Fearless Writing with Bill Kenower
Episodes
Inviting Inspiration
24 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Writing requires inspired ideas. But we can’t demand them, can’t use our craft to manufacture them. But we can practice putting ourselves into the...
Find Your Intellectual Family
17 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
As Richard Bach pointed out: writers aren’t looking for an editor or a publisher, but a member of their intellectual family. They’re out there, bu...
Trust Your Reader
10 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
We need our readers to fill in what we leave out; it’s what really finishes a story. This means we have to trust them, even though sometimes they do...
Nothing Better Than Joy
03 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
As Beethoven no doubt knew – there’s nothing better than joy, and creativity teaches us again and again it’s always inside of us, never outside ...
The Real Value of Being an Author
26 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The time I learned why being an author is so valuable, and how we can use this authority to allow people to believe the stories they actually want to ...
When Our Pain Isn’t Real
18 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
A true story about how physical pain and suffering taught me a lot about all suffering. If I’m honest, most of it wasn’t real, wasn’t necessary....
Writing As A Cure for Loneliness
12 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
If you’re like me, you prefer to be alone while you write. But you’re also never lonely, at least not when it’s going well. That’s because lon...
When The Best Plan Is No Plan
05 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Just like you can’t know every sentence in a paragraph before you write it, so too you can’t know how your career or life will unfold. As creative...
You’re the Author of Your Life
29 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Sometimes editing is hard because all those passages we reread and don’t like remind us of the parts of our life that seem to have happened to us bu...
The Intentional Arc
22 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Every story has three arcs: The Physical, The Emotional, and The Intentional. The last is the most important – why you’re telling the story, the g...
Experience, Not Results
15 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
It’s easy for writers to put all their attention on results – the finished book, the contract, the sales – and start believing that the experien...
Writing and Stage Fright
08 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Writing can be like a performance since we never really know what’s going to happen when sit down at the desk. We must trust we’ll know what to wr...
Why Do We Write?
01 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
It’s not for the money, though that’s always nice. And it’s not for the recognition or praise. No, it’s always so we can receive what we want ...
The Hard Part: Rewriting
24 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
This one of the most common hard parts for writers is taking that messy first draft and turning into something we’d actually like to share with othe...
Finding Your Voice
16 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Our voice is not an expression of some discovered style, or of talent, or intelligence, but rather our unique interest. Let your work express that, wh...
The Importance Of Small Successes
09 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The big successes – the completed book, the published novel, the good sales – are always an accumulation of little successes. Yet writers often do...
Finding Your Readers
02 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Sometimes writers feel like beggars asking for handouts as they submit their work. But we’re not. We’re not asking for anything, we’re giving so...
Getting Out of Your Own Way
26 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Whether you use this language or not, you know what it feels like when you get out of your own way. But how do we do that? The key is getting curious,...
Failure And The Blank Page
19 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Sometimes sitting down and having no ideas, no inspiration, can feel like the kind of nothingness we picture when we imagine failure. Except there is ...
Writing As Self-Acceptance
12 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
All rejection starts at home. First, the writer rejects herself by worrying what someone will think of her work, then the public rejects the book beca...
How To Follow Your Story
05 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
A listener wanted to know how to get her story to “settle down” so she could tell it. The real discipline of writing is learning how to tell the d...
The Success Already Within You
29 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Just like your stories are within you as they’re being written, so too the success you so desire. Don’t look for it in the world around you. You w...
Finding Time To Write
22 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Can’t find the time to write? Your life too busy, what with the job and the kids and just being tired at the end of the day? The question probably i...
Focus on Success, Never on Failure
15 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In which I answer a question from a listener who wants to follow his muse but sees so much failure around him. Does it really work. What if it leads y...
Writing As A Cure For Boredom
08 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
If you’re ever feeling uninterested in life or yourself or your work, remember you’re just looking in the wrong place for what you want.
What Falling In Love Taught Me About Writing
01 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The story of how I reconnected with the woman is who is now my wife is also the story about how I learned where all stories come from. Everything auth...
Emotional Mastery
24 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
It’s not enough to learn our craft, we also have to practice emotional mastery – finding our inherent confidence every single time we sit down to ...
Know Your Job
17 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The biggest difference between most beginning and more seasoned writers, is the experienced author understands how little they actually need to know t...
Your Jealousy Is Dishonest
10 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
You may see the success other people have had, and think you want it – but you don’t. You’ve only ever wanted your success, the same as you’ve...
Your Interest Is Enough
03 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
You don’t really need to know how to do it, or where to go, or what should come next. All you really need to know is that you’re interested – in...
The Scary Power of the Imagination
27 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
A true story of how my imagination invented a nightmare and just a quickly dispelled it. A reminder to only pay attention to what inspires and soothes...
Your Passion is Practical
20 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Doing what love is always the most practical choice, even if you don’t know where you’re going or how you’ll succeed. Forcing anything is guaran...
That's Entertainment
13 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Entertaining our readers is not about spoon-feeding “what they want,” but offering them what we value, what we want to share, in a way that best a...
No Excuses
06 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
When we make an excuse for why we don’t have the time to write or why can’t get published, we’re describing a reality we don’t want to live in...
Stay Humble
29 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Humility isn’t saying you’re not a good writer, or that someone is better than you. It’s about learning how to be grateful for what provides ins...
How You Feel Is The Only Result That Matters
22 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Care about how you feel while you write. You always want to feel good and you never want to feel bad. Thinking some result out in the future is more i...
The Intentional Arc
15 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Every story has three arcs: the Physical Arc, the Emotional Arc, and the Intentional Arc. The Intentional, why the story is being told, is the most im...
Your Unique Aesthetic
08 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
We spend our lives trying to satisfy it, in the books we read and the books we write. The only reason you don’t like something you’ve written is b...
Writing is Listening
01 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
It’s not thinking. Our job is to have questions we’re interested in, ask them of our imagination, and then trust that the answer will come.
Why Praise Is Addictive
25 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Writing and sharing our work can be as normal as breathing. Unless, that is, we hold breath as we wonder if other people will like it.
There Is Only One Right Answer.
18 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
This isn’t school. This isn’t a math class. When you write fearlessly, there’s only one correct answer, and only you will ever know it.
Why Words Matter.
11 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
As writers we have to care as much about the words we use when we describe our own life and experiences, as we do when we describe a scene in our stor...
Accepting Rejection
04 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Rejection, saying no to something, is a part of the creative process, not just what happens sometimes when people don’t like our stuff.
Fearless Marketing Pt 1: Remember Why You Love Your Book
28 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
You can’t read anyone’s mind, you can’t make anyone buy anything – and you don’t have to. Just share what is so awesome about your story.
The Only Two Questions a Writer Should Ask.
21 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Writing is all about questions. We ask them, and something else answers. Ask the wrong question, and we’ll only get into trouble.
End Procrastination Pt. 2: Getting in the mood.
14 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
It’s rare to be in the mood when you start. Your first and most important job is to get into that relaxed, curious, receptive state of mind, and the...
Ending Procrastination Pt. 1: The Inner Critic.
06 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The inner critic isn’t going to help you. He or she is only the voice of fear.
What Is Fear?
29 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
When we can learn to see fear as guidance, we can use the experience to help us stay in the moment, where all stories are actually told.
There's No Such Thing as Good Writing, Part 2.
23 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
There’s no book or author you have to read. You find what you need to read just like you’ll find the story you’re meant to tell.
There's No Such Thing as Good Writing, Part 1.
16 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Bill debunks this very believable myth that actually interferes with us doing our best work.
You Don't Actually Care What Anyone Thinks of Your Stuff
16 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
I know you think you do. We all think we do. But we don't.
A Writer's Worst Fear
13 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Bill introduces the one fear that haunts writers of all experience levels. It’s not failure or bad reviews, but we face it every single time we sit...