✍️ Tandem Services Coaching and Editing: Unleash Your Storytelling Power
Empowering you to write the stories of your heart and increasing your impact with a book. Helpful information for your writing career each month In this issue:
Craft: The Power of StoryYou know that moment when a single sentence in a book changes everything? When someone else’s words crack something open inside you that you didn’t even know was locked? That’s the power of story. And you have that power. For centuries, storytelling belonged to the privileged few—those with access to printing presses, publishers, and platforms. But technology has blown those gates wide open. The gatekeepers don’t get to decide whose stories matter anymore. You do. Stories Shape Us (Whether We Notice or Not)Think about the stories that shaped you. Not just the bedtime tales and classroom fables, but all of them—the family legends told at dinner tables, the cautionary tales wrapped in “When I was your age,” the myths we absorbed about who gets to succeed and who should stay quiet. Our lives are built on stories. They taught us what was possible, what was acceptable, what was “too much.” And maybe that’s exactly why your finger hovers over the delete key every time you try to write yours. The Real Reason We Don’t Share Our StoriesLet’s be honest about what stops us. Someone told you that you were too quiet to be interesting. Too loud to be taken seriously. Too ordinary to matter. Someone convinced you that rocking the boat was dangerous, that your perspective wasn’t needed, that the world had enough stories already. They lied. Here’s what I know after 20 years of helping writers find their voices: The stories that change lives aren’t always the loudest ones. They’re the ones that tell the truth. Your truth. The one only you can tell. Your Story Doesn’t Need to Go Viral to MatterYou don’t need a million readers to make an impact. You might write the exact words that help one person get through their darkest night. You might give your grandchildren a window into who you really were, beyond just Grandma or Grandpa. You might finally explain to your sister what you could never say out loud. The beautiful thing about books? They travel where we can’t. They speak when we’re not there. They last longer than we do. Your words might reach someone on the other side of the world, or they might simply reach across the dinner table to touch someone you love. Both destinations matter equally. Permission to Write ImperfectlyMost writers get stuck waiting for perfection—waiting for the perfect opening line, the perfect angle, the perfect time when fear finally goes away. Stop waiting. Your first draft is supposed to be messy. It’s supposed to wander and contradict itself and have plot holes you could drive a truck through. The magic isn’t in getting it right the first time—it’s in getting it down. Writer’s block is often perfectionism in disguise. It’s the voice saying “This isn’t good enough” before you’ve even given yourself a chance to discover what “this” actually is. The Identity Shift That Changes EverythingThere’s a massive difference between “I want to be a writer” and “I am a writer.” Writers write. Even when it’s hard. Even when it’s scary. Even when that voice in their head says nobody cares. Start calling yourself a writer. Not “aspiring.” Not “wannabe.” Writer. Present tense. Because if you’re putting words on a page, wrestling with ideas, thinking about your story while you’re supposed to be doing something else—you’re already a writer. Your Story Is Already Changing ThingsEvery time you choose to write instead of staying silent, you’re changing the narrative about whose stories matter. Every page you write is proof that the gatekeepers were wrong. Every chapter you complete is a small revolution. Small changes lead to big results. Write for fifteen minutes today. Share one paragraph with someone you trust. Join a community. Take the class. Submit the manuscript. Your words have power—power to heal, to connect, to inspire, to document, to change someone’s entire perspective. Maybe even your own. Your book has power—to outlive you, to speak for you, to reach people you’ll never meet. Your message has power—because it’s yours, because it’s true, because someone needs to hear it. So go write something awesome. The world is waiting for your story. Don’t let 2026 go by without telling it. P.S. – Still convinced your story doesn’t matter? Reply and tell me what you’re working on. I bet I can prove you wrong. Where you can find meI’ve been on a couple of podcasts recently talking about how to turn what you know into a book. The Thoughtful Entrepreneur with Josh Elledge: Proven Strategies for Entrepreneurs to Write a Transformative Book Business Roundtable with Dave Carr: How to Turn Your Expertise into a Book 📺 Tandem Services has a YouTube page! Check it out at YouTube.com/@TandemServices Want personalized writing advice? Share a writing, editing, or publishing hurdle you have faced or a question you have and I will email you an autographed copy of Eat the Elephant: How to Write (and Finish!) Your Book One Bite at a Time and send you a personalized five-minute video. Click here to find out more. Career: Written Word Media’s Author SurveyWritten Word media, a company that helps with author promotions, runs an indie author survey each year. They have been doing it since 2016. This year they got almost 2,000 responses. Curious how your responses stack up with other authors? Check it out here. Commerce: Make Your Content Work for You Again and AgainMost content creators are wasting perfectly good content. Posts, emails, videos — all just sitting there. My colleague Dee at DeeDee Creative created an ebook called Recycle & Shine to help you stop doing that and start getting real traction from what you’ve already made. Sign up through this link and she’ll send you Recycle & Shine for free. You’ll never look at your old content the same way again. Writing quoteI write to discover what I know. — Flannery O’Conner Pressing on! Jennifer PS—You should assume any link in this Update is an affiliate link. It costs you nothing more but gives me a few pennies. 🙂 |
