Hello, we're Bec and Chris

Introducing us, a very large dog and how we can help you keep writing

Hello there writing friend,

We’ve had a flurry of new readers join over the last few weeks, so we thought it was time for a proper introduction - and if you’ve been here a while, consider this a chance to get to know us a bit better too.

We’re Bec and Chris – authors of Written: How to Keep Writing and Build a Habit that Lasts, writing coaches, and most recently makers of This Might Work, a podcast where we put writing advice to the test with real writers working on real projects. We’ve just wrapped the first series and are putting the finishing touches to series two - which is a grand way of saying Bec has retreated inside a wardrobe to record her links.

We also wanted an excuse to introduce you to Nellie - our surprisingly large, six-month-old chocolate labradoodle, pictured above. She is a muse-in-training and joins our afternoon walks on the hills over Hebden Bridge where we talk about writing our next book and throw balls. We’re yet to establish a link between ideation and ball retrieval, but who knows, it might work?

We’re obsessed with ‘creative persistence’ - how people find the time and keep going with their projects in a world that makes it very hard to do just that. We often get called writing productivity experts, which lacks some subtlety, but we can’t think of a better way to describe us. We write about the practice of writing, rather than the craft and love exploring the psychology of writing, creativity and habits and translating that into helpful advice and support for our community of writers,

How we can help you

• Read and listen for free. Our AI-free, fully human-written and produced newsletter and podcast provide practical ideas or thoughtful provocations you can put to use in your own practice. Every week, for free.

• Join our Substack community (half price). When you do, you’ll get eight writing sprints across the year, quarterly member meetups and a supportive group of writers. It’s the easiest way to keep going when the wardrobe-recording days get long - Bec credits this community for helping her launch the podcast; she shared the idea on a quarterly meetup and all of the writers in the first series volunteered to help her by testing out an idea each. Community can help you too and today, we’re offering 50% off annual plans - offer ends this Friday.

• Work with us one-to-one. We coach writers of every type - fiction, non-fiction, academics, memoirists, playwrights. If you’re stuck, or ready to go deeper on something specific, or just fancy finding out more, fill in this form and we’ll arrange a free 20-minute call to talk about your writing and what gets in the way:

  ➡️ Arrange a call to explore your writing and what gets in the way

Finally, thank you for reading this newsletter. It means a lot.

Hit reply and tell us about your writing, and what’s helping or hindering you right now, or pop a comment below.

Keep going, Bec and Chris