The Book Deal Diaries - Guest Interview with Writing Coach and Award Winning Author Bec Evans

The Writing Process

What is your writing process?

One of the things I get asked the most, having written my own book, is:

It’s a question that makes me shuffle slightly because, I’ll be honest, I don’t really have one. I have a very scattered brain, and a pretty chaotic life (you only have to look at my bag), and things I used to look towards to anchor myself such as routine and process feel like relics of my distant past…

Photo by Florian Klauer on Unsplash

So how do we find our way with writing when we are constantly bombarded by distractions, and find that the only thing we truly excel at is procrastination? Enter Bec Evans.

Bec Evans is a writing coach and award-winning author of ‘How to Have a Happy Hustle’. I first came across Bec when someone recommended her fabulous book to me: ‘Written: How to Build a Writing Habit That Lasts’. The reason I knew this was going to be different was apparent by the title of the introduction alone: ‘Productivity is Personal’.

YES!!

That’s it. I don’t have to get up at 5 a.m., do yoga, make green tea and write for two hours before my family awake; I don’t have to set myself a target of ‘x’ thousand words a day/week/month. I can if that works for me, but I don’t HAVE to. I can find my own way. This is not self-help, this is ‘bespoke’ help. 

From their extensive experience, along with research into the psychology and neuroscience of how we form and maintain habits (and break them!), Bec and her partner Chris have been helping people to find their own way to build a writing habit for years, and with a glorious slice of rule breaking along the way. I’m delighted to have chatted to Bec about this here on Substack for The Book Deal Diaries.

Highlights include:

• how to find writing habits that work for you

• the wonder of experimenting

• the pitfalls of comparison vs being inspired by other’s methods

• how we can harness the reality of our own messy lives to find our writing ‘way’

• the different ways in which people write

• what stops us writing

• the power of noticing

• what procrastination is all about!

• acknowledging that writing is hard

• goals, motivation and reward

• accountability and the writing community

• habits and human behaviour

Enjoy!

Audio embed:

Notes and links

Links to subjects referenced in the conversation:

• Bec’s Book: Written: How to Build a Writing Habit that Lasts

• The Pomodoro Technique is described here.

• I use this Pomodoro Timer for my writing.

• Mindfulness and noticing - Professor Ellen Langer

• Obstacle thinking - Professor Gabriele Oettingen: WOOP

• Gretchen Rubin’s Four Tendencies Quiz

Thank you

Thank you

Bec Evans

for your generosity and for sharing your hard earned wisdom in support of writers and building a writing habit that actually lasts!

Book Deal Diary readers, I’d love to know what resonates for you, and what you’ve learned about the way you write?

Have you tried Gretchen Rubin’s Four Tendencies Quiz? Which of the 4 categories do you fit into?

Turns out I’m an ‘Obliger’ - shock news 🤣

Which ways of writing that Bec describes are ones that you relate to? I know that I take different approaches at different times, but feel I’m somewhere between spontaneous and binge!

Please do share and comment below!

For more writing inspiration and hints and tips as I go through the book publication process in real-time do sign up to follow my Book Deal Diaries series right here 🫶

As always,

Love & lemons 💕🍋

Em xx