51. Can Coloured Pens Help You Write? How Stationery and Handwriting Can Unlock Your Creativity

51. Can Coloured Pens Help You Write? How Stationery and Handwriting Can Unlock Your Creativity

Writing Wednesday episodes explore the outer work of writing: craft, structure, revision, publishing, process, and the practical steps that help you finish your book.   Have you ever walked into a stationery shop and felt that little spark of possibility wake up inside you? The coloured pens. The highlighters. The sticky notes. The beautiful notebooks. The fresh blank pages. And maybe you’ve wondered whether you’re just procrastinating, or whether there’s something about those tools that genuinely helps your creative brain come alive. In this Writing Wednesday episode of Write The Darn Book, we’re exploring how coloured pens, handwriting, notebooks, highlighters, sticky notes, and messy handwritten pages can become practical tools for unlocking creativity, especially when your writing feels stuck, flat, tangled, or too much like a task. This is not about abandoning your laptop or hand-writing your entire manuscript. It’s about understanding how colour, handwriting, and physical stationery can help your brain access your story in a different way. In this episode, you’ll learn: * Why stationery often feels so creatively energising for writers * How handwriting can shift your brain out of stuck, screen-based thinking * Why coloured pens and highlighters can help you make invisible story threads visible * How to use colour without creating an overwhelming colour-coding system * How notebooks, pens, and sticky notes can become writing-state cues * The difference between stationery as a creative doorway and stationery as avoidance * A simple three-colour practice to help you work through a scene, chapter, character, or idea Try this simple coloured pen practice Choose one writing problem or creative question you’re currently holding. Take a notebook or blank page and choose three colours: * One colour for what you already know * One colour for the questions * One colour for the sparks, meaning the words, images, ideas, or emotional truths that make something inside you lean forward Give yourself ten minutes. Write messily. Draw arrows. Circle things. Highlight the sentence that surprises you. Then ask yourself: What is the colour showing me?   If this episode made you realise that the way you brainstorm, plan, organise your ideas, and reconnect with your creativity might be deeply connected to your writing personality, you can book a Writing Personality Blueprint Session at: maddisonmichaels.com/blueprint   And if you’d like to begin by discovering more about your own writing personality, you can take the free Writing Personality Quiz at: maddisonmichaels.com/quiz   ⭐️ If this episode resonated with you, I’d be so grateful if you took a moment to leave a five-star review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Your review helps Write the Darn Book reach more writers who are ready to honour their stories, trust their creative process, and keep showing up for the book they’re meant to write. 💗

50.The Magic of Words: How Writers Shape Their Creative Reality

Mindset Monday episodes explore the inner work of writing: blocks, beliefs, identity, resistance, procrastination, perfectionism, and creative flow. Words are never just words, especially for writers. In this episode of Write The Darn Book, we’re exploring how the language you use around your writing shapes the way you experience the page, your manuscript, your creative flow, and even your identity as a writer. Because it’s not just the words that end up in the manuscript that matter. It’s the words you speak to yourself before you write, during a difficult session, after you close the document, and every time you decide what kind of writer you believe yourself to be. If you’ve ever caught yourself thinking, “I’m behind,” “I’m inconsistent,” “I never finish anything,” or “I’m not a real writer,” this episode will help you understand why those words land so heavily, and how to begin choosing language that supports your creativity rather than shutting it down. This is a grounded, practical conversation about self-talk, writer identity, nervous-system safety, creative confidence, and the way your words can either reinforce resistance or open the next doorway back into your writing. In this episode, you’ll learn: • Why the words you speak to yourself are part of the writing process too • How language shapes your emotional state before, during, and after writing • Why a hard writing day is not a verdict on your talent • How pressure language, judgement language, and identity language can block creative flow • Why the way you speak to yourself after a writing session matters so much • A simple Magic Words Reset to help you shift from self-criticism into grounded action • How to use your words to support the writer you are becoming The Magic Words Reset In this episode, Maddison walks you through a simple three-step process you can use when your inner language turns against your writing: Notice the sentence. Hear what you’re actually saying to yourself. Soften the meaning. Find a truer, kinder, more useful version. Choose the next doorway. Take one grounded step back toward the work. This isn’t about fake positivity or pretending writing always feels easy. It’s about using language to return yourself to the page with more steadiness, self-trust, and creative safety. For deeper personalised support If this episode helped you recognise that the words you use with yourself are tied to bigger patterns in your writing, your resistance, your confidence, and the way you see yourself as a writer, a Writing Personality Blueprint Session may be a beautiful next step. Inside a Blueprint Session, we look at how you are uniquely wired to write through your Bird Writing Personality, your creative patterns, your resistance points, and the kind of support that actually helps you move forward. You’ll come away with clearer insight into why you write the way you do, why certain approaches haven’t worked for you, and how to build a writing process that feels more aligned, practical, and sustainable. Book your Writing Personality Blueprint Session at: maddisonmichaels.com/blueprint ⭐️ If this episode resonated with you, I’d be so grateful if you took a moment to leave a five-star review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Your review helps Write the Darn Book reach more writers who are ready to honour their stories, trust their creative process, and keep showing up for the book they’re meant to write. 💗

49. Can Music Help You Write? How Sound, Silence, and Background Noise Shape Creative Flow!

Writing Wednesday episodes explore the outer work of writing: craft, structure, revision, publishing, process, and the practical steps that help you finish your book. Can music actually help you write, or is it quietly pulling you out of the story? In this episode of Write The Darn Book, we’re exploring how music, silence, and background noise shape your creative flow, and why the best sound environment for writing is not the same for every writer. Because sound is more than background noise. It can become a writing-state cue, a doorway into your manuscript, and a signal your brain begins to associate with story, focus, creativity, or safety. In This Episode You’ll learn: * How sound can become a cue your brain associates with writing and creative flow * Why music can help you access the emotional world of your book, but may also pull you into the wrong state * Why silence supports some writers beautifully, while making the inner critic louder for others * How background noise can reduce pressure and help some writers bypass overthinking * Why your sound needs may be shaped by your creative wiring, Bird Writing Personality, nervous system, and trained writing habits * How to use the Sound Check Method before your next writing session The Sound Check Method This episode introduces a simple tool to help you choose the right sound environment before each writing session. Instead of asking, “Should I write with music or silence?” you’ll learn to ask: * What state do I need for this session? * What sound supports that state? * Is this sound helping me stay with the work? Because the better question is not simply, “Should writers listen to music while they write?” The better question is: what sound environment helps you enter the work, stay with the work, and come back to the work again tomorrow? Writing Personality Blueprint Sessions If this episode made you realise your writing process might be fighting the way you’re naturally wired, you might love a Writing Personality Blueprint Session. In one focused session, we map your unique Writing Personality, uncover the patterns affecting your writing rhythm, resistance, focus, and follow-through, and build a personalised strategy for how you plan, draft, revise, and keep moving with your book. You can book your Writing Personality Blueprint Session at maddisonmichaels.com/blueprint. Loved This Episode? ⭐️ If this episode resonated with you, I’d be so grateful if you took a moment to leave a five-star review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Your review helps Write The Darn Book reach more writers who are ready to honour their stories, trust their creative process, and keep showing up for the book they’re meant to write. 💗

48. What to Do When You Stare at the Blank Page and Nothing Comes

Mindset Monday episodes explore the inner work of writing: blocks, beliefs, identity, resistance, procrastination, perfectionism, and creative flow. Have you ever opened your laptop, placed your hands on the keyboard, stared at the blank page, and felt absolutely nothing come? No words. No clear thought. No spark. Just that awful white space staring back at you. In this Mindset Monday episode of Write The Darn Book, Maddison explores what is really happening when you freeze at the blank page, and why that moment is rarely proof that you have no story, no message, or no ability. Often, blank-page freeze is a sign of pressure, overwhelm, perfectionism, fear, or a nervous system trying to protect you from getting it wrong. The page becomes loaded with expectation, and instead of writing one small sentence, your mind tries to prove you are a “real writer” before you have even begun. This episode gives you a practical, compassionate way back into the writing. You’ll learn how to lower the pressure, ask the page a smaller question, and begin with one honest sentence, so you can move from frozen to writing again. In this episode, you’ll learn: ✨ Why the blank page can feel so confronting ✨ How pressure and perfectionism can shut down your words before you begin ✨ Why “I can’t write” is often a pattern, rather than the truth ✨ How to use the 5-Minute Momentum Method when you feel stuck ✨ Why the first sentence of a writing session is allowed to be ordinary ✨ How to ask smaller, more useful questions that help your mind re-engage ✨ How your writing personality and creative wiring can shape the way you begin You’ll also be guided through a simple five-step process you can use the next time you sit down to write and nothing comes: Name what is happening. Lower the pressure. Ask the page a smaller question. Write the first honest sentence. Build momentum for five minutes. Because the blank page is not a verdict on your talent. It is simply the starting place. And when you learn how to begin gently, practically, and in a way that feels safe to your system, the next sentence becomes possible.   Ready for support with your own writing blocks? If this episode made you think, yes, this is exactly what happens to me when I sit down to write, then this is your invitation to go deeper. Blank-page freeze is often a pattern. It may be connected to pressure, perfectionism, fear of getting it wrong, self-doubt, uncertainty around structure, or simply trying to write in a way that works against your natural creative wiring. Inside a Writing Personality Blueprint Session, Maddison helps you understand how you are uniquely wired to write, using your DOPE Bird Writing Personality and your creative patterns as the starting point. You’ll walk away with clearer insight into why you get stuck, what kind of writing process actually suits you, and practical next steps to help you return to the page with more confidence, clarity, and momentum. If you’re ready to understand your writing patterns and build a process that works with you, rather than against you, you can book your Writing Personality Blueprint Session at: maddisonmichaels.com/blueprint [https://maddisonmichaels.com/blueprint] Your book is still calling. And you do not have to keep trying to figure it all out alone.   ⭐️ If this episode resonated with you, I’d be so grateful if you took a moment to leave a five-star review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Your review helps Write The Darn Book reach more writers who are ready to honour their stories, trust their creative process, and keep showing up for the book they’re meant to write. 💗

47. Show Don't Tell - How Your Creative Wiring Shapes What Lands on the Page!

Writing Wednesday episodes explore the outer work of writing: craft, structure, revision, publishing, process, and the practical steps that help you finish your book.   Have you ever been told to “show, don’t tell” and immediately felt yourself overthinking every sentence?   In this Writing Wednesday episode, we’re looking at one of the most common pieces of writing craft advice through a completely different lens: your creative wiring. Because showing versus telling isn’t only about adding more description. It’s about helping your reader experience the moment. And the way you naturally process the world often shapes the way you write the world. In this episode, Maddison explores how the four NLP Writer’s Mind modalities — Visual, Auditory, Kinesthetic, and Auditory Digital — can influence what lands on the page. You’ll discover why visual writers may naturally lean into imagery, auditory writers may hear dialogue and rhythm first, kinesthetic writers may write from feeling and body sensation, and auditory digital writers may move quickly into meaning, thought, and explanation. None of these are wrong. They are clues. You’ll learn how to recognise when one modality may be taking over your scenes, how to revise with more intention, and how to use the Four-Modality Showing Pass to make your writing feel fuller, more embodied, and more alive. In this episode, you’ll learn: * Why “show, don’t tell” is really about reader experience * How your dominant NLP modality can shape your natural writing strengths * Why visual, auditory, kinesthetic, and auditory digital writers may all “show” differently * Common signs that a scene is leaning too heavily on one modality * How to revise your scenes using the Four-Modality Showing Pass * Why your creative wiring is not a flaw, but a powerful clue to your writing voice This episode is especially helpful if you’ve ever received feedback that your writing feels flat, over-explained, under-described, too internal, too emotionally heavy, or hard to picture — and you weren’t quite sure what to do with that feedback. Your natural modality is part of your gift. The more you understand it, the more intentionally you can use it.   Want to understand how you’re uniquely wired to write? If today’s episode made you realise that the way you naturally process story might be shaping what lands on the page, then my Writing Personality Blueprint Session is the perfect next step. This is a personalised 1:1 session where we look at your unique writing wiring, including your Bird Writing Personality and creative patterns, so you can better understand what supports your writing, what creates resistance, and what kind of process will actually help you move forward. You’ll walk away with practical, personalised strategies designed around how you write best, so you can stop fighting your natural process and start building a writing rhythm that truly works for you. You can book your Writing Personality Blueprint Session at maddisonmichaels.com/blueprint   Resources mentioned: Discover your writing personality: maddisonmichaels.com/quiz Book a Writing Personality Blueprint Session: maddisonmichaels.com/blueprint   ⭐️ If this episode resonated with you, I’d be so grateful if you took a moment to leave a five-star review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Your review helps Write the Darn Book reach more writers who are ready to honour their stories, trust their creative process, and keep showing up for the book they’re meant to write.