Mindset Monday episodes explore the inner work of writing: blocks, beliefs, identity, resistance, procrastination, perfectionism, and creative flow.

Have you ever written something and afterwards thought, I have no idea where that came from?

In this Mindset Monday episode, Maddison explores the difference between writing from mental pressure and writing from imagination. This is the deeper creative place where the story begins to feel alive, where characters surprise you, and where the words feel like they are flowing through you rather than being forced onto the page.

This episode speaks directly to the Write The Darn Book belief that you are the vessel for the story. Whether you call that God, intuition, consciousness, creative energy, or the creative subconscious, the heart of this conversation is learning how to quiet the analytical mind, listen more deeply, and allow the story to come through with greater trust.

Inside this episode, you’ll learn:

• The difference between writing from your head and writing from your imagination • Why the creative subconscious matters so much for writers • How your NLP writing modality shapes the way you access story • Why your Bird Writing Personality can affect how safe imagination feels • A simple Imagination Doorway Practice to use before your next writing session

You’ll also be invited to try one imagination-led writing session this week, using one doorway question, one breath, and ten minutes of writing before judging what comes through.

If this episode made you curious about the way your mind naturally accesses story, imagination, and creative momentum, Maddison would love to invite you to her free masterclass, Write To Your Wiring.

It’s happening on Tuesday 30 June at 10:00am Sydney Time, and everyone who registers will receive the replay.

Save your free spot here: maddisonmichaels.com/masterclass

If this episode supported you, please take a moment to follow the show, leave a review, or share it with another writer who needs a gentler way back into the page.

Your support helps more writers find Write The Darn Book and remember that they are not broken, they are not behind, and their story still matters.

You are the vessel for the story. Let the words flow through you and onto the page.

Body language is one of the most powerful tools you can use in your manuscript, especially when your characters are hiding something.

A character can say, “I’m fine,” while their fingers keep worrying the edge of a napkin. They can smile at the detective while their feet angle toward the door. They can tell the truth in their words and still reveal the fear, guilt, longing, shame, or calculation moving beneath the surface.

In this Writing Wednesday episode, we’re diving into body language for writers and how to use it to reveal emotion, deepen character, create subtext, and build tension in your scenes. This is more than a simple “show, don’t tell” technique. Used well, body language becomes story evidence. It lets the reader notice what your character is trying to hide, what they’re feeling beneath the dialogue, and what changes when another character sees the truth leaking through.

Drawing on my eighteen years in policing and my fascination with human behaviour, we’ll look at how real-world behaviour awareness can help you write stronger, more layered scenes. We’ll also explore body language through the lens of baseline, context, clusters, contradiction, and consequence, so you can use physical cues with more precision rather than relying on random clenched jaws, crossed arms, or dramatic glances across the room.

This episode will be especially useful if you write mystery, thriller, suspense, romantic suspense, crime, historical fiction, fantasy, memoir, or any story where characters carry secrets, hide their emotions, or say one thing while their body reveals another.

In this episode, you’ll learn how to:

• Use body language to reveal what your character feels before they say it out loud.
• Create stronger subtext by showing the tension between words and physical behaviour.
• Use body language as story evidence in mystery, thriller, suspense, romance, and emotionally charged scenes.
• Understand why one isolated gesture rarely means much without baseline, context, and consequence.
• Revise a scene so your character’s body reveals emotion, pressure, secrecy, attraction, fear, or desire without over-explaining it to the reader.

We’ll also talk about why body language is so useful in everyday life and in writing. Once you start noticing how much people communicate before they speak, you begin to see your characters differently too. They stop feeling like people who simply deliver dialogue, and they start feeling like real human beings with bodies, instincts, defences, fears, secrets, and desires.

Your practical tool for this week is the Body Language Scene Audit. You’ll choose one scene in your manuscript where a character is under emotional pressure, identify what is normal for that character, find the moment where the pressure changes, and revise one paragraph so the body reveals more than the narration explains.

Because the body is often where the story leaks through.

And as writers, we get to notice that, shape it, and place it on the page in a way that helps the reader feel the truth before anyone says it out loud.

If this episode has you thinking about how you naturally write emotion, dialogue, body language, tension, or scene detail, I’d love to invite you to my free masterclass, Write To Your Wiring, happening on Tuesday 30 June at 10:00am Sydney time, live on Zoom.

In this 45-minute masterclass, we’ll look at how your natural NLP modality shapes the way you think, create, access story, and move through resistance at the page. Some writers see the scene first. Some hear the dialogue. Some feel the emotional truth in their body. Some need the logic and structure to click before the words can flow.

Once you understand that about yourself, writing can begin to feel less like forcing and more like working with your own creative wiring.

Save your free spot at:

maddisonmichaels.com/masterclass

⭐️ If this episode resonated with you, I’d love for you to leave a five-star review on Apple or Spotify. It helps other writers find the show, and it means so much to know these episodes are supporting you as you write the darn book. 💗

Have you ever opened your laptop, looked in your documents folder, and realised there are six different versions of a manuscript sitting there?

Maybe it’s the same book you’ve started over and over again. Maybe it’s several different manuscripts you’ve written but never finished. Or maybe you keep moving between projects, telling yourself you’re still writing, while deep down you know one manuscript needs your full commitment if it’s ever going to reach the finish line.

In this episode of Write The Darn Book, we’re looking at the restart cycle: why starting again can feel so productive, why it often happens when the manuscript starts asking more from you, and how to work out whether your book needs craft support, emotional reconnection, or a different kind of support based on your writing personality.

Because unfinished drafts aren’t proof that you can’t finish. They’re evidence that you’ve had the commitment to begin, the imagination to keep creating, and a pattern that needs better support.

Inside this episode, you’ll explore:

• Why starting again can feel like progress, even when it’s keeping you stuck
• The three common patterns underneath the restart cycle: perfectionism, fear of finishing, and chasing the energy of something new
• How Dove, Owl, Peacock, and Eagle writers may leave the manuscript at different points
• Why your book may need craft support, reconnection, or both
• The Finish-First Framework to help you identify where you leave, what leaving gives you, and the next continuing action to take

You’ll also learn how to use your Writing Personality lens to come back to the manuscript in a way that works with your natural wiring, instead of forcing yourself through another generic writing process that doesn’t fit.

If this episode resonates with you, I’d love to invite you to my free masterclass, Write To Your Wiring, happening Tuesday 30 June at 10:00am Sydney time.

In this free masterclass, we’ll look at how your natural creative wiring shapes the way you write, process story, experience resistance, and find flow. You’ll begin to understand your NLP writing modality, whether you tend toward Visual, Auditory, Kinesthetic, or Auditory Digital processing, and how that affects the way you show up to the page.

Save your free spot here:

https://maddisonmichaels.com/masterclass

⭐️ If this episode resonated with you, I’d be so grateful if you took a moment to leave a five-star review on Apple or Spotify. It helps other writers find the show and reminds them they’re not broken, they just need the right support to keep going. 💗

Writing Wednesday episodes explore the outer work of writing: craft, structure, revision, publishing, process, and the practical steps that help you finish your book.

Your writing setup is not separate from your writing momentum.

In today’s Writing Wednesday episode of Write The Darn Book, we’re looking at how your desk, chair, keyboard, screen, and movement habits can either support your creative flow or quietly make writing harder than it needs to be.

Because writing is physical. Your mind may be willing, your story may be calling, and your book may matter deeply to you, but if your body is uncomfortable, tense, or constantly pushing through pain, writing can begin to feel harder to return to.

I’m also sharing my own experience managing a shoulder injury from my policing career, and how tools like a sit-stand desk, walking treadmill, ergonomic keyboard, posture support, and movement breaks have helped me care for my body while writing. We’ll also look at the other side of the equation: when researching the perfect setup becomes another form of procrastination.

In this episode, you’ll learn how to:

• recognise when physical discomfort is affecting your writing momentum • tell the difference between useful ergonomic support and setup-based procrastination • use a simple writing setup audit before your next writing session • care for your body so writing becomes more sustainable over the long term

This episode is not medical advice. If you’re experiencing ongoing pain, numbness, tingling, headaches, or symptoms that concern you, please seek support from a qualified health professional.

And if you’re listening before 30 June, I’d love to invite you to my free live masterclass, Write To Your Wiring: Discover Your NLP Modality and How It Shapes the Way You Write. You’ll discover how your natural processing style shapes the way you think, create, access story, and move through resistance.

Join the free masterclass here: https://maddisonmichaels.com/masterclass

⭐️ If this episode resonated with you, I’d be so grateful if you took a moment to leave a five-star review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Your review helps Write the Darn Book reach more writers who are ready to honour their stories, trust their creative process, and keep showing up for the book they’re meant to write. 💗

And remember, you are the vessel for the story. Let the words flow through you and onto the page.

Have you ever looked at your book idea and felt that little tug inside that says, this matters, this is mine to write?

And then almost immediately, another voice comes in.

Who are you to write this? This is too personal. Someone else has already said it better. Maybe this story only matters to you.

In this episode of Write The Darn Book, we’re exploring how to write the book only you can write by accessing your unique creative truth.

Maddison talks about why the most personal parts of your story are often the parts that become the most universal, why writers sometimes pull back right before the truth comes through, and how your NLP modality shapes the way you naturally access emotion, meaning, story, and voice.

You’ll learn how Visual, Auditory, Kinesthetic, and Auditory Digital writers may each access creative truth differently, and how to begin writing the scene, chapter, or message you may have been circling for far too long.

This episode is a reminder that your book does not become powerful because you sound like everyone else. It becomes powerful because your lived experience, perspective, emotional honesty, and creative wiring are allowed to come through on the page.

• Why personal stories often become the most universal • The difference between literal truth and emotional truth • Why resistance can show up when the writing starts to feel real • How NLP modalities shape the way creative truth comes through • A simple practice for writing one honest page from your natural wiring

If this episode stirred something in you, I’d love to invite you to my free live masterclass on 30 June 2026 at 10am AEST:

Write To Your Wiring: Discover Your NLP Modality and How It Shapes the Way You Write

Inside this free masterclass, we’ll explore the four NLP modalities, Visual, Auditory, Kinesthetic, and Auditory Digital, and how each one shapes the way you access story, process ideas, experience blocks, and find your way back into creative flow.

You’ll learn what your modality means for your writing rhythm, your story access, your resistance patterns, and the practical shifts you can make in your very next writing session.

Reserve your free place here: maddisonmichaels.com/masterclass

⭐️ If this episode resonated with you, I’d be so grateful if you took a moment to leave a five-star review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Your review helps Write the Darn Book reach more writers who are ready to honour their stories, trust their creative process, and keep showing up for the book they’re meant to write. 💗

And remember, you are the vessel for the story. Let the words flow through you and onto the page.

Writing Wednesday episodes explore the outer work of writing: craft, structure, revision, publishing, process, and the practical steps that help you finish your book.

Have you ever walked into a stationery shop and felt that little spark of possibility wake up inside you?

The coloured pens. The highlighters. The sticky notes. The beautiful notebooks. The fresh blank pages.

And maybe you’ve wondered whether you’re just procrastinating, or whether there’s something about those tools that genuinely helps your creative brain come alive.

In this Writing Wednesday episode of Write The Darn Book, we’re exploring how coloured pens, handwriting, notebooks, highlighters, sticky notes, and messy handwritten pages can become practical tools for unlocking creativity, especially when your writing feels stuck, flat, tangled, or too much like a task.

This is not about abandoning your laptop or hand-writing your entire manuscript. It’s about understanding how colour, handwriting, and physical stationery can help your brain access your story in a different way.

• Why stationery often feels so creatively energising for writers
• How handwriting can shift your brain out of stuck, screen-based thinking
• Why coloured pens and highlighters can help you make invisible story threads visible
• How to use colour without creating an overwhelming colour-coding system
• How notebooks, pens, and sticky notes can become writing-state cues
• The difference between stationery as a creative doorway and stationery as avoidance
• A simple three-colour practice to help you work through a scene, chapter, character, or idea

Choose one writing problem or creative question you’re currently holding.

Take a notebook or blank page and choose three colours:

• One colour for what you already know
• One colour for the questions
• One colour for the sparks, meaning the words, images, ideas, or emotional truths that make something inside you lean forward

Give yourself ten minutes. Write messily. Draw arrows. Circle things. Highlight the sentence that surprises you.

Then ask yourself:

What is the colour showing me?

If this episode made you realise that the way you brainstorm, plan, organise your ideas, and reconnect with your creativity might be deeply connected to your writing personality, you can book a Writing Personality Blueprint Session at:

maddisonmichaels.com/blueprint

And if you’d like to begin by discovering more about your own writing personality, you can take the free Writing Personality Quiz at:

maddisonmichaels.com/quiz

⭐️ If this episode resonated with you, I’d be so grateful if you took a moment to leave a five-star review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Your review helps Write the Darn Book reach more writers who are ready to honour their stories, trust their creative process, and keep showing up for the book they’re meant to write. 💗

Mindset Monday episodes explore the inner work of writing: blocks, beliefs, identity, resistance, procrastination, perfectionism, and creative flow.

Words are never just words, especially for writers.

In this episode of Write The Darn Book, we’re exploring how the language you use around your writing shapes the way you experience the page, your manuscript, your creative flow, and even your identity as a writer.

Because it’s not just the words that end up in the manuscript that matter. It’s the words you speak to yourself before you write, during a difficult session, after you close the document, and every time you decide what kind of writer you believe yourself to be.

If you’ve ever caught yourself thinking, “I’m behind,” “I’m inconsistent,” “I never finish anything,” or “I’m not a real writer,” this episode will help you understand why those words land so heavily, and how to begin choosing language that supports your creativity rather than shutting it down.

This is a grounded, practical conversation about self-talk, writer identity, nervous-system safety, creative confidence, and the way your words can either reinforce resistance or open the next doorway back into your writing.

• Why the words you speak to yourself are part of the writing process too • How language shapes your emotional state before, during, and after writing • Why a hard writing day is not a verdict on your talent • How pressure language, judgement language, and identity language can block creative flow • Why the way you speak to yourself after a writing session matters so much • A simple Magic Words Reset to help you shift from self-criticism into grounded action • How to use your words to support the writer you are becoming

In this episode, Maddison walks you through a simple three-step process you can use when your inner language turns against your writing:

Notice the sentence. Hear what you’re actually saying to yourself.

Soften the meaning. Find a truer, kinder, more useful version.

Choose the next doorway. Take one grounded step back toward the work.

This isn’t about fake positivity or pretending writing always feels easy. It’s about using language to return yourself to the page with more steadiness, self-trust, and creative safety.

If this episode helped you recognise that the words you use with yourself are tied to bigger patterns in your writing, your resistance, your confidence, and the way you see yourself as a writer, a Writing Personality Blueprint Session may be a beautiful next step.

Inside a Blueprint Session, we look at how you are uniquely wired to write through your Bird Writing Personality, your creative patterns, your resistance points, and the kind of support that actually helps you move forward.

You’ll come away with clearer insight into why you write the way you do, why certain approaches haven’t worked for you, and how to build a writing process that feels more aligned, practical, and sustainable.

Book your Writing Personality Blueprint Session at: maddisonmichaels.com/blueprint

⭐️ If this episode resonated with you, I’d be so grateful if you took a moment to leave a five-star review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Your review helps Write the Darn Book reach more writers who are ready to honour their stories, trust their creative process, and keep showing up for the book they’re meant to write. 💗

Writing Wednesday episodes explore the outer work of writing: craft, structure, revision, publishing, process, and the practical steps that help you finish your book.

Can music actually help you write, or is it quietly pulling you out of the story?

In this episode of Write The Darn Book, we’re exploring how music, silence, and background noise shape your creative flow, and why the best sound environment for writing is not the same for every writer.

Because sound is more than background noise. It can become a writing-state cue, a doorway into your manuscript, and a signal your brain begins to associate with story, focus, creativity, or safety.

You’ll learn:

• How sound can become a cue your brain associates with writing and creative flow
• Why music can help you access the emotional world of your book, but may also pull you into the wrong state
• Why silence supports some writers beautifully, while making the inner critic louder for others
• How background noise can reduce pressure and help some writers bypass overthinking
• Why your sound needs may be shaped by your creative wiring, Bird Writing Personality, nervous system, and trained writing habits
• How to use the Sound Check Method before your next writing session

This episode introduces a simple tool to help you choose the right sound environment before each writing session.

Instead of asking, “Should I write with music or silence?” you’ll learn to ask:

• What state do I need for this session?
• What sound supports that state?
• Is this sound helping me stay with the work?

Because the better question is not simply, “Should writers listen to music while they write?”

The better question is: what sound environment helps you enter the work, stay with the work, and come back to the work again tomorrow?

If this episode made you realise your writing process might be fighting the way you’re naturally wired, you might love a Writing Personality Blueprint Session.

In one focused session, we map your unique Writing Personality, uncover the patterns affecting your writing rhythm, resistance, focus, and follow-through, and build a personalised strategy for how you plan, draft, revise, and keep moving with your book.

You can book your Writing Personality Blueprint Session at maddisonmichaels.com/blueprint.

⭐️ If this episode resonated with you, I’d be so grateful if you took a moment to leave a five-star review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Your review helps Write The Darn Book reach more writers who are ready to honour their stories, trust their creative process, and keep showing up for the book they’re meant to write. 💗