Start With Intention

What you learn and implement here is key to establishing your foundation for moving forward with your author career. It’s also the area that most authors overlook or skim over.

High-five to you for taking this step!

This section helps you begin with clarity, structure, and purpose. You’ll learn how the materials flow, how to make the most of them, and how to create the habits and tools that will support your progress. Before you dive into building your author foundation, this lesson ensures you’re starting from a place of intention.

By the end of this section, you will:

• Understand how to move through the materials and use it at your own pace.
• Set aside dedicated time each week to work on your author foundations.
• Establish your Living Guidebook: a single place to capture ideas, insights, and progress.
• Anchor your motivation by reflecting on why you joined.
• Know how to get support, ask questions, and stay connected as you go.

What to Expect

• Time: 30 minutes per week minimum; spend more than one week on a section if needed
• Process: Review the materials (each tab is a section) > Complete the Quest
• Support: Submit questions through the form in the sidebar

I recommend tackling about one section per week rather than trying to cram all the materials from any topic into a day or weekend. Of course, you’re free to do that too, but these materials lean into some ‘thought’ work that will have more impact if you give yourself a bit of time and space to allow the concepts to take root. It’s also perfectly fine to spend more than one week on a section. This isn’t a race; you’re building a foundation and forming habits. That takes time. Consistent forward progress matters most.

Every section of The Right Mindset, and most sections of other topics, include a Quest (available to Pathfinders): a clear, focused action designed to help you implement what you’ve just learned. These Quests are your next steps. They’re how you stop spinning in circles and start making meaningful, strategic progress.

Most authors will get the strongest results by working through the sections in order, one Quest at a time. But you’re always free to revisit a section or jump ahead if something specific calls to you.

This isn’t a quick-fix course you breeze through once and forget. It’s a long-term, strategic support system designed to grow with you, whether you’re just starting out, rebuilding, or shifting gears after trying to piece it all together on your own.

You don’t need to rush and these materials aren’t graded or tracked for “completion”. You just need to start.

Most importantly, don’t stop doing what you’re currently doing. As you work through the materials you’ll make adjustments along the way when it makes sense to do so. But something is always better than nothing, so always keep moving forward.

The goal is momentum, not pressure. By the end of The Right Mindset topic you will have created:

• A map of your existing Digital Ecosystem.
• A masterlist of the gaps within your current Digital Ecosystem.
• A clear definition of your vision of success.
• Your motivational “why” behind that vision.
• An initial roadmap of your milestones.
• A mindset framework to reduce tech overwhelm and perfectionism.
• A sustainable time and focus rhythm that balances writing and writing-adjacent tasks.
• A reusable goal-setting process grounded in clarity and momentum.
• Reusable reflection habits that help you pause, adjust, and keep going.
• A framework for identifying your Career and Book Loops.
• A process for determining your goals, milestones, and decision-making methods that serve your current Career and Book Loop.
• A system for identifying, finding, and connecting with your ideal reader.
• The starting foundation of your author identity that you’ll continue to develop over time.

One Last Thing

I’m Canadian-British, which means you’ll find a charming mix of British and American spelling throughout the lessons… usually leaning more British. Thanks in advance for your patience with my inconsistency.

Quest Time!

To get the most out of this topic, there are a few key things I recommend doing right away. These steps will also help and apply to all topics throughout the atelier.

→ Block 30–45 minutes per week to work on the materials. If you need to spend more than one week on a section, that’s okay!

We’ll cover time management later, but for now, commit to at least 30 minutes a week and block it in your calendar for the next 12 weeks. Otherwise, this risks becoming yet another resource collecting virtual dust.

Your Living Guidebook

→ Create a single spot for notes and exercises (like a digital folder or a notebook).

You know that cool notebook sitting on your shelf that you haven’t found a use for yet? No, not that one, the other one. No, the one next to that one. Haha. Yeah, we both know you have a few to choose from.

So, grab a notebook and dedicate it to these materials. Some Quests work better on a computer, but many work beautifully in a dedicated notebook you’ll refer back to.

A quick note:
Don’t get hung up on the format. If handwriting works for you, great, put that collection of pretty notebooks to use. But if typing or voice-to-text helps you stay more consistent, that works too. The act of capturing your thoughts is what matters for all of the Quests.

Whatever format you choose, this becomes your Living Guidebook. You’ll be adding information to it throughout each section of this topic, and every topic moving forward, and you’ll be referring back to it throughout your journey.

Your First Entry

Your Digital Ecosystem

Your digital ecosystem is the foundation behind your online presence, visibility, and author career. It’s about building a connected, intentional structure that supports your goals. And you build it one component at a time.

In this section, you’ll learn what a digital ecosystem is, how it differs from related terms like online presence and digital footprint, and why it matters to your author career. You’ll also explore what you can (and can’t) control online, and how that affects your visibility, credibility, and opportunities.

What Is a Digital Ecosystem?

Scope: We won’t cover every component in depth. This section helps you see the big picture, map what you already have, and spot component gaps you can improve over time.

Think of your digital ecosystem as the set of places you show up online, working together to support visibility, connection, and growth.

Each piece plays a role. Some connect you to readers, others build credibility or help people discover you. Together, they can form loops that guide readers from one piece to the next.

Your digital ecosystem can include:

• Your author website
• Your social media accounts
• Your email list
• Your content (blogs, newsletters, videos, posts)
• Any third-party platforms where your name or work appears (e.g. Amazon, Goodreads, podcast interviews)

Digital Ecosystem Components (included in the Quest): a list of examples across owned, managed, appearances, and third-party mentions.

The more components your digital ecosystem includes, the more control you have. But it’s really important to understand there’s a difference between passive components and active components.

Passive components: pages, profiles, and listings you own and keep accurate, even if you rarely publish there. Their job is to exist, be consistent, and point to your hub.
Active components: the few channels where you regularly publish and engage.

The end goal is a broad, interconnected passive layer, and a narrow, focused active layer limited to the few channels that fit you best and deliver the biggest impact. That focus prevents overwhelm.

Why Your Digital Ecosystem Matters

If you want to grow your audience, sell more books, and create long-term success, you need these pieces working together.

Breadth builds control; connection builds strength. Claiming more relevant properties under your author name (and interlinking them) increases your branded visibility, without trying to be active everywhere. Focus on owning and connecting the right set of components first. Then, be active only where your readers actually engage and let the rest work passively.

The real key behind this is to be strategic. Quality and cohesion matter more than quantity. You can’t do everything and be everywhere all at once. But over time, you can add components.

Building out a robust and strategic digital ecosystem is what helps with:

• Discoverability
• Credibility
• Connection
• Control
• Opportunities

It’s not about making things complicated. But when pieces are missing or disconnected within your digital ecosystem, it creates more work for you and confusion for your followers. It also makes it harder for the right people to find you.

Your digital ecosystem is your foundation. It’s the infrastructure behind everything you do to create visibility, connection, and growth.

This section is about raising awareness that there’s more to your online presence than your social posts.

Related terms

Click here to expand this section

You may be wondering about some of the more seemingly technical terminology, and it can be easy to confuse them. So, in terms of the big picture, let’s take a look at a few of them.

Digital Ecosystem
This is your whole, interconnected system, as described in detail above. It’s the system of your website, email, social, content, and third-party platforms.

Online Presence
This is the visible expression of your ecosystem. It’s where and how you appear online to the public. It includes how you show up and interact with your audience, and what others are saying about you. It’s the sum of your visibility. 

Digital Footprint
Your digital footprint is the trail of data you leave behind online, including what you post, where you appear in search, and what others say about you. It’s the trackable record of all online activity related to you, especially in terms of what shows up in searches.

Digital Landscape
The digital landscape is the broader environment of the online world that includes digital tools, platforms, trends, and user behaviours. It’s the evolving digital space you must navigate regarding what’s changing in tech, platforms, or reader behaviour.

While the differences between these terms are subtle, they’re not synonyms. You don’t need to get hung up on these terms, but being familiar with them helps to remove some of the mysteriousness about them.

What You Control

As an author, there are things you can control online, and things you can’t control. 

For example, part of your online presence are the things you say online. You control this. Another part are the things others say about you, such as in book reviews. You don’t control this. 

If you only have an Instagram account, that’s the slice of your ecosystem you control. If more readers are talking about your books or you as an author on TikTok, they control that segment of your online presence, not you. 

If a new reader searches for your name on Google, anything tied to your online presence might show up, such as social media profiles, your website, Amazon listings, or even a blog post on another site that mentions you. Google pulls from your digital footprint, which is the recorded activity tied to you, whether or not it sits inside the portion of the ecosystem you control.

This is why having a proper and complete digital ecosystem is important. You want to have as much control over what shows up as your digital footprint as possible. 

You’ll never be able to control it all, especially as you grow. But the more you do control, the more you will influence search results so your authoritative sources outweigh the noise.

When set up properly, your digital ecosystem signals to search engines, through passive and active components, that your owned properties are authoritative sources about you.

Quest Time!

Key Takeaways

Your ecosystem is the infrastructure behind your visibility and growth. Its power comes from how the components connect.

A reader might discover you on Instagram, then click to your website, sign up for your newsletter, and eventually buy your book. That only happens if your ecosystem is connected and intentional.

Don’t try to fix everything at once. Start with a list of what you have and what component gaps you want to fill over time. Connect the dots between them gradually.

What Success Looks Like

Success isn’t one-size-fits-all, and it’s not just about sales, followers, or bestseller rankings. In this section, you’ll step back from the noise and define what success actually looks like for you. You’ll clarify a long-term vision, uncover why it matters, and sketch a path that fits your life and goals, not someone else’s checklist. By the end, you’ll have a personalized starting point to guide your decisions with less pressure and more clarity.

Success is a funny thing. We all want it, yet we rarely take the time to truly think about what it means for us individually. Often, the world around us shapes our definition of success. We start measuring our progress, and sometimes even our worth, against other people’s accomplishments.

I can’t stress enough how much of a mistake this is.

Being an author comes with a whole host of challenges, often filled with many moments of self-doubt and excessive internal criticism. When we compare our efforts and progress against those of others, more often than not, we make those feelings worse.

But comparison is human nature. It’s the way the world works for most of us. So what can we do about it?

There are entire courses and programs dedicated to the process of understanding and defining success. This section is a condensed, high-level version of that process. If exploring this more deeply is something that interests you, I encourage you to seek out additional resources. But for most people, the steps covered in this section will get the job done.

What Is Success?

Defining Success

The Process

Start with the end

Why is this vision important?

Work backwards

Quest Time!

Key Takeaways

As you move forward you’ll get into the practical strategies. For now, approach this exercise without being influenced by them. This moment is about discovery; tuning in to your own goals and priorities before layering on outside expectations.

It might feel strange to do this without knowing the “right” steps. But that’s exactly the point. If you begin with someone else’s blueprint, you’ll end up shaping your goals around their definition of success, not your own. By doing this work first, you’re giving yourself the space to define what truly matters to you, and building a path that actually fits.

Once you’ve completed your Quest for this section, you’ll have the beginnings of a roadmap that’s grounded in your personal vision and purpose. It won’t be perfect, and it doesn’t need to be. You’ll refine it as you go. What matters most is that you have a guiding framework that helps you stay aligned with what really matters to you. Keep it visible, revisit it often, and let it evolve with you. That’s part of the journey.

Overcome Tech Overwhelm and Perfectionism

This section helps you understand where tech overwhelm and perfectionism come from and gives you practical tools to move through them. You’ll identify your own patterns, learn the five fundamentals that make learning tech easier, and practice applying them to a real, low-stakes task. The goal isn’t to master the tools, it’s to shift how you approach them, so frustration turns into learning and progress replaces perfection.

Whether you’re avoiding a website project, hesitating to post on social media, or just feeling behind in the digital world, this section will help you break the cycle of tech stress and take your next step, without getting stuck in the trap of perfection.

I see many authors claim they’re “bad at technology.” That they’re not tech savvy and can’t deal with the tech required to get certain things done. Most often this comes up in relation to building a website, but it pops up in other areas too. Using social media is a part of working with technology.

This belief often leads to tech overwhelm, and is usually rooted in perfectionism.

Most fear and overwhelm with tech comes from the unknown: not understanding what to do and not having guidance. There’s often a fear of making mistakes that leads to consequences, or doing something wrong, or it being “not good enough.”

While completely valid, all of this ultimately stems from a misguided belief that being “tech savvy” is something special or unique. That some people are naturally talented with technology, and that others will never be able to learn how to be good with technology.

The good news is: this is a myth. It’s a personal, limiting belief that can be overcome.

Technology is learned, not innate. Breathing is natural; understanding tech comes with practice.

And hey, if you don’t find tech overwhelming, that’s great. But stick with me. You might still find pieces here that help you reframe your approach to learning, or recognize where perfectionism might be sneaking in. Even the most confident tech users can fall into the trap of unrealistic expectations, or forget how hard the early days really were.

What is Tech Overwhelm?

When we feel overwhelmed by technology, what’s actually happening is we’re frustrated by something we don’t yet understand because we haven’t learned how to do it. 

But frustration isn’t a sign of failure, or proof that you’re bad at something. It means you’re learning.

Think of a baby first learning to walk. How many times do they fall down? We see their frustration turn into overwhelm through their cries and tantrums. This pattern continues throughout their entire lives each time they try something new until they learn how to do the thing and understand it. 

Were you naturally good at math? Or language? Or riding a bike? Think of any new thing you learned at any point in your life. Did you always get it on the first try, with no effort? With no frustration or overwhelm? 

Technology is no different, yet many people have convinced themselves that it is different. Many of us get dropped into tools with “it’s easy” promises and no fundamentals. And in today’s digital world, those fundamentals can be hard to find.

Could you imagine writing an entire book if you had never learned the fundamentals of language?

So, the next time you’re feeling overwhelmed by technology, pause for a moment and ask yourself, “Do I actually know the fundamentals of what I’m trying to do?” and cut yourself some slack. You can learn this stuff. But walk before you run.

Being Tech Savvy Is Learnable

Something most people don’t realize is that being tech savvy is far less about the technology than they think. It’s not a skill people are born with and it’s not some mystical superpower.

Plus, not all tech savvy people are created equal. In the most basic sense, anyone who knows something about tech that another person doesn’t know will be seen as being tech savvy by someone.

My mom knew more about working with a computer than my dad did. To him, she was tech savvy. But when she stepped into my sphere of technology, she felt like a tech newbie. When I step into my son’s world of coding, I become a tech newbie. 

When it comes to technology, there will always be someone who knows more than you, and someone who knows less than you. So, being tech savvy isn’t about how much you know, it’s about how you learn. Working with technology is nothing more than a series of learned skills, and learning new skills is rooted in mindset.

So if being tech savvy isn’t about knowing everything, what is it about?

It comes down to a handful of core fundamentals; habits and mindsets that shape how you’ll pick things up.

The Five Fundamentals of Learning Tech

Avoiding Tech Overwhelm

In general, if you consistently apply the five fundamentals for learning technology to everything you do with technology, there’s a good chance you’re going to avoid overwhelm, or at very least nip it in the bud.

The primary keys to avoiding tech overwhelm are to have a growth mindset and realistic expectations for yourself and the tools you’re using. Not all tech is the magical solution to the thing you want to do. Most tech has its own limitations.

But there are two common mistakes I see regularly that allow overwhelm to creep in when we least expect it. Being aware of these, and addressing them, will help you even further to avoid tech overwhelm.

Read your screen

One of the biggest problems that people run into with technology is that they don’t read. They don’t read the instructions provided in the first place and they don’t read the warnings that pop up. A ton of your challenges with technology will disappear if you slow down and take the time to read.

Whether it’s the on-screen tutorials, warning messages, or guides provided in the help section. There is very little technology that doesn’t come with some level of guidance online. And the resources provided by the tools you’re using will most often be your best starting point. It’s always amazed me that people jump to Google and 5-year-old YouTube videos before looking up the resources provided by the software. And don’t get me started on the misconception that AI can give you the answer faster. When you’re working with tech you don’t know, you have no way to be sure that the information AI is providing is accurate. And more often than not it will confidently provide you with wrong information. I continue to test this theory daily, and yes, AI is still hallucinating.

Online tools change constantly, sometimes daily. Always look for the most recent information from the source first. And read, don’t skim, your screen. Skimming is normal when we feel rushed. So don’t try to learn tech when you’re short on time and slow down for one screen; you will usually find the hint you need.

Aim for progress, not perfection

Perfection delays visibility and learning. In digital spaces, you can edit, update, and improve later.

There’s something about the wonders of technology and all of its vast capabilities that causes authors to believe they need everything to be perfect before they can move forward. 

But I assure you, nothing will throw you into a place of overwhelm faster than aiming for perfection when it comes to anything in the digital landscape.

Maybe this comes more from the days pre-Internet. It was, after all, pretty important that printed materials were exactly right before approving the print run. It was devastatingly expensive to print thousands of copies of something that was wrong.

But in the digital landscape, that is simply no longer the case. Anything you create online can be changed, fixed, or improved as needed, when needed. 

That aside, the more important point to remember is to start where you are and grow from there. For example, I see authors avoid opening a social media account because they don’t know what to say in their bio. Or they delay launching their website, because they don’t know what pages to include, or because they don’t have the artwork they want.

Here’s a little secret for you: when you first launch any of the pieces for your online presence, no one is going to see it. It takes time and effort to get people to see the things you create online. The longer you wait to get it started, the longer it will take before anyone sees any of it.

Something is always better than nothing. Done is better than perfect. And, at the end of the day, there is no such thing as perfect, because what you love today you’ll likely hate in a year.

So, just like the first draft of your book, you can’t improve what doesn’t exist. Focus on getting it done first, then iterate and improve… one step at a time.

If attention, anxiety, or executive-function challenges are part of your reality, adapt the steps. Shorter sessions, fewer decisions per session, and written checklists can help.

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When you apply these fundamentals and mindset shifts, you’ll find there is less and less room for overwhelm to even enter the picture.

But when it does, stop. Walk away. Take a break.

It really is as simple as that. When you come back to it with a clear mind, when you’re not tired, and you’re not stressed, everything will work much better.

Quest Time!

Key Takeaways

Tech overwhelm isn’t a character flaw or a sign you’re not cut out for this. It’s a signal that you’re navigating something new without the tools or mindset you need.

The truth is, no one is born knowing this stuff. Every tech-savvy person you know started at the same point of “not knowing.” What makes the difference isn’t talent, it’s mindset. And when you lean into the five fundamentals of: Desire, Persistence, Patience, Problem solving, Sequential organization, you give yourself a foundation to grow with confidence instead of fear.

Progress matters more than perfection. Keep showing up, one step at a time.

Manage Time & Focus as a Writer and Marketer

If you’ve ever thought, “I just want to write,” you’re not alone. But only writing won’t get your books into readers’ hands.

In this section, you’ll learn a simple way to balance writing with the work that grows your career, so you avoid all-or-nothing cycles and build momentum without burnout.

Time, above all else, is our most precious resource. We have a finite amount of time available in each day, week, month, year, and lifetime.

Yet, it’s the resource we seem to protect the least. It’s the resource that slips away from us the easiest.

Time management is a big topic that also addresses dealing with distractions, procrastination, and maintaining focus. Again, there are entire books and courses dedicated to it. This will not be yet another such resource.

For starters, effective time management is highly individual, especially when you consider strategies for neurotypical vs neurodivergent. While this is an area I have some experience in, I’m not an expert. 

If general time management is something you struggle with, I encourage you to seek out resources on the topic. From experience, I also encourage you to keep trying different strategies if one doesn’t work for you.

Being surrounded by ADHD and autism in my household, I can assure you there is no one-size-fits-all strategy and it can take several attempts with different strategies to find what works best for you. It’s worth exploring.

The key point to remember is that there’s a difference between what we want and what we need. When you’re struggling to do what is needed, refer back to the ‘why’ that motivates you in the What Success Looks Like section.

In this section, I’m going to address a parallel, but relevant, time and focus related challenge that every writer faces, which is the division of time between writing and marketing. I’ll also explain how to work with the 80/20 rule and evolve it into the 40/40/20 rule.

To Write, or Not To Write

If I got a dollar every time an author said, ‘I just want to write’ I’d be a rich woman. 

I get it. I’m a writer too. My stories are constantly yelling at me in the back of my mind, demanding attention. 

But there is a huge reality that every author must come to terms with. If you want people to read your books, you cannot spend 100% of your time writing.

For starters, your creative bucket needs downtime. It needs space to breathe and process ideas. Not to mention how important it is to set aside a book before editing.

But that aside, formatting and publishing the book is time spent not writing. You can’t publish a book if you don’t make time to complete these tasks, and we often need to learn how to complete them first.

Then, as much as we wish it were otherwise, the book won’t find readers on its own. We, the authors, must make the world aware of the book in order for it to get read.

But, at our core, we’re writers. Storytelling is something we have a burning desire to do. The writing-adjacent tasks feel like a necessary evil that we’d rather avoid, if we could.  

Much like tech, this requires a shift in mindset.

The Road to Burnout

One of the biggest mistakes I see authors make is they go all-in, 100% on one phase at a time. They focus solely on writing the book, often in secret, telling few if any people what they’re doing.

They then start to venture out, getting a friend here and there to read what they’ve written. They lurk on social media and perhaps ask around about the publishing process.

Many manage to get the book published and at some point during or after the publishing process, they realize there’s much more to publishing a book than formatting and uploading it.

Then… they scramble. Once they’ve gotten this far all they focus on is finding ways to promote their book, usually looking for the quickest and cheapest options to get the job done, gradually despising the process more and more as they progress, to the point of not wanting to do it. They often then embrace the advice of ‘just write the next book’ because it’s what they know and love.

Seasoned authors, with many books published, often do this too. They isolate each phase of the process and ignore the other phases until it’s ‘time for that task’.

Wherever you are in your publishing journey, right this minute, I’d like you to recalibrate this way of thinking.

Each phase of your author journey is not all or nothing. If you try to focus solely on one phase at a time in a pattern of: 100% writing, 100% publishing, 100% promoting… you risk burnout and resentment, and eventually a ‘why bother?’ mindset about writing itself. Let’s avoid that!

The 80/20 Rule

Instead, start forming the habit right now of the 80/20 rule. You’ll refine this more throughout your journey, but keep it simple to start with.

The idea is that you spend 80% of your time writing and 20% on all the other stuff, the writing-adjacent tasks.

When I say ‘your time’, I mean the time you’re able to allocate to anything related to being an author. If you have a full-time job, or a family to care for, that’s separate. Your circumstances and lifestyle will dictate how many hours you’re able to allocate to being an author. Those are the hours you’ll apply the 80/20 rule to.

How to Use the 80/20 Rule

What Counts as ‘Other Stuff’?

I realize that ‘stuff’ isn’t a particularly useful term here. But there are many different tasks that need to be done outside of writing and editing, and it changes throughout your author journey, and throughout the journey of each book. 

To give you a few examples:

• Setting up your website or email list
• Engaging with readers
• Outlining and implementing a marketing plan
• Learning how publishing works
• Connecting with other writers
• Going through these materials

It’s literally anything related to writing and publishing your book that isn’t the actual writing or editing process. Think of this as the writing-adjacent tasks.

Stay Flexible, Stay Kind

Evolving to the 40/40/20 Rule

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Key Takeaways

• Writing may be your priority, but marketing and platform-building are essential parts of the author journey. Ignoring them leads to burnout, lost momentum, or books that never reach readers.
  
• The 80/20 rule helps you create balance early: aim to spend 80% of your available author time writing, and 20% on writing-adjacent tasks like publishing prep, platform setup, marketing, and learning.
  
• This ratio isn’t fixed, it’s a starting point. You’ll adjust it as your journey evolves, eventually moving toward a 40/40/20 split that supports long-term growth.
  
• Distractions and emotional resistance are normal. Instead of trying to eliminate them entirely, focus on noticing your patterns and building habits that help you move forward.
  
• The key is consistency, not perfection. Small, steady effort on your writing-adjacent tasks will compound over time and support your writing, not compete with it.

Set Realistic, Motivating Goals

Many authors set goals that are too vague, too ambitious, or just plain discouraging, and then wonder why they lose momentum. This section will help you shift that pattern by focusing on progress you can actually sustain.

You’ll uncover a simple mindset shift that helps you stop feeling behind and start recognizing the real progress you’re making, even when life doesn’t go as planned.

It’s not about doing more. It’s about making steady, sustainable progress toward the kind of author career you actually want.

If you’re anything like me, you may well have skipped this section at first. But I’m glad you came back.

There’s something about setting goals that sets my teeth on edge. I’ve never enjoyed the process and I’ve rarely seen the point of the process. It always felt like it would take less time to just do the thing than to turn it into a documented goal. Then, to make matters worse, all the advice pushes to make them SMART as well:

Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound

This is not a natural way of thinking for most people. 

Disclaimer: If you’re a goal setter who loves the process, this is not about throwing hands at you!

The thing I’ve found with most authors who don’t work with SMART goals is they struggle with the concept of what this means, how to do it, and how it’s relevant. This was absolutely me for years.

After deep professional development through WordPress.com and earning my Project Management Certification, I gained a clearer understanding of how to set goals. And in a corporate setting, there are heaps of benefits to knowing and understanding a more structured way of setting goals.

But let’s face it, you want to write. You’re not here to become a professional project manager (though if you are one, you might still find this section satisfying).

So, let’s take a different, more author-friendly approach; one designed for fiction writers who just want to get through these materials and move on with confidence.

Realistic Goals

The thing I see most commonly with authors is that they’re not setting realistic expectations, which is often the result of not setting realistic goals (or any goals). This leads to disappointment and stress that could be avoided.

So, in order to keep the happy vibe going throughout your author journey, you need to set realistic goals.

Where this goes sideways is that authors tend to look at the big picture instead of the milestones along the way.

Remember the big, audacious vision of success you created previously? This is not what you’re setting your goals by.

You know that author who posted on social media that they’re achieving a six-figure income or the one who hits a 100K page reads per month? You’re not setting your goals based on them, either.

These are the types of mistakes I see authors commonly making when it comes to setting goals. Those big, pie-in-the-sky dreams are your vision or sometimes, other people’s vision. Goals are connected to the milestones you use to track progress toward that vision.

So what goals are you setting, and how do you make them realistic?

You make them smaller and based on the milestones you define that lead up to your vision of success. This isn’t about treating each micro-step as a goal. It’s about looking at the points along the way that would be a milestone made up of multiple smaller tasks.

The focus of what I teach is on the writing-adjacent work that helps with your visibility and to get your books read. But right now, let’s focus on what’s familiar. Your writing. Let’s use that to build your goal-setting muscles. Then, when you shift to building your online presence, you’ll already know how to approach those goals with more confidence. 

Tracking Progress

Motivating Goals

Once you’ve set a realistic goal, take one more look at it and assess whether it’s also a motivating goal.

A motivating goal is one that fires you up. It gets you excited about doing the work. If you look at the goal and it turns your stomach, or gives you a sinking feeling, you need to fix that.

We’re often advised to make sure the goals we set stretch us. They’re supposed to be slightly more ambitious than what we think we can actually achieve. The theory is that this creates motivation. And for some it does. But only you can be the judge of that. 

If you set a goal based on what you think it’s supposed to be, and it causes you anxiety or stress, it’s not a good goal. Adjust it accordingly.

So yes, be ambitious. Be willing to stretch yourself a bit more than you think is possible. But notice how you feel about it. It needs to excite you if you want any hope of achieving it.

If nothing about the goal is exciting you or motivating you, do the ‘why’ exercise specifically for this goal from the What Success Looks Like section. You need to have a desire to do the thing in order to stick with it, otherwise why bother doing it?

Yes, you may still have to complete tasks that you’re not super thrilled about doing. But when it’s a necessary part of achieving a goal you want and you have a strong enough ‘why’, you’ll figure out a way to get it done.

Here’s a concept from project management that changed how I measure success: if you achieve 75% of your goal, that’s a win. 

You’ll realign your next goal based on this progress, but completing 75% of what you set out to achieve within a particular timeframe is a success. 

When you make this mental shift, you’ll feel the pressure ease. And when you hit the 75% mark, the last leg of the goal journey feels so much lighter.

Later, when you start setting goals for things like building your website, starting an email list, or launching a reader magnet, you’ll use this same approach. It’s not about setting perfect goals. It’s about setting realistic, motivating ones you can actually reach.

If attention or energy varies, size your cadence (shorter sessions, fewer decisions per session) rather than beating yourself up over an inflated goal.

Quest Time!

Key Takeaways

The point of this section isn’t to turn you into a productivity machine. It’s to help you make steady progress without burning out or beating yourself up. You don’t need to love goal setting. You just need a way to check in with yourself and stay pointed in the right direction.

In this section, you learned how to take those big, exciting visions and break them down into something you can actually work toward without the stress. You figured out how to estimate time based on your real schedule (not wishful thinking), and how to track your progress in a way that keeps you moving instead of spiralling. You’ve also got a simple five-point check-in system to help you decide whether your goal needs adjusting (only if it’s truly off track or way ahead of schedule).

But maybe the biggest shift is that your goal needs to motivate you. If it feels like a weight, it’s not the right one. And that reaching 75% of a goal is a win.

Pause, Reflect, Adjust

Growth is not linear, and your journey will not look exactly like anyone else’s. This section gives you a moment to pause, assess where you are, and recalibrate so you can keep steady momentum without burning out.

By the end of this section, you’ll be able to:

• Run a short reflect-and-adjust check-in that builds clarity and self-trust.
• Determine if there’s a block and what’s causing it.
• Identify one small, concrete adjustment to carry into the next phase.
• Document reflections so you can see progress over time.
• Schedule future check-ins so reflection becomes a sustainable habit.

You’ll return to this process time and time again throughout the atelier training.

You’ve just spent time laying your mindset foundation. But every traveller knows that even with a good map, you have to check the compass. Things drift. Conditions change. You adjust course.

Writers do this all the time, whether they realize it or not. Plotters might outline the entire book, but even they hit points where something doesn’t feel quite right. So, they pause, reassess, and sometimes rework the outline.

Pantsers might start with nothing but a vibe and a character name, but they still have moments where they stop and ask: Where is this going? What’s working? What’s missing? That’s reflection, which is often followed by some adjustments.

No matter what your process is, progress isn’t just about moving forward. It’s about making sure you’re still heading where you want to go. And sometimes, it’s about realizing that where you thought you were going isn’t actually where you want to end up.

So, before we go any further, it’s time for a gut check. Not the kind where you question all your life choices (please don’t). But the kind where you pause, breathe, and ask: How’s this going so far? What needs a tiny tweak? What can stay as-is? Think of it as adjusting your backpack straps before we set off on the next leg of this journey.

It’s okay if you haven’t completed everything so far or if you don’t feel totally clear yet. This isn’t a test. It’s a journey.

It’s also about knowing when to slow down, shift direction, or revisit something with fresh eyes.

That’s exactly what you’re going to practice now: pause → reflect → adjust.

Quest Time!

The funny thing about reflection is that most of us were never really taught how to do it clearly. So, grab your notebook, take 10–15 minutes to consider the following questions, and write your answers down. 

These questions aren’t just busywork. They’re how you build awareness. Not just of where you are, but of how you got here and what you actually need next.

When you pause to reflect with intention, you stop operating on autopilot. You start making choices that align with your energy, your goals, and your growth.

• What’s something I’ve learned about myself so far? About how I work, think, or show up as an author?
• What concept or idea has shifted how I see myself or my author journey the most?
• Where did I feel energized, and where did I feel resistance, avoidance, or overwhelm?
• How did I respond to the parts I found unclear, frustrating, or hard to start?
• Is there anything I want to revisit, slow down on, or give more attention to before moving on?
• What small action(s) have I already taken?
• What’s one small adjustment I could make to better support myself in the next phase?

A quick note:

These questions are here to guide you, not trip you up. If one doesn’t resonate, tweak it, or ask a different question entirely. The goal isn’t to answer everything perfectly. The goal is to pause, reflect, and write something down. The act of documenting your thoughts, whether it’s in a notebook or a digital doc, is where the real clarity and growth start to happen.

Your Reflection Habit

Learning to pause, reflect, and adjust isn’t just a strategy for this training; it’s a skill you’ll use again and again throughout your writing career. Whenever things feel off (or just uncertain), giving yourself space to reassess can help you find clarity and keep moving forward with intention. Better yet, schedule a recurring 15-minute monthly check-in so you stay proactive instead of reactive.

Here are a few moments when a quick reflect-and-adjust check-in can make all the difference. And you’ll find your own, too, as you go.

• After finishing a draft, ask: What did I learn about my process? What do I want to try differently next time?
• After a launch, ask: What worked, what didn’t, what will I try differently?
• Midway through a marketing plan, ask: What’s resonating with my audience, and what’s falling flat?
• When burnout hits, ask: Where am I pushing too hard or neglecting joy?
• If growth stalls, ask: Is this a strategy issue, a mindset block, or a timing issue?

Key Takeaways

Learning to pause and check in with yourself isn’t just a helpful trick. It’s a foundational habit for sustainable growth, and it’s one of the kindest things you can do for your creative life. Whether you’re reflecting on a concept, a writing project, or your author career as a whole, the goal isn’t to find perfect answers. It’s to create space for clarity, direction, and self-trust.

This is how you stay connected to your own goals and energy, even when the path gets messy. Reflecting and adjusting doesn’t mean something went wrong; it means you’re paying attention. And the more you practice that, the more confidently you’ll navigate everything ahead.

Your Why & Author Goals

Clarify your deeper reasons for pursuing an author career and connect those motivations to evolving, stage-appropriate goals.

You’ll identify the different layers of your “why” and learn how to align your short-term and long-term goals with your larger purpose, so your motivation stays anchored even as your path shifts.

You’ve spent time reflecting, resetting, and making space for what matters most. Now it’s time to start shaping that clarity into direction. This section is where your mindset becomes motion. Where the inner work begins to inform the choices you make as an author.

You’ll see how your whys anchor decisions, and your goals create focus. They both evolve together.

In the What Success Looks Like section, you defined what your vision of success looks like for you and what your core, motivational why behind that vision is. I didn’t provide examples in that previous section, because I didn’t want to influence your introspection. But as we move on to working with some contextual whys, it might help to compare against some examples.

Examples of Core Whys (click for inspiration, not instruction)

These aren’t templates to copy. They’re here to provide perspective and to show how a Core Why tends to sound and feel compared to the more specific contextual whys you’ll explore next.

• I write to make sense of the world and share what I find.
• I write because stories help people feel less alone.
• I write to create a life with more freedom and meaning.
• I write to challenge assumptions and expand perspectives.
• I write to prove to myself that I can finish what I start.
• I write to leave something behind that matters.
• I write because I can’t not write.

Let’s take a few of these examples a little deeper:

. . .

The Layers of Why

Your Core Why is your enduring reason for being an author. As you break down the journey of your author career you’ll also be faced with setting goals and making decisions that are directional and tactical in nature. You’ll use the same why exercise when creating these goals to help keep you grounded and focused.

Rather than making random or reactive decisions, being intentional about this process will help to ensure that you’re investing your time and energy into actions that align with you. Instead of doing things simply for the sake of doing them.

Every decision you make as an author, whether it’s about publishing, platform, or productivity, can be traced to a why layer.

• Core Why: the heartbeat of your author career. Why you do any of this at all.
• Directional Why: the compass. Why you’re focusing on this particular phase of growth right now.
• Tactical Why: the map. Why this specific task or approach makes sense for you right now.

Example:

• Core: “I write to connect with readers who see themselves in my stories.”
• Directional: “I’m focused on growing my newsletter so I can connect with those readers directly.”
• Tactical: “I’m using EmailOctopus because it’s simple and free while I learn the ropes.”

Finding Your Focus

Every author’s journey looks a little different, but most follow two tracks at once:

1. Your Career Loop: the long arc of your visibility, platform, and professional growth.
2. Your Book Loop: the repeating cycle for each story or project you bring into the world.

I chose these terms to simplify what can otherwise feel complicated. They’re not industry labels, just an easy way to visualize how your career and projects progress in parallel.

You’ll always be in a stage of both.

The career loop

The book loop

How they work together

Applying Your Directional and Tactical Whys

Author Goals

Now that you understand your different layers of why, it’s time to turn that clarity into motion.

Your Directional Why helps you decide where to focus your energy this season.
Your Tactical Why helps you choose the right next steps for your current capacity.

Together, they shape the goals you’ll set, so every action you take supports your larger purpose instead of pulling you in a dozen directions.

There are many different goals you could be considering. Don’t get hung up on which is the right goal. Ultimately, they all need to get done eventually. Use the information you defined in the What Success Looks Like section to help guide you based on your vision of success and pick one.

Working backward from your goal

From clarity to action

Quest Time!

Key Takeaways

• Your Directional Why guides your focus; your Tactical Why guides your next step.
• You’ll always be in two loops: your overall career and your current project.
• Recognizing where you are helps you make better decisions about where to spend your time and energy.
• Aligning your whys with your actions turns intention into momentum.
• Knowing why you’re doing any give task or choosing specific milestones gives a layer of purpose to everything you do that’s lacking when you’re just winging your way through processes.

Author Name, Usernames & Domains

Secure a consistent author name, username, and domain that strengthen your brand identity and protect your future growth.

Your Name Is the Foundation

Every author identity begins with a name. It’s the cornerstone of your brand and the thread that connects your website, social media, book covers, and everything else readers see. Before you ever design a logo or create a website, your name is where your digital presence begins.

This section isn’t about deciding whether to use your legal name or a pen name. That decision is deeply personal and depends on your goals, privacy, and comfort level. Some authors use their real names for transparency or recognition, while others use pen names for creative separation, safety, or genre distinction. Either is valid. The focus here is what comes next. It’s about how to take whatever name you choose and apply it consistently across every part of your brand so it feels intentional, cohesive, and trustworthy.

Your author name is more than a label. It’s what readers remember when they recommend your book and what they type when they look you up. Consistency here isn’t just about aesthetics; it’s about discoverability and credibility.

This section addresses three components that work together: your author name, your username, and your domain. As with the other sections, it’s best to read through all the materials before taking action. The Quest will guide you through implementation, but the materials give you the context you need first.

Choosing Your Author Name

Choosing Your Username

Your Domain

A domain is your digital home address. You can connect it to many services and use it in different ways, but ultimately it’s the place readers, publishers, and collaborators will visit first to learn more about you. It’s what appears in your book, your email signature, and every piece of marketing you share. Choosing and securing your domain early helps build trust and protect your brand.

Choosing a domain

Provider branded subdomains

Domain safety and long-term protection

Bringing It All Together

When your author name, username, and domain align, you create a cohesive brand ecosystem that feels intentional, trustworthy, and easy to navigate.

Readers can find you easily, platforms recognize you consistently, and your credibility grows naturally. Even if your usernames vary slightly, the connection should be clear enough that someone who discovers you on one platform instantly knows it’s the same you everywhere else.

Common pitfalls

Quest Time!

Key Takeaways

• Your author name is the anchor of your brand. Make it simple, memorable, and consistent.
• Your username connects your presence across every platform. Secure it everywhere, even if you’re not active yet.
• Your domain is the entry to your digital home base. Protect it like the asset it is.
• Security, consistency, and renewal matter more than perfection.
• Trust is built through clarity, and clarity starts here.

There are many unique situations and exceptions when it comes to establishing your author name, username, and domain. While I’ve aimed to be comprehensive in this section, there are far too many variables to cover every case. This section also isn’t intended to be a how-to behind the technical steps and requirements of this process. If you have any questions or uncertainties, please reach out rather than making unnecessary guesses or mistakes.

Compelling Author Bio

Write a versatile bio that introduces you to readers, fits different platforms, and builds credibility for your author career.

Your bio is the handshake before the story. It’s the moment a potential reader, collaborator, or publisher first meets you: the mind behind your characters and worlds.

A compelling author bio isn’t about showing off credentials or cramming in every detail of your life. It’s about inviting readers into your space. Done right, it builds curiosity, connection, and trust before anyone ever opens your book.

Think of your bio as the bridge between your identity and your reader’s interest. It’s where your personality meets their expectations. A reader should walk away with a clear sense of what you write, why it matters, and what kind of experience they’ll find in your stories.

The Three Versions You’ll Need

Every author needs three core versions of their bio: short, medium, and long. They all share the same essential DNA; you’re simply adjusting the length and tone to fit the space and purpose.

As a rule of thumb:

• The short version is for quick recognition.
• The medium version is for context.
• The long version is for connection.

First or third person?

The Ingredients of a Compelling Bio

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Quest Time!

Key Takeaways

• Your bio is more than an introduction; it’s your first impression.
  
• Clarity and authenticity matter more than credentials.
  
• Write multiple versions and adapt as needed.
  
• Let your tone mirror your stories and your ideal reader’s expectations.
  
• Revisit your bio every 6–12 months as your career evolves.

Keep Building Forward

This section helps you recognize how much you’ve already built and shows you how to turn it into a sustainable, organized foundation you can grow from. You’ll see how your work fits together, learn how to maintain it with ease, and create a simple system to support your next steps as an author.

You’ve Already Built the Foundation

You’ve done a lot in this training. More than you may realize.

Through each Quest, you’ve clarified what matters most, shifted how you think about technology, and started building habits that make consistency possible. You’ve created the scaffolding for a sustainable author career, one that supports both your creativity and your professional growth.

To put it all into perspective, here’s a list of the deliverables you’ve created by completing all of the Quests within this topic:

Systems Don’t Limit You, They Support You

Organize What You’ve Built

Keep Using What You’ve Built

Quest Time!

Key Takeaways

• You already have the foundation, and this section helps you strengthen and organize it.
• Systems create freedom, not restriction.
• Keep your materials simple, searchable, and sustainable.
• Use your Living Guidebook as your creative lab, and your organized system as your professional toolkit.
• Growth doesn’t come from starting over; it comes from building forward.

You’ve built something real. A foundation you can stand on, grow from, and return to. Whether you move on to build or revamp your author website, start your newsletter, or publish your next story, you’re not starting from scratch. You’re starting from structure. And that changes everything.