Are you a writer who needs a detailed outline before you begin, or do you prefer to discover the story as you write?

In this episode of Write the Darn Book, we’re diving into the pantser versus plotter debate, but through a much deeper lens. Because your writing style is rarely just a preference. It is often connected to how your brain is wired, how you process story, and what makes your creative system feel safe enough to write.

Maddison explores how the four Bird Writing Personalities, Dove, Owl, Peacock and Eagle, often approach structure, freedom, planning and discovery. You’ll learn why some writers thrive with detailed outlines, why others feel blocked by too much structure, and why many writers sit somewhere in the middle.

Most importantly, this episode gives you permission to stop fighting yourself and start building a writing process that actually works for the way you create.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• What the pantser versus plotter debate really means • Why writing advice can fail when it was built for a different type of writer • How each Bird Writing Personality tends to approach planning and drafting • Why your writing process may change from book to book • How to find the middle path between structure and discovery • Why the goal is not to become a perfect plotter or pantser, but to understand how you write best

If you’ve been forcing yourself to write in a way that feels heavy, flat, or completely wrong for you, this episode will help you see that the problem may never have been you. It may simply be the method.

Maddison’s Writing Personality Blueprint Session is a dedicated one-on-one Zoom session where you’ll explore your Bird Writing Personality profile and receive a personalised Blueprint Report with your creative strengths, resistance patterns, and practical strategies for building a writing process that works for you.

Book your 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. 💗

Have you ever had a writing idea that felt alive and exciting, only to have your inner critic arrive within minutes and start tearing it apart?

In this episode of Write the Darn Book, Maddison introduces the Walt Disney Strategy for Writers, an NLP-based creative process that separates your writing mind into three distinct modes: the Dreamer, the Realist, and the Critic.

Rather than trying to imagine, plan, write, and judge all at once, this strategy helps you understand which mode you need to be in at each stage of the creative process, so your ideas have enough space to grow before they are refined.

You’ll learn why so many books die before they’re written, not because the idea was wrong, but because the inner critic was invited in too early. Maddison explains how to protect your Dreamer mode, use your Realist mode to turn ideas into structure and pages, and invite your Critic in at the right time so it becomes a helpful editorial tool rather than a destructive voice.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• Why writers often collapse dreaming, planning, drafting, and editing into one overwhelming process
• How the Dreamer, Realist, and Critic each support your writing in a different way
• Why the Critic belongs third, not first
• How skipping the Realist phase can leave your ideas vulnerable to self-doubt
• Simple ways to use this strategy in your own writing sessions
• Why your inner critic becomes more useful when you give it a specific job

This is Part 1 of a two-part series. In Part 2, Maddison will guide you through three visualisations to help you step into the Dreamer, Realist, and Critic modes as felt experiences, so you can use them more intentionally at the page.

If you’d love personalised support understanding how you’re wired to write, Maddison’s Writing Personality Blueprint Sessions are now available. These focused one-off sessions help you understand your writing personality, your creative patterns, and, in the deeper session, your NLP modality too.

Learn more 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. 💗

What if your writing block has nothing to do with your story… and everything to do with the space you’re sitting in?

In this bonus episode, we’re exploring something most writing advice completely overlooks — the energy of your writing environment.

Because your writing space is not neutral. It holds the imprint of every session you’ve had there — the frustration, the avoidance, the breakthroughs, the moments of flow.

And over time, that energy can quietly shape how you feel every time you sit down to write.

In this episode, you’ll learn how to clear that energy, reset your environment, and create a space that actually supports your creativity — not works against it.

• why your writing space holds the “memory” of your past writing sessions
• how your environment can reinforce writer’s block without you realising it
• the connection between clutter, stress, and reduced creative capacity
• the three layers of your writing space: physical, spatial, and energetic
• how to use simple Feng Shui principles to support creative safety and flow
• practical ways to clear and reset your space (without overcomplicating it)
• how your writing personality influences the kind of environment you need

If writing has been feeling heavy, resistant, or harder than it should… it doesn’t automatically mean something is wrong with you.

Sometimes, the space you’re writing in just needs to shift.

Before I go, I just want to remind you — while my longer coaching packages are currently full, I’ve intentionally opened up a small number of one-off deep-dive sessions each week.

These are my Writing Personality Blueprint Sessions — designed to help you understand exactly how you’re wired to write, so you can finally move forward with clarity and momentum.

You’ll walk away with a personalised blueprint for your writing process, along with practical tools to help you harness your unique personality and move your book forward.

If you’re ready to stop guessing and start working with your natural wiring, you can learn more and book a session at:

👉 maddisonmichaels.com/blueprint