Working your Passion--The energy between writer and reader

In this article, originally posted on her blog, our favorite writing coach, Marisa Goudy, shares one of the most common reasons our writing doesn't always get along with its intended audience.  Whether you're a writer-by-trade, or whether you are a solo practitioner or business owner, the energy shared between you and your audience is paramount. 

Keep reading for Marisa's tips on how to make sure the two jive.

Do you and your ideal reader speak the same language?

By Marisa Goudy

The fighting is over, but it’s not quite time for kiss and make up. It’s that tender, in-between time when neither is ready to dissolve into love but both are grateful that the crisis has passed.

If you’re watching the sort of movie that allows the characters to take a breath between the plate throwing and the shot of the heap of clothes on the floor, there might be a song to move the action away from conflict and toward romance.

Any director worth her salt would say “we need a song that feels like ‘Let’s Stay Together.’ But obviously we need to pick to something less… obvious.”

Thing is, sometimes real life is just that cheesy and obvious.

Read more Here...

Writing Lessons from the Berry Patch - Marisa Goudy

Nature, like children, can be the most unassuming of teachers.  In her blog, writing and storytelling coach, Marisa Goudy, offers both hobbyists and professionals looking to share their vision, profound advice for telling an honest and vibrant story.  In this post, her daughters' experience in the berry patch offers a backdrop for lessons in patience, creativity and adventure--both in writing and in life.  Visit Marisa's website to learn more about her services and read more of her writing insights.

Writing Lessons From the Berry Patch

As is often the way with everyday magic, you don’t notice it even when it’s right under your nose. Or encircling your back yard.

We lived in the house for a few years before we realized we lived in wild berry heaven. Our land bursts with joyful, succulent gifts every July, but we never noticed until we slowed down to a toddler’s pace and humbled ourselves to look at the world through the eyes of a child.

And now our second girl is a passionate berry picker too. She’s insatiable, really, but at least we know where to find her when we say “but I thought YOU were watching her!”

This need to chaperone a two year-old in a fruitful paradise that also features thorns, concealed ditches, ticks, snakes, and poison ivy brings life to a halt a few times each day.

When at my best, I’m a merry companion willing to tear my dress to reach that perfect cluster of sweetness. Then there are the moments when I’m itching to start dinner or do some writing or simply go find some shoes so I can satisfy the incessant requests for “Berries! Berries! Mama, ber-RIES!” without injuring myself.

We’re not just picking fruit in the berry patch. We’re taking lessons in patience, creativity, and picking the perfect moment.

To read more, click here.

Profiles for Success - Marisa Goudy

Marisa Goudy is a writer who helps emerging thought leaders tell stories that matter. Through coaching and online courses, she empowers therapists, healers, and other creative entrepreneurs to write content that connects. In 2016, Marisa is showing her audience that it's possible to easily and confidently create online content with her #365StrongStories project (discover the stories by searching the hashtag or following Marisa).

Marisa says that she was born a writer who lost track of that for many years thanks to a graduate degree in Irish lit and a career in academic library administration. As it is for many folks, a shocking and unexpected life event propelled her to make a change.

Marisa's book. Grab your free copy HERE

"Though I’d always suspected there was something to 'follow your bliss,' this brutal, beautiful truth came to roost in my soul one morning in July, 2010.

"Before that, I felt at home with my infant daughter, my super-supportive husband, and a job I disliked but withstood for the sake of the mortgage. This was the life I’d signed up for… even if it left me yearning for greater freedom and creative expression.

"When my mother died in July of 2010, all the furniture in my comfortable little house was rearranged," she said.

Realizing that everything she held dear could be swept out from under her in an instant, she made immediate changes. She quit her job in academic administration and began an entrepreneurial experiment. It took a couple of partnerships and companies devoted to web design and marketing to help her realize that she was always meant to be a writer. 

"I loved my baby. I loved my man. But even for their sake I couldn’t force myself into a windowless office every day, devoting myself to someone else’s agenda until I could escape into a world that mattered.

I needed to tell stories and help people shape theirs."

Marisa now has two girls, age 2 and 6. They're constant inspiration for stories. 

"As a family, hiking and talking with the fairies is really important and that's all great for setting and character and plot."

Marisa is also an energy healer and student of the Sacred Center mystery school. Her spare time is often spent with a Chumpi in her hand as she uses tarot cards to guide her meditation and journaling sessions.

When asked where she sees herself in the near future, Marisa's response is, "Teaching online classes and building a greater audience for my writing, Even if the novels (a trilogy called Sovereign Reality) don't get birthed for another 5 years, I am still nurturing the ideas," she said. "Truth: I want to be Diana Gabaldon when I grow up."

Marisa's list of goals includes: putting one foot in front of the other; living in the moment and savoring her girls; deepening her spiritual practice; honing her writing voice and building her business so that she has enough breathing room to do all of the above. 

"Remembering my spiritual practice grounds all of that in what is really important."

When we asked Marisa what advice she'd give to others looking to follow their passion to their personal life path/career, she took her time thinking about it. 

"If it seems too hard, it probably is."

 "My former business partnerships were often painful and unprofitable. We were reinventing the wheel and being perfectionists. We did not look around to see what the market really needed because we were trapped in what we 'should' do."

Sounds like sound advice to us!

Find Marisa at www.marisagoudy.com and follow her on twitter @MarisaGoudy.

She's got something valuable to share.