How to Write a Book

Join Us for the Rhode Island Author Expo Dec. 2

November 6, 2023 by Lisa Tener

I’m thrilled to announce that I’m a featured presenter for the Rhode Island Author Expo and will share 7 Fresh Ways to Use Journaling to Tap Your Creative Genius as a Writer. I invite you to join us for some fabulous—and free!—panels, presentations, and networking.

For today’s post, I interviewed the Association of RI Authors (ARIA) founder, Steven Porter, and ARIA Vice President Tabitha Lord. They offer insights into some of the highlights of the upcoming Expo, the benefits of attending, recent trends in publishing and more.

Features of this year’s Rhode Island Author Expo

Lisa: What are some of the aspects of this year’s Rhode Island Author Expo you’re especially excited to share?

Tabitha: I’ve had the pleasure of organizing the program for the Expo, and I think we’ve got an excellent line-up of speakers and panels. New this year is an idea called a ‘kaffeeklatsch.’ I borrowed the concept from World Con! These will be small group, round table discussions with select authors, and they’ll be a little more intimate than the panels and presentations. You can get to know that author better and maybe even gather a few new writing tips.

Julie Gerstenblatt Lisa Tener — with Julie and her fabulous book Daughters of Nantucket

Steve: Each year, it gets better. The quality of the books is fantastic. The best part is catching up with all your favorite writers and seeing what’s new. Also, I’m looking forward to hearing Julie Gerstenblatt talk about her book, Daughters of Nantucket.

Lisa: Oh, I love that book. Julie is such a captivating speaker—a combo of inspiring, offering excellent insights, tips, and advice, and she is one of the funniest people I know. Her presentation will be a real treat. Any suggestions for our readers in getting the most out of the author expo?

Tabitha: Check out the program, either the online or the print version, and make a plan, especially if you want to get to a panel or listen to a presentation. I’m also a massive fan of giving signed books away for holiday gifts and receiving them, too, LOL, so I like to shop the Expo with that in mind!

Steve: There are a lot of tables, and it can be a little overwhelming. Take your time. Go slow. Not all the table displays are flashy, and not all the authors are extroverts. Some wonderful books are hiding just below the surface if you make it a point to say hello to everyone.

Is the Rhode Island Author Expo for You?

Lisa: Who is the Expo for, and who attends? Is it only for Rhode Islanders, or are others welcome?

Tabitha: Everyone is welcome, and it’s a festive day. In addition to the books and the guest speakers, there’s a raffle and, of course, Santa!

Steve: Everyone is welcome. The Expo highlights the best Rhode Island writers have to offer. We tend to get as many writers as we do readers. Bring the whole family. It’s free. The only admission requirement is that you must love to read.

Presentations and Workshops

Lisa: Are there any particular presentations or workshops you are especially looking forward to and why?

Horizon 3 book series cover, Tabitha Lord author

Tabitha: This year, there’s a nice mix of topics, from the ever-popular ‘World-Building’ panel to discussing the importance of diverse representation in literature to a talk on ‘mind-mapping’ your story ideas before diving into the writing. I encourage everyone to check the schedule and plan!

Publishing Trends

Lisa: What trends are you seeing in publishing right now? What are the most effective strategies and opportunities to sell books nowadays?

Tabitha: Innovative publishing platforms like Wattpad, Inkitt, and Kindle Vella encourage writers to share work directly with readers at no cost to the author and allow authors to begin building a network of reader fans. It’s an exciting concept, and these platforms monetize their most popular writers differently. I think the younger generation of writers are more comfortable using these platforms, and certain genres have more success than others, but they’re certainly worth checking out. Regarding effective new strategies, TikTok has a whole community of ‘BookTok’ -ers, and advertising and marketing through social media still allows authors to reach readers directly. Something to remember, though, in my opinion, is that any strategy for publishing and marketing requires research and then commitment. Rome wasn’t built in a day, nor is a successful marketing and promo plan!

Steve: Despite all the technology at our fingertips, meeting readers face-to-face is still the best way to sell books. There is something special about meeting the writer of a book you have read or want to read and gaining that bit of insight no one else knows. That experience can’t be reproduced online.

Lisa: Many writers don’t enjoy social media. What’s your advice to authors who want to reach readers but are reluctant to spend time on social media — feeling either overwhelmed, frustrated, or just not enjoying it?

Steve: There is a difference between a “writer” and an “author.” As a writer, you can do what you want, write what you want, and even throw it all in the fireplace when you are done if you want to. As an author, I believe you have a responsibility to your readers. If your readers are on social media, you have a responsibility to figure out how to use it on at least a rudimentary level and interact with them whether you like it or not. That is your reader’s expectation, and you have a responsibility to meet it.

Other Training and Workshops

Lisa: ARIA offers monthly training and events. Would you like to give us a glimpse into any other upcoming trainings, workshops or events?

Tabitha: The ARIA Writing Academy is brand new this year. We’re currently offering 90-minute webinars via Zoom for the reasonable price of $30 for non-ARIA members and $25 for members. These webinars pack a lot of information in a short amount of time! So far, we’ve offered programs on Publishing, Editing, and Social Media Marketing. We’re opening the Academy to guest instructors next year, so our selection of topics will expand quite a bit. Here’s a link to the ARIA Writing Academy for anyone interested in checking out the classes.

Lisa: Steve, you started ARIA a dozen years ago. What was your original vision, and how has that manifested, changed, or grown over time?

Steve: My original vision for ARIA, now in its 12th year, was so small. I was hoping to get at most a dozen authors together to co-market and promote our books. Just before COVID, we had reached a membership well over 300. We weren’t prepared for such rapid growth. But I’m proud of how many authors we’ve helped and how many readers we’ve reached. With new president Mike Squatrito now at the helm, the future is bright.

Volunteer Opportunities at ARIA

Lisa: ARIA depends on volunteers. What are some of the volunteer opportunities at ARIA?

Steve: At the Expo, we always need volunteers to help at the door or keep an eye on an author’s table when they are away. Within the organization, we always need help with social media, organizing our participation in festivals, and fundraising. There’s always plenty to do.

Lisa: How has your involvement in the ARIA community affected your experiences as an author (and publisher)?

Rhode Island Author Expo December 2, 2023

Tabitha: Through ARIA, I’ve met fellow writers who have become some of my best friends over the years. Writing in a vacuum can be lonely and discouraging, but meeting people on a similar creative journey makes all the difference. I’ve also learned so much from my involvement in the ARIA community. There’s always someone with more experience or just a different kind of experience that I can learn from, and they are always willing to share. The networking opportunities are invaluable.

Join us at the Rhode Island Author Expo on Dec. 2. I’ll be presenting at 12:15, and you can find me at Table 80 other times!

Steven R. Porter

Steven R. Porter is the author of two novels: the critically acclaimed Southie crime-thriller Confessions of the Meek & the Valiant and the award-winning historical novel Manisses, inspired by the rich history of Block Island. He is also the co-author of Scared to Death… Do It Anyway, a guide for individuals who suffer from anxiety and panic attacks.

Steven speaks frequently to schools and libraries about his books, trends in independent publishing, and special topics in writing and book marketing. He served as Director of Advertising and Public Relations for the 176-store Lauriat’s bookstore chain through the 90s, and today, he and his wife Dawn own Stillwater Books and the independent press, Stillwater River Publications, in West Warwick, Rhode Island. He is the founder and recently retired president of the Association of Rhode Island Authors (ARIA). You can also find Steve on Facebook.

Tabitha Lord

Tabitha Lord’s HORIZON science fiction series has received several independent book awards, including the Writer’s Digest Grand Prize 2016. Her short fiction has been featured on StarShipSofa, Tales to Terrify, and various anthologies. Under the pen name Maggie Clare, she has also published a series of romantic suspense novels. Rebecca Friedman of RF Literary represents Tabitha. In addition to fiction writing, Tabitha is the Vice President of the Association of RI Authors (ARIA), a partner at Author’s Buzz, and a partner and senior writer at Book Club Babble. She’s presented at writing conferences and moderated numerous panels at Comic Cons nationwide. Previously, she taught middle school language classes for over a decade. Now that her four children are grown, she can be found roaming the country with her husband and menagerie of lovable fur babies in an RV while thinking up new tales to tell.

You can also find Tabitha on Twitter: @tlordauthor, Facebook: tlordauthor and Instagram: tabithalord

How To Write a Book During Tumultuous Times

October 23, 2023 by Lisa Tener

I recently led a writer through my Meet Your Muse exercise. He felt overwhelmed by world events. How could he write a book when everything feels so bleak? What could he contribute to systemic problems that seemed unsolvable?

The Muse said, “Keep to what you are here to do.”

“You’re not going to solve the climate crisis, end global violence, or prevent world hunger. But you have a big mission and if you stick to it, it will be very fulfilling.”

When You Feel Powerless

The Muse continued, “Those in power want us to feel helpless. The media wants us to feel helpless. Don’t buy into it.”

The truth is, you’re probably not here to fix global problems. Some of us are fixers who can make a big impact on global issues. Most of us find the global too big, too violent, too awful for us to make an obvious impact.

Yet, when you come back to your calling, to what you feel truly called to do, you can feel the rightness of your activity. In the case of writing, you can feel the power of your words. And your impact can be further reaching than you realize. Your contribution to world peace and greater harmony and balance–well, it might surprise you!

Energetic Impact

I wrote a poem recently and shared it with a mentor of mine, who’s quite intuitive. She said that the poetry I’m writing has an impact even before I share it. She said that before I walked in the door she could feel it.

connect with your readers through imagination

That blew my mind. But it also made sense. As someone who practices qigong and works with internal energy cultivation, I’ve come to realize that our internal work also contributes to the state of the world. In fact, our personal growth work, spiritual practices, and creative pursuits affect how much joy, love, fulfillment and creativity we bring into this world to help balance out the dark stuff (which we can also find within us).

Qigong teaches us that the world needs a balance of yin and yang the feminine and masculine principles. I find that these yin practices bring harmony into all aspects of life–relationships, work, health and creative projects like book writing.

And Then It’s Time to Get Your Work Out

So inner work is important. Yes.

And as a writer, there is an important next step. We are writing to communicate with others. To share what we have to offer–wisdom, strategies, advice, perhaps humor, certainly stories.

Write and publish that article or blog post!
Read your poem on YouTube.
Complete and publish your book!

Because you are here to do what you are here to do and your book is a part of it! And if you wonder how to get from point A to point B, how to get back in the groove, stay with me. We’ll get there.

Elevate Your Consciousness

Einstein said that we can’t solve a problem from the same level of consciousness that generated the problem.

So how do we resolve those problems? From a higher level of consciousness.

Subjecting yourself to gory images of violence on social media is not going to raise your consciousness.

How do we get there?

Doing the inner work. Journaling and writing are some of the best tools out there.
Listening to our inner calling.
Making time for our callings.
Getting support to bring our callings to fruition.
Sharing our calling, our work, and our creations with others to inspire and support them in their callings and for them to also raise their consciousness.

And for most of my readers that includes: Write that book! Publish! Usher it out into the world!

How to Return to Center and Creative Flow

In the midst of world turmoil and both personal and collective suffering, how do we return to creative flow to get our books written?

During the two weeks following our Meet Your Muse session, I witnessed my client regain his enthusiasm and passion. He and several others in Get Your Writing Done shared how powerfully our qigong movements brought them into an elevated state and made it easy to write.

Two Beautiful Offerings

I’d love to help you recommit, reconnect and return to flow so you can finish your book and experience that beautiful feeling of fulfilling your callings and sharing your gifts with the world, bringing balance through your particular mission and vision, some part of what you came here for!

I have two offerings for you. In order to accommodate all who sign up, I am limiting the registration from October 24 to October 27.

Offering #1: Register for a half-hour Meet Your Muse Consultation and receive two sessions in Get Your Writing Done.

You’ll email me ahead of our call with your questions or challenges. Together on the call, we’ll come up with exact questions for your inner muse and I’ll walk you through this powerful exercise.

Then you’ll get to put your inner Muse’s advice into action in two Get Your Writing Done sessions. You can experience for yourself how our powerful qigong practices elevate your consciousness, clear energy blocks and get you into a heightened state of inspiration and flow. Participants consistently share that through our qigong and other practices, plus the group energy, they generate their best writing.

Price: $295 (Bonus value: over 40% and potentially priceless!)

Offering #2: Buy a block of 3 one-hour coaching sessions and get a fourth one free, plus one free month in Get Your Writing Done!

Prepare ahead with my powerful questionnaire (and I’ll prepare from your questionnaire as well) so that you get the most out of your coaching sessions.
Get feedback on up to 10 pages of writing on each call. Or use the calls to discuss book concepts and strategies, gain clarity on specific editorial choices, and more.
Optional: Use part of your coaching session to access your inner wisdom, clarity and creative genius as I lead you in the Meet Your Muse exercise.
Receive one month’s membership in my Get Your Writing Done program — up to 16 hours of LIVE session time with me and our amazing group of writers. Put your clarity from our coaching calls into action: You can experience for yourself how our powerful qigong practices elevate your consciousness, clear energy blocks and get you into a heightened state of inspiration and flow! Participants consistently share that through the qigong practices and our special group energy, they produce their best writing.

Price: $575 in 3 payments every 14 days or save $100 and pay in full $1625. (Bonus value: $575 – $675)

These offers end at midnight on October 27. Sign up now to reserve your spot!

Her Muse Gave Her a Stethoscope

October 10, 2023 by Lisa Tener

The other morning, I led a doctor through my Meet Your Muse exercise to help her access her inner guidance about which book to write first—the one for other doctors or the one for patients.

Her muse was clear—the one for patients. Before she left the scene, I invited her to ask whether her muse wanted her to know anything else.

“I see a stethoscope. I thought I’d create health education for people and leave my medical practice over time because the system is so broken. But I suppose my muse says I will keep a private practice.”

I’m careful not to project onto other people’s imagery, so I said, “If this were a daydream of mine, the stethoscope might symbolize the message to listen to my heart. Does that resonate at all?”

She smiled broadly and laughed. “Of course. That feels right.” She felt delighted by this personal and apropos symbol from her muse. She continued, “I recently stopped taking two major types of insurance because what they pay me cannot sustain me and my team—my assistant, the office, the billing service. But my colleagues look at my actions and think I’m crazy. They say, ‘You have a successful practice; how can you limit it so much? How will you survive?”

On Looking Crazy from the Outside

The doctor added, “I always think outside the box—with my patients and practice. I see a broken system and can’t just do things that way.”

I smiled and shared with her that when you’re a visionary with a mission to offer leadership in an industry, what you do will likely look crazy initially, but it will suddenly look normal in twenty years. You’re just ahead of the pack.

I know that many of my readers are like this doctor. You’re doing things differently. You’re breaking new ground, seeing new opportunities and ways of doing things that others can’t see yet. It may feel lonely and weird and scary. You may even believe people saying, “You’re crazy.”

But know that as a visionary, the world will look different to you. And your purpose will require you to do stuff that doesn’t make sense from the outside. People may judge you, call you names, and invite you to question yourself.

Trust yourself. Listen to your heart. Maybe your muse has a stethoscope for you.

And write that book! Your way. Help the world catch up to your vision, wisdom, and gifts.

Sell More Books Through Amazon Ads

October 4, 2023 by Lisa Tener

There are so many ways to sell books nowadays that developing a book marketing plan can feel overwhelming. Many old-time strategies that worked well years ago have little effect nowadays. Even getting on national TV doesn’t necessarily mean breakthrough sales.

When I participated in some breakout groups for the Independent Publisher Book Awards and the Living Now Book Awards, I consistently heard that Amazon ads were a big win for many authors and made up the bulk of their book sales.

Finding An Amazon Ads Expert

Laurence O'Bryan author and amazon ads expert

During the Nonfiction Writers Conference, I had the opportunity to listen to Laurence O’Bryan of Books Go Social speak about successfully using Amazon ads. I was so impressed with Laurence’s advice that I hired him to take over my Amazon advertising. One thing I’ve loved about working with Laurence is that he’s responsive to my questions.

Amazon ads are not a “fix it and forget it” venture. Keywords that work well one month can be too expensive the next. Depending on the season, there may be particular opportunities to advertise differently. Working with someone who pays attention to the reports and adjusts the campaign regularly has been helpful.

I’ve asked Laurence to share his insights into using Amazon ads to sell more books. It’s worked for me: Most of my book sales have come from Amazon advertising. I believe that my two large bulk sales came through ads: a school district in Florida purchased the books for their employees during Mental Health Month and found my book, The Joy of Writing Journal, on Amazon.

So, how do you “do” Amazon ads and do it right? What considerations do you need to know about? And when shouldn’t you invest in ads?

What Makes an Ad Successful?

Lisa: How did you get into offering an Amazon advertising service?

Laurence: I was published by HarperCollins ten years ago for a series of thrillers later translated into ten languages. I have a background in marketing, so I started helping out with boosting book sales, at first free for authors, then later moving into managing Amazon ads for people.

Lisa: It must be rewarding to affect an author’s book sales substantially. Can you share a bit about what goes into making an ad successful, the author’s decisions, the book description on Amazon, etc.?

Laurence: The ads are only part of the equation. [Authors need] a book description with the right keywords and to convince readers that his book is for them. Authors must post editorial reviews and get as many reader reviews as possible. What Amazon calls A+ content can also help motivate people to buy a book.

Success with Amazon Ads

Lisa: Can you share some examples of success stories with the ads?

[Note: Clients prefer not to share their books/names so you will not find the author, title or identifying information.]

Laurence: One nonfiction example is a lawyer in Florida who works in nonprofits and has written one of the top-selling books for setting up a nonprofit organization. In 2021, we took over this Amazon ads account as her previous ads manager charged super high fees. Making money with Amazon ads is often a slow process requiring months of testing. What I admire about this client is that she was willing to work with us long-term as we adjusted the keyword bids to focus the budget on the keywords that were getting good results, which means sales at a low cost. We have had ups and downs, but she has stuck it out and decided to increase the budget over time, allowing us to grow sales profitably, as seen in the screengrab below. Now, we want to scale up further with some new books.

graph showing amazon ads over time for one author

As you can see, that has been a steady growth story for the last few years. Not all achieve that level of sales.

As to a fiction success story, we worked with a children’s book author who built a portfolio of new books this year due to her success last holiday season. We have plans to expand our work with her this season, too.

This example illustrates a few things:

How holiday season sales can significantly impact—see the big spike from last holiday season on the chart below.
The sales reported on the Amazon ads dashboard are not the whole picture, as IngramSpark print edition sales, not recorded in these figures, made what looks like an okay result into something life-changing.

graph showing holiday sales with amazon ads

What Works Best?

Lisa: What genres and types of books seem to do best with Amazon ads?

Laurence: At Books Go Social, we have found the most success when a book has lots of reader reviews on Amazon. That is the key. Nonfiction can do especially well and popular fiction genres too, but the quality of the book is critical!

A good number of reader reviews on Amazon means anything over 100. I have seen no evidence that you get more exposure from Amazon when you pass that number, but when we assess the books that sold the most in any period, it is almost always books with over 100 reader reviews on Amazon.

Get Those Amazon Book Reviews!

Lisa: Well we’re at 99 Amazon book reviews for The Joy of Writing Journal, so I need just two more to make it over 100! I’m hoping one or two of my readers might take us over the hump after reading this :). But tell us more about this 100 review mark…it sounds like readers themselves are influenced by the number of Amazon book reviews.

Laurence: This says something also about books doing better over time, that we do not need to have a big success straight away, because often it will take months or longer to get 100 reader reviews on Amazon. The world of publishing no longer requires immediate success. Patience and perseverance are the keys to success more than ever.

Please also focus your efforts, when you are looking for reviews in the early stages. The Amazon algorithm will notice if you get reviews from people who like politics and you write literary fiction. If you have an email list of people who like your genre, yes, do email them twice over a one-month period asking for reviews and providing the Amazon link to your book, but more than that is unlikely to get a better response. We work with NetGalley.com placing over 100 titles a month on that site to get a good deal for authors on this useful service. NetGalley works too. We can bundle a place on NetGalley with our Amazon ads service to make sure our authors get more reader reviews.

Book Marketing Tips and Strategies to Leverage Ads:

Lisa: Success doesn’t just come from the ad alone. You need to have an appealing description of the book, for example, an eye-catching and appealing cover, with easy to read title. Can you share a bit about what goes into making an ad successful, the decisions an author needs to make, the book description on Amazon, etc.?

Laurence: Please think about how you will market a book from the early stages. What unique things do you bring to the table? And always invest in a good cover. A great source for how to write a book description for Amazon is the top-selling book in your genre.

Lisa: You mentioned to me that ads do best when an author has multiple books on Amazon. Can you share more about that?

Laurence: When an author has a series of books we can advertise book one and the total sales revenue can be a multiple of the revenue for a stand-alone book as many people will buy the whole series from one ad. That can make the difference between a profit and a loss for the ad campaign.

Are Amazon Ads a Fit for You?

Lisa: What advice do you have for someone considering advertising on Amazon?

Laurence: Learn all you can. It’s not an easy system to master. Take your time and be patient.

Lisa: And of course, our readers can do what I do and hire an expert like Books Go Social! When does it make sense to advertise even if your book sales don’t cover the cost of the ads?

Laurence: It can make sense to advertise a book even if the ad costs exceed the return if you also have a related business your book/s can promote. If even a few readers become clients for other higher-priced services the ad cost will be covered.

Lisa: Who shouldn’t advertise on Amazon? (or should very carefully consider the downside?)

Laurence: If you are on a very tight budget please don’t advertise. It can take months to get a return. Only advertise if you can afford to lose money for a few months.

Making Sense of Amazon’s Reports

Lisa: Amazon’s reports are a little confusing. Can you share how to tell whether an ad is successful or not?

Laurence: The Amazon ads dashboard shows “Sales” but that is not what you get paid. What you get paid is royalties. The figure is often lower than your sales but can be higher. Use KDP or IngramSpark or your publisher’s reports to know your royalties. Please make sure you know where to find your royalties data before starting Amazon ads.

One of the key data points to watch with Amazon ads is ACOS—Average Cost of Sales. This indicates roughly if you are making a profit from your ads. Other factors impact this data point, such as royalties per title, page reads if in Kindle Select, and series sales. But to know a book is selling, to know that you made $200 of sales for $100 ad spend (50% ACOS), tells us that the ads are working. Royalty data lets us know the final amount we make each month.

Lisa: Any other advice you have for our authors?

Laurence: Never give up. Keep the dream alive. This is a wonderful road to be on.

Your Invitation to the Dublin Writers’ Festival 2024

Lisa: Can you tell us a bit about the Dublin Writers’ Festival, which you founded in 2015?

Laurence: Since 2015 we have welcomed writers to learn, network and improve their craft. Our mission is to help writers excel and to provide opportunities for writers to learn from key industry professionals.

Dublin is a World Heritage City and home to some of the most famous writers. This event is an opportunity for all writers, everywhere, to connect with the literary culture of Dublin and to learn from experts and peers.

We have been fortunate to have some excellent speakers join us in Dublin. Two Pulitzer Prize winners are part of our recorded video sessions; Junot Diaz and Geraldine Brooks. We have a team of wonderful editors this year, including C.S. Lakin, a great copy editor who also manages the fiction track at the San Francisco Writers Festival, and Gerry Kilby, one of the leading sci-fi authors in the world and, coming in 2024, Doug Richardson, a top tier screenwriter from Hollywood as well as award-winning poets, marketing gurus and lots of writers who want to give back.

Writers, both aspiring and experienced, are all welcome.

Laurence O’Bryan has been in marketing for over thirty years and writing for more than twenty. He had three novels published by HarperCollins and translated into 11 languages. One has been optioned, twice, for the screen. He also self-published another two novels in the puzzle series and a series set in the late Roman Empire, A Dangerous Emperor. He is working on a series set in the immediate aftermath of the Battle of Hastings. Laurence started BooksGoSocial to help writers with marketing and the International Dublin Writers’ Festival to help authors connect and learn about the craft of writing.

The Link Between Writing and Health

September 28, 2023 by Lisa Tener

Writing and Health: Have you experienced the health impacts of writing or journaling? I’ve journaled intermittently since second grade when my grandmother gave me a diary for my birthday. At some level, I knew that writing was like breathing for me—necessary for life.

It wasn’t until my twenties, when I suffered from what was diagnosed as chronic fatigue and/or fibromyalgia that I discovered that writing can play a major role in healing a debilitating illness. Since then, I’ve been fascinated by the role writing can play in healing and have used it in my life many times—for physical healing, emotional healing and spiritual healing.

Another fascinating discovery is that it can go the other way, too—healing can impact our writing! As we heal emotional trauma or physical illness, I have found it to free up more and more creative energy and help me as a writer.

The Research on Writing and Healing

In 1986, James Pennebaker studied the effects of certain kinds of writing on health, reporting that expressive writing can improve mental and physical health. Since then, Pennebaker and his colleagues have proven these benefits in multiple populations and with various diseases and conditions.

According to the VA Office of Patient-Centered Care and Cultural Transformation, “Expressive writing has been found to produce significant benefits for individuals with a
variety of medical conditions.” These include:

Asthma (lung health/function)
Rheumatoid arthritis (decreasing severity)
Cancer (both reducing pain and improving physical health)
HIV infection (improving immune response)
Cystic fibrosis (decreasing hospitalization)
Chronic pelvic pain (decreasing the pain intensity)
Sleep-onset latency in poor sleepers
Recovering from operations

Beyond Medicine

You may have heard me talk before about Patricia Muehsam, MD‘s work and her book Beyond Medicine, which shares her healing journey, the process she used to heal herself, and that she teaches patients and students on a holistic path to healing their physical and emotional conditions.

Writing and journaling form a significant aspect of Dr. Patricia Muehsam’s protocol, whom I’ll refer to from now on as Dr. Trish, at her request.

As Dr. Trish is about to offer her healing course in a four-month online format, thought it a great time to interview her about the connection between writing and healing.

Absolute Health

I first asked Dr. Trish to share her take on how writing can positively impact our health.

Dr. Trish began our conversation with the concept of absolute health. “In my work, I talk about a concept called absolute health, simply peace of mind. Peace of mind is where we need to be for healing to happen. The body will not heal otherwise if the body is not calm. It also is where we need to be for clarity if we’re dealing with any challenging situations besides health issues—work, relationships, finances, life path.

“Absolute health is a place of peace of mind where clarity and solutions arise. And for inspired action, we know what to do before even trying.”

I found this interesting since in my Get Your Writing Done program we tap into a similar state of relaxation and peace of mind by beginning our writing practices with some qigong movement or breathing, a nod to the inner muse, and our one-word intentions shared in the chat box. From that place, we take inspired action and write!

Dr. Trish continues, “In my work and my book, I talk about the five absolute health tools—breathing, mindfulness/meditation, journaling or writing, mirror work and mind-body sensing. These five tools are tools for cultivating self-awareness, being here now in the moment, and being present with what is.

“All of these can bring us to that place of absolute health or inner peace quite swiftly, in minutes. They do so because they change our minds, the structure and function of our brains, and our bodies.”

Writing and Health

Patricia Muesham, MD did not have a huge platform, but she did get a book deal for her excellent book. Miracles do happen!

So, where does writing fit in?

“Writing is one of these tools. It allows us to be present in the very moment, to be here now in our writing process. In Beyond Medicine, I offer different types of journaling exercises to help us practice being here now and being present with what is.

“Writing helps us to cultivate this experience of being in the moment, where we experience the presence and inner peace that arises when we stop to be in the moment of what’s going on.”

Journaling Exercises for Healing

In her book and in her healing courses, Dr. Trish offers several journaling exercises for healing and experiencing absolute health.

“One of the simplest is just making a list—helpful for people not as used to writing.

“Another exercise is stream of consciousness writing, where we write what comes to mind at the moment, paying no attention to grammar, or punctuation, being as free and loose as possible where the writing hand is holding a pen or pencil (rather than typing). I encourage people to use their hands, not a keyboard to do the writing. That stream-of-consciousness technique is powerful for being in the moment with whatever comes up in the mind. If I give someone a writing prompt when you don’t know what to write, that’s what to write next.

“I also use different exercises writing with the nondominant hand, a potent tool that can help us slow down and get in touch with what’s going on internally. [Then we] connect with what’s going on. Nondominant handwriting can help us connect with intuition and inner knowing. Don’t worry what it looks like; even just scribbling can help us access our connection to our intuition/inner wisdom!”

The Science Behind Writing and Healing

“There are a lot of studies on journaling’s effects on health, especially expressive writing, writing about feelings that have immediate and long-term impact on our health. Expressive writing toggles on the parasympathetic nervous system, which facilitates resting, repair, healing, sleep and digestion.

“Conversely, when the sympathetic nervous system (fight, flight or freeze) is on we can’t rest, relax, sleep, heal or digest. Those functions are impossible when the sympathetic nervous system is turned on. Just writing about feelings helps to bring us to a place of calm, getting in touch with what’s going on internally. Writing can slow us down and get in touch with us. In the process, it relaxes us, even when writing about difficult thoughts and feelings; just getting them out helps train a state of ease and peace in both mind and body. This is where we need to be for healing to happen and for resolving difficult situations, to get answers without effort.”

How Dr. Muehsam Found Healing Through Writing

Trish shared her experience, “In the past, I’ve been a patient a few times over, and I share these in Beyond Medicine. There were times I was confused about what path to follow for healing. I would always turn to writing to get clarity and often started with just list making, making a list of my questions/confusions.

“I often went to stream of consciousness—flowing writing, where new ideas come. Then, I often got clarity from that. I also used inner child journaling: Using my nondominant hand as the inner child, what am I needing?

writing in bed — Photo by Kinga Cichewicz on Unsplash

“I often got clarity about how to proceed and connected with the underlying emotions. Every physical issue has an emotion and often an emotional root cause.

“I use journaling to get a sense of what’s going on body-wise and emotionally. With my broken arm and extreme physical pain, I couldn’t journal with my right hand but used my nondominant hand to write about the pain and explore the emotional roots of the pain. All physical pain has an emotional component and the physical pain cannot go away without addressing the emotional component. Pain is in our body, thoughts and emotions. Recent research explains exactly how emotions are clearly linked to physical pain. The fibers in the brain that transmit emotional info to our emotional awareness center travel along the same highway as the pain fibers that transmit the sensation of physical pain. Acute pain, once it becomes chronic, no longer activates the physical pain center in the brain, but it activates the emotional center.”

More on the Research

“Remembering an event that caused pain can elicit pain. We think it’s the shoulder that’s acting up, but it’s the emotions that are acting up. This research is borne from clinical studies and placebo surgeries—for example a knee study. One group had surgery for chronic knee pain, and one group had sham surgery, and the people who had the placebo did better! The apparent physical cause was not the cause of their chronic pain.

“In the early work of Dr. John Sarno, his theory was that mental and emotional stress and repressed trauma were the primary causes of back pain. The mind and emotions play a powerful role in our physical health. And writing can be a path to healing since it addresses the underlying emotions.

“When I’m anxious or angry or frustrated, overworking, not listening to my body’s needs, my pain increases. Writing is a beautiful way to slow down, explore the inner landscape, and get in touch with our feelings. And I always encourage writing by hand.”

How Healing and Health Affect Writing

In my experience, healing also affects our writing. Healing experiences often open me up to the creative muse, and I find myself writing poetry or getting new ideas for books I might write, for example. My first published book came out of healing from chronic fatigue syndrome and the polarity therapy work I immersed myself in.

So, I asked Dr. Trish about this two-way link.

How Does Vibrant Health Affect Your Writing?

Dr. Trish answered, “When I’m in a state of calm, my writing flows. When I was working on my book, the writing flowed when my mind and body were in a place of peace, what I call vibrant health. In that place of ease, new ideas would arise, my writing would flow, and new ideas came without effort; they weren’t ideas I had to list out; they arose as I wrote.

“Ideas also arose for my writing when I was in a state of peace and not at my keyboard, and I had a habit of grabbing the idea and writing it on the notes section of my phone, and I trusted those ideas even more than the ideas that came when I was trying to gather information.

“Great metaphors and images would come. I wasn’t interfering with it or filtering it. It was just flowing through me. I might be walking my dog, and as soon as I got home, I would note it somewhere.”

Surrender to the Moment

“That never happened when I was trying to get the writing going, ever. I had to often surrender to the moment. I had to let go of the trying. When working with my editor, when I was trying, that blocked the flow of ideas and the goodness of the writing.

“I would need just to stop and return to a place of peace before resuming. That could be 10 minutes of closing my eyes or 20 minutes of walking in the park. It didn’t mean I only wrote when inspired. I would go to my computer every day in the morning and write. I’d work on other tasks, such as research, if I were in a not-peaceful state of mind. But other times, I would pause and do a mini-meditation or breathing and take a pause away from my desk to return to that state of absolute health.” [Hey, just like we do in the Get Your Writing Done sessions—movement and breath to get things moving and entrain into creative flow!]

Dr. Trish had the same thought I did.

She added, without knowing what I was thinking, “The way I understand and experience healing is the way you teach accessing your inner writer.”

“Why does peace help us access the best ideas and the most profound writing? We don’t access intuition, inner wisdom or creativity in a state of stress. Might we not access creativity when the sympathetic (fight, flight, freeze) nervous system is turned on? We can’t connect with the inner muse and creative process when trying to ward off the saber-toothed tiger.”

Experience Absolute Health

So maybe you’re excited about these tools of absolute health and what they can do for your physical health and your creative life.

I asked Dr. Trish to share the details, and here they are:

Beyond Medicine Immersive Course, is a four-month online course. Here are some of the benefits that participants might experience:

Teachings and practical tools for healing yourself and transforming your life, many of the tools incorporate writing.
True healing arises from a place of peace within. That place is where we need to be to get well or navigate challenging life situations. It’s where we find clarity and solutions because it’s where we need to be to access our wisdom, intuition, creativity, and life force.
Access life force for writing, creativity,
Place of peace that offers solutions, wisdom, and creativity.

What’s Significant About this Course

“I’m offering these tools for healing one’s life, but what’s important is that I’m teaching a revolutionary way to feel well and thrive in all the ways that matter to you. It’s revolutionary because it’s simple, effortless and available to us at this very moment. What people will learn is that they are their own medicine, how to access your inner healer, how to find your way to that place of inner peace easily, where intuition flows and creativity arises, that place we need to be to facilitate healing of the body.

“You will learn to know that unlimited capacity to heal yourself and your life because our medicines lie within.”

If Dr. Muehsam’s book and courses had been available when I had chronic fatigue, the healing path would have been much easier and quicker. I encourage our readers to explore this incredible opportunity in Dr. Trish’s book and immersion course. Full disclosure: I am also an affiliate of Dr. Trish’s program, which means if you sign up through my link I will receive a commission. I take part in a small number of affiliate programs and only ones that I think will be of great benefit to my readers.

Now, let’s return to my conversation with Dr. Trish Muehsam:

“Returning to the notion of absolute health, peace of mind—it’s so accessible to all of us —a stop, a pause, and a breath away. We can use those writing tools to take us there. Peace of mind is our essential nature. We were born to be in a state of equanimity. A calm and peaceful mind creates a calm and peaceful body, where creativity can easily flow.

“A disturbed mind creates stress in the body, literally. Every thought and every emotion has an instantaneous effect on the physical body—neutral, supportive or detrimental. Healing happens when the mind becomes calm, at peace.”.

About Patricia A. Muehsam, MD

Author of Beyond Medicine, Patricia Muesham, MD

Patricia A. Muehsam, MD, a pioneer in synthesizing science, holistic health, and contemporary spirituality, has distinguished herself as a practitioner, educator, research scientist, and author. She has been an influential force in shaping the landscape of healthcare options available today. Muehsam’s groundbreaking book, Beyond Medicine: A Physician’s Revolutionary Prescription for Achieving Absolute Health and Finding Inner Peace, has been hailed by Larry Dossey, MD, as the “only health and healing book you will ever need.” Founder of Transformational MedicineTM, Dr. Muehsam’s services include health consultations, mind-body healing sessions, classes, and retreats. She lives in New York City with Benjamin, her adopted Golden Retriever and sage spiritual advisor.

Sign up for—or find out more about—Dr. Trish’s course: Beyond Medicine: A Physician’s Revolutionary Prescription for Healing Yourself and Transforming Your Life. The course begins on October 10, 2023.

No One Can “Fix” Your Writing

September 13, 2023 by Lisa Tener

A client mentioned something about my fixing her writing today. Later in the day, I attended our first meeting of a leaderless (someone said “peer support”) poetry writing group at Willett Free Library, just up the hill from my home. There, almost half of the members said something disparaging and judgmental about their writing.

So, let’s get something straight. You can’t fix something that’s not broken. Your writing’s not broken. You can:

Lisa Tener book writing coach — No judgment.

Refine
Clarify
Develop
Simplify
Beautify
Illustrate
Organize
Bring structure to
Bring to life
Polish

your writing.

But I bristle at the word “fix.”

Not a Destination

Writing is a journey, a process, a path. You’re on the path. Acknowledge yourself for writing. Acknowledge that writing takes work and refinement and it’s not expected to come out perfect the first time. At least not often.

You’re probably putting too much pressure on yourself if you’re feeling bad about your writing when you’re in the middle of it (or even near the end, for that matter).

Remember, there is help to be had! Many of us benefit from external readers—beta readers, developmental editors, line editors—you don’t have to do all the refining yourself. You can receive feedback, new ideas, even some wordsmithing.

And About Poetry and Judgment

And as to poetry, think of it as an activity you immerse yourself in. If something beautiful comes out of it—hooray. And if you don’t want your poem to see the light of day, okay. Just don’t judge your poem, your abilities, or yourself. Approach your poetry with playfulness, a spirit of experimentation, and the sheer joy of creating something without it or you having to perform.

What’s your perspective? How do you relate to your writing? Does your perspective serve you and your writing projects or not? If not, what can you do to take the judgment out of it, take the pressure off, and have fun?