J. F. Ewert
writer, editor, & writing coach
I help first-time authors teach through storytelling.
What makes a story worth telling?
[FIRST NAME GOES HERE], On any given day, I've got anywhere from three to five story ideas swimming around in my head. They usually begin with "what if." "What if a man woke up from a coma, but nobody could see or hear him?" "What if there was a boy and a cat, and the cat could talk?" "What if a hockey player got punched in the face during a game—by his own teammate?" And so on and so forth. I suspect most good stories begin this way. A question strikes, and the only way to get an answer is...
4 days ago • 1 min read
Accountability doesn't have to be ugly
[FIRST NAME GOES HERE], I used this space last week to declare an intention: this year, I am going to write and self-publish a book. For the next few months, I'll be documenting the ups and downs of this process. Why? Well, inspired by Austin Kleon, I'm showing my work. As you can imagine, this prospect is a little daunting. I've given myself 6 months (more or less) for this project. That's not a ton of a time—especially since I'm owning every stage of the process. What's more, I'm not...
11 days ago • 2 min read
Is it time to start that project?
Hey [FIRST NAME GOES HERE], I've decided that I'm going to write and self-publish a book this year. Ideally, this fall. The idea seized me last week. It's going to be a follow-up of sorts to my first book, which was a collection of short stories about hockey. I'm not sure what genre I'll land on with this new book. It'll either be a collection of micro non-fiction essays or a fictional novella. (Or, maybe, both?) Regardless, I've got some fun ideas to chase, and I'm excited to create...
18 days ago • 2 min read
Your story is worth telling
[FIRST NAME GOES HERE], Do you ever wonder if your story is worth telling? In my experience, a lot of writers wrestle with this question—or some version of it. They don't generally accuse other people of telling worthless stories. (Unless, that is, they give up storytelling and become critics.) Yet, they're secretly convinced that what they have to write isn't good enough. It doesn't matter what genre they're working in: A would-be fantasy novelist sighs: "My saga falls far short of Patrick...
25 days ago • 2 min read
Why failure MUST be an option
[FIRST NAME GOES HERE], I knew, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that she liked me. It was the start of junior year. I'd stayed in town over the summer, working by night as a coffee shop janitor and by day as a shipping coordinator (aka box builder and stuffer). People had always talked about how quiet our college town was during the summer. Now I knew what they meant. All summer long, I thought about this girl. We'd become friends thanks to a yearlong study group. Believe it or not, we actually...
about 1 month ago • 2 min read
What you should be writing about
[FIRST NAME GOES HERE], Forgive me for that subject line. I normally despise "should" statements. But for today's topic, I just couldn't help myself. Is it okay if I blame Frederick Buechner? It can be awfully hard to decide what to write about. Some days you show up to your computer (or whatever device you write on) with a bee in your bonnet. You may not know exactly which words are going to come out, but you're not worried. There's a fire in your belly, and the only way to put it out is to...
about 1 month ago • 2 min read
"Start the next one today."
[FIRST NAME GOES HERE], Think back to the last time you finished a project you cared deeply about. (It doesn't have to be a writing project. It just has to be something that you didn't do begrudgingly or because a boss told you to.) Can you remember what that felt like? In the third section of The War of Art, Steven Pressfield tells the story of finishing his very first book: ... that moment when I first hit the keys to spell out THE END was epochal. I remember rolling the last page out and...
about 2 months ago • 2 min read
Do you love too much?
[FIRST NAME GOES HERE], As some of you will know, I've recently been blogging my way through The Art of War by Steven Pressfield. Most of my comments thus far have been criticisms and complaints. But as I've stepped into the second part of the book, I've found a lot of observations that I really like. For example: The professional, though he accepts money, does his work out of love. He has to love it. Otherwise he wouldn't devote his life to it of his own free will. It's hard to disagree with...
about 2 months ago • 1 min read
What feeds your soul?
[FIRST NAME GOES HERE], On most Fridays, I encourage my clients to "feed their soul" over the weekend. That might sound like I'm telling them to go to church. However, that's not what I have in mind. The way I see it, "feeding one's soul" is a lot like athletic cross training. It's finding something you can enthusiastically dive into that is unlike the work at hand—in this case, writing. You could say that I'm just following Julia Cameron (again) and telling people to take themselves on an...
2 months ago • 2 min read
How to write about controversial things
[FIRST NAME GOES HERE], I do my best NOT to weigh in on controversial topics. It's not that I don't have opinions. It's just that I don't like myself when I share them. I'm an intense person, and that intensity rarely serves me well in such conversations. That's probably why I loved this Virginia Woolf quote from A Room of One's Own: [W]hen a subject is highly controversial ... one cannot hope to tell the truth. One can only show how one came to hold whatever opinion one does hold. One can...
2 months ago • 2 min read
I help first-time authors teach through storytelling.