I stared at a blank screen for forty-five minutes one Tuesday morning. My cursor blinked like a heartbeat I couldn’t quiet. I had a true story worth telling — a story about a family who survived a wildfire in Northern California — but I couldn’t figure out where to start. So I did the only […]
I was stuck at my desk, staring at a mess of papers. I had spent six months gathering research. I had recorded dozens of interviews. Yet, I couldn’t start writing. Journalist Sonia Faleiro faced a similar challenge. She worked with 3,000 pages of documents and hundreds of interview hours. Her secret? She wrote her way […]
I found a used copy of Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood in a Portland bookstore. I was looking for a novel. But it changed how I read forever. Nonfiction writings have changed my view of the world more than fiction. Memoirs and true crime stories are heavy with real-life experiences. They have a weight fiction […]
In 2018, I was at Barnes & Noble, reading “The Devil in the White City” by Erik Larson. A stranger saw my book and said, “Oh, that’s nonfiction? I only read novels.” This moment stuck with me for years. It made me see how many readers ignore true stories. This encounter made me start “The […]
I stared at a blank screen for three hours when I started my first novel. My coffee went cold. My cat lost interest. I typed one sentence, deleted it, and typed it again. That was ten years ago. Writing a novel is different from short stories or essays. It takes more time, emotional depth, and […]
In 2012, Brené Brown was a professor at the University of Houston. She had a dream and a manuscript. She didn’t have a big following or celebrity connections. But she had a powerful idea about vulnerability. Her book “Daring Greatly” became a bestseller. It changed millions of lives. You might think, “That’s great for Brené, […]
In 2010, Tim Ferriss released The 4-Hour Body. It sold 63,000 copies in just two weeks. The book hit #1 on the New York Times, Barnes & Noble, and Amazon bestseller lists — all at the same time. This success didn’t happen by chance. It was due to a special nonfiction book writing process. Did […]
I was sixteen, sitting in my high school newspaper room, staring at a blank screen. My editor wanted a story about a local firefighter who saved a family. I had all the facts and quotes, but the words felt flat. That night, I picked up “The Soul of a New Machine” by Tracy Kidder. It […]
I sat at my kitchen table on a rainy Tuesday morning. My cursor blinked like a heartbeat. I had spent three years building expertise in my field. Everyone kept telling me, “You should write a book about this.” So there I was — ready to begin, with absolutely no clue where to start. That moment […]
In 2016, I was in a coffee shop in Portland. A woman slammed her laptop shut. She laughed and said, “I’ve been trying to start my novel for three years.” This moment stuck with me. Starting a novel seems impossible at first. The blank page is scary. Your characters and plot might feel weak. I’ve […]
