The Creative Penn Podcast For Writers Joanna Penn

How do you turn an idea into a poem? What are the publishing options for poets, and how does marketing work? Rishi Dastidar talks about his life in poetry and provides tips for taking your creative work further.







In the intro, What Readers Want in 2022 [ALLi]; Ads for Authors (affiliate link); Submission on AI and copyright [ALLi]; How will Creatokia publish NFT books? [Creatokia Podcast]; AI for Voice series [VO Boss Podcast];















This episode is sponsored by ScribeCount.com, which provides automated sales aggregation from multiple publishing platforms, all combined into user-friendly charts and features, accessible in seconds. Whether you publish wide or exclusive, ScribeCount allows authors to customize reports to fit their individual needs. Check it out at ScribeCount.com.















Rishi Dastidar is a poet, journalist, copywriter, and brand strategist, as well as the editor of The Craft: A Guide to Making Poetry Happen in the 21st Century, and co-editor of Too Young, Too Loud, Too Different: Poems from Malika's Poetry Kitchen.







You can listen above or on your favorite podcast app or read the notes and links below. Here are the highlights and the full transcript is below.







Show Notes







* How sound, images and word phrases affect Rishi’s poetry* Tips and tools for capturing ideas* Can we trust our subconscious to provide us with ideas?* How to deal with dry creative periods* The traditional publishing process for poetry* The performance side of being a poet* Pivoting to performing online during the pandemic* The benefits of writers’ collectives







You can find Rishi Dastidar's books at online bookstores and on Twitter @betarish







Transcript of Interview with Rishi Dastidar







Joanna: Rishi Dastidar is a poet, journalist, copywriter, and brand strategist, as well as the editor of ‘The Craft: A Guide to Making Poetry Happen in the 21st Century,' and co-editor of ‘Too Young, Too Loud, Too Different: Poems from Malika's Poetry Kitchen.'







We also both went to Mansfield College, at the University of Oxford back in the '90s. So it's been a while. Welcome to the show, Rishi.







Rishi: Hi. Good to see you. And, yes, it hasn't been a while. We're not going to dwell on how many years precisely, I hope.







Joanna: I know, it seems crazy. And it's funny because I always ask, my first question is tell us a bit more about you and how you got into writing and publishing. I still want to know that, but it's funny because I feel like I know you from a snapshot in time. And of course, things have moved on for both of us.

How can we recognize self-doubt and create alongside it as part of the author journey? How can we write with confidence and double down on what we love the most? William Kenower talks about these aspects and more.







In the intro, planning for 2022 [Ask ALLi]; Your publishing options [6 Figure Authors]; Need an audiobook narrator? Use the Findaway Marketplace; The Successful Author Mindset.















Today's podcast sponsor is Findaway Voices, which gives you access to the world's largest network of audiobook sellers and everything you need to create and sell professional audiobooks. Take back your freedom. Choose your price, choose how you sell, choose how you distribute audio. Check it out at FindawayVoices.com.















William Kenower is the author of nonfiction books on writing, the editor-in-chief of ‘Author Magazine' and the host of the Author2Author podcast. His latest book is Everyone Has What it Takes: A Writer's Guide to the End of Self-Doubt.







You can listen above or on your favorite podcast app or read the notes and links below. Here are the highlights and the full transcript is below.







Show Notes







* A winding route to writing and publishing* Validation — and the need to find it within ourselves* The different ways that writers experience self-doubt* Learning to recognize self-doubt and create, anyway* When is self-doubt justified, and what can you do about it?* Does everyone have what it takes to be a writer?* Commonalities among successful writers







You can find William Kenower at WilliamKenower.com and on Twitter @wdbk







Transcript of Interview with William Kenower







Joanna: William Kenower is the author of nonfiction books on writing, the editor-in-chief of ‘Author Magazine' and the host of the ‘Author2Author' podcast. His latest book is Everyone Has What it Takes: A Writer's Guide to the End of Self-Doubt. Welcome to the show, Bill.







William: Thank you, Joanna. It's good to be here.







Joanna: It's great to have you on the show.







Tell us a little bit more about you and how you got into writing and publishing.







William: Writing, I got into very young. I knew the arts were really the only path I was interested in. And though I dabbled in theater pretty seriously in my early to mid-20s and I went to Hollywood briefly with the idea of being a screenwriter. Prose was really where I was most comfortable and writing and prose was where I was most comfortable.

If the pandemic has affected your sleep, you are not alone! If you want to sort out your sleep issues and improve your creativity — and your life — as we head into a new year, this episode with Dr. Anne D. Bartolucci will help.







In the intro, publishing industry trends for 2022 [Written Word Media; Stark Reflections; Mark Coker Smashwords]; my Sell Direct Tutorial; Mark Dawson's Ads for Authors, which now includes Booktok; GPT-4 [Towards Data Science]; AI-Assisted Author course.















Today's show is sponsored by ProWritingAid, writing and editing software that goes way beyond just grammar and typo checking. With its detailed reports on how to improve your writing, and integration with Scrivener MS Word, Chrome and more, ProWritingAid will help you improve your book before you send it to an editor, agent or publisher. Check it out for free or get 25% off the premium edition at www.ProWritingAid.com/joanna















Dr. Anne Bartolucci is a licensed psychologist and a certified behavioral sleep medicine specialist. She's the author of two non-fiction books, including Better Sleep for the Overachiever, and she's also a best-selling steampunk and urban fantasy author under Cecilia Dominic.







You can listen above or on your favorite podcast app or read the notes and links below. Here are the highlights and the full transcript is below.







Show Notes







* Why sleep matters, especially for creatives* How the pandemic has affected sleeping habits* The different sleeping issues we can encounter at different times of life* Busting sleep myths* Different kinds of insomnia* How to improve your falling asleep time* Why the ‘rules’ are less important than what works for us individually* Do mindfulness and meditation help with sleep?* How Anne manages her day job and her author life — and lessons learned







You can find Dr. Anne Bartolucci at OverachieverBook.com and on Twitter @CeciliaDominic







Transcript of Interview with Anne D. Bartolucci







Joanna Penn: Dr. Anne Bartolucci is a licensed psychologist and a certified behavioral sleep medicine specialist. She's the author of two non-fiction books,

“We make plans, God laughs.” The old Yiddish proverb will no doubt stand true for another year, but I just can’t help myself! 







I need to make plans to have something to aim for, but given how 2021 didn’t turn out as expected, for 2022 I will hold my plans and goals loosely and won’t be surprised if they change. If I start off with lower expectations, perhaps it will turn out to be a spectacular year for us all (fingers crossed!).







Here’s what I’m planning, and I’d love to hear about your goals, so please leave a comment here if you’d like to share and we can keep each other accountable.







* Embrace multi-passionate creativity — and optimize for curiosity* Books for authors — Joanna Penn* Fiction as J.F. Penn — thrillers, dark fantasy, crime, horror, short stories* The Creative Penn website and podcast* The Creative Future — putting new technologies into practice* Books and Travel* More tech, less tech. Health, travel, and connection* Financial Goals 







Remember, I am a full-time author-entrepreneur so I have a lot going on — if your goals are simpler — like finishing your book, or publishing for the first time, or selling 1000 copies, then fantastic! You don’t have to have such extensive goals as me!







Embrace multi-passionate creativity — and optimize for curiosity







Every year, I think that I “might be more successful” if I can focus on a limited number of things, but as Walt Whitman said, “I am large, I contain multitudes.” As much as I try to say ‘no’ more, life proliferates and I find so many things interesting along the way that I want to do it all, or at least investigate things further. 







As Lisa Cron pointed out in episode 592, “Emotion telegraphs meaning.” If I am excited about a project or a topic, then I need to give it some time, even if the practical application (and the revenue) might not be obvious.







I’m an author (across multiple genres). I’m a podcaster. I’m an audiobook narrator. I’m a course creator. I’m a speaker. I’m a futurist. These days, I optimize more for curiosity than for maintenance of the status quo. 







Following my curiosity, J.F. Penn book research trip, Lisbon 2019 — featured in Tree of Life







Yes, there needs to be a balance, but I’ve been a full-time author entrepreneur since 2011 and so it cannot just be the same old, same old. It can't just be ‘write, publish, repeat.' I cannot write to market, and I cannot write because I have to. I refuse to grind it out. 







I have so many things I want to create in 2022, and so many more things I want to learn about and share with you. I know I can’t do it all, so I will embrace my multi-passionate creativity, follow the paths my curiosity takes me down — and see where the year takes me.







Here are my creative and business goals — some of them will happen, some won't, and I am far more accepting of that these days! 







Books for authors under Joanna Penn







I have three current works in progress, all with significant words in draft form: 







* How to Write a Novel — 95K* The Shadow Book (working title) — 30K* The AI-Assisted Author — 50K







Although I’d love to say I’ll write and publish them all, each is a significant piece of work, and I have a lot of other things I want to do, so there will be at least one non-fiction book for authors— but I don’t know which as yet.

As we all look back at the past year, it feels like it’s flown by — but also that time has warped in a way and it feels like we’ve been stuck in this pandemic for much longer than we expected.







So here’s my 2021 year in review and an update on whether I managed to meet my goals. I hope this helps you with your own annual review, and feel free to share your achievements and lessons learned in the comments so we can all celebrate (and/or commiserate) together.







* A year of physical and mental health issues — for all of us. You are not alone!* Joanna Penn — books for authors* The Creative Penn website and podcast * The Creative Future* J.F. Penn — thrillers, dark fantasy, crime, horror* Books and Travel* Health, travel, walking* Financial goals







I hope that you can look back and celebrate whatever you have achieved — even if that is just making it through alive!







Writing remains for all of us a haven for our thoughts, not just words for publication — so I hope you have some time to step back, think and write about the year that is almost over. 







If you’d like to share your thoughts, please do leave a comment, or blog about it and tweet me the link. I’ll be back soon with my plans and goals for 2021.















Ever the optimist, I wrote on 1 Jan, 2021: “I’m expecting it to be at least a full pandemic year — from March 2020 to March 2021, but I am really hoping to be back in the world in the second half of this year.” 







I also intended 2021 “to be a year of expansion — creatively in terms of what I write, mentally in terms of the things I learn about, and physically, in terms of my health and where I travel (once we're out of the woods with the virus, of course.)”







Well, this year did not turn out as we all hoped, did it?!







Part of me doesn’t want to do this round-up because I don’t really want to relive most of the year. But I’ve always found it incredibly useful to be accountable to you as my audience, and by looking back, we can be thankful to have made it through — and if you’re reading/listening to this, you have made it through — and hopefully, gain some perspective on what might be possible in the year ahead. 







I will talk about some of the creative goals I achieved — and missed — but I want to start with something far more important.







If you’re utterly exhausted and struggling with physical and mental health issues, you’re not alone. 







I’ve talked about my various issues on the podcast over the year but essentially, it’s been one of my worst years ever in terms of mental and physical health. I share these things not for sympathy, but in the hope that it helps you if you have felt or are still feeling the same way, because we are certainly not alone.







The UK winter lockdown (6 Jan – mid-March 2021) was brutal. I always have some form of SAD (seasonal affective disorder) but it was compounded by sleep issues, resulting from a combination of age-related hormonal changes and pandemic anxiety. 















Sleep issues have been reported across the world during the pandemic (APA, a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/eclinm/article/PIIS2589-5370(21)00196-6/fulltext#:~:text=Sleep%20problems%20appear%20to%20have,psychological%20distress%20may%20be%20reduced" target="_blank" rel="...

Our publishing, marketing and author business tasks are important — but at the end of the day, it all comes down to writing. We are authors. We are writers. So as we head toward a new year, how can you find the time to write? How can you make the most of your writing time?







In the intro, The Big Split [Kris Rusch]; thoughts on long-term creation and serendipity in marketing [Tim Ferriss, 4000 Weeks, Johnny Truant]; Web 3 opportunities [Yaro Starak]; A Midwinter Sacrifice; Risen Gods.







Plus, 30% off my ebooks and audiobooks at Payhip.com/thecreativepenn with coupon: 2021 — and 30% off my courses for authors on Teachable with coupon: 2021 (valid until end of 2021.)















This podcast episode is sponsored by Kobo Writing Life, which helps authors self-publish and reach readers in global markets through the Kobo ecosystem. You can also subscribe to the Kobo Writing Life podcast for interviews with successful indie authors. 















Today's show features two chapters from Productivity for Authors, written and narrated by Joanna Penn.







Joanna Penn writes non-fiction for authors and is an award-nominated, New York Times and USA Today bestselling thriller author as J.F. Penn. She’s also an award-winning podcaster, creative entrepreneur, and international professional speaker.







You can listen above or on your favorite podcast app or read the notes and links below. Here are the highlights and the full transcript is below.







Show Notes







* How to find the time to write — schedule your writing time* Track how you spend your time* How much do you really want this?* Where can you carve out time?* No one said this would be easy* Make the most of your writing time — find the right location* Get into the right mindset — quickly* Turn off distractions* Use timed writing* Stop procrastinating* Measure your progress* Questions to help you







You can find Productivity for Authors: Find Time to Write, Organize Your Author Life, and Decide What Really Matters in ebook, print, workbook,