The Writer's Workout: 366 Tips, Tasks, & Techniques From Your Writing Career Coach [Paperback]

Christina Katz (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 26, 2011

The inspiration, stamina, and power to take charge of your writing life?every day.

Get the daily jolt of energy your writing life needs from The Writer?s Workout. Inside you?ll find manageable, no-nonsense techniques for every aspect of your writing career from getting organized to connecting with your audience to building relationships.

Veteran writing coach Christina Katz draws on her knowledge from more than a decade in the business to give you tips, exercises, and insider strategies to build your skills.

• Make your writing as strong and powerful as possible.
• Pitch and sell your work at every opportunity.
• Overcome rejection to come back better than ever.
• Promote your work and build an audience.
• Learn how to balance your creative life with your daily life.

With The Writer?s Workout, you?ll develop skill, strength, and confidence ? everything you need to build a robust, unique writing career that?s built to last.

Bonus online exclusive: Download a free motivational poster to keep you moving as your build your writing career at writersdigest.com/writers-workout.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Christina Katz has been teaching writers to cultivate thriving writing careers for the past decade. She is the author of Get Known Before the Book Deal and Writer Mama, both from Writer?s Digest Books. In addition to writing books and articles, Christina publishes a weekly e-zine, The Prosperous Writer, hosts The Northwest Author Series, and coaches a hundred writers a year. Her website is www.christinakatz.com. She lives in Wilsonville, Oregon.

Product Details

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Writer's Digest Books (December 26, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1599631792
• ISBN-13: 978-1599631790
• Product Dimensions: 6 x 1 x 9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (41 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #615,763 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Christina Katz, AKA The Writer Mama and The Prosperous Writer, is the author of three books from Writer's Digest: The Writer's Workout, Get Known Before the Book Deal, and Writer Mama. Her writing career tips and parenting advice appear regularly in national, regional, and online publications.

A "gentle taskmaster" over the past decade to over a thousand writers, Christina's students go from unpublished to published, build professional writing career skills, and increase their creative confidence over time. She holds an MFA in creative writing from Columbia College Chicago and a BA in English from Dartmouth College.

Known as a champion of mom writers, Christina is a popular speaker on creative career growth and writer prosperity. She keynotes for writing conferences, literary events, MFA writing programs, and libraries. She lives near Wilsonville, Oregon with her husband, her daughter, and far too many pets. Learn more at ChristinaKatz.com.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 29 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Concrete, helpful advice for writers in any stage of their careers January 14, 2012

By Johanna Harness

Format:Paperback

I took a workshop from Christina at Willamette Writer's Conference. In one exercise, she gave us a worksheet and asked us to take stock of our accomplishments. She proceeded to read through a long list of possible things we'd already achieved, asking us to jot down the ones that applied to us. It was painful. Most of us sat there staring, waiting for even a single thing to put in any of our columns. Then Christina turned things around on us. Think you're not empowered on your writing path? Start developing these competencies. Start small. Build your career. This is what I love about Christina. The Writer's Workout provides a full year of tough-love advice. This is not one of those namby-pamby inspirational books that finds new ways to say, "don't give up" on every page. This is the real thing. If you buy this book and follow Christina's advice, you will see a visible difference in your writing career. She doesn't tell you what you want to hear. She tells you what you need to hear. I can't recommend this book enough.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Just what a writer needs to create (and sustain) momentum December 15, 2011

By Heidi S. Luedtke

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

Finding and sustaining a solid writing rhythm can be challenging for any writer, new or experienced. Christina Katz's latest book, The Writer's Workout, provides inspiration along with practical strategies for generating ideas, mining your own past work, and staying focused on the bottom line. As a student of Christina's, I'm not at all surprised that the tone of this book is wise, kind and productive. This book is a daily dose of Christina Katz's best advice for writers, although you'll likely want to read more than one section per day.

The book is divided into sections corresponding to the seasons of the year, and writers should appreciate Christina's awareness of the cyclical nature of creating, writing and selling one's words. Because every writer goes through these stages time and again, the writer's workout -- like any good muscle-building regimen -- is a skill-building tool to use over and over again. I find myself turning to it when I need a jolt of inspiration, a compassionate colleague, or a swift kick in the pants. Christina is always ready with whichever kind of coaching I most need.

I found my expectations of the creative and publishing process changed (for the better) as a result of reading this book. For instance, Christina explains writers should expect to write 10 drafts. Sometimes I surely write more than 10, sometimes I surely need fewer. Either way, it helps to start the process with the expectation that there will be many opportunities for revision and improvement along the way. I was also reminded of the importance of putting pen to paper -- or fingers to keys. Christina cautions against spending too much time on reading and quasi-conversation and not enough time in the trenches. "Deep thoughts come from deep processes," she reminds. Mucking around in our own thoughts and ideas, putting them on the page, confronting them, criticizing, rearranging. That is the deep process that yields strong written work. And it is, Christina reminds us, intensely gratifying.

Within each section, writers will find tips, tools and techniques for each area of their writing career, including platform development. This book is broad in its treatment of the writing life, covering queries, idea-generation, drafting, interviews, relationships with editors, and the writer's dynamic. It is not intended to teach writers how to do these tasks in nitty-gritty detail, Katz's other books provide targeted teaching on many topics. This book encourages the reader to attend to all areas of their writing career without losing sight of the the writing itself.

Invest in this book. You'll read it more than once.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Must-Have Book from a Great Writing Teacher January 27, 2012

By Katie at Capital District Fun

Format:Paperback

After reading Writer Mama, I took two classes with Christina and started getting articles published. Christina manages to make every step that's scary about writing seem absolutely doable. She's got plenty of tips about platform-building and self-promotion, but she reminds readers constantly of what's most important: "actual writers actually write." I've been delaying writing a review because I wanted to finish the entire book first. The trouble is, it's hard to stick with it, because after reading a tip or two I always feel compelled to set aside the book and go write!