45. Pantser or Plotter or Something In Between? Find Your Writing Style and Stop Fighting Yourself

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.

46. Part 2 - The Walt Disney Strategy for Writers: Three Guided Visualisations to Access Your Dreamer, Realist, and Critic

Episode 46: The Walt Disney Strategy for Writers Part 2: Three Guided Visualisations to Access Your Dreamer, Realist, and Critic Mindset Monday episodes explore the inner work of writing: blocks, beliefs, identity, resistance, procrastination, perfectionism, and creative flow. In Part 1 of this Walt Disney Strategy series, we explored the three creative modes every writer needs: the Dreamer, the Realist, and the Critic. In this bonus episode, we move from understanding the framework into actually experiencing it. Maddison guides you through three gentle visualisations designed to help you deliberately step into each creative mode. You’ll connect with the Dreamer, who imagines without restriction. The Realist, who builds the bridge between idea and page. And the Critic, who refines the work once something has been created. These visualisations can be used together as a creative preparation ritual before a writing session, or individually whenever you need to access a specific mode in your writing process. Inside this episode, you’ll experience: 1. A guided Dreamer visualisation to reconnect with possibility, imagination, and creative freedom 2. A guided Realist visualisation to access grounded momentum, structure, and the next practical step 3. A guided Critic visualisation to invite constructive refinement without letting self-doubt take over 4. A gentle reminder of why the order matters: Dreamer first, Realist second, Critic third 5. A practical way to use this NLP-based strategy before planning, drafting, or revising your book If you’re driving, walking somewhere busy, or need to stay alert, save the visualisation section for a time when you can settle in and give it your full attention. 👉 WANT TO UNDERSTAND HOW YOU ARE WIRED TO WRITE? And if you’re ready to stop fighting the way you write and finally understand how your creative mind actually works, my Writing Personality Blueprint Session is the perfect next step. Together, we’ll uncover your natural writing personality, the patterns that may be creating resistance, and the personalised tools that can help you write with more clarity, confidence, and flow. You can learn more at maddisonmichaels.com/blueprint. [https://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. 💗

45. Pantser or Plotter or Something In Between? Find Your Writing Style and Stop Fighting Yourself

Writing Wednesday Episode 45: Pantser or Plotter or Something In Between? Find Your Writing Style and Stop Fighting Yourself Are you a writer who needs a detailed outline before you begin, or do you prefer to discover the story as you write? In this episode of Write the Darn Book, we’re diving into the pantser versus plotter debate, but through a much deeper lens. Because your writing style is rarely just a preference. It is often connected to how your brain is wired, how you process story, and what makes your creative system feel safe enough to write. Maddison explores how the four Bird Writing Personalities, Dove, Owl, Peacock and Eagle, often approach structure, freedom, planning and discovery. You’ll learn why some writers thrive with detailed outlines, why others feel blocked by too much structure, and why many writers sit somewhere in the middle. Most importantly, this episode gives you permission to stop fighting yourself and start building a writing process that actually works for the way you create. In this episode, you’ll learn: • What the pantser versus plotter debate really means • Why writing advice can fail when it was built for a different type of writer • How each Bird Writing Personality tends to approach planning and drafting • Why your writing process may change from book to book • How to find the middle path between structure and discovery • Why the goal is not to become a perfect plotter or pantser, but to understand how you write best If you’ve been forcing yourself to write in a way that feels heavy, flat, or completely wrong for you, this episode will help you see that the problem may never have been you. It may simply be the method.   ✨ Want personalised clarity on how you’re uniquely wired to write? Maddison’s Writing Personality Blueprint Session is a dedicated one-on-one Zoom session where you’ll explore your Bird Writing Personality profile and receive a personalised Blueprint Report with your creative strengths, resistance patterns, and practical strategies for building a writing process that works for you. Book your session at: maddisonmichaels.com/blueprint [https://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. 💗