Born To Create

I want to take a moment to let you know about an important milestone we just passed here on the podcast in the last couple of weeks. We hit 100,000 downloads and we are right at 700 total episodes of the podcast! So, what’s ahead for the Daily Writer? Let me share a few things we have on the horizon. *** Are you looking for a community of enthusiastic, generous writers to help you build better habits and grow your writing business? Check out our Daily Writer Community.      Check out our Daily Writing Prompts, which will help you break through creative blocks, brainstorm new ideas, and get back into a state of flow. Writing prompts are a fantastic creative tool for creative writing, journaling, teaching, social media posts, podcasting, and more!     Connect with Kent:     https://DailyWriterLife.com     Facebook: https://facebook.com/kent.sanders     Instagram: https://instagram.com/kentsanders     LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/kent-sanders     Twitter: https://twitter.com/kentsanders    

This one is for all the kids who were always picked last in middle school gym class. You remember what it was like: You’d stand there awkwardly with the group, each kid getting their name called by one of the team captains. Each time, you hoped you wouldn’t be the last one. But once again, it got down to four, then three, then two, and you were the only one left. On today’s episode, you’ll be reminded why it’s more important to choose yourself, instead of waiting to be validated by someone else. ***     Are you looking for a community of enthusiastic, generous writers to help you build better habits and grow your writing business? Check out our Daily Writer Community.      Check out our Daily Writing Prompts, which will help you break through creative blocks, brainstorm new ideas, and get back into a state of flow. Writing prompts are a fantastic creative tool for creative writing, journaling, teaching, social media posts, podcasting, and more!     Connect with Kent:     https://DailyWriterLife.com     Facebo

We writers live in a world of “yesses.” We love to say yes to that podcast interview, that new idea, that speaking opportunity, or that client work. There’s a good reason we do this. We don’t want to waste opportunities to build relationships and reach new readers. But the problem is that every yes we speak is also a no to something else. We only have so much time on this earth and we have to defend it vigorously. On this episode, you’ll learn why we should sometimes take the opposite approach. ***  Are you looking for a community of enthusiastic, generous writers to help you build better habits and grow your writing business? Check out our Daily Writer Community.  Check out our Daily Writing Prompts, which will help you break through creative blocks, brainstorm new ideas, and get back into a state of flow. Writing prompts are a fantastic creative tool for creative writing, journaling, teaching, social media posts, podcasting, and more!  Connect with Kent:   https://DailyWriterLife.com   Facebook: https://fac

There is a good chance that you know someone who has a tattoo, or you have one yourself. What is the purpose of a tattoo? It’s a way to mark your identity. But there is another kind of marking that can define you… scars. On today’s episode, you’ll discover that your scars do not detract from your power as a writer—they are an essential part of your story. ***   Are you looking for a community of enthusiastic, generous writers to help you build better habits and grow your writing business? Check out our Daily Writer Community.    Check out our Daily Writing Prompts, which will help you break through creative blocks, brainstorm new ideas, and get back into a state of flow. Writing prompts are a fantastic creative tool for creative writing, journaling, teaching, social media posts, podcasting, and more!   Connect with Kent:   https://DailyWriterLife.com   Facebook: https://facebook.com/kent.sanders   Instagram: https://instagram.com/kentsanders   LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/kent-sanders   Twitter: https://

Why do we make writing so difficult? When you get down to it, writing is a very simple thing. We take a pen and write on paper or in a notebook. We sit in front of a computer screen and type on a keyboard. Or we dictate into a device that transcribes our language into words. On today’s episode, you’ll be reminded why the most important thing to do as a writer is simple: just write. ***     Are you looking for a community of enthusiastic, generous writers to help you build better habits and grow your writing business? Check out our Daily Writer Community.      Check out our Daily Writing Prompts, which will help you break through creative blocks, brainstorm new ideas, and get back into a state of flow. Writing prompts are a fantastic creative tool for creative writing, journaling, teaching, social media posts, podcasting, and more!     Connect with Kent:     https://DailyWriterLife.com     Facebook: https://facebook.com/kent.sanders     Instagram: https://instagram.com/kentsanders     LinkedIn: https://linkedi

One of the most famous episodes of Seinfeld is “The Contest.” In this episode, Jerry, Elaine, George, and Kramer compete to see who can demonstrate self-control the longest. The one who wins will be known as “master of their domain.” The concept of self-mastery is an important one for writers. If we don’t master ourselves, nothing else matters. On today's episode, Kent highlights why it’s important to master yourself, instead of trying to control everything else.    ***     Are you looking for a community of enthusiastic, generous writers to help you build better habits and grow your writing business? Check out our Daily Writer Community.      Check out our Daily Writing Prompts, which will help you break through creative blocks, brainstorm new ideas, and get back into a state of flow. Writing prompts are a fantastic creative tool for creative writing, journaling, teaching, social media posts, podcasting, and more!     Connect with Kent:     https://DailyWriterLife.com     Facebook: https://facebook.com/kent.

One of the most inspiring stories from the music world during the last few decades comes from the rock band the Foo Fighters. Dave Grohl was the drummer for the mega-successful band Nirvana. He was already an established musician in his own right. But when the lead singer of Nirvana, Kurt Cobain, committed suicide in 1994, nobody expected Dave Grohl to form his own band and take on the role of a songwriter and lead singer. On this episode, Kent shares an important lesson about not giving up. ***     Are you looking for a community of enthusiastic, generous writers to help you build better habits and grow your writing business? Check out our Daily Writer Community.      Check out our Daily Writing Prompts, which will help you break through creative blocks, brainstorm new ideas, and get back into a state of flow. Writing prompts are a fantastic creative tool for creative writing, journaling, teaching, social media posts, podcasting, and more!     Connect with Kent:     https://DailyWriterLife.com     Facebook: 

A powerful movie, if you haven’t seen it, is Dead Poets Society from 1989. The late Robin Williams plays, an English teacher who challenges his students with this line, from Walt Whitman’s poem “O Me! O Life!”: “… the powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse.”  This leads to the question: what will your verse be?  On today’s episode, you’ll be encouraged to take the stage and share your verse with the world.    ***     Are you looking for a community of enthusiastic, generous writers to help you build better habits and grow your writing business? Check out our Daily Writer Community.      Check out our Daily Writing Prompts, which will help you break through creative blocks, brainstorm new ideas, and get back into a state of flow. Writing prompts are a fantastic creative tool for creative writing, journaling, teaching, social media posts, podcasting, and more!     Connect with Kent:     https://DailyWriterLife.com     Facebook: https://facebook.com/kent.sanders     Instagram: h

There are a lot of reasons people give for avoiding the hard work of writing. One of the most common ones is a lack of time. Others include not knowing what to write about, or confusion about processes like blogging or publishing. Another reason exists that is worse than all the others combined. It also has the distinction of being the most profoundly sad reason many people don’t write. On today’s episode, you’ll learn what the saddest reason to avoid writing is and how you can combat it. ***     Are you looking for a community of enthusiastic, generous writers to help you build better habits and grow your writing business? Check out our Daily Writer Community.      Check out our Daily Writing Prompts, which will help you break through creative blocks, brainstorm new ideas, and get back into a state of flow. Writing prompts are a fantastic creative tool for creative writing, journaling, teaching, social media posts, podcasting, and more!     Connect with Kent:     https://DailyWriterLife.com     Facebook: htt

One of the most important decisions you make as a writer is how to balance your input and output. Or to say it another way, how much time you devote to watching and consuming versus how much time you spend writing and creating. You probably have friends who watch a lot of TV, movies, or YouTube. They keep up with all the latest shows and anxiously want to discuss all the plot developments. It is obvious they devote lots of time to being a consumer. Nothing wrong with that, of course… UNLESS you also want to be a successful writer. On today’s episode, Kent reminds us that being a creator means putting in the time to create, learn, and grow, instead of just devoting your time to consume content. ***     Are you looking for a community of enthusiastic, generous writers to help you build better habits and grow your writing business? Check out our Daily Writer Community.      Check out our Daily Writing Prompts, which will help you break through creative blocks, brainstorm new ideas, and get back into a state of f

As a writer, you have to do things sometimes that make you uncomfortable. It might be networking, public speaking, learning self-publishing, joining a writing group, or a hundred other things that seem new and exciting, yet still make you feel anxious. The business leader and author Michael Hyatt said, “The most interesting things happen just on the other side of your comfort zone.” I think we can all agree that’s true. But how do you step outside your comfort zone when it feels… well, uncomfortable? How do you embrace the fear? On today’s episode, you’ll discover a simple, powerful technique to move past your fears. ***     Are you looking for a community of enthusiastic, generous writers to help you build better habits and grow your writing business? Check out our Daily Writer Community.      Check out our Daily Writing Prompts, which will help you break through creative blocks, brainstorm new ideas, and get back into a state of flow. Writing prompts are a fantastic creative tool for creative writing, journ

If you are familiar with the organization Alcoholics Anonymous, you have probably seen or heard about the way people sometimes introduce themselves at these meetings. “Hi, my name is Kent, and I’m an alcoholic.” Now, I’m not actually an alcoholic and I’ve never been to an AA meeting. But the phrase has been portrayed enough on TV and the movies that almost everyone is familiar with it. Why do they do this? Why would you state it out loud that you’re an alcoholic, especially in the midst of a room full of people who identify with the same struggle? On today’s episode, Kent shares why verbally telling someone you are a writer changes your mindset. ***     Are you looking for a community of enthusiastic, generous writers to help you build better habits and grow your writing business? Check out our Daily Writer Community.      Check out our Daily Writing Prompts, which will help you break through creative blocks, brainstorm new ideas, and get back into a state of flow. Writing prompts are a fantastic creative too

One of the most famous movies of all time, and what many consider to be the greatest movie of all time, is 1941’s Citizen Kane, starring Orson Welles. While it is certainly a great movie, and one of my personal favorites, it tends to overshadow Welles’ other great movies. One of them is The Third Man, released in 1949 and starring Orson Welles and Joseph Cotten, among others. The Third Man is a British film noir set in postwar Vienna. The story centers around a writer named Holly Martins, played by Joseph Cotten, who has come to Vienna to work for his friend Harry Lime, played by Orson Welles. On today’s episode, you’ll be encouraged by Orson Welles’ film, The Third Man, to step out of the shadows and make yourself known, so you can impact others. ***     Are you looking for a community of enthusiastic, generous writers to help you build better habits and grow your writing business? Check out our Daily Writer Community.      Check out our Daily Writing Prompts, which will help you break through creative block

We writers, by definition, tend to be an introverted group of people who don’t like change. Most of us like systems, predictability, and routine. We prefer sitting in a room alone for hours in front of a computer screen instead of being in groups of people. Which is all well and good. But the downside of the typical writer personality is that we have a hard time with change and risk. However, we must remember that nothing is certain. There are no guarantees, either when you have a writing business where you are serving clients, or whether you are writing and launching your own books and other content. On today’s episode, you’ll learn why you can look at our ever-changing world and future through the lens of opportunity, instead of fear. ***     Are you looking for a community of enthusiastic, generous writers to help you build better habits and grow your writing business? Check out our Daily Writer Community.      Check out our Daily Writing Prompts, which will help you break through creative blocks, brainsto

This one is for all the 1980s rock fans out there. In 1985, the music group Heart was choosing songs to record for its 8th studio album, which was to be named simply, “Heart.” The group normally recorded songs they had written themselves, but they had been presented with a new song written by Martin Page and Bernie Taupin. Page was a singer-songwriter, who had co-written some notable tunes such as Starship’s anthem, “We Built This City.” Taupin was Elton John’s frequent writing partner. Page and Taupin had written a new tune called “These Dreams,” which had been offered to Stevie Nicks, who turned it down. It found its way to Heart, who agreed to use it for their next album. When Nancy Wilson went into the studio to record lead vocals for the song, she had a cold that day. This made her vocals sound raspy. The song went on to great commercial success. Later on, producers wanted her to recreate the same vocal style, jokingly asking her if she could just get sick again. On today’s episode, you’ll recognize that

I've always been fascinated by personality assessments and typology. If you've been paying attention the last decade or two, the Enneagram has been the tool of choice for many people. A lot of organizations, companies, and churches use it to help people better understand themselves, and to enhance teamwork, as well. However, that's not the only use for the Enneagram. Many fiction authors also use the Enneagram to help structure their stories and flesh out characters. So today, I've brought on two amazing ladies who know far more about the Enneagram than I do. Teresa McCloy is a coach, consultant, and professional speaker. She uses her REALIFE Process™ and tools, such as the Enneagram Typology Profile to help her clients move from living with their hair on fire to discovering clarity about the life they want to live and the process to make it happen. She is also the host of The Enneagram in Your REALIFE podcast, as well as the author of an upcoming book on living from rest, not rush. Ashley Rescot is a profess

So many aspiring authors never write their books because they are always worried about what people will think. Will their book be “good enough” (whatever that means)? What will their family or friends think? Will their friends from high school ten, twenty, or thirty years ago think they are still cool? I say, “Who cares about all that?” Those people don’t matter in your journey as a writer. Here’s who does matter: the reader out there who is waiting for you to finish your book so they can read it. On today’s episode, Kent reminds us that writing is a one-to-one conversation and shares how that revitalizes the way we should approach our books. ***     Are you looking for a community of enthusiastic, generous writers to help you build better habits and grow your writing business? Check out our Daily Writer Community.      Check out our Daily Writing Prompts, which will help you break through creative blocks, brainstorm new ideas, and get back into a state of flow. Writing prompts are a fantastic creative tool f

When we talk about your “writing voice,” we usually mean the unique way you communicate. It involves tone, language, turns of phrase, attitude, and more. But for a moment, let’s talk about your actual voice and how you can use it to improve your writing. On today’s episode, you’ll discover how reading your writing out loud can help you in the editing process. ***     Are you looking for a community of enthusiastic, generous writers to help you build better habits and grow your writing business? Check out our Daily Writer Community.      Check out our Daily Writing Prompts, which will help you break through creative blocks, brainstorm new ideas, and get back into a state of flow. Writing prompts are a fantastic creative tool for creative writing, journaling, teaching, social media posts, podcasting, and more!     Connect with Kent:     https://DailyWriterLife.com     Facebook: https://facebook.com/kent.sanders     Instagram: https://instagram.com/kentsanders     LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/kent-sanders  

On this podcast, we focus heavily on writing habits because they help immensely in getting our writing done. Good writing habits don’t just involve things like productivity or trying to hit your count. One of the most important writing habits you can ever develop is to make a gratitude list every day. Over the last couple of years, I have been making more of an effort to integrate this habit of “giving thanks” into my daily life, and it’s had a profound impact on my perspective. On today’s episode, Kent shares his practice of keeping a “gratitude journal” and the ways gratitude changes your outlook. ***     Are you looking for a community of enthusiastic, generous writers to help you build better habits and grow your writing business? Check out our Daily Writer Community.      Check out our Daily Writing Prompts, which will help you break through creative blocks, brainstorm new ideas, and get back into a state of flow. Writing prompts are a fantastic creative tool for creative writing, journaling, teaching, s

If you were to guess what the most requested image in the National Archives is, what would your guess be? Would it be something related to the moon landings? Maybe something historic, related to WWII or the Civil War? Maybe something from the turn of the century? If so, you’d be wildly off base. The most requested photo in the National Archives was taken on December 21, 1970, in the Oval Office. It shows Richard Nixon shaking hands with Elvis Presley, who was wearing one of his famous jumpsuits, along with a giant gold belt buckle. On today’s episode, you’ll be inspired from a unique historical story to take action to achieve your writing dreams! ***     Are you looking for a community of enthusiastic, generous writers to help you build better habits and grow your writing business? Check out our Daily Writer Community.      Check out our Daily Writing Prompts, which will help you break through creative blocks, brainstorm new ideas, and get back into a state of flow. Writing prompts are a fantastic creative to