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My Roman empire
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Reading time: 1.39 389 words Hey Reader, Do you remember back in the Covid times when that dickhead politician came out and said, “Everyone’s tired of experts”? Every now and then I think about that. It’s like my Roman Empire. The idea that it’s a good thing to glorify ignorance and thickness. I mean, there’s nothing wrong with being ignorant about stuff. We all start out that way. But staying ignorant is a problem, especially now when we’ve got the whole of human knowledge at our fingertips. Actually, now we’re in a Black Mirror episode where it’s impossible to tell truth from lies online, perhaps we’re about to enter a post-enlightenment-post-internet age. Which makes it even more important to learn things. From real people, in real life, out of real books, in real rooms, in real groups. From people who are doing real things. I don’t know about you, but I’m obsessed with learning stuff. I heard a really cool podcast about Chaucer this week and I’m deep into a rabbit hole about who he was (early champion of women’s voices and diversity in storytelling, bruv) and the Middle English language and all the languages of Britain, which wasn’t even a country as we know until relatively recently. That’ll send me down a linguistics wormhole, because I adore seeing language change. I love dialects, and accents, and divergent branches of communication, and secret codes developed by people whose voices were squashed. I’m currently resisting the urge to apply for yet another Masters degree in comedy writing because right now I am very much enjoying my fledgling stand-up comedy career. Surfing lessons are on the agenda for summer. I’m gonna learn a musical instrument. Maybe piano. Maybe the ocarina. Possibly the accordion. And among it all, I shall be doing writing workshops, getting people to read drafts of my upcoming book (tentatively titled Late to the Party), working with and studying other coaches so I can become a more effective book coach. One of my greatest pleasures is watching experts do what they do best, partly so I can learn from them, but also simply for the joy of seeing someone do something brilliantly. Why would anyone be tired of learning? Why would anyone not want to be surrounded by experts? What are you an expert on, and what would you like to become an expert in? TTFN, Vicky 🫡 p.s. Know someone who might enjoy this email? Please forward it to them and get them to sign up here.
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Learn to Write Like You Mean It
Join 500+ writers, creatives, misfits, and weirdos and learn to write like you mean it in 10 minutes a week. Get ONE practical tip, story, or shenanigan every weekday + a creative goodie bag on Friday 🖖🏼
Reading time: 3.08 743 words Read this email in your browser Hey Reader, Speaking opportunities, new clients, media — oh my! These are the things book coaches often shout about when we’re talking about what we do. The exciting outcomes of writing a book. What you don’t often hear about is how much work goes into making those things happen. I see claims all the time like this one: “Write your book and it’ll open ALL the doors. Event organisers will fall over themselves to invite you to speak...
Reading time: 5.49 1,384 words Read this email in your browser Hey Reader, I have a Shelf of Shame. It’s filled with the dusty carcasses of courses I’ve bought and abandoned over the years. Need to write an about page? There’ll be a course for that. Lemme at it. Want to create a newsletter in InDesign? I spy a course called “InDesign for Beginners” take my money. Gonna learn the guitar? That online course looks spiffing I shall partake. Do I get past the first module or two? I do not. I am a...
Reading time: 2.14 529 words Read this email in your browser Hey Reader, For two years Kevin’s book languished, tormenting him from book purgatory. He’d started and stopped it so many times he had spiritual whiplash and despaired of ever getting his message out there. Until he found me and booked me for a day to help him figure it out. In just one day, we took his book from 2-year-abandoned hot mess to a well-structured plan. Six months later, he published it. Shortly after that, it became a...