My #1 Framework for Unsticking Stalled Writers
This is the tool I use with nearly every client who feels blocked, behind, or secretly afraid they’re a “bad” writer—and it works.
Greetings, dear readers! Publish Not Perish is on winter hiatus for the month of December. This means I won’t publish new content, but I will recirculate some gems from the archives throughout the month. The PNP Writing Circle will also continue to run normally until December 22nd and resume in the New Year.
Today I’m rewinding one of the most important episodes I’ve made—because it features the framework I use with nearly every scholar who comes to me convinced they’re “bad” writers or hopelessly stuck. Over the past year, I’ve coached so many brilliant academics who are frustrated that their work isn’t moving forward, and what I’ve noticed is this: they’re often expecting their writing to behave in a way it simply isn’t ready for yet.
They think they should be drafting polished prose… when their ideas are still in the raw clay stage. They believe they should be outlining… when what they really need is exploratory thinking on the page. In other words, they’re trying to leapfrog the essential early stages of writing—the stages that actually form the foundation of a strong argument. And when reality doesn’t match that expectation, the self-criticism kicks in fast.
This episode delves into the framework that helps untangle that mismatch and gets people writing again—often with relief they didn't realize they needed and often at a pace that accelerates their progress. It’s short, it’s powerful, and it can absolutely shift how you understand your own writing process.
And below the paywall, I’m also sharing the Writing Modes Guide—a companion resource that walks you through this challenge, another common mode mismatch that trips up most of my clients, as well as offering strategies at different stages of writing.
If you’ve ever felt stuck, stalled, or secretly worried that you’re “doing writing wrong,” please listen! Your writing will thank you for it.
Writing to Think vs. Writing to Communicate | Ep. 3
You know that feeling when you finally sit down to write—tea brewed, document open—only to type a few sentences and think, What am I even trying to say? I feel you, friend! In this episode, I talk about a shift that’s helped me and so many of my clients: understanding the difference between writing to think and writing to communicate.
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