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Hey Reader,

Are you thinking your way out of writing your book?

I reckon you might be, you know.

Sometimes I do. Before I started writing this email, in fact, I’d shuffled along that route. I let my brain get in the way of the ideas.

Humans are big old bags of mostly water and emotional soup. Yes, even people who claim not to experience any emotions. Yes, even certified psychopaths experience at least proto-emotions. Lizard brain stuff.

The thinking part of our brains came much later and although it’s a really cool part that’s responsible for a lot of cool stuff (see Project Hail Mary, everything by Octavia Butler, and the Discworld books) it’s also responsible for the current state of the bin-fire we’re living in, and your procrastination.

And mine.

We have a cool idea for something, and we get excited about it, and then our thinking brain bustles in and dusts us off and wets a corner of a hanky with its gross spit and wipes our face and tells us to just think about this carefully or you’ll fuck it up and BAM. We’re stuck.

Instead of spilling our ideas onto the page in a flurry of excitement, we start WORRYING about it.

Is this the right sentence to start with?

Does that word make me sound stupid?

This paragraph is a bit long, I’d better change that.

And the idea slips away to hide under the bed because it’s safe under there. Ish.

The secret to writing is ignoring our thinking brain for long enough to get the ideas out. Then we can start bashing it into shape, and that’s much easier to do when we’ve said what we need to say and felt our way through it.

Some people can just do this, apropos of nothing.

Some people like to smooth the way with magic mushrooms or a quart of whiskey (if you’re Hemingway).

Others need a framework to help them feel their way through it so they can build a foundation.

Anyway, my Friday gift to you is this:

Turn off your brain for a while. Get up, walk in nature, do a little dance. Take a voice recorder or a notebook with you. Blart out some ideas without worrying about whether they make sense. Doesn’t matter. Nobody else has to see them.

For now.

And if you have an idea you’re ready to bash into shape, my Book Breakthrough: Unlocked service is perfect. In two private coaching calls, we’ll clarify your idea, your reader, and your goals and create the foundation you need to gallop off and write.

I have three spots available for August. One of them is yours if you want it.

And now for the Friday Goodie Bag! I’ve been foraging and found all of this:

This floating farm in the Netherlands

I don’t know about you but I’ve been feeling a bit full of despair at the wilful destruction of our beautiful planet. At this point, it feels deliberate. And these feelings are by design: everything in our media is designed to make us feel angry and helpless, because then they can point our anger in the direction of vulnerable groups who are even worse off than the rest of us, instead of us pointing it where it belongs — at the uber-wealthy who are deliberately and systematically wrecking everything.

So, I’d like you go look at this Floating Farm in Rotterdam. Partly because it’s very cool indeed — it’s a true circular economy. They use grass clippings from the football stadium to feed their cows. The manure is used to heat the desalination plant so the cows can drink the sea water they’re floating on. Stale waste bread from all the bakeries is ground up as cattle feed. The cows decide when they want to be milked and take themselves in, then they cross the bridge to the field to frolick.

That’s the first reason.

The second reason is because it’s really REALLY important to see that there are good people out there trying new stuff and doing good things for the planet. It doesn’t have to be this way, and these are the people making changes. I’d love to see other examples of people doing amazing things so please do send them to me.

This comment thread which had me howling for more than an hour

I don’t know if you saw the news, but that chinless little prick Andrew Tate got arrested with his brother, finally. Which is great news in and of itself, but the icing, cherry, AND sprinkles on top of this cake is the outfit he got arrested in. Which is exactly the same outfit as your auntie who manages the local branch of Dunelm would choose for a wine bar night out.

​LOOK AT HIS SLUTTY LITTLE CANKLE!

That’s peak masculinity, alright. Calm yourself, ladies.

This license fee ad from the BBC

There’s a lot of hate floating around for this ad and the BBC in general right now, but I don’t want to lose it. It certainly has its problems, but if we trashed everything that had its problems we’d have nothing left. The Beeb is important and will continue to be so, not least because it’s not controlled by the advertising media. Not fully, anyway.

I also love Romesh Ranganathan, so I just really enjoyed this ad. If you’re a fan of Monty Python you’ll recognise the format: “What have the Romans ever done for us?” And it’s an homage and a reboot to a much older BBC ad featuring John Cleese.

Anyway, enjoy. Or not.

This extremely inspiring thread about women over 40 doing cool stuff

Yes, the youth are great and they are our future etc etc. but can we just talk about how frickin’ EPIC women over 40 are please? I know I’m biased but it’s true. We’re out of fucks to give, and we got shit to do.

If you’re wanting to do something and you’re hesitating because you think it’s too late or you think you’re too old, I want you to go look at this, give yourself a shake, and DO THE THING. It’s only too late when you’re dead.

GO.

This TED Talk on how to be rejection proof

Thank you to Sarah who’s been telling me all about Jia Jiang this week, so I got his book Rejection Proof out of the library and then watched his TED Talk which is not just inspiring but very funny indeed. It’s got me thinking about doing my own 100 days of rejection experiment.

His emails are great btw. He’s recently written a new book, Easy Discipline, and declared he was going to sell 10,000 copies in the first 100 days. He didn't make that goal but he DID sell more than 4,000 copies which is incredible and he wouldn’t have done that if he’d given up on day 43 when he’d only sold 443. Now it’s a bestseller. I like this man.

What I’m reading

I’m currently reading The Subtle Knife by Philip Pullman because I’d never read His Dark Materials before. I’m thoroughly enjoying it. It’s ostensibly a kids’ book but it’s not patronising in the way so many kids’ books are. It’s epic fantasy and I am really enjoying it.

And I’m about to dive into Rejection Proof by Jia Jiang, because rejection sensitivity dysphoria is a real thing and I refuse to let it dictate my life and actions. Just because we have a thing doesn’t mean we can’t reduce its impact.

What I’m writing

I joined Ash Ambirge’s Summer Email Challenge at the start of July to create a lead magnet, welcome sequence, and sales sequence to build my email list.

Since July 1, I’ve created that lead magnet, and I’ve written all 12 emails of the welcome sequence. That’s a chunk of work and I did it because I set myself a specific goal and a deadline, then got on with it. For once, I didn’t allow myself to be distracted by all the other things I want to do, and it was a gamechanger. July was for this thing. I’ve almost finished it.

(This is what I help people do with their books btw: get them clear and focused with a plan for DOING it. Book your Book Breakthrough: Unlocked session here.)

Word of the week

raffish, adj.

Having a careless, slightly offbeat style that still feels charming.

This is the style I go for. RAFFISH. Makes me think of a jaunty little hat.

Quote of the week

^^Hmm. Bit of a different way of looking at resistance, is this. And I can tell you from repeated experience that it’s true. I put off making a new roadside egg store for months, until last weekend I just gathered some bits of scrap wood and tools and my husband and we just got on with it. We’ve almost finished it. Didn’t need a plan or a kit. Got on with it, and it wasn’t just much easier than we thought, it was fun.

Anyway. Maybe apply it to your book? I can help.

Happy Friday. Go forth and spread kindness!

TTFN,

Vicky 🫡

p.s. Know someone who might enjoy this email? Please forward it to them and get them to sign up here.