A little introduction
Welcome to Breakthroughs & Blocks - a community of writers who want to keep going! Let's introduce ourselves - we'd love to know more about you.
Hey there
There’s been a flurry of new subscribers in the past few weeks so we thought a fresh introduction might be in order. And a new photo. Welcome if you’ve just joined and thank you for your support if you’ve been reading with us for a while. Let’s get to know each other better. We’ll go first!
We’re Bec and Chris, we are authors and writing productivity coaches and we’ve spent years trying to figure out what makes writers tick. We help people overcome their writing blocks and achieve whatever goals they’ve set for themselves and we do this through coaching, courses and running this lovely Substack community.
We live in the Calder Valley in Yorkshire and share an office, a life and an increasingly ancient but much loved labradoodle called Peggy who, defying all veterinary prognoses, remains stubbornly alive. 1
The paperback of our book Written was out this January and we’re at the very early stages of scoping out our next project (code name Written for Creatives). Basically, can we apply the same principles that work for writers to help a wider creative audience? We don’t know yet, but are enjoying finding out.
But enough about us, we’re rabbited on for too long. We’d LOVE to know about you.
What brought you here? What kind of writing do you do? Are you working on something right now? What stops you writing - what helps?
Thank you so much for your support of this newsletter so far!
Bec and Chris
Very sadly, our beloved hound died at the beginning of June 2024. We loved her very much and she is very much missed. RIP Peggy. ❤️
Hello, hello! As someone who has written for a living either as a copywriter or a ghost writer, I've always struggled to fit in other types of writing alongside work. It never feels a priority and despite knowing what I *should* be doing (because I'm a coach and have co-written a book about it) it's hard to do. I guess that just means I'm human! At the moment, I write this newsletter, I get commissions from a publishing client and we are researching (slowly) the topic of our next book.
Hello Bec here 👋 along with writing this newsletter, blogs and articles, and researching the next non-fiction book with Chris, I have a side project novel-in-progress which is a delight to work on, but very low down the priority list.
While it might be my job to research the blocks and barriers writers face - I also struggle with finding time to write, distraction, procrastination and perfectionism. As the saying goes - much research is 'me'search.
What helps me write is having regular routine, being in a writing group and also being inspired by finding out how other writers try, fail and keep going.