcomes in, because I think of
(20:15):
that showing up ritual as kindof the bridge between your
intention and your action.
I'm going to write, I'm writingwhat happens in between there.
How do you go from one state tothe other, and I think it's
this ritual right, and I've toldthis story before too.
But I discovered that for me toshow up, it was very useful to
(20:38):
use little inducements like foodand coffee, and so when I was
an adjunct very early on, alittle baby at home couldn't
work at home, was teaching threecourses.
I was busy teaching but I had tofinish my dissertation so I
would go in early.
In fact I would go in a walk tocampus in the dark and it was
(20:59):
winter and cold and Michigan andand I needed something to help
me get there, because that wassleeping in and staying warm was
a much, you know, preferablething, especially to my in the
moment me, and so what I did waspreferable thing, especially to
my in-the-moment me.
And so what I did was, insteadof walking straight to my office
, I walked straight to the bagelshop and I got a toasted sesame
(21:20):
bagel with peanut butter andhoney and a big mug of coffee
sometimes half coffee, halfcoffee, half hot chocolate in
the wintertime and I would go tomy office, read the New York
Times, listen to some classicalmusic.
Wouldn't rush, but when I wasdone with my bagel, that was my
sort of my key.
Okay, it's time to put thepaper down.
Time to pull my stuff, my notes, my writing, over from one side
(21:44):
of the desk to in front of meand I would finish my coffee
while I started in writing andI'd write until it was time to
get ready for class and I didn'trealize I was doing that at the
time I didn't.
That was not conscious on mypart.
I didn't do this as a designexperiment Like, oh, I wonder if
this will help me show up.
I just did it because I thinkmy animal brain knew, you know,
(22:06):
if I didn't do that I wasn'tgoing to go sit down.
But I found a way to go fromI'm going to campus I'm going to
go write to now I'm writing.
I found a bridge and I'vetalked to lots of different
writers and everyone has todevelop their own bridge.
It's different for everyone.
(22:27):
I know some people who do alittle meditation before they
write, kind of clear the brain,because we got a lot going on in
our brains, right, and most ofthem don't have anything to do
with the project you're workingon.
So you want to not have thosein your brain when you're
starting your work.
So one useful thing to do is toclear your mind.
So meditation is onepossibility.
(22:48):
Another is journaling or freewriting.
It could be on your topic,things you're thinking about
that you know this could beundirected, just like.
Here's some thoughts andconcerns I'm having about my
project right now, just to getthem out and maybe get you into
that world a little bit.
Or maybe it's the other wayaround for you you want to write
(23:08):
about something else and getthat out of your mind.
So it's not you know.
Whatever else has been on yourmind you want to put that down
so that you don't have to thinkabout it.
Whatever it is, whatever,whatever the right way to get
you into writing mode, and Ithink sometimes a little.
You know white noise.
I love coffee shops.
For me, going to a coffee shopshop was another ritual that I
(23:32):
built, like during summers, whenI was actually teaching.
I had the summers off.
I was going to get lots ofwriting done, but you know,
writing all day.
That's a tough ask.
So I would actually have amulti-show up ritual where I
start the day at a coffee shop.
I love the coffee it was great.
Maybe a muffin, the white noiseof the coffee shop, for
(23:56):
whatever reason.
I spent enough time in my lifein the coffee shop.
It was very soothing, so thatwas super helpful.
So when I hear coffee shopnoise I start to get in writing
mode.
It's just like an autonomicresponse for me.
And then, eventually, though,my butt would get sore from
sitting at that one wooden chairfor three hours.
(24:17):
So then I would get up, go getlunch and I would move to a
second location, typically thegraduate library.
I had a carol in the graduatelibrary and I would go there and
I would work for a few morehours, and I love the grad
library, it's one of my otherfavorite places in the world.
So I would treat myself as ashowing up ritual.
I would show up to a place,kind of get a fresh start in a
(24:38):
place that I loved, that made mefeel like writing.
So that was for me, butwhatever it would be for you,
the ritual is the cue that tellsyour brain okay, it's time to
write, and I cannot stressenough how important having that
sort of that last mile strategyis, because you can put lots of
writing blocks on your schedule, but making sure that, if
(25:01):
you've found that you frequentlydon't show up for your writing
sessions, it may be that whatyou need is to help figure out
that final, that final mile,that show up ritual.
How do I get myself to thisplace?
How do I get myself settled inmy writing?
So, how do I get myself inwriting mode?
(25:22):
Because, because the failure toget you know, quote, get your
butt in the chair can happen ifyou don't go.
It can happen if you don't sitdown at the plate, and it can
happen if you don't go.
It can happen if you don't sitdown at the plate, and it can
happen if you don't startwriting.
You start doing somethinginstead.
Because I've seen, boy, oh boy.
I have to tell you, when I wasat that coffee shop all those
years, I would look around whenI was on my way to the bathroom
(25:44):
looking at everyone's laptopsand this is mostly grad students
, and they're all on eBay orsome other thing and they were
not working.
I was like, what are they doing?
Well, their butts were in thechair, but their butts were not
in the chair, if you know what Imean.
So you need a little series ofshowing up strategies to help
you move from not writing tositting down to writing.
Speaker 2 (26:09):
All right, let's put it all together.
Speaker 1 (26:13):
We've talked about a number of strategies, but, more
importantly, we've identifiedwhat I think is the general
theory of victory, that is,using routine use, strategic
thinking capability to make yourwriting easier and more
enjoyable and more rewarding, sothat, in the moment, you can
get the writing done right, sothat you can show up and get
(26:34):
your butt in the chair andactually do the writing.
So now you've got a toolbox,but the real magic comes when
you combine all these differenttools into a weekly writing
routine that fits you and theway you work.
The tools of the 12-week yearare the same, but the way we
stitch them together and thespecific rituals we use to show
(26:57):
up and get the writing done arepersonal, and so that's where
the real progress is going tocome is when you combine them
into a writing routine thatworks for you.
And as you gain experienceabout thinking strategically you
know, as you gain experienceabout thinking strategically,
you know, as you gain experiencethinking strategically about
how to get your butt in thechair and how this routine works
you know your goal is to buildthis routine that maximizes your
(27:21):
likelihood of getting your buttin the chair and maximizes how
well you write once you getthere.
But I want to add, before we end, a final caveat, and that is to
remember, with all of thisstuff, to be kind to yourself no
yelling.
There is no yelling in mysystem.
The end state, the goal here isnot perfection.
We are not robots.
(27:42):
We are not looking forsuperhuman discipline.
We are looking for a humanlevel of happy productivity.
Okay, let's land the plane.
Here's my challenge for you.
I would like you to turn offthis podcast right now and do a
mini audit.
Think for a little bit aboutwhat helps you show up and what
(28:06):
things are derailing yousometimes from showing up.
But things are derailing yousometimes from showing up and
then go back through your noteshere and pick one strategy from
today's discussion and test itthis week.
Do it and if the strategy worksafter a week, keep it rolling.
If not, tweak, find another one.
Do what you need.
But your goal now is to, stepby step, build a routine that
(28:32):
helps you show up, because, atthe end of the day, getting your
butt in the chair is not aboutwillpower, it's not about
yelling at yourself.
It's about building routinesthat make your writing easier,
more enjoyable, more rewardingand eventually, inevitable.
And, of course, if you wantmore help building your own
weekly writing routine, comejoin us inside the 12-week year
(28:54):
for writers and we'll be happyto design the system with you
All right until next time, happywriting.
Speaker 2 (29:04):
The spirit of trying to make it a better book.
Speaker 1 (29:06):
Absolutely, and I rail against this lone wolf
mentality all the time.
It's not good for your writing,more or less at any stage.
I don't think it's not goodwhen you're ideating.
It's not good when you'rewriting.
It's not good when you'reediting.
It's not good when you'repromoting.
It's never good.
Don't do things alone.
It sounds cool on paper, butit's a terrible idea.
Speaker 2 (29:25):
To bring this back to the subject at hand when you go
to write a pitch letter.
This back to the subject athand.
When you go to write a pitchletter, you should think of it
as you're trying to join a teamand you will be the most
important person on that team.
Like I said, without the author, the team has nothing to do.
But you're trying to join ateam.
You're not trying to be theirleader, you're not trying to
(29:48):
accumulate servants or something.
You're trying to be theirleader.
You're not trying to, uh, youknow, accumulate, you know,
servants or something.
You're trying to join a teamand so you explain yourself and
what you have to offer.
And, uh, you know that includeseverything from the argument of
the book to the marketing ofthe book.
And uh, if you can do that in acouple of pages, you've written
a letter that will presumablyget you a book deal.
Speaker 1 (30:12):
All right, we've convinced them.
They want to write a pitchletter.
Talk a little bit about, beforewe go through, sort of a
process that you might recommend.
This is useful for people,obviously, when they're trying
to land a book deal, but we'vetalked about this before.
(30:37):
It can be useful for you evenif you plan on self-publishing
and marketing it yourself.
So you maybe just talk a littlebit about the benefits of
writing this letter.
Speaker 2 (30:48):
The benefits of writing this letter.
When I wrote my book Technologyand the End of Authority, I went
through a bunch of differentsort of conceptualizations about
how it would be organized andwhat types of arguments I would
make.
(31:08):
It was a historical survey, soit covers a bunch of different
eras and writers and talks abouttheir work, and one of the very
first things that I did in theentire project was to write,
essentially a pitch letter, andI was working with a, an editor
(31:29):
who was very interested in mywork to begin with, someone I
already knew, but that still,that didn't stop me from writing
a pitch letter.
In a way, it made it made itvery important in a different
direction, because I wanted tomake the argument as clear as
possible in my own mind before Istarted doing the work.
(31:50):
Before I go back to the libraryand read about Rousseau or
Machiavelli, I want to know thatI've got a reason for doing
that.
I want to know what I'm lookingfor in these texts.
I want to know the argument asclearly as possible, and one of
(32:11):
the things that I very deeplybelieve about writing is that
writing is a tool for thinking.
Writing makes your thinkingclearer, and so the work that I
did at the outset of that booktrying to put together a
essentially a pitch letter aboutthe book Was very, very, very
(32:36):
useful to me in writing the bookMm, hmm, mm, hmm.
Speaker 1 (32:41):
Yep, so you just said two things and I added a third
that you said before and I cameup with three C's.
It's helps you with clarity,yes, helps you clarify your
thinking.
Once you have written it down,it then provides a compass that
helps direct your work and whenyou're done, it's copy, it's
(33:03):
sales copy and marketing copy.
Speaker 2 (33:04):
It is the three C's.
Speaker 1 (33:06):
Look at that.
We just came up with a coolframework.
That's awesome.
And you know, what is funny isthat in the fiction world this
is not true in the nonfictionworld, of course, because we're
all plotters in the nonfictionworld.
We all make plans before we trywriting anything.
So writing this kind of documentit's like writing a
(33:28):
dissertation proposal.
You don't get to write thedissertation until you prove to
your committee that you canwrite basically a fancy version
of a pitch letter that weapprove.
That is the compass and showsthat you have clarity about the
project and all that sort ofstuff.
But but even fiction writerswho call themselves pantsers,
people who don't like to makethe big plot right, even for
those folks what they will tellyou is they can't write a story
(33:51):
if they don't know the generalarc.
They know character a starts inthis situation and ends up here
, or if, if it's two peoplefalling in love, they end up not
knowing each other and thenthey end up together.
They know they have a versionof that pitch letter.
In a sense it might be verysmall, but it's a kernel.
But I think that vision that youhave to set out for yourself
(34:14):
for every project is crucial,regardless if you're going to
let yourself meander sort of alittle bit or whether you're
going to try to really plan itout.
So a pitch letter can be.
It's like a multi-tool, youknow.
It has so many fantasticpurposes and I like your phrase.
It's a tool for thinking.
It really makes you better,right, writing makes you better
at thinking, just no questionabout it.
(34:34):
I don't think it matters whatyou're writing about, all right.
So I want to write a pitchletter, jason what's my best
general approach to doing it?
Speaker 2 (34:51):
Your best general approach is to imagine you're
writing to a real person,because actually you are, and do
not get caught up with academicjargon.
Don't get caught up withtechnicalities.
Don't try to impress them withyour smarts, impress them with
your ability to communicate.
Introduce yourself, maybe say afew words about your
(35:13):
qualifications Mention, ifyou're including a CV, like I've
suggested and then very clearly, so no one can miss it, say
something like the argument ofthe book will be as follows, and
write about a paragraph aboutthe argument of the book, and
make this a very simple and veryclear statement, much more so
(35:38):
than in your conclusion or evenin your introduction.
You want this to be somethingthat anyone can pick up and read
.
It is not necessarily the casethat your editor is a specialist
in your field.
Your editor will be aspecialist in some field, but
(35:59):
not necessarily yours, and soyou need to introduce your work
here to someone who is, ineffect, a part of an educated
general audience.
Speaker 1 (36:11):
That's what you're aiming at for a nonfiction pitch
letter, and in fiction it'smore or less do everything you
just said, but it's tell themthe story, right.
Yes, tell them the story, thestory and why it fits, the genre
that you want it, that you tellthem the genre, that is you
know, and the sub genre.
Because for most of the fictionwriters out there, unless
(36:33):
you're writing sort of general,you know adult fiction.
Even there there are so manylayers and slices and niches.
But you know, if you're afantasy writer, a science
fiction writer, a romance writer, you know what sub niche you're
in, because you write it andyou read it and so does your
agent, so does the publisher, sodoes the editor, and so you
want to be very clear aboutwhere you fit, why your book
(36:53):
fits.
Tell them the story in a quicksynopsis so that they get that
it's the right fit and so on.
Speaker 2 (36:59):
Yeah, and one thing one thing that pitch letters
will often do and I I dorecommend this is to mention
some comparable titles.
Absolutely, this is often donein the context of marketing, but
uh, also it can help an editorto understand in a general sense
(37:21):
what kind of a book it is.
If you're going to write thenext Freakonomics, if you think
you've done that, that'sambitious, but if you really
think you've done it, then sayso.
And if you are not sure whatthe comparable titles are in the
field that are out there, thenperhaps you ought to do some
(37:46):
research and some reading andcome back when you are sure,
because not knowing theliterature in the field is, from
my point of view as an editor,a big red flag.
You should definitely be ableto name right off the bat
several comparable titles.
So I mentioned in my pitchletter that I was imitating a
(38:11):
lot of 20th century intellectualsurvey books.
So I mentioned Karl Popper, theopen society and its enemies,
as a book that I was veryconsciously trying to imitate in
my book.
Now I can't say necessarilythat I'm as great a writer as as
, uh, carl popper, one of thegreatest philosophers of the
(38:34):
last century, but uh, you know,I, I know what I'm aiming at.
I know the kind of uh book andthe territory of carl parper
will enjoy my book, right?
Speaker 1 (38:47):
it's something like that, right?
So it's like king kong meetsstar wars.
You know, if you like threeauthors, you're gonna love this,
right?
I mean, this is you see thisall over the mall or barnes and
noble.
You know, this is how we makesense of what category you're in
, and you want to help peopleget you to the right category
quickly, exactly.
Yeah, so write for a specificperson.
(39:09):
Is it your mom?
What do you?
What do you?
What do you choose?
Your mom, your dad?
Speaker 2 (39:13):
I tell people, I tell people the high school English
teacher.
There you go, you remember yourhigh school English teacher and
you know that they like writing.
They wouldn't be a high schoolEnglish teacher otherwise and
you want to get them interestedin this new thing that you're
doing.
I've written a romance novelthat I think you'll really enjoy
(39:36):
.
This is what it's about.
Or I've written a mystery, orI've written an examination of
the last 20 years of US tradepolicy, or whatever it might be.
Speaker 1 (39:49):
Fantastic, fantastic, all right.
Well, that's, I think, a greatstart to this topic, jason, and
for people who want to learnmore there's going to be a
workshop coming up.
Speaker 2 (40:03):
Yes, yes, on the 21st , Absolutely 21st of August.
Speaker 1 (40:08):
If you're listening to this in the year 2026, it's
too late.
It already happened last year.
But if you are listening tothis before August 21st 2025,
then you are very welcome tohead over to
12weekyearforwriterscom.
Register for this workshop, orif you are a member of the
community, the workshop is free.
(40:28):
So make sure to RSVP and wehope to see you guys next week.
All right, jason.
Thanks so much, man Goodtalking to you.
Speaker 2 (40:36):
Thank you, good talking with you.
Hi, welcome to the 12-Week Year for Writers podcast
.
I'm Trevor Thrall.
If you enjoyed today's episode,please submit a review wherever
you get your podcasts and forupdates on the podcast and other
writing resources.
You can subscribe to thenewsletter at
12weekyearforwriterscom.
Have you ever had that morningwhere you meant to write, but
(00:24):
somehow the coffee or the inboxor maybe even the laundry won
instead.
Ah, yeah, me too.
We all want to writeconsistently.
It's easy to dream about it,but it's actually pretty hard to
get your butt in the chair.
I think it's a universalstruggle for writers.
So today I want to dig into whyshowing up is so hard and offer
(00:49):
some practical and provenstrategies you can use to make
your writing inevitable.
And by the end of this episode,I want you to take away at
least one tool that you can putto work this week.
Alright.
(01:15):
So why is it so tough to sitdown and write?
I mean, it seems pretty simpleSit down, write.
Well, there are an infinitenumber of reasons if you really
dig into it.
But today I want to focus onthree really major players that
I talk to writers about all thetime, and those are fear, energy
(01:37):
and your lizard brain.
Let's talk about fear first, andwe've all been there.
Starting a book or some projectthat you've always meant to
write but haven't started yetcan be terrifying.
Starting a master's thesis or adissertation is terrifying Heck
.
I remember being terrified ofwriting term papers in junior
(02:00):
high.
When you're scared, one of themost common reactions is just to
avoid the thing that's scaringyou.
Stuff it in the closet.
Come up with a reason.
You have to do something elsefirst, whatever it is, so that
you don't have to feel thosefeelings of terror.
And I've spoken to a ton ofpeople who have told me that
(02:20):
fear is a big reason that theydon't show up the way they want
to.
Second big reason I hear a lotabout is energy or motivation.
You know, we're all crazy busyand for many of us writing comes
after a long day of work,family exercise, other
(02:40):
obligations, and for as manywriters as complain about not
having enough time to write,just as many complain that they
don't have the energy or themotivation when they finally do
have time to sit down and write,and so they are often sort of,
you know, deterred from sittingdown because they don't feel
(03:02):
like they're going to have theenergy.
And I think that shades intoburnout when people just don't
have the energy to makethemselves sit down at all.
And finally, let's talk aboutyour lizard brain, and here I'm
talking about the evolutionarychallenge that our brains
(03:22):
present to doing hard things.
If you've read the weeklywriting routine workbook or
listened to the podcast for awhile, you've heard me talk
about this before.
But you is actually two peoplein the moment you and routine
you.
You know, in the moment you isthe one who wants to scroll
snack nap, allergic to hard work, love shiny distractions and
(03:42):
short-term rewards.
Routine you, on the other hand,is the planner, the strategist,
the part of you who knows thatwriting is important and isn't
allergic to hard work and isable to set things up so that in
the moment you doesn't have tofight so hard.
We're all, both people, but westruggle.
(04:04):
We struggle to show up when wedon't spend enough time.
As routine you thinking abouthow to make life easier for in
the moment you.
If we don't do that, then whenthe time comes to make the
decision to pick up your bag andhead to the coffee shop or to
sit down with the computer, openup your work in progress, in
the moment you is going to sayhey, wait a minute, that sounds
awfully hard.
I'd rather scroll through somesilly dog videos on Instagram,
(04:28):
and that's what you're going todo, right?
So just in brief, those arethree of the big reasons that,
in various flavors, I hear aboutall the time making it
difficult for people to puttheir butts in the chair and
write, and unfortunately, whenwe're dealing with these
challenges, most of us reach fortraditional I'll call them
(04:50):
traditional strategies that justdon't work.
When people feel fear, they yellat themselves to man up and get
over it.
It's silly to be afraid ofwriting.
When people feel burnt out or alack of motivation, they just
yell at themselves to getpsyched up.
Just do it.
You know you want this.
And when people let theirlizard brain talk them out of
(05:11):
writing, they yell at themselvesand tell themselves not to be
so lazy.
They make resolutions andpromise themselves that they'll
do it next time, and the endresult of all the yelling is A
people just generally feel worseabout themselves, but B they
become demoralized and even lesslikely to write.
And so the end result is thatthis doesn't solve any problems.
(05:34):
It often makes things worse,and the reason these approaches
the yelling.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
Fail is pretty simple .
Speaker 1 (05:42):
It's aimed at the wrong issue.
The problem isn't that you're awimp or unmotivated or lazy or
lacking willpower, and theanswer is not that you need a
personality transplant, right.
The key is that you need toolsand a routine that make life
easier on in the moment you.
That's the key to consistentexecution, to consistent writing
(06:05):
, and the good news is that, nomatter what your particular
challenge is today, whether it'sfear or energy or your lizard
brain, there are strategies thatcan help you rig the game in
your favor, right, and you don'tneed to change who you are.
You just need to change yourroutines.
So, let's just talk through somestrategies that use this
(06:28):
principle, build on thisprinciple to help you get your
butt in a chair on a regularbasis, depending on which of
these things you're dealing with.
All right, dealing with fearwhen I was early on in my
dissertation writing phase oflife.
When I was early on in mydissertation writing phase of
life, the dissertation was sucha big and complex project I had
(06:49):
never done anything close to ascomplicated before and I
actually had troublecomprehending the full scope of
the project in my head, like Icouldn't say the point of it and
I couldn't summarize it tidilyfor you like in an elevator
speech.
For a long time I would wake upevery morning and try to write
(07:14):
it over again so that Iunderstood the theory I was
trying to explain and theargument I was trying to make.
It was wiggly, squiggly and Iwas afraid it was terrifying.
And later, when I was workingwith graduate students of my own
, I came to call this the MountFuji problem.
If you look at the wholemountain at once and try to
imagine thinking about climbingto the top and you're staring at
(07:36):
the whole mountain, you knowthe whole majestic awesomeness
of it.
It's terrifying, right?
You don't tell yourself.
You know, climb a mountain isnot a task, it's a project.
It's a big, scary project.
And if you think about the big,scary project it's hard to
start, and so that kind of fearcan definitely be paralyzing,
(07:58):
and in the writing case inparticular, this kind of fear
has a very particular symptomwhich we see all the time, which
is people who are scared oftenstay in research mode for a very
long time.
Oh, I'm just taking more notes,oh, I'm doing more
world-building.
Oh, I don't have an interviewedenough people.
Oh I haven't got enough data.
Whatever it might be, youprobably do, but you're afraid,
(08:20):
right?
So this has happened to me onmy dissertation, for sure.
I was in research mode a lotlonger than I needed to be
before I started writing thedarn thing.
If I could do it over again,man, but anyway.
So there are happily somesolutions to this kind of fear.
So I just want to talk abouttwo strategies, and the first is
just super, super obvious, andthat is taking baby steps.
(08:41):
Right, it's not rocket science,it's just brain science.
You don't climb a mountain inone step.
You don't write a book in onestep.
You take thousands of littlesteps.
And so when you say I have towrite a book, it's scary.
But if you just say I have towrite a section, it's not so
scary.
Or if you say I have to createan outline for chapter one, it
(09:02):
doesn't sound so scary.
Or if you say I have to createan outline for chapter one, it
doesn't sound so scary.
Right.
And so my very strong advice ifyou are feeling scared is to
spend more time up frontchunking your project down into
chunks and tactics, small enoughthat they just aren't scary
anymore.
And if you know outlining allof chapter one sounds too scary,
(09:23):
make it outlining a section, orjust even free writing about
what the outline should looklike.
Keep breaking it down.
I remember reading a book atone point about weight loss and
exercise and stuff and going tothe gym.
That's scary for a lot ofpeople, and so just driving by
the gym could be a good firststep.
(09:44):
Go by the gym that's scary fora lot of people, right, and so
just driving by the gym could bea good first step.
Right, go by the gym, getcomfortable being near the gym
and then go into the gym.
Don't make yourself liftweights if that's too scary at
first.
Go into the gym, getcomfortable being there, right,
and baby step your way untilit's not scary, right.
So baby stepping is usefulbecause what happens when you
(10:06):
follow this approach is that youstart to get pretty good at
understanding what things areeasier or harder for you, and
you get good then at chunkingthings up in a way that will
help you show up and get thingsdone.
So the end result of that itjust gets much easier to get
your butt in the chair.
End result of that it just getsmuch easier to get your butt in
(10:27):
the in the chair.
The second strategy for dealingwith fear that I think is
underutilized by many writersbecause, again, I think many
writers operate in isolation isfinding community.
Um, I think going it alone,doing scary things alone, is the
scariest way to do anything.
Right?
Have you ever watched a horrormovie?
Being alone in that dark, youknow, haunted house is by far
(10:49):
more terrifying than being withother people.
Right, that's why there'salways a group of meddling kids.
Right, they don't travel alone,they travel in packs, because
it's scarier to be alone.
When you share the journey withother people, other writers in
particular, your fears aboutwriting will recede because
everyone's dealing with the sameissues, the same fears.
(11:10):
You share stories, you sharestrategies.
It seems normal because it is,and your fears can just sort of
slowly fade to normal size.
Like I have challenges, I don'thave, you know, fear anymore.
I think, doing most things in agroup and I don't mean writing
(11:30):
the thing with someone else,although that might work for you
too, but doing things with somekind of writing group where
you're checking in on a regularbasis.
Just talking about the journeycan be a huge fear breaker.
And another great form ofcommunity is a mentor or a coach
, someone who's been through allthe same struggles and had all
the same fears, who can justreassure you.
(11:50):
Look, you're on the path.
It's totally normal in yourphase, you know, to have these
kinds of fears.
I had them too.
Here's how I dealt with themyada, yada.
And as you do that again, itnormalizes.
It's just something we all gothrough, and here's some actual
practical things you can do towork through it, and I bet
they're going to share both mypieces of advice too.
(12:13):
Benefit at every step ofmentors who could help.
When I hit walls and this isespecially important for me as a
young professor, when I did notknow you know what I was doing
most of the time when it came tobeing a productive publishing
(12:37):
academic and I, you know, beat apath down to a couple of my
senior colleagues' office doorsbecause I had lots of questions
for them and they were super,super, super helpful, and I've
always felt infinitely betterafter speaking to them.
Okay, all right, let's move onto challenge two lack of energy
(12:58):
or motivation that's keeping youfrom sitting in the chair, and
for this, you from sitting inthe chair, and for this, two
strategies to consider.
Right, and the first is to mindyour mojo, and what I mean by
that is that I think it'ssometimes the case that when we
(13:18):
find ourselves just uninterestedin getting our butt in the
chair like you, look over thechair and you're just like nah,
i'm'm not feeling it, I don'twant to.
That is often, in my experience,a sign that you are not very
motivated by the project inprocess, that it's not doing it
for you, and there can be a lotof different reasons for that,
(13:42):
um, but uh, you know, if it's awork project, for example, it
might just suck.
If it's a personal project, itmight be because it's not going
the way you wanted it to.
If it's because you're writingto make money and you're aiming
to try to write to the marketinstead of writing the stuff
(14:04):
that you really like, it mightbe because you don't like what
you're writing right.
And so what I would ask you todo is just to sort of do a quick
reflection about your goals,and this is you know again why
we start the 12-week year forwriters with your goals for life
.
What is your vision of yourlife, where are you trying to go
and how is the stuff you'reworking on every day and you're
(14:27):
writing getting you there right?
and if you're writing, is notgetting you where you want to be
.
That's where your energyproblems.
That's why you don't want tosit down, because you're not
excited about it.
I think you know.
To me, the goal is to beputting things on your desk to
write that you are super excitedabout, because they're either
exactly what you want to doright now or because they're
(14:49):
exactly the thing you need to doto get to where you want to be,
and when you're working on oneof those things you're in great
shape.
um, I know I've said this beforein many different venues, but I
I was a terrible student, inpart because it was hard for me
to motivate when things weren'tinteresting to me and you know,
(15:11):
it's not that I didn'tunderstand the theory that I had
to build skills in a number ofdifferent areas to get good
things and so on and so forth.
But you know, when you're youngyou're ornery about such things.
I got better at that later, butearly on, if it didn't seem
obvious to me, that was thething I needed next to get where
I wanted to go.
I didn't want to do it, and Ididn't do it very well.
(15:31):
Typically, and as I got youknow, further and further in my
academic career as a student, Igot closer and closer to things
that were very clearly helpfulto me, and so I got to grad
school and I was finally takingcourses that were directly
aligned with the things I wantedto study as a professional.
I was very excited, and when Ifinally took a stats class later
(15:56):
, when I was actually already aprofessor, because I had a
project that I wanted to do thestats for but I didn't know how
yet, I took that stats classover a summer and I was like the
most motivated I'd ever been.
It was very easy to get toclass and do that stuff right.
So I would say look, do it, doit.
Do honest self reflection.
Do you really wanna be writingthe thing you're writing?
(16:16):
And if not, throw it away,start something else if you can,
and if you can't, right, thenis there a way to find a framing
of what you're working on thatyou can be motivated by and try
to find some additionalmotivation there?
And if you can't, then you'regoing to have to reward yourself
more for doing it.
(16:38):
That's another discussion.
But that's, I think, certainlysomething to think about.
Right is are you actuallymotivated by the stuff you're
asking yourself to do?
Second way to tackle the energyproblem is to schedule like.
(16:58):
Writing is the boss.
You know I say this all thetime, but everything else is
louder than writing.
Writing is the quietest.
You know activity, this all thetime, but everything else is
louder than writing.
Writing is the quietest.
You know activity on the planet, and everything else is every
other kind of distraction.
Interruption is louder, moreurgent, and it's very easy to
put off writing to, to pick oneof those things up.
(17:20):
And so the problem with that isthat many of us end up
rescheduling our writingsessions on a dime oh, I'll
write tomorrow at 2.
Oh, no, tomorrow at 7.
Oh well, I'll push it tillThursday.
Well, this week I won't, butI'll write twice as much next
week.
That is terrible.
That is terrible for yourconsistency and it's hard to
show up, because the more of ahabit you make of making it OK
(17:43):
to change your writing schedule,the less likely you are ever to
to go sit down at the scheduledtime.
On the other hand, when you havea consistent schedule, when
this is like church, I am goingto writing and it's Monday,
wednesday, friday, from 3 to 5,and it doesn't matter what else
is happening, the world could beending.
I will be at my desk writing.
When you do that, your, yourbrain's ready, you're ready.
(18:05):
It's easier to go.
It becomes a habit.
If you don't, it's not a habit,it's easy to skip, it's very
difficult.
So scheduling like you'rewriting is the boss is key, and
I think I'll slip anotherthought in there as well, which
is that you know all of us havedifferent rhythms, different
(18:25):
points of the day and the weekand the month and the year when
we're, you know, feeling sharpand motivated and energized, and
we have other times when we'refeeling, you know, slower, like
summer maybe, maybe just feellike vacationing, right, and you
got to respect that.
So you don't want to askyourself, you don't step over
yourself on the way to a writingsession.
So, so, as you're schedulinglike writing is the boss, also,
(18:46):
remember to don't act like youare a robot.
You are a human who has rhythmsand you need to respect those
as well.
So, two ways to tackle the lackof energy kind of problem.
All right, last, last challengeis the lizard brain, and you
(19:08):
know the entire weekly writingroutine workbook is really
designed to grapple with thisproblem of in the moment.
You so I'm not going to offer acomprehensive list of
strategies and tactics here.
You know, really I can just saygo see the 12 week year for
under system.
But.
But I do want to help today.
I want to focus on helping youwin the moment of decision as I
(19:32):
like to think of it right, thatmoment when you have to commit
to sitting down or you're aboutto do something else instead,
because I think you can oftenfeel yourself on that knife edge
of like Am I about to go or amI about to not?
go.
The main strategy I want totalk about here is the showing
up ritual.
I would just call it a ritual.
(19:52):
I don't want to freak anyoneout.
I don't mean a voodoo ritual orsome kind of weird cult thing,
I just mean a routine.
But ritual sounds cool.
So I use the word ritualBecause you can have all sorts
of plans, but if you don'tactually just sit down, you know
nothing happens.
And that's where this ritualcomes in, because I think of
(20:15):
that showing up ritual as kindof the bridge between your
intention and your action.
I'm going to write, I'm writingwhat happens in between there.
How do you go from one state tothe other, and I think it's
this ritual right, and I've toldthis story before too.
But I discovered that for me toshow up, it was very useful to
(20:38):
use little inducements like foodand coffee, and so when I was
an adjunct very early on, alittle baby at home couldn't
work at home, was teaching threecourses.
I was busy teaching but I had tofinish my dissertation so I
would go in early.
In fact I would go in a walk tocampus in the dark and it was
(20:59):
winter and cold and Michigan andand I needed something to help
me get there, because that wassleeping in and staying warm was
a much, you know, preferablething, especially to my in the
moment me, and so what I did waspreferable thing, especially to
my in-the-moment me.
And so what I did was, insteadof walking straight to my office
, I walked straight to the bagelshop and I got a toasted sesame
(21:20):
bagel with peanut butter andhoney and a big mug of coffee
sometimes half coffee, halfcoffee, half hot chocolate in
the wintertime and I would go tomy office, read the New York
Times, listen to some classicalmusic.
Wouldn't rush, but when I wasdone with my bagel, that was my
sort of my key.
Okay, it's time to put thepaper down.
Time to pull my stuff, my notes, my writing, over from one side
(21:44):
of the desk to in front of meand I would finish my coffee
while I started in writing andI'd write until it was time to
get ready for class and I didn'trealize I was doing that at the
time I didn't.
That was not conscious on mypart.
I didn't do this as a designexperiment Like, oh, I wonder if
this will help me show up.
I just did it because I thinkmy animal brain knew, you know,
(22:06):
if I didn't do that I wasn'tgoing to go sit down.
But I found a way to go fromI'm going to campus I'm going to
go write to now I'm writing.
I found a bridge and I'vetalked to lots of different
writers and everyone has todevelop their own bridge.
It's different for everyone.
(22:27):
I know some people who do alittle meditation before they
write, kind of clear the brain,because we got a lot going on in
our brains, right, and most ofthem don't have anything to do
with the project you're workingon.
So you want to not have thosein your brain when you're
starting your work.
So one useful thing to do is toclear your mind.
So meditation is onepossibility.
(22:48):
Another is journaling or freewriting.
It could be on your topic,things you're thinking about
that you know this could beundirected, just like.
Here's some thoughts andconcerns I'm having about my
project right now, just to getthem out and maybe get you into
that world a little bit.
Or maybe it's the other wayaround for you you want to write
(23:08):
about something else and getthat out of your mind.
So it's not you know.
Whatever else has been on yourmind you want to put that down
so that you don't have to thinkabout it.
Whatever it is, whatever,whatever the right way to get
you into writing mode, and Ithink sometimes a little.
You know white noise.
I love coffee shops.
For me, going to a coffee shopshop was another ritual that I
(23:32):
built, like during summers, whenI was actually teaching.
I had the summers off.
I was going to get lots ofwriting done, but you know,
writing all day.
That's a tough ask.
So I would actually have amulti-show up ritual where I
start the day at a coffee shop.
I love the coffee it was great.
Maybe a muffin, the white noiseof the coffee shop, for
(23:56):
whatever reason.
I spent enough time in my lifein the coffee shop.
It was very soothing, so thatwas super helpful.
So when I hear coffee shopnoise I start to get in writing
mode.
It's just like an autonomicresponse for me.
And then, eventually, though,my butt would get sore from
sitting at that one wooden chairfor three hours.
(24:17):
So then I would get up, go getlunch and I would move to a
second location, typically thegraduate library.
I had a carol in the graduatelibrary and I would go there and
I would work for a few morehours, and I love the grad
library, it's one of my otherfavorite places in the world.
So I would treat myself as ashowing up ritual.
I would show up to a place,kind of get a fresh start in a
(24:38):
place that I loved, that made mefeel like writing.
So that was for me, butwhatever it would be for you,
the ritual is the cue that tellsyour brain okay, it's time to
write, and I cannot stressenough how important having that
sort of that last mile strategyis, because you can put lots of
writing blocks on your schedule, but making sure that, if
(25:01):
you've found that you frequentlydon't show up for your writing
sessions, it may be that whatyou need is to help figure out
that final, that final mile,that show up ritual.
How do I get myself to thisplace?
How do I get myself settled inmy writing?
So, how do I get myself inwriting mode?
(25:22):
Because, because the failure toget you know, quote, get your
butt in the chair can happen ifyou don't go.
It can happen if you don't sitdown at the plate, and it can
happen if you don't go.
It can happen if you don't sitdown at the plate, and it can
happen if you don't startwriting.
You start doing somethinginstead.
Because I've seen, boy, oh boy.
I have to tell you, when I wasat that coffee shop all those
years, I would look around whenI was on my way to the bathroom
(25:44):
looking at everyone's laptopsand this is mostly grad students
, and they're all on eBay orsome other thing and they were
not working.
I was like, what are they doing?
Well, their butts were in thechair, but their butts were not
in the chair, if you know what Imean.
So you need a little series ofshowing up strategies to help
you move from not writing tositting down to writing.
Speaker 2 (26:09):
All right, let's put it all together.
Speaker 1 (26:13):
We've talked about a number of strategies, but, more
importantly, we've identifiedwhat I think is the general
theory of victory, that is,using routine use, strategic
thinking capability to make yourwriting easier and more
enjoyable and more rewarding, sothat, in the moment, you can
get the writing done right, sothat you can show up and get
(26:34):
your butt in the chair andactually do the writing.
So now you've got a toolbox,but the real magic comes when
you combine all these differenttools into a weekly writing
routine that fits you and theway you work.
The tools of the 12-week yearare the same, but the way we
stitch them together and thespecific rituals we use to show
(26:57):
up and get the writing done arepersonal, and so that's where
the real progress is going tocome is when you combine them
into a writing routine thatworks for you.
And as you gain experienceabout thinking strategically you
know, as you gain experienceabout thinking strategically,
you know, as you gain experiencethinking strategically about
how to get your butt in thechair and how this routine works
you know your goal is to buildthis routine that maximizes your
(27:21):
likelihood of getting your buttin the chair and maximizes how
well you write once you getthere.
But I want to add, before we end, a final caveat, and that is to
remember, with all of thisstuff, to be kind to yourself no
yelling.
There is no yelling in mysystem.
The end state, the goal here isnot perfection.
We are not robots.
(27:42):
We are not looking forsuperhuman discipline.
We are looking for a humanlevel of happy productivity.
Okay, let's land the plane.
Here's my challenge for you.
I would like you to turn offthis podcast right now and do a
mini audit.
Think for a little bit aboutwhat helps you show up and what
(28:06):
things are derailing yousometimes from showing up.
But things are derailing yousometimes from showing up and
then go back through your noteshere and pick one strategy from
today's discussion and test itthis week.
Do it and if the strategy worksafter a week, keep it rolling.
If not, tweak, find another one.
Do what you need.
But your goal now is to, stepby step, build a routine that
(28:32):
helps you show up, because, atthe end of the day, getting your
butt in the chair is not aboutwillpower, it's not about
yelling at yourself.
It's about building routinesthat make your writing easier,
more enjoyable, more rewardingand eventually, inevitable.
And, of course, if you wantmore help building your own
weekly writing routine, comejoin us inside the 12-week year
(28:54):
for writers and we'll be happyto design the system with you
All right until next time, happywriting.
Speaker 2 (29:04):
The spirit of trying to make it a better book.
Speaker 1 (29:06):
Absolutely, and I rail against this lone wolf
mentality all the time.
It's not good for your writing,more or less at any stage.
I don't think it's not goodwhen you're ideating.
It's not good when you'rewriting.
It's not good when you'reediting.
It's not good when you'repromoting.
It's never good.
Don't do things alone.
It sounds cool on paper, butit's a terrible idea.
Speaker 2 (29:25):
To bring this back to the subject at hand when you go
to write a pitch letter.
This back to the subject athand.
When you go to write a pitchletter, you should think of it
as you're trying to join a teamand you will be the most
important person on that team.
Like I said, without the author, the team has nothing to do.
But you're trying to join ateam.
You're not trying to be theirleader, you're not trying to
(29:48):
accumulate servants or something.
You're trying to be theirleader.
You're not trying to, uh, youknow, accumulate, you know,
servants or something.
You're trying to join a teamand so you explain yourself and
what you have to offer.
And, uh, you know that includeseverything from the argument of
the book to the marketing ofthe book.
And uh, if you can do that in acouple of pages, you've written
a letter that will presumablyget you a book deal.
Speaker 1 (30:12):
All right, we've convinced them.
They want to write a pitchletter.
Talk a little bit about, beforewe go through, sort of a
process that you might recommend.
This is useful for people,obviously, when they're trying
to land a book deal, but we'vetalked about this before.
(30:37):
It can be useful for you evenif you plan on self-publishing
and marketing it yourself.
So you maybe just talk a littlebit about the benefits of
writing this letter.
Speaker 2 (30:48):
The benefits of writing this letter.
When I wrote my book Technologyand the End of Authority, I went
through a bunch of differentsort of conceptualizations about
how it would be organized andwhat types of arguments I would
make.
(31:08):
It was a historical survey, soit covers a bunch of different
eras and writers and talks abouttheir work, and one of the very
first things that I did in theentire project was to write,
essentially a pitch letter, andI was working with a, an editor
(31:29):
who was very interested in mywork to begin with, someone I
already knew, but that still,that didn't stop me from writing
a pitch letter.
In a way, it made it made itvery important in a different
direction, because I wanted tomake the argument as clear as
possible in my own mind before Istarted doing the work.
(31:50):
Before I go back to the libraryand read about Rousseau or
Machiavelli, I want to know thatI've got a reason for doing
that.
I want to know what I'm lookingfor in these texts.
I want to know the argument asclearly as possible, and one of
(32:11):
the things that I very deeplybelieve about writing is that
writing is a tool for thinking.
Writing makes your thinkingclearer, and so the work that I
did at the outset of that booktrying to put together a
essentially a pitch letter aboutthe book Was very, very, very
(32:36):
useful to me in writing the bookMm, hmm, mm, hmm.
Speaker 1 (32:41):
Yep, so you just said two things and I added a third
that you said before and I cameup with three C's.
It's helps you with clarity,yes, helps you clarify your
thinking.
Once you have written it down,it then provides a compass that
helps direct your work and whenyou're done, it's copy, it's
(33:03):
sales copy and marketing copy.
Speaker 2 (33:04):
It is the three C's.
Speaker 1 (33:06):
Look at that.
We just came up with a coolframework.
That's awesome.
And you know, what is funny isthat in the fiction world this
is not true in the nonfictionworld, of course, because we're
all plotters in the nonfictionworld.
We all make plans before we trywriting anything.
So writing this kind of documentit's like writing a
(33:28):
dissertation proposal.
You don't get to write thedissertation until you prove to
your committee that you canwrite basically a fancy version
of a pitch letter that weapprove.
That is the compass and showsthat you have clarity about the
project and all that sort ofstuff.
But but even fiction writerswho call themselves pantsers,
people who don't like to makethe big plot right, even for
those folks what they will tellyou is they can't write a story
(33:51):
if they don't know the generalarc.
They know character a starts inthis situation and ends up here
, or if, if it's two peoplefalling in love, they end up not
knowing each other and thenthey end up together.
They know they have a versionof that pitch letter.
In a sense it might be verysmall, but it's a kernel.
But I think that vision that youhave to set out for yourself
(34:14):
for every project is crucial,regardless if you're going to
let yourself meander sort of alittle bit or whether you're
going to try to really plan itout.
So a pitch letter can be.
It's like a multi-tool, youknow.
It has so many fantasticpurposes and I like your phrase.
It's a tool for thinking.
It really makes you better,right, writing makes you better
at thinking, just no questionabout it.
(34:34):
I don't think it matters whatyou're writing about, all right.
So I want to write a pitchletter, jason what's my best
general approach to doing it?
Speaker 2 (34:51):
Your best general approach is to imagine you're
writing to a real person,because actually you are, and do
not get caught up with academicjargon.
Don't get caught up withtechnicalities.
Don't try to impress them withyour smarts, impress them with
your ability to communicate.
Introduce yourself, maybe say afew words about your
(35:13):
qualifications Mention, ifyou're including a CV, like I've
suggested and then very clearly, so no one can miss it, say
something like the argument ofthe book will be as follows, and
write about a paragraph aboutthe argument of the book, and
make this a very simple and veryclear statement, much more so
(35:38):
than in your conclusion or evenin your introduction.
You want this to be somethingthat anyone can pick up and read
.
It is not necessarily the casethat your editor is a specialist
in your field.
Your editor will be aspecialist in some field, but
(35:59):
not necessarily yours, and soyou need to introduce your work
here to someone who is, ineffect, a part of an educated
general audience.
Speaker 1 (36:11):
That's what you're aiming at for a nonfiction pitch
letter, and in fiction it'smore or less do everything you
just said, but it's tell themthe story, right.
Yes, tell them the story, thestory and why it fits, the genre
that you want it, that you tellthem the genre, that is you
know, and the sub genre.
Because for most of the fictionwriters out there, unless
(36:33):
you're writing sort of general,you know adult fiction.
Even there there are so manylayers and slices and niches.
But you know, if you're afantasy writer, a science
fiction writer, a romance writer, you know what sub niche you're
in, because you write it andyou read it and so does your
agent, so does the publisher, sodoes the editor, and so you
want to be very clear aboutwhere you fit, why your book
(36:53):
fits.
Tell them the story in a quicksynopsis so that they get that
it's the right fit and so on.
Speaker 2 (36:59):
Yeah, and one thing one thing that pitch letters
will often do and I I dorecommend this is to mention
some comparable titles.
Absolutely, this is often donein the context of marketing, but
uh, also it can help an editorto understand in a general sense
(37:21):
what kind of a book it is.
If you're going to write thenext Freakonomics, if you think
you've done that, that'sambitious, but if you really
think you've done it, then sayso.
And if you are not sure whatthe comparable titles are in the
field that are out there, thenperhaps you ought to do some
(37:46):
research and some reading andcome back when you are sure,
because not knowing theliterature in the field is, from
my point of view as an editor,a big red flag.
You should definitely be ableto name right off the bat
several comparable titles.
So I mentioned in my pitchletter that I was imitating a
(38:11):
lot of 20th century intellectualsurvey books.
So I mentioned Karl Popper, theopen society and its enemies,
as a book that I was veryconsciously trying to imitate in
my book.
Now I can't say necessarilythat I'm as great a writer as as
, uh, carl popper, one of thegreatest philosophers of the
(38:34):
last century, but uh, you know,I, I know what I'm aiming at.
I know the kind of uh book andthe territory of carl parper
will enjoy my book, right?
Speaker 1 (38:47):
it's something like that, right?
So it's like king kong meetsstar wars.
You know, if you like threeauthors, you're gonna love this,
right?
I mean, this is you see thisall over the mall or barnes and
noble.
You know, this is how we makesense of what category you're in
, and you want to help peopleget you to the right category
quickly, exactly.
Yeah, so write for a specificperson.
(39:09):
Is it your mom?
What do you?
What do you?
What do you choose?
Your mom, your dad?
Speaker 2 (39:13):
I tell people, I tell people the high school English
teacher.
There you go, you remember yourhigh school English teacher and
you know that they like writing.
They wouldn't be a high schoolEnglish teacher otherwise and
you want to get them interestedin this new thing that you're
doing.
I've written a romance novelthat I think you'll really enjoy
(39:36):
.
This is what it's about.
Or I've written a mystery, orI've written an examination of
the last 20 years of US tradepolicy, or whatever it might be.
Speaker 1 (39:49):
Fantastic, fantastic, all right.
Well, that's, I think, a greatstart to this topic, jason, and
for people who want to learnmore there's going to be a
workshop coming up.
Speaker 2 (40:03):
Yes, yes, on the 21st , Absolutely 21st of August.
Speaker 1 (40:08):
If you're listening to this in the year 2026, it's
too late.
It already happened last year.
But if you are listening tothis before August 21st 2025,
then you are very welcome tohead over to
12weekyearforwriterscom.
Register for this workshop, orif you are a member of the
community, the workshop is free.
(40:28):
So make sure to RSVP and wehope to see you guys next week.
All right, jason.
Thanks so much, man Goodtalking to you.
Speaker 2 (40:36):
Thank you, good talking with you.
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