53. Is Your Writing Setup Making It Harder to Write? Ergonomics, Energy, and Creative Flow

53. Is Your Writing Setup Making It Harder to Write? Ergonomics, Energy, and Creative Flow

Is Your Writing Setup Making It Harder to Write? Ergonomics, Energy, and 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. Your writing setup is not separate from your writing momentum. In today’s Writing Wednesday episode of Write The Darn Book, we’re looking at how your desk, chair, keyboard, screen, and movement habits can either support your creative flow or quietly make writing harder than it needs to be. Because writing is physical. Your mind may be willing, your story may be calling, and your book may matter deeply to you, but if your body is uncomfortable, tense, or constantly pushing through pain, writing can begin to feel harder to return to. I’m also sharing my own experience managing a shoulder injury from my policing career, and how tools like a sit-stand desk, walking treadmill, ergonomic keyboard, posture support, and movement breaks have helped me care for my body while writing. We’ll also look at the other side of the equation: when researching the perfect setup becomes another form of procrastination. In this episode, you’ll learn how to: • recognise when physical discomfort is affecting your writing momentum • tell the difference between useful ergonomic support and setup-based procrastination • use a simple writing setup audit before your next writing session • care for your body so writing becomes more sustainable over the long term This episode is not medical advice. If you’re experiencing ongoing pain, numbness, tingling, headaches, or symptoms that concern you, please seek support from a qualified health professional. And if you’re listening before 30 June, I’d love to invite you to my free live masterclass, Write To Your Wiring: Discover Your NLP Modality and How It Shapes the Way You Write. You’ll discover how your natural processing style shapes the way you think, create, access story, and move through resistance. Join the free masterclass here: https://maddisonmichaels.com/masterclass [https://maddisonmichaels.com/masterclass]   ⭐️ 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. 💗 And remember, you are the vessel for the story. Let the words flow through you and onto the page.

52. How to Write the Book Only You Can Write: Accessing Your Unique Creative Truth

Mindset Monday episodes explore the inner work of writing: blocks, beliefs, identity, resistance, procrastination, perfectionism, and creative flow. Have you ever looked at your book idea and felt that little tug inside that says, this matters, this is mine to write? And then almost immediately, another voice comes in. Who are you to write this? This is too personal. Someone else has already said it better. Maybe this story only matters to you. In this episode of Write The Darn Book, we’re exploring how to write the book only you can write by accessing your unique creative truth. Maddison talks about why the most personal parts of your story are often the parts that become the most universal, why writers sometimes pull back right before the truth comes through, and how your NLP modality shapes the way you naturally access emotion, meaning, story, and voice. You’ll learn how Visual, Auditory, Kinesthetic, and Auditory Digital writers may each access creative truth differently, and how to begin writing the scene, chapter, or message you may have been circling for far too long. This episode is a reminder that your book does not become powerful because you sound like everyone else. It becomes powerful because your lived experience, perspective, emotional honesty, and creative wiring are allowed to come through on the page. In this episode, you’ll explore: • Why personal stories often become the most universal • The difference between literal truth and emotional truth • Why resistance can show up when the writing starts to feel real • How NLP modalities shape the way creative truth comes through • A simple practice for writing one honest page from your natural wiring   Free Masterclass Invitation If this episode stirred something in you, I’d love to invite you to my free live masterclass on 30 June 2026 at 10am AEST: Write To Your Wiring: Discover Your NLP Modality and How It Shapes the Way You Write Inside this free masterclass, we’ll explore the four NLP modalities, Visual, Auditory, Kinesthetic, and Auditory Digital, and how each one shapes the way you access story, process ideas, experience blocks, and find your way back into creative flow. You’ll learn what your modality means for your writing rhythm, your story access, your resistance patterns, and the practical shifts you can make in your very next writing session. Reserve your free place here: maddisonmichaels.com/masterclass   ⭐️ 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. 💗 And remember, you are the vessel for the story. Let the words flow through you and onto the page.

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. 💗