In this episode, Natalie MacLees helps us get unstuck, overcome writer’s block and tells us why it’s important to give back to the community – not just the WordPress community but the community at large. Natalie also walks us through her experience of writing a book and having it published and why it’s a great positioning exercise.
Win a copy of Natalie's book 'jQuery for Designers' or a copy of 'The Artist's Way' by Julia Cameron. Just tell us the number one thing you have done to overcome writer's block to help you publish more content.
Congratulations Antonella! Natalie has awarded you the podcast prize. Thanks for your contribution and keep Elevating! (August 2014)
Some of the highlights of this episode include:
Here are Natalie’s answers to the questions in our Elevation round. Watch the interview to get the full scoop.
You can reach out and thank Natalie on @nataliemac or [email protected]Â
Natalie suggested I interview Paul Boag from Headscape and Andy Clarke from Stuff & Nonsense. Paul and Andy, keep your eyes on your inbox.
Hint: to enter the competition, leave a comment below and tell us the number one thing you have done to overcome writer’s block and help you publish more content.  You could win a copy of “The Artist’s Way” by Julia Cameron or  “jQuery for Designers” by Natalie MacLees
7 Responses
Great interview! Really like Natalie’s comment about being careful not
to rely on tools to get the work done. I’m not great at getting content
out regularly but it usually happens when I find a topic that clients
ask about often so I know there is a need to clarify. I start with the
title, work up an outline and go from there. Hope that’s helpful to
someone. Cheers! 🙂
Hi, great interview! I’ve been moving my first steps in the WordPress freelance business and Natalie has inspired me so much.
I love writing: I was an academic writer in a past life and blog writer in the present one. What do I do to overcome writer’s block? My take on this is as follows.
I don’t usually write in a vacuum. More often than not there’s already a broad range of topics that I could be writing about, e.g., CSS pre-processors, CSS frameworks, WP theme customization, etc. Therefore, I usually browse the web in search of problems that either users or designers/developers bring up concerning one or more of the areas related to the blog I happen to write for.
The more I get into the various perspectives and the issues they raise, or examine the various ways problems can be tackled, the more I sense my own voice taking shape until jotting down words is the next natural thing for me to do.
To sum up: looking for problems generally solves my writer’s block problem.
Great Interview!! For me I just need to actually make time to sit down and write! I also keep a list of possible topics in my Wunderlist so that when I do sit down I have a list of topics to choose from.
I totally identified with the “journal” comment. I have so many journals only 10 pages deep in writing because I expect perfection to go into my journals. But thats not realistic, is it? Great interview, Natalie. I look forward to the book.
The number one thing that I have done to overcome writer’s block? Deadlines.
Deadlines eradicate blocks, plain and simple.
Congratulations Antonella! Natalie has awarded you the podcast prize. She likes your idea of keeping a list of possible topics for the times when you’re stumped. I’ll be in touch shortly to organise the delivery!
Gin, you’ve given me the greatest news! It’s been a real pleasure for me to watch the WPElevation video featuring Natalie MacLees and I’m happy she like my comment. I look forward to hearing from you 🙂