The Publishing Performance Show

Dr. Nicole Janz - Breaking Through Writer's Block: A Coach's Guide to Productive Writing

• Teddy Smith • Episode 63

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Dr. Nicole Janz is a social scientist and a book coach with over 20 years of experience as a journalist, academic, and writer. After leaving academia four years ago, she transitioned into creative writing and book coaching. She created The Write Habit Planner, a specialized tool designed to help writers maintain consistency and productivity in their writing journey. As both a writer and coach, Nicole combines her extensive experience to help authors overcome procrastination and develop sustainable writing habits.


In this episode:

  • Understanding the deeper psychological aspects of writing procrastination
  • Breaking down large writing goals into manageable daily tasks
  • The five-step process for starting a book effectively
  • Creating outlines and time plans for both fiction and non-fiction writing
  • Developing a sustainable writing routine that fits into busy schedules
  • The importance of self-reflection and tracking progress beyond word count
  • Setting realistic writing goals and maintaining work-life balance
  • The transformation from perfectionism to productive writing habits


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[00:00:00] Teddy Smith: Hi everyone, and welcome to the publishing performance show. I'm here with Nicole Janz, who is a book coach. I'm really excited to speak to her all about being more organized with your book writing. So thank you for joining me, Nicole. 

[00:00:17] Dr. Nicole Janz: Of course. Happy to be here, Teddy. 

[00:00:19] Teddy Smith: Thank you. So let's get straight into it.

[00:00:21] Teddy Smith: I mean, many writers struggle with their procrastination and not really writing as fast as they want to. So what are the main reasons? that a lot of writers do procrastinate and how can they overcome that? 

[00:00:32] Dr. Nicole Janz: Yeah, so there's always sort of the surface level reasons for procrastination. often they say, I can't find the time to write.

[00:00:40] Dr. Nicole Janz: I don't know how to tell my story or I have too many other goals in my life, too many other things that are super important. and you know, this is more from the productivity side, but. As a book coach, I've sort of found that there are deeper layers and I've actually found that procrastination is pain avoidance because there's often when you write and you want to do a really good job, you want to really make an impact with your book and your story.

[00:01:06] Dr. Nicole Janz: You often, you often think maybe it's not good enough. you can get overwhelmed easily or the imposter. Is knocking at your door and that can be painful when you feel like, you know, it's sort of, it's not going that well and when something is painful, we don't want to go there. So it's so much easier to do emails, admin, other projects, focus on your family, maybe on your day job to just avoid the pain.

[00:01:33] Dr. Nicole Janz: And I found as a coach, I'm often a little bit of a life coach or therapist. And when we go into, okay, what is the actual problem here? we realized they can make more time, um, once they figured out what deep inside sort of held them back where the pain was sitting. 

[00:01:51] Teddy Smith: Yeah, that is such a good point. I'm such a, uh, I procrastinate.

[00:01:55] Teddy Smith: I'm so bad at procrastinating. I'm good at procrastinating. I mean, you know, I'll be, I'll be waiting to do something useful, like write a book. And then suddenly next thing I know, I'm just responding to emails or, you know, working on something that I actually enjoy. Um, so have you got any tips for trying to break down those tasks so that you can overcome that procrastination a bit faster, especially to do with books?

[00:02:15] Dr. Nicole Janz: Yeah. So I think, um, once you've sort of looked a little bit at what am I afraid of here, you can't really push that away immediately. You can't just say, Oh yeah, I'm not going to be afraid that it's not good enough. But while you are sort of living with and sort of getting comfortable with the discomfort, you can do a lot of little practical things that can get you back into the writing.

[00:02:36] Dr. Nicole Janz: And some of them are just making the goal smaller. For example, when I wake up in the morning and I think, Oh, I need to write this whole book. Of course I'm scared. The mountain is huge. But if I set my goals, you know, at the start of the week, and I think of a small thing that I can do every day, even just, let's say for 10 minutes or for 30 minutes, doing a bit of research, writing 200 words, like teeny tiny tasks, then it seems more manageable.

[00:03:03] Dr. Nicole Janz: And this is what I do with all my clients. We go through the whole week, and we find little things they can do. And of course you can write. 50 words, of course, you can research another book and see what their style is. And suddenly they can get out of their block and just complete these smaller tasks.

[00:03:24] Teddy Smith: Yeah. I really like that point. I mean, I've read a really good book called Creativity. It's by John Cleese. He's a quite a famous British comedian and it's a really small book, but it just talks all about his writing process when he was writing Monty Python and Fawlty Towers and things like that. And one of the things he said was a bit like what you touched on just now about setting those goals maybe the night before about what you're going to work on the next day.

[00:03:45] Teddy Smith: Because sometimes when you do it the night before, your brain kind of works on it whilst you're asleep and you wake up and you've really got that momentum to push forward. Is that something you've noticed when you've been working on procrastination? 

[00:03:58] Dr. Nicole Janz: 100%. I heard, um, the saying, never go to bed without a request to your subconscious.

[00:04:05] Dr. Nicole Janz: So if you set your goals the night before, something in your brain will start sort of digesting and you never know what happens when you wake up. I've had it a million times that there was some sort of, problem in the writing that I was doing. I'm also a writer. Um, and I just felt like I can't really, how do I say this?

[00:04:24] Dr. Nicole Janz: And I just journaled a bit about it. I'd set myself a goal for the next day to, to tackle that. And then in the morning I woke up and I had a very clear idea. This is how I'm going to try it. Now, it doesn't mean that this was always the best way of doing it, but I just felt like, okay, that's my first step.

[00:04:42] Dr. Nicole Janz: And then from that, I, it kept rolling and I kept playing. But yeah, you're absolutely right. 

[00:04:47] Teddy Smith: And with books in particular, you mentioned breaking down those goals. What are the goals you generally recommend people start working with, uh, when they are starting to plan a book? 

[00:05:01] Dr. Nicole Janz: Yeah. So I have a sort of five step process when I start working with clients, um, which I also put into a free mini course, start your book in five days.

[00:05:13] Dr. Nicole Janz: Um, and so the easiest way to start is. With a few simple questions that you are journaling about, you know, you want to figure out What's the key message of your book? You want to figure out who really needs to hear it? So imagining a person that is your main audience, you know, thinking of a person You might even know who really needs to hear this because they might have a problem to solve they might have some pain points There might be something not going well for them and they want to See if they can tackle that, right?

[00:05:44] Dr. Nicole Janz: So what is, what is that problem that you are trying to solve? Um, and then also thinking about why does it matter in a bigger sense? So just, you know, everyone has, I know a lot of people who want to write books, but you need to be really clear what will change for your reader when they read the book. How are they going to see life differently?

[00:06:04] Dr. Nicole Janz: How does their perspective on life change? Um, or, you know, their day to day actions. How does that change? And so these are often questions that are easy, you can answer them quickly, and often your initial gut reaction for such a question is probably the right one, rather than overcomplicating it. 

[00:06:26] Teddy Smith: Keep it simple is the answer.

[00:06:28] Teddy Smith: Now 

[00:06:28] Dr. Nicole Janz: you've I have a lot of clients who actually have four or five books in their head, especially professionals or entrepreneurs and even authors. Um, you know, and they try to put everything into one. And if you bring it down to give me five minutes, here are five questions to figure out the book.

[00:06:47] Dr. Nicole Janz: Suddenly they realize, well. I just have to think about the first book for now, knowing that I might potentially be writing a series of books. 

[00:06:56] Teddy Smith: Yeah, that's really interesting. I mean, I read an interview of JK Rowling the other day and even she has like four books in her head at the moment, which she's kind of plotting through any one time.

[00:07:06] Teddy Smith: So yeah, I think keeping it simple is a really good tip there. Now you've got this book. I've got it here. It's really good. It's called the right to have it. And I say it's a book. It is a book, but I mean, it's more of a planner. And you can see some pages here and I can't believe how detailed and how much information there is in here all about planning your book.

[00:07:25] Teddy Smith: I think it's absolutely incredible. It'd be such a good resource for people who are planning on writing a book. So let's talk a bit about that book. So firstly, what got you into writing that book in the first place? 

[00:07:37] Dr. Nicole Janz: Yeah, The Right Habit Planner used to be actually a self help book, um, called The Right Habit before it became a planner.

[00:07:45] Dr. Nicole Janz: Um, and it was a book that I wanted to write for all my clients and all my potential clients who struggle to set their writing goals on the day to day basis. Um, who struggle to really figure out how to break down their big goal into a time plan that works. And I had planned out a whole self help book with, you know, Tons of tips on how to do this, bringing all my coaching tools into it, all my client stories and sort of halfway and I realized it's way too complicated.

[00:08:15] Dr. Nicole Janz: I don't think my writers need to read another book on how to do it and stress them out and overwhelm them with too much detail. And then I, you know, I abandoned it, felt actually really bad about it because I'm a writer's coach giving up a book. but I thought about what does a person who wants to sit down and write productively and consistently, what do they actually need?

[00:08:36] Dr. Nicole Janz: Unless me, you know, other than me being in the room with them to help them. And then I realized actually they need a planner, but not just any productivity planner or there are so many planners for wellness and journals, but a planner specifically for busy writers who find it hard to write every single day with boxes to fill in the priorities.

[00:08:57] Dr. Nicole Janz: breaking down the goal, you know, filling in how they spend their week, recap on what they've done, and sort of suddenly everything became very simple. And that writer's planner was finished really quickly because I knew that, um, I just knew the, what's the absolute basic, the absolute minimum someone needs to have.

[00:09:17] Dr. Nicole Janz: And boom that was it was a planner it was easy it's out and um it's selling to 

[00:09:25] Teddy Smith: do you still have the uh the actual book the rights have it or is it just the panel 

[00:09:30] Dr. Nicole Janz: so the book is sitting there dormant. And I am thinking about writing it, but in a much more lighter version, much more space on the page, a few simple exercises, taking out all the complicated stuff, because as a coach, and I've worked with coaches, you are full with frameworks and little tricks and tweaks, because every person you work with is different, and I think all of that needs to you.

[00:10:00] Dr. Nicole Janz: Essentially be kicked out to then come back to a very simple version. So maybe one day I will, I will finish it for now. People are just so keen on the right habit planner that I'm very happy because they are actually writing. I can see people, you know, they send me screenshots of their goals and they book into my programs and they tell me that it's working.

[00:10:21] Dr. Nicole Janz: So I sort of don't really want to mess around with it too much because the product is, you know, successful at the moment. 

[00:10:28] Teddy Smith: It's yeah, I mean, it's fantastic. I mean, the reason I ask is because most people when they're writing books, they, they do it in the way that you've done it. But the planner is kind of an afterthought.

[00:10:37] Teddy Smith: And it's a way of maybe just making a few extra sales rather than being the, the, the main event. Whereas for you, it feels like you have done it. Where you've written the book and then the planner afterwards, but the planner has been by far, by far the most thing that's taken off compared to the book. So I thought it was really interesting that, and it shows that maybe people shouldn't just write these planners as an afterthought, they should really think about writing them as a proper book.

[00:10:59] Teddy Smith: Now, when you're planning to write a book, what are the first steps you recommend an author takes during the planning process in order to get their book off the ground? 

[00:11:07] Dr. Nicole Janz: Yeah, so other than sort of figuring out, you know, the premise, the who, what, why audience and all of that, I think the author should try and come up with a preliminary outline that will probably change while you are writing, but without an outline that where each chapter has a very clear idea, one key point, one story, one action step.

[00:11:31] Dr. Nicole Janz: I'm thinking very much of self help while I'm saying that, right? Um, so sort of trying to plan out each chapter. And thinking about how you are taking the reader through the journey because A reader doesn't want a big blob of information thrown at them. It's like when you are coaching or, you know, teaching a course or something.

[00:11:52] Dr. Nicole Janz: They need things in bite sizes. And so often you want to think about, well, a person is picking up my book. What is the easiest way in for them? Like a tiny thing, a little mindset shift. Something simple that they can get on board with, a little hook. And then in the next chapter, you would think about, well, now that they know this, what is the next question they might have?

[00:12:15] Dr. Nicole Janz: What is the next sort of feeling they want to get? And then sort of you try and get a flow through the outline. And it will not be perfect at the start, but it's something really to think through. How are you taking the reader by the hand? As if you were having coffee with a friend, you would never just give a monologue of two hours.

[00:12:32] Dr. Nicole Janz: I mean, maybe some people would. But it's often a back and forth like, Oh, that's interesting. And so what is then the next thing? And so taking them through that journey, that also helps you as an author to figure out what's part of this book and what will be part of the next book. But it also creates a much better way for you to then turn these chapters into milestones and a time plan.

[00:12:55] Dr. Nicole Janz: And suddenly everything, as I said earlier, becomes Sort of a bite sized, bite sized endeavor for you as a writer and then for the reader as well. 

[00:13:06] Teddy Smith: Is there a difference between writing a non fiction and a fiction book in setting those timelines, do you think? and can your book help both people do that?

[00:13:16] Dr. Nicole Janz: I think there is no difference in the writing process. I have worked with a novelist. She just finished 100, 000 words. I'm also working with a self help author. He finished 40, words, and I applied the exact same methods to them. The content, of course, is different. With a novel, you think about the character, the plot, you know, how the character changes in a specific scene, but you know, in nonfiction, maybe there isn't a character, but there is still the reader who is sort of the hero of that story.

[00:13:50] Dr. Nicole Janz: They are still trying to change something for themselves. Um, and so apart from the content where you have to dig a little bit deeper on what's going on in the book, the writing process for the author, setting milestones, Tracking what you're doing, breaking it down, making it easy, finding flow, developing your own system to find flow, writing consistently.

[00:14:14] Dr. Nicole Janz: All these things are absolutely vital to get to the finish line. Otherwise it's, it's always just going to be an idea of a book and not a first draft. 

[00:14:25] Teddy Smith: Yeah, no, of course. And that's why I think it's so nice about the book. You know, it breaks it down into sections where you can set, for example, like your goals, what you want to aim for with that goal.

[00:14:35] Teddy Smith: And then you can then break it down into different chunks. You can do, for example, your monthly goals, your weekly goals, when, when exactly you're going to write. Do you think that organization is really important, you know, setting exactly when you're going to write and what those goals are going to be for those writing sessions?

[00:14:51] Dr. Nicole Janz: I think so. Um, I've seen a lot of people that I worked with before they came to me, they had a half written book, or actually that's not quite true, but sort of like the first chapter, the first two chapters written years ago, sometimes eight years ago, five years ago. And when the initial excitement and the novelty effect falls away, then they didn't really get to the writing anymore.

[00:15:15] Dr. Nicole Janz: They didn't have that system of how they organized their writing. And, uh, you wouldn't believe how many people I have with a started book who never finished. And they feel, they thought, oh, I have writer's block. I don't think they really had writer's block. I think They just didn't have the system to, to do it.

[00:15:33] Dr. Nicole Janz: And with the planner that I created, it's meant to really make you think about what are your priorities for the month? What are your priorities for the week? And it takes into account how the rest of your life. For example, if you are an academic and you have a full week of marking, you know, a thousand essays, you can sort of tick that off in your Right Habit Planner as a week with very low engagement with your actual research writing and papers and articles.

[00:16:02] Dr. Nicole Janz: Because that is a week that you're just not going to be as active. You're just going to be too busy and you might just burn out. And so the planner is made in a way that you do also get to think about the other stuff going on in your life and then how you still bring in writing in those weeks where it's possible without getting too overwhelmed.

[00:16:23] Teddy Smith: So rather than having a writer's block, it's actually, you know, if you are, if you know you're going to have a busy week, you can plan for that in future and you can say, you know what? I was quite busy that week. I don't have to be too hard on myself. I didn't do any writing. Let's schedule the work around that.

[00:16:38] Dr. Nicole Janz: A hundred percent. Oh man. I have so many clients. who come for the first one or two meetings and they are beating themselves up. They have this whole story about themselves not being disciplined, not having the willpower, you know, slacking and not being a good writer. And this story is sitting in your head.

[00:16:58] Dr. Nicole Janz: And of course, then you feel frustrated. Why didn't I write last week? I had a holiday. Why didn't I write in the holiday? And sometimes when I tell them, well, if you just look at that week, you were with your family 24 7. No way you could have written on your novel. It's fine. But, you know, and suddenly they feel, oh, maybe, maybe I'm okay.

[00:17:16] Dr. Nicole Janz: Maybe I didn't do everything wrong. Maybe I just sort of, you know, had a sort of negative self belief and self talk that I didn't actually have to believe. 

[00:17:28] Teddy Smith: Yeah. I mean, a lot of people, they have that issue where they're, you know, they're feeling like they're not being as productive as they want to be.

[00:17:36] Teddy Smith: And that's, I think that's really normal. I think everyone faces that wherever they are. So if you're thinking about that compared to, in terms of books, I think a lot of people maybe start their book and maybe don't finish it a bit like your client there who had done two chapters and then hadn't finished it off.

[00:17:51] Teddy Smith: So for authors, especially who are just getting started, have you got any tips for them to help them make sure they finish their book and how to keep that on track? 

[00:17:58] Dr. Nicole Janz: I mean, in an ideal world, you have someone to hold you accountable for the time plan that you made. And maybe I should start with a time plan.

[00:18:08] Dr. Nicole Janz: If you start a novel, I know it's exciting, you want to jump right in, right? But I think, you know, there needs to be a pocket of time to create the premise and the outline. And then you need a time plan. to at least for the first few months to know what your rough deadlines are. And the time plan doesn't have to be perfect.

[00:18:26] Dr. Nicole Janz: It's just something, it's something to go along with, with small milestones. And you can always adjust it on the way if you feel like, Oh, I'm actually much faster or slower. Secondly, you do need a person holding you accountable. I think it's Most of us aren't made to uphold our, you know, our willpower and discipline all the time.

[00:18:47] Dr. Nicole Janz: Um, this is what I do as a coach, of course. I, you know, people, um, we talk each week about how, what the progress is and how far they got and where they got stuck. But you can also do it with a friend or with a writer's group or. even with a colleague. I, I wouldn't always recommend your life partner because they have an an agenda and an interest in you being there for them and the family, so they might not help you set that boundary around your writing.

[00:19:12] Dr. Nicole Janz: But maybe someone else who you can check in with regularly. And ask them to send you an email on the day when you were supposed to, you know, finish chapter three, like a gentle nudge. Hey, how did it go? Did you do it? Um, and that a lot of people, they will write if they know that someone else is watching.

[00:19:31] Teddy Smith: Yeah, that's I think an accountability partner is really helpful because if you imagine how you are at work. You know, you say you're going to do some work and if you don't do it, your manager is going to come back to you and say, where's this piece of work you said you're going to do. So it's kind of like getting someone who's going to hold you accountable and responsible for the actions you said you're going to do.

[00:19:48] Teddy Smith: I really liked that. And that was one of the main things about the book I liked because it's, you've said you're going to do this. These are the steps you need to take to get to that point and you can easily just tick them off as you go along. And it's really helpful. 

[00:19:59] Dr. Nicole Janz: Yeah. 

[00:20:00] Teddy Smith: Now with the writing planner, it's obviously just designed to help people stay organized and motivated.

[00:20:06] Teddy Smith: So what? What are the main features about your writing plan do you think that sets it apart from, you know, other ways of writing and planning a book? 

[00:20:15] Dr. Nicole Janz: Well, I mean, I think I've not seen another writing planner like that, that really helps you create a consistent writing habit. There are lots of amazing productivity planners and habit planners, but this one is really geared for writers because I am a writer.

[00:20:30] Dr. Nicole Janz: I have been for, you know, over 20 years now as a journalist, as an academic, and now I'm writing fiction and nonfiction. Um, alongside my day job of being a book coach and this planner really thinks through what is the next stumbling block you could come across? Oh, not tracking your word count. Boom. There it is on the second page of your weekly spread, right?

[00:20:51] Dr. Nicole Janz: Or for example, many writers don't check in with themselves at the end of the month with a good reflection on which habits actually worked. Um, what totally distracted them and what could they stop doing next month? What could they? start doing to change their habits? What could they continue doing because it worked well.

[00:21:13] Dr. Nicole Janz: So it's almost like a, like a cycle of sort of almost self coaching. I ask the same questions to all my clients in our weekly meetings. And so I think that's it. I hope that the planner has a sort of coachy feeling where you can not just, you know, set your goals and take them off, but also get reflecting a lot and experiment because not.

[00:21:35] Dr. Nicole Janz: every tip and every productivity advice works for everyone in exactly the same way, but you are asked to continuously reflect at the end of the week, at the end of the month. You can reflect after 90 days. Um, and I, I hope that that is sort of the difference. It's almost like a writer's coach without maybe the.

[00:21:54] Dr. Nicole Janz: The price tag, let's say, 

[00:21:56] Teddy Smith: I think basically it gets you to start to think about your writing as a business. Cause a lot of authors are, they kind of just see themselves as maybe creatives. They're just writing. They don't necessarily have a goal or any, you know, KPIs key performance indicators in mind. Now, obviously you just said one there about how many words you've written.

[00:22:14] Teddy Smith: Are there any KPIs you think that you track during the book that would help? Just keep the author on track. 

[00:22:21] Dr. Nicole Janz: Yeah. So I always, um, track two things. One is, how is the writing process going and how are the habits going and the consistency and how many hours are you putting in? How often are you showing up for your book?

[00:22:37] Dr. Nicole Janz: And the other one is the outcomes. Um, how many words have you written? which chapter is still to be finished? How, you know, how are you on, are you on track with your time plan? And. I really want to, um, emphasize that a lot of writers think that they only need to look at the word count, and they are only doing a good job when they are writing 2, 000 words every week.

[00:23:01] Dr. Nicole Janz: And they tend to forget that in the writing process, there's, there, you need time to plan, to digest, to let it sort of sink in, to do nothing, and ha, you know, see if there are any new ideas coming up. Like, often writing needs some white space around it. And so all of that is part of the process of writing and your identity as a writer and how you play around with the habits.

[00:23:27] Dr. Nicole Janz: And this is what I, this is what I work on mostly as a coach because writers tend to forget that they are actually doing a good job. They are showing up for the book, even though they maybe haven't written all those words that they meant to, but they made progress in a different kind of way. 

[00:23:41] Teddy Smith: Yeah, yeah, that's really interesting.

[00:23:43] Teddy Smith: I think one of the main things I'm getting out of these conversations I'm having during this podcast is that I think writers maybe take the writing side as seriously as they need to, you know, they obviously they are very serious about the writing, but in terms of seeing themselves as a business and making sure they are getting those word counts and hitting the targets they needed to, it seems to be the problem that comes up the most with these conversations.

[00:24:06] Teddy Smith: So by identifying, you know, what are the targets you want to hit. For example, is it number of words? Is it number of hours? I think that could be a much better way to stay on track. 

[00:24:17] Dr. Nicole Janz: And I mean, I have some writers who are a little bit overwhelmed and, and burned out. And for those writers, I sometimes ask them to, how often are you saying no to other things this week?

[00:24:29] Dr. Nicole Janz: Or how often have you taken a proper lunch break, um, or stretched? So I'm very much into, you know, uh, quite a holistic. way because otherwise you're never going to be able to be a long term writer. Most authors, even if they say, Oh, I just want to write one book to boost my business. I'm pretty sure they're going to write more books because it's enjoyable.

[00:24:50] Dr. Nicole Janz: If you can make it enjoyable and make it a part of your life that, you know, you don't feel constantly overwhelmed or behind, but you feel like it can fit with your life and your job and all of that. So, yeah, there is, there is much more to, let's say, track or keep an eye on than, than just the word count.

[00:25:08] Dr. Nicole Janz: That's, the word count is important, of course, you need to get to the full first draft, but the word count doesn't come from nothing. It comes from setting boundaries. Keeping up the habit, making the time and all of that as well. 

[00:25:20] Teddy Smith: Yeah, definitely. Now with the book, do you think, say you're writing more than one book, or you plan to write more than one book in a year, for example, would you get one book for each of the books you're writing?

[00:25:31] Teddy Smith: One habit planner for each book, or would you combine? both the books or both the targets into one planner. 

[00:25:38] Dr. Nicole Janz: I would just use one planner because it might get quite complicated. Um, so for example, in the right habit planner on the weekly spread or actually everywhere, it off, it asks you, what are your top three goals?

[00:25:51] Dr. Nicole Janz: And I'm like a perfect example. I am doing business writing. I write blogs about productive writing and publishing a book and starting your book. And that is my non fiction writing work, but I also write fiction, um, for the pure fun of it. And I also write a little bit of memoir. And, In the planner, there is space for these different types of goals.

[00:26:14] Dr. Nicole Janz: And, you know, you can, let's say, um, you know, that week your first goal is finish a blog post. You write down this is your priority number one. Next, you are asked to break it down in the first three action steps. Next, you are asked to slot it in. into your time, timetable and later you are asked to track it and you can do that with two or three different goals.

[00:26:35] Dr. Nicole Janz: Just keep an eye on not doing too much, trying to squeeze everything in. But, um, it's meant because no one has just one goal in life, right? There is no point in saying, what's my number one goal this week? There's always up to three. If it gets more. I think that something might, you know, you might get overwhelmed, but up to three priorities of different writing projects or even a writing project versus business projects, um, or even a health goal, you know, you could put that into your planner.

[00:27:04] Dr. Nicole Janz: I sometimes do. Um, so it's made to capture you as a whole being with, you know, not just one goal in your head all day. 

[00:27:13] Teddy Smith: Yeah, amazing. Now I know that you work with writers on a one on one basis and in group basis as well. What, how does that, what's the, what's that look like compared to using the book? 

[00:27:26] Dr. Nicole Janz: Yeah, so one on one is sort of the VIP version where I take a writer from the first idea that they have.

[00:27:35] Dr. Nicole Janz: All the way through, you know, the outline, a book proposal, if they want to write one. Writing all the chapters, keeping them on track, um, you know, week by week, month by month. I hold them accountable, we talk through what they are writing. All the way up until they have the full first draft, and then they are ready for editing.

[00:27:55] Dr. Nicole Janz: And sometimes they want to self edit a few rounds, and I can give tips on that. And sometimes they want to hire an editor, and then sort of go along in the process. And in my group program, It's almost the same, except there is a community of writers doing that together, right? Um, and they are all writing either a book or maybe a longer article.

[00:28:17] Dr. Nicole Janz: I have some academics that are writing big grant proposals and they are also meeting with me every week. The only difference is really that You get more of a group feel, you get more of, you know, the peer to peer support alongside my coaching, um, and checking in with each other and, you know, having accountability partners.

[00:28:37] Dr. Nicole Janz: So it works. It just really depends on what type of person you are. If you want a very personalized, tailored, intensive session with Nicole, or if you really want a very guided and coached group experience so that you don't feel either way in both of the programs, you don't feel alone in the process.

[00:28:56] Teddy Smith: Yeah, definitely. And when you're doing the coaching, do you follow the, do you follow this as the, the main structure to your, to the book writing? 

[00:29:05] Dr. Nicole Janz: I do. So the, everyone who coaches with me gets the planner sent to their house. And sometimes people say, Oh, I prefer my Google calendar and that's fine. Right?

[00:29:15] Dr. Nicole Janz: So I'm not forcing it on anyone. But most of the people in my current, I have a 90 day program to finish one piece of writing. And most of the people are using the planner and then they come into the coaching and we go deeper because maybe they have a problem with setting boundaries. Maybe they are burned out.

[00:29:33] Dr. Nicole Janz: Maybe there is another problem they have. Maybe they have their week, their schedule is so full they can't even see when they should be writing. And then we talk about. Well, what can you kick off your calendar to make space for the writing, which nonsense meeting meetings are in there that you could, you know, you could skip or where are you expecting too much of yourself?

[00:29:55] Dr. Nicole Janz: So the writer, the right habit or the right habit planner is often the basis. And then the coaching is sort of the add on. If you want more, if you need more, a lot of people actually are going to be just fine with the planner. And are going to be happily finishing their book, you know, 52 weeks. that's how long the planner is.

[00:30:15] Dr. Nicole Janz: You can definitely finish actually more than one book, I think in that time. And some people want the extra support and just go deeper and do it faster and more efficiently. And they come into the coaching with me. 

[00:30:27] Teddy Smith: Yeah. Amazing. Now, I think one last point I want to touch on, which you did touch on slightly at the beginning was impostor syndrome, because obviously people are writing a book and they think, well, I'm seeing all these amazing books I love, and I want to create one that is also just as amazing.

[00:30:44] Teddy Smith: And I think a lot of people, they start writing and they think, I'm not a writer, I'm just mucking around, which is why I think the tracker, the habit tracker, rights habit, sorry, can keep people on track. With impostor syndrome, how can authors manage that self doubt and keep moving forward? 

[00:31:01] Dr. Nicole Janz: Yeah, a hundred percent.

[00:31:03] Dr. Nicole Janz: I have so many clients who are already writers, but they get blocked a little bit on the way. But I also have a big portion of people who aren't writers. They have not taken a degree in writing. They've not trained in it, you know. Um, they might be a coach or they might be someone who wants to write a memoir and they've just retired and they just want to tell their story.

[00:31:26] Dr. Nicole Janz: So for those people who feel like I can't do it, the first thing we talk about is Why are you writing the book? And so many writers just feel like they have a story to tell that would really help someone else. You know, it could be a story about things that went well in your life, didn't go well in your life, or, you know, frameworks in your business that you want to give to other people in the form of a book.

[00:31:52] Dr. Nicole Janz: And, If I just talk with them about, oh yeah, the book is a marketing tool, you're going to make money. That's nice. That's a good motivation. But every single person is a human being. And I often, as a coach, try to connect with the emotion behind it. At the core of everything, every single writer that I work with wants to have their voice heard.

[00:32:15] Dr. Nicole Janz: And they want to learn to trust that their story matters. I, you wouldn't believe how many people I have that say, well, I could write about this or that, but I don't know if anyone wants to hear it. But the fact is, we are all human beings. We want connection. We want to feel that we are not alone in something, whatever the issue is that we are writing about.

[00:32:35] Dr. Nicole Janz: And a lot of my writers, once they really dig into the deeper layer of, you are allowed to write this story, your story matters. Your voice matters, that can be a real motivator. And then if it's perfect or not, is the sentence right or not, it doesn't matter anymore because you are on the path to really connecting with other people out there who, who want to hear what you're saying.

[00:33:01] Teddy Smith: Yeah, definitely. And I think if you are writing a book, that means you are a writer. You know, you don't have to, you don't have to have this recognition from anyone. No one, no one stops and tells you you're a writer. If you're writing it, that means you are a writer. So you should just try and avoid that self doubt and just.

[00:33:15] Dr. Nicole Janz: And you know what? That's so ridiculous. I used to be a journalist, trained journalist for 10 years, and I was a trained academic for 10 years. But throughout all that time, I never called myself a writer. And when I burned out and left academia about four years ago, I started writing creatively and took, you know, some courses and met with other writers and started writing some short stories.

[00:33:40] Dr. Nicole Janz: And it was the first time that I dared to say publicly I think I'm a writer. Can you believe how ridiculous this is? After 20 years of being a trained person who can write non fiction in different ways, I never thought of myself as a writer. I didn't think I'm allowed to say it because I wasn't best selling author in that way.

[00:34:03] Dr. Nicole Janz: Um, and it was ridiculous. I could have, everyone who, even if you are just journaling for yourself and no one ever reads it, you are a writer. 

[00:34:12] Teddy Smith: Yeah, for sure. That's such good advice. Thank you so much. Now, this book is called The Right Habit, The Writer's Planner. I've got a picture of it here.

[00:34:20] Teddy Smith: Uh, but for people on audio, they can get that book. Where is it available? 

[00:34:25] Dr. Nicole Janz: It's available on Amazon in every single country. 

[00:34:28] Teddy Smith: So, 

[00:34:28] Dr. Nicole Janz: um, I have a website that leads you to directly to the Amazon site. The website is called www. thereighthabitplanner. com. And from there, you can just click on your country or you just search for it on Amazon.

[00:34:41] Dr. Nicole Janz: If you search for writer's planner, you're probably going to find it at one of the, at one of the top spots. 

[00:34:47] Teddy Smith: Great. And if people want to get in touch with you, uh, to talk about anything else, then where's the best place to do that? 

[00:34:53] Dr. Nicole Janz: So a really great place is, my free mini course, start your book in five days.

[00:35:00] Dr. Nicole Janz: com five as a number. And when you sign up for this, it doesn't cost anything. It just, it helps you to get, you know, to an outline of your book and the writing plan. You will get emails from me five emails because it's a five day course and you can just reply to any of those emails and ask me any questions.

[00:35:17] Dr. Nicole Janz: And then we can start a conversation. 

[00:35:20] Teddy Smith: Brilliant. And that's such great advice. I think you're right. Habit is amazing, by the way. I think it's a really good book. Uh, I think it's going to help so many writers who have maybe struggling to find that consistency in that procrastination. So I'm so happy to be able to go through it and I'm looking forward to filling out myself.

[00:35:35] Teddy Smith: One thing I'd love to see is, one of your filled out versions one day so that we can see what a really good. 

[00:35:42] Dr. Nicole Janz: My filled out versions and for those who are just listening and not seeing the video they can sometimes be extremely messy and i like to show this because people think oh i'm buying a new planner and then they put it on their shelf and they never use it and i just want to say when you buy the planner Just break it in, make it ugly and messy.

[00:36:02] Dr. Nicole Janz: The later pages will look better. I, this is a page from early on when I used it and I wrote all across the margins and struck out stuff because I planned my week wrong. This is part of the process. Start really messy, really break it in. Like I would hate for the planner to sit on people's desk and, um, and it's just sitting there and it's another dream that is never being, you know, used.

[00:36:27] Teddy Smith: For me, I see it more as, you know, when you're at school and you start the year and you get one of those new books, school is clean pages in and you start writing in it. It's just like that. You know, you're meant to, meant to get in, stick things in it, write stuff down, you know, and it gets better as you go along because you want to read through it later so you can see back at exactly what you've achieved.

[00:36:46] Teddy Smith: So yeah, I think it's a really, really great resource. So thank you so much for making it. It's been great chatting to you. just before we go, we've got one final question. And what is a book that you recommend everyone should be reading? 

[00:36:57] Dr. Nicole Janz: So I really love the book Essentialism by Greg McEwan. Um, he actually wrote a blurb for the Right Habit Planner at the, at one of the front pages.

[00:37:05] Dr. Nicole Janz: He said how great the planner is. And I was so happy and proud. but his book Essentialism is all about, um, How to find out what really matters in your life and to make space for it and focus on the essential things rather than getting distracted. And as a writer, of course, that book spoke to me massively and it helped me to really focus in on my writing.

[00:37:28] Dr. Nicole Janz: My business, my coaching. So essentialism by Greg McEwan is fantastic. 

[00:37:34] Teddy Smith: Brilliant. Well, thank you so much for that recommendation. I'll check that one out and we'll put a link to your book, uh, in the notes and the link to your website as well. So if anyone wants to check those out and I highly recommend you get that planner.

[00:37:43] Teddy Smith: That's great value. Thank you very much, Nicole. And we'll speak again soon. 

[00:37:49] Dr. Nicole Janz: Thank you, Teddy. 

[00:37:50] Teddy Smith: Thank you so much for tuning into the Publishing Performance podcast. I really hope you found today's episode inspiring. I love chatting to authors, writers, and people in the publishing world. Now, just before we wrap up, let me tell you about Publishing Performance, the number one platform for authors who want to increase Amazon book sales, but are not really sure where to start.

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