276: When You Don't Know Why You're Doing This

Sometimes you find yourself asking—over a draft, or a failed draft, or a sagging outline or just during a really long drive—why exactly you do this thing we do. This week, we turn to some favorites to help answer that question.

In our new summer series, The Working Bookshelf, KJ and guest host Jennie Nash pull their favorite writing books off the shelf and debate: which is better and why—until invariably, they get distracted and just start talking about the topic at hand. Funny, fresh and full of frank advice, when KJ and Jennie get going they’re hard to stop.

This week, it’s Start with Why versus How to Write an Autobiographical Novel. 

In a new twist, you can also watch these episodes on YouTube. Find Episode 8 HERE.

And, for your looking-forward pleasure, here’s the whole series, dropping once weekly all through the summer of 2021.

1. Inspiration
2. Plotting
3. Productivity
4. Up Your Game
5. When You're Stuck
6. Getting Published
7. Writing While White
8. When You Don't Know Why You're Doing This
9. Writer Comfort Reads 
10. Editing 

This special season of the #AmWriting podcast is sponsored by Author Accelerator. Author Accelerator hand-matches writers with book coaches who have been rigorously trained to provide motivation and inspiration and give writers the support we need to stop making excuses and get the job done. Find out more, and get book coach Jennie Nash’s weeklong find-your-foundation writing challenge at authoraccelerator.com/amwriting. Author Accelerator also trains book coaches to build their own successful coaching businesses. For more on becoming a coach, go to https://www.bookcoaches.com/.