blocking is often similar: ‘It occurs when we stumble, delay, and panic in response to a demanding responsibility, when we avoid the threatening task by way of nervous slowing of activity, self-conscious narrowing of scope, even immobilisation. Blocking typically occurs when we face public scrutiny (as in a writing block).’2

Lao Tzu wrote: ‘Confront the difficult while it is still easy; accomplish the great task by a series of small acts.’4

One simple idea drives our work: noticing how you write and taking a more mindful, experimental approach to what works for you and what doesn’t is the most powerful thing you can do to gain a happier, healthier and more productive relationship with writing.

Write your goal as a simple sentence. You are aiming for a stretch, so push beyond what you are capable of right now. Next, get specific in order to create a plan. Using SMART, make your goal specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and timed.

Take the American Psychological Association’s (APA) guidance on how we can increase our resilience.4 It suggests four core components: 1.Purpose – being proactive, making progress towards goals, finding opportunities for self-discovery and helping others. 2.Healthy thinking – accepting that challenges will happen, learning from past experiences, an

As your coaches, right now, we’re not going to tell you that any of the opinions you’ve reached about yourself or your writing are ‘wrong’. We’re not going to give you the ‘right’ solution either. We’d simply like you to examine the things you believe about yourself and your writing and ask yourself whether they are indeed true – or whether they mi

that dream must be accompanied with a sound understanding of what might stop you from getting there and a knowledge of what to do when you do hit a bump in the road – which you inevitably will.

As Ericsson writes: ‘And this, more than anything else is the lesson that people should take away from all these stories and all this research: There is no reason not to follow your dream. Deliberate practice can open the door to a world of possibilities that you may have been convinced were out of reach. Open that door.’21 If you scratch the surfa

Year after year, knock-back after knock-back, he kept trying to convince reluctant journalists to run with his stories. These ideas are so bad, he must have thought, I can’t even pay someone to write about them. But instead of giving up, he changed tack. He commissioned himself. He set about writing the stories that nobody else wanted. Fully expect