How do you go from a story idea to a written draft? That’s the million dollar question for so many aspiring writers out there.

I work with a lot of writers, and one question I hear all the time is: “Mary, I’m stuck. I’ve been pre-writing for years, and I just can’t get started on my draft. What should I do?”

Today, I’m going to give you 3 ideas for how to get from story idea to first draft. Let’s go. 

Today we're talking about how to blast past writer's block in just minutes. Writer's block is something that can strike all of us at one point or another, no matter how many ideas you have or how experienced a writer you are.

The good news is that there are a number of simple techniques that you can use to get past it quickly and easily. So let's take a look at some of my favorite techniques.

Today I'm going to share with you five books that I think every writer needs to read. For a writer, a good book on writing can be your best friend.

My favorite books on writing have literally changed my life and how I view the world.

I'm really excited to share those with you today, but their power also goes both ways. A bad book on writing can derail you and that has happened to me, so I'm also going to tell you the book that did that for me, which I tell everyone not to read.

So let me share my favorite books and my least favorite writing book with you now. Let's go!

In this video I want to talk about feedback on your writing. Who should you listen to? What should you think about it? Feedback is our greatest ally and our worst enemy as writers.

It can unlock brilliance in your writing or it can set you down a very wrong path. Believe me, it happened to me. It can even shut you down if it's harsh enough, I've been there too.

Feedback can be a writer's best friend or a writer's kryptonite, so I'm going to tell you when, from who and how to get feedback so that it can be your most powerful tool and not your Achilles heel.

These are not tips. I'm not even going to play them down by calling them tips. These are straight up lifesavers.

Let's talk about the secret to writing stories that are actually compelling. I'm going to give you five strategies for writing a book that people aren't going to put down after 30 pages. Let's go!

I decided to write a novel in 2011 and I'd never written a novel before. I'd honestly never even written a short story. I was a lawyer who had just left law to decide to launch a writing career.

I thought it would take me a year. Instead it took me six, six years to write my first novel!

I kept writing it to please other people. I was trying to fit a mold of what I thought they wanted. Who are they? People in the writing classes I was taking, or the teachers of those writing classes.

Dear Mary,

Do you have suggestions for dealing with the struggle that the idea in your head is so much better than the way it comes out on paper?

When this question came up in our weekly group coaching call, there were a lot of nods. I think this is a struggle that many writers relate to—the disappointment of the words on paper failing to live up to our novel idea.

I certainly relate to it. Every book I've written has been better in my head, and of course it has—reality can't compete with an imaginary ideal. Our ideals don't have flaws—we conveniently leave those out in our fantasies!

But for some writers, this discrepancy between ideal and reality—the fear of writing disappointment—can be paralyzing.

When I was 18 years old, I signed up for my first college creative writing class, The Short Story. My experience turned me against feedback-based writing programs forever.

Dear Mary,

Do you have suggestions for dealing with the struggle that the idea in your head is so much better than the way it comes out on paper?

When this question came up in our weekly group coaching call, there were a lot of nods. I think this is a struggle that many writers relate to—the disappointment of the words on paper failing to live up to our novel idea.

I certainly relate to it. Every book I've written has been better in my head, and of course it has—reality can't compete with an imaginary ideal. Our ideals don't have flaws—we conveniently leave those out in our fantasies!

But for some writers, this discrepancy between ideal and reality—the fear of writing disappointment—can be paralyzing.

Here’s a confession: until I became one, I didn’t know what a book writing coach does.

I had even hired one by that point. But because she didn’t refer to herself that way, I didn't know that “coaching” was what she was doing.