I've read many books about the writing life many of them interviews with authors. Those were very interesting books. Every writer had his/her own unique way of approaching writing. It certainly showed that, as writers, we had to figure out for ourselves our own unique way of how we write and how we organize our writing life.

I got a lot of these books from the library, so don't have them on hand. You can check the library yourself and see if anything calls to you.

Many years ago when I was just thinking about writing fiction, absolutely no one seems to address the issue of fear of writing and blocks to writing in general. There were lots of books on how to do it, but no books, that I could find, on all the inner problems that many creative people face.

Then at some point, Eric Maisel came on the scene. He started out as a philosophy person, then got his degree in clinical psychology, then somehow he got involved with the creative set and started addressing the problems creative people have about creating.

Since then, he's written many, many books about the creative person's life, problems they faced and solutions. He's offered workshops.  He's trained writing coaches and still does. And he offers private sessions.

His book, Coaching the Artist Within is the first book I ever read that made me feel understood as a creative person. I highly recommend reading it.

Many of his books are in the library, so you can get them there if you don't want to buy them.

He has many books addressing every aspect of the creative life. And each one of them is extremely well written and hugely engaging. Look on his website and see if any of his books or services are what you need, ericmaisel.com.

I taught myself to write fiction by reading about a million books. I also took three workshops.

The workshops were really fun and I enjoyed them very much. The books . . . I'd have a question in my mind about how to do something and I'd go to the bookstore and find a book; there was always a book that talked about what I wanted to know.

I'd read that book then I'd have another question and back to the bookstore I went, found a book that answered that question. Then I'd have another question . . . and so it went until I was pretty sure about how to write a novel.

Once I started writing, I discovered certain things just didn't read write and neither had the idea what the problem was and obviously no idea how to solve it. Sometimes it took a long time to figure that out, so back in the bookstore I was looking for that solution.

It was that way through the entire process. And then came the revising. In the bookstore, again, trying to figure out how to revise. And more books.

Here is a list of the books I found really helpful.

You Can Write a Novel, James V. Smith, Jr. -- This was the book that broke the sound barrier, so to speak. Things clicked. The only thing he recommends that I would never ever do again is wait to correct anything. He says, just keep on writing, don't go back and correct. Really, really bad idea! If you do that, as I did, you end up with a big mess. So, if your character changes color hair, or something happens that changes what's happened before, I suggest making that change immediately. With a big book you forget what needed to be changed and why. But worse, it messes things up in your mind and becomes difficult to keep writing.

The Craft of Novel-Writing, Dianne Doubtfire -- This book is only about 90 pages, but it's the only book I read that gives you a simple method to discover your plot. You may have an idea for your novel and some pictures in your mind as to what happens in it, but what about the rest of the novel? Doubtfire says, get a notepad. On the first line, write down a one-sentence description about that scene, basically what happens. Then ask yourself, "what happens next?" And you keep going that way until you come to the end. This is a fantastic method to uncover your plot. I used it for my novel. What I also found is things change as you write, but as long as you have a basic framework, everything comes together.

Worlds of Wonder: How to Write Science Fiction & Fantasy - David Gerrold. I can't remember what I learned from this book, but do remember it was excellent and I learned a lot from it and wrote to thank the author.

Writing Romance, Vanessa Grant -- I had no plans to write romance, but it's the only book I could find that addressed how to plan passage of time in a novel.

Screenplay: The Foundations of Screenwriting, Syd Field -- This is one of the first books I read. It was extremely useful to get the idea of scenes and writing in scenes. If you think about a movie, there are scenes. A novel is the same way, except it's not visual; you have to write in the visuals. Also, when I watched movies on a DVD, I'd watch the special features. They always had deleted scenes. That was a big learning to see what scenes they kept and what scenes they deleted. Same goes for scenes in a novel.

The Weekend Novelist, Robert J. Ray -- This was another really, really important book. It talks about giving your characters a wardrobe. Who knew that might be important, but it is. Also, it's the ONLY book where a certain method is talked about. Let's say a character is looking at the menu (this is an example he used). Well, the character is looking at the menu and then what? Then you have to tell the reader what is on the menu. It's a two-part thing, the character looks or see or comments on, and then you tell the reader what the character sees. Critical in writing fiction.

All books by Jack M. Bickham: Writing and Selling Your Novel; Scene & Structure; The 38 Most Common Fiction Writing Mistakes. Bickham was a writing professor. He really knows the proces sof writing a novel and knows how to teach it. Outstanding books, all of them.

Self-Editing for Fiction Writers, Renni Browne & Dave King -- An excellent book that is specific to editing fiction writing, which is very different from writing non-fiction. I learned a lot about the conventions of writing fiction by reading about how to edit fiction.

I read other books that weren't very helpful that I still have, but the ones I've listed are the ones that taught me how to write.

I also read popular and highly recommended books like On Becoming a Novelist by John Gardner and found them completely useless. They offered nothing and they just confused the whole idea of how to write fiction. I got nothing out of them except frustration.

I think each one of us who wants to write fiction finds the best way for them. I tend to learn alone and from books, so that's mostly how I did it. I was also fortunate that the three workshops I attended were taught by a great professor and had some great people in it.

Given all these books and all the degrees, classes and workshops about writing fiction, one wonders how Austin and Dickens did it. That's always a humbling thought.

Eric Maisel said something that always stuck with me: "When a writer is staring out the window, they are working."

Very few non-writers seem to understand that when it looks like a writer is doing nothing, they are actually working. The work is all inside. Allowing space and time for new ideas to emerge, solutions to a writing project to resolve.

Many years ago Eric Maisel wrote a book called Coaching the Artist Within. If you're a writer just starting out or somewhere in the middle, this is a good book to read. It explains the writer's nature and how creative people, in general, operate in the world. When I read that book, long time ago, I finally felt understood.

Eric explains so many aspects of the creative personality and creative process that were never addressed by anyone that I ever encountered. Possibly the most important part is the way others looked as the artist not doing anything, loafing around . . . why don't they get a job . . . they're lazy . . .

If you've not read Coaching the Artist Within, I highly recommend you do.

Eric Maisel has also written many other books that address all aspects of a creative person's life. The books are insightful, helpful, incredibly well written, and very engaging.

You can see all of Maisel's work on his website, ericmaisel.com

Long time ago, when I first started to write books, I read many, many books with advice from many authors on how to organize your writing life. The most consistent advice was to write at least five pages a day -- every day -- no matter what.

I was even practically criticized by a famous writing consultant by the way I wrote -- which was to start many writing and creative projects, instead of focusing on one and finishing it.

Many years have gone by now and I finally figured it out, at the very least, for myself.

The obvious is that each one of us has to find the best way for us to create. That can take a lot of time and experimentation. Meanwhile, if you keep in mind what everyone says how you should do it, that will really mess you up.

I write fiction, nonfiction and I also create guided meditations.

In Scrivener I have plot ideas for many novels. Same with the nonfiction. And I also have a whole bunch of guided meditations started.

For me, I found, that a project will naturally present itself as the next one to work on. The thing is to relax and let go of control and just listen to your inner guidance. And try not to hurry anything up. The creative process is intuitive, so time and space has to be given for ideas to develop. Forcing them, can only obstruct that natural evolution.

Perhaps the most amazing discovery I made in letting projects just sit there is that they develop on their own. One day I'll wake up and the entire thing will be there and I just have to put it down.

The other discovery, and this is a really important one, when things have time to naturally develop, all kinds of wonderful ideas emerge that were nowhere in the beginning of the project.

So, I would say, if you have a lot of ideas brewing, write them all down. See what emerges as the one to work on. And don't throw anything away! Years might go by and an old idea will suddenly take shape. Or an old idea will develop in a new way that's way better than the original idea. Or two separate ideas will synthesize into one fantastic idea.

Meanwhile, you might start a book you never finish or many books you never finish. Those are excellent test runs that you learn from, as frustrating as they may be. Many times, especially in writing nonfiction, you simply may not have all the information you need to write that book, haven't grown as a person to the level that book requires. But few years later, you might have all you need to write it. And with fiction, it might be we simply need to learn more about how to write fiction or something else might need to be learned.

If you have lots of ideas for writing and nothing is coming together, it's usually a time thing. You have to find yourself as a writer.

Early on, I was tormented by the decision I thought I had to make: shall I write fiction? Shall I write nonfiction? Shall I let go creating guided meditations? That went on for years. And finally, I made peace with the fact that it's all of them. And it's a matter of relaxing and allowing the order to emerge on its own.

Before I forget -- the idea of sitting there until you wrote something . . . that may work for some people, but I find it's a terrible idea. If you don't know what to write, don't, just wait for it to come to you naturally. Taking your mind off of it, will allow for ideas to emerge. Or one morning you'll wake up and know what to do.

And the idea of writing five pages -- forget that, too. It will vary. I remember the day I broke that sound barrier by writing twenty pages. If you can, give yourself room to create in a way that's natural for you, life will be a lot easier and writing a lot more fun.

If you have trouble with the concept of being a writer that probably comes from childhood, you can overcome that limitation.

I had that problem. It came from childhood. It would take too long to write about here, but I overcame it by first understanding it came from childhood. And the second thing I did is use a method that was given to me as a download in giving psychic readings. It's about using the "little notebook."

I wrote about that technique in my short book, The Workings of Energy in the Human Energy Field: A Psychic's Perspective. You can find it everywhere in all forms, print, eBook, audio book, including on this website under the tab, "Book a Psychic Reading."

You know you're a writer when the idea doesn't go away and ideas for books don't go away. You may try to push it away, but it never works. It never goes away. Best is to accept it and do what needs to be done to move forward with life where you are a writer.

If you want to write a novel and don't know where to begin or you're already writing novels and need a better way to organize yourself, the Novel Factory is the answer. And you can try it for free!

There are many parts to writing a novel: plot, setting, character, timeline, etc., and developing each of these is a big deal and a big job. Then you have to keep the whole thing moving at some kind of a pace that makes sense.

The Novel Factory helps you organize all these different pieces.

The Novel Factory is a comprehensive guide to writing a novel. It teaches you about writing novels; helps you develop each part of your novel and it offers a space to actually write the novel.

It really is comprehensive.  The information offered in the Novel Factory is the content of a whole lot of separate books on how to write a novel.

You can try it for free. You will learn a lot by just reading everything they offer. It is the best information about how to write a novel I have ever read and I have read dozens of books on how to write novels.

If you want to write a novel or if you're already writing and need a better way to organize yourself and better methods to develop plot, character, setting, etc., the Novel Factory does all that and it does it in an excellent way.  Highly recommend it!

The Novel Factory, https://www.novel-software.com/

If you would like a little help promoting your audio books, I recommend having a consultation with Rebecca Hefner. Here is where you can book your session: https://payhip.com/b/L6XMI

Below is a list of all her offerings.

If you're self-publishing eventually you'll have to format your books so you can upload it to someplace like Ingram or Lulu.

You can pay someone to format the book for you, or you can do it yourself.

And you'll need a print file(PDF), as well as an ePub file.

Most writers are not graphic designers and do not use programs like InDesign, Quark or Affinity Publisher to format books and create covers.

I've learned to format my own books and create covers because I was creating guided meditations and just could not get the results I wanted from freelancers. I had discovered Affinity Publisher, Designer and Photo. These programs are really easy to use compared to programs like Quark, which I have also used long time ago when it was a lot simpler.

And now I'm about to release my first science fiction novel and though I've formatted my Manifesting book in Affinity Publisher, I dreaded the idea of having to format my novel -- even though it's way easier to format a novel than a non-fiction book.

So, feeling guilty, because I already had a program I could use to format, I searched for an easier way to do it. I could not believe such a thing actually existed but it does. It's called Atticus.

Atticus is designed for writers! It's relatively new. You can use it to write your book -- which I will not do, Scrivener works really well for me -- and format it for print and eBook, outputting the ePub format which is what Ingram, and other publishers, require.

I cannot believe how easy it is to use Atticus! Basically, you just input your book requirements: size, margins, font, etc., and it produces a PDF for print and an ePub document for eBooks. Shocking!

It's easy and fast!

After getting over my luck and shock and delight, I realized it would be easy to also use for non-fiction where there is a lot more complexity in formatting. It allows you to create headers and footers and import images!

Atticus is evolving and growing. They are presently working on creating a section for plotting and will continue to develop it. Their goal is to make Atticus the only program you'll require to develop, write and format your books.

If you're a writer and prefer to do your own formatting, Atticus is the solution, atticus.io.

To create the covers from my books and guided meditations, I use the Affinity tools: Designer and Photo. To lay out my books and get them ready for publication, I use Publisher.

These are relatively new applications by Serif in the UK. They are inexpensive. Best of all, they are NOT on a subscription basis. Many Adobe users have switched to Affinity.

I love these programs. They are relatively easy to learn and use and very easy to use if you've already used any similar applications.

They all work together. If you're in one application, you can easily open the same project in another application. For example, if you're in Designer creating a cover and have an image that needs adjusting, you simply go to the Designer File Menu and open Photo. You adjust the image in Photo and then go back to Designer to continue your work.

When I started using Affinity products, I was fairly new to these sorts of applications. Then along came Affinity Revolution -- a husband and wife team, teachers, who created tutorials for all three Affinity applications. They are the best tutorials one could hope to have when learning a new program. I highly recommend them. They are inexpensive and ever so pleasant to watch and learn.

So, if you're looking for a great set of creative applications I highly recommend Affinity products and I highly recommend Affinity Revolution tutorials to quickly and painlessly learn how to use them.

If you're selling audio books, eBooks and music on your website, you need a method to deliver them. I like digital delivery.

A customer buys and they are emailed the download link for the product. Done.

The challenge, if you're not selling a lot of product on your website, is that it is really expensive to have up a digital delivery system. If you have big files, like audio files, it becomes even more challenging.

I did thorough research and found Vibralogix. Vibralogix uses an entirely different approach to setting up digital delivery. Best of all, it is really inexpensive. It's a one-time charge of $29.95.

Read more about it on their website:  www.vibralogix.com