Margaret McNellis, MFA, M.A. is the author of the Heroes of Sherwood series, an Author Accelerator Certified Book Coach who specializes in adding a dash of magick to her writers’ journeys, and a solo eclectic intuitive witch with a tarot/oracle deck addiction. She has a podcast–The Magickal Bard–which discusses the intersection of magick and writing. Margaret’s flagship course, Your Next Book, helps writers plan or fix their stories with the tarot.

• Margaret on Instagram
• Margaret on Twitter
• Margaret’s Website

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• 3-card spread – where the protagonist is now, what’s an action they can take, what’s the outcome going to be
• 1-card spread for a character – what is the character striving for? or what does this character fear?
• Margaret’s “Your Next Book” 9-card spread for planning out a novel – she mentions ths spread throughout the episode and shares the exact spread toward the end of the episode. It’s super helpful!
• What a spread is exactly and how to draw a card for them

Holistic Tarot: An Integrative Approach to Using Tarot for Personal Growth by Benebell Wen – the book that Margaret recommends if you’re just getting started with tarot cards.

Margaret McNellis, MFA, M.A. is the author of the Heroes of Sherwood series, an Author Accelerator Certified Book Coach who specializes in adding a dash of magick to her writers’ journeys, and a solo eclectic intuitive witch with a tarot/oracle deck addiction. She has a podcast–The Magickal Bard–which discusses the intersection of magick and writing. Margaret’s flagship course, Your Next Book, helps writers plan or fix their stories with the tarot.

• Margaret on Instagram
• Margaret on Twitter
• Margaret’s Website

Are you a subscriber? If not, I invite you to subscribe, so you’ll get notified every time a new episode goes up.

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And, if you’re enjoying what you’re hearing, I’d be super grateful if you left me a review. Those help other creative souls find this show, and they’re fun to read. To leave a review, open up the podcast in your podcast player, and scroll down to the bottom where it gives you the option to review the show.

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This episode is a recording of a live session that Uma did in the Let’s Write the Book Club, so I had a list of questions from members as well as one member who joined us live and asked about writing challenging emotions.

• A brief discussion about language and writing your memoir in your first or second language
• What exactly is memoir and how it’s different from other genres
• How memoir is an importatn part of making meaning of our story and our lives and the importance of sharing that
• How we have a contract with our reader to tell our most truest and honest story
• The wisdom in the wound
• Some thoughts on writing your story as a memoir or as a novel
• Uma’s story of getting a contract with Hay House (which she attributes all to her mother after her mother passed)
• The value of getting a writing community and group to improve as a writer and increase your confidence especially when you’re first starting
• A great exercise to connect with the stories that want to be in your memoir using your body and memories
• A brief discussion about showing vs. Telling to capture the emotion in your memoir

The first episode Uma did on the Dear Creativity Podcast

The Let’s Write Book Club – a monthly membership for writers who are ready to write

Understanding Death: 10 Ways to Inner Peace for the Grieving

Losing Amma, Finding Home

Lessons From Grace

Uma Girish is an award-winning author. Both of her most recent books were finalists for the Chicago Book Awards. After reading her Losing Amma, it is clear why. Her memoirs are beautifully written, both heartwrenching and uplifting at the same time – no easy feat to achieve for a writer. She is currently working on a memoir on her marriage.

• Uma on Instagram
• Uma’s Website

Are you a subscriber? If not, I invite you to subscribe, so you’ll get notified every time a new episode goes up.

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And, if you’re enjoying what you’re hearing, I’d be super grateful if you left me a review. Those help other creative souls find this show, and they’re fun to read. To leave a review, open up the podcast in your podcast player, and scroll down to the bottom where it gives you the option to review the show.

Join the bi-monthly cowriting/creating sessions, you can subscribe to the newsletter to get ideas, tips, and inspiration to get started creating and acting on those creative callings.

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• Different types of editing
• How editing is not something you just hand off - it's actually quite collaborative
• What to look for in an editor
• How to find an editor
• What she's learned through the process of working with her own editor

• Destination Author by Kris Emery

Kris Emery is a non-fiction book editor for entrepreneurs, writers and speakers who want to extend beyond their current business services and reach more people with their message. With over a decade of working with words and a masters degree in linguistics, Kris guides first-time authors to write a valuable book that they can feel excited to put out in the world.

• Kris on Instagram
• Kris on Facebook
• Kris's Website

Are you a subscriber? If not, I invite you to subscribe, so you’ll get notified every time a new episode goes up.

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And, if you’re enjoying what you’re hearing, I’d be super grateful if you left me a review. Those help other creative souls find this show, and they’re fun to read. To leave a review, open up the podcast in your podcast player, and scroll down to the bottom where it gives you the option to review the show.

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• The steps to becoming a writer
• How your inner critic will pipe up and what they might say at each phase of your embracing and acting on your new identity as a writer

• Episode 34: Embracing Your Inner Critic
• Episode 77: Are your ideas original enough?
• Episode 73: Finding Your Writing Process
• Episode 44: Benefits of Feedback

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Amy has not only become an amazing writer, but she’s pretty darn funny! She’s looking at writing a romantic comedy next. I want to thank Amy for taking the time to share her thoughts and wisdom on writing. I really enjoyed this interview.

• How she learned to embrace and reboot her imagination as an adult and become a writer
• A great trick to deal with your inner critic, or “the gremlins” which is what Amy calls those negative voices
• How she uses power hours with her writing group to support her writing practice
• How her writing group provides accountability for her to show up to her writing (if you need this type of support, check out the Let’s Write Club).
• The value of the collaborative support of a good developmental editor, writing group, or book coach
• How she bases her victims on some real life not so nice people to add the emotional drive to those scenes and characters
• The value in writing what you know, especially if it’s a specialized field like she writes about organ transplant, because the author knows the details in an authentic and accurate way
• Using the concept of “pleasure bundling” to hold yourself accountable to your writing practice
• What’s next in her writing career!

• Cut  by Amy S. Peele
• Match by Amy S. Peele

Amy S. Peele RN, is the award-winning, best-selling author of Cut and Match, medical mysteries with a mission and a side of humor. Before becoming a writer Amy enjoyed a fascinating 35-year career in the organ transplant field which provides an authentic backdrop to her books. She learned early on in her medical career that humor was an important survival skill and studied improvisation at the world premier school, Second City, in Chicago.

• Amy on Instagram
• Amy on Twitter
• Amy’s Website

Are you a subscriber? If not, I invite you to subscribe, so you’ll get notified every time a new episode goes up.

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Click here to subscribe on Stitcher.

And, if you’re enjoying what you’re hearing, I’d be super grateful if you left me a review. Those help other creative souls find this show, and they’re fun to read. To leave a review, open up the podcast in your podcast player, and scroll down to the bottom where it gives you the option to review the show.

Join the bi-monthly cowriting/creating sessions, you can subscribe to the newsletter to get ideas, tips, and inspiration to get started creating and acting on those creative callings.

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• The value of looking back at the past year (before we dive into setting goals for the new year)
• How to look back
• My big lesson on lowering expectations and how that’s shifted my own writing practice
• Why lowering your expectations for yourself might be the key to actually making more progress on your book
• A fascinating study that looks at the relationship between happiness and our expectations for ourselves
• You can follow Janet Conner here and/or check out her book The Lotus and the Lily. Her intensive is here.

Are you a subscriber? If not, I invite you to subscribe, so you’ll get notified every time a new episode goes up.

Click here to subscribe on iTunes.

Click here to subscribe on Stitcher.

And, if you’re enjoying what you’re hearing, I’d be super grateful if you left a review. Those help other creative souls find this show, and they’re fun to read. To leave a review, open up the Dear Creativity Let’s Play podcast in your podcast player. Scroll down to the bottom and let the world know what you think!

Subscribe to the newsletter to get ideas, tips, and inspiration to get started writing and creating and bringing your creative gifts and books into the world. You’ll also have access to twice-monthly co-writing sessions.

Connect on Instagram.