Today, Fable and the Verbivore are delighted to share our conversation with podcaster, author, and writing coach Ann Kroeker!

Ann is the author of three works of nonfiction, including “On Being a Writer: 12 Simple Habits for a Writing Life that Lasts” (co-written by Charity Singleton Craig). Her podcast “Ann Kroeker, Writing Coac‪h”‬ and instagram account @annkroeker contain a treasure trove of useful tips and guidance on the writing craft. We’d also highly recommend checking out the free offerings on her professional website http://annkroeker.com/, including her free mini-course “Make Your Sentences Sing: 7 Sentence Openers to Add Music to Your Prose”.

In this episode, Ann shares her unique view of writing gained through her experiences working as a poet, nonfiction writer, editor, and writing coach. A few of the many topics she touches on include:

• The mental block that we sometimes face when identifying ourselves as a writer

• How the tools learned in studying poetry can help in creating prose

• Ways in which a writing coach can help fill in the gaps along the writing journey

Towards the end of this episode, Ann talks about the BAP (Bless, Address, Press) method for reviewing someone’s work. We found this to be a incredibly useful method for helping to clearly identify what the person you’re reading for is wanting in a review of their work. This method originated with The National Writing Project and her podcast episode and write up on this method can be found at http://annkroeker.com/2015/09/21/the-writing-life-podcast-bless-assess-or-press/.

We hope you enjoy this episode and its encouraging to you wherever you are at!

Keep reading, writing, and putting your voice out there!

Into the woods,

Fable & The Verbivore

Notes:

Ann’s professional website is https://annkroeker.com/ and her Instagram account is @annkroeker. You can connect with her on social media, her feed is filled with posts that contain actionable writing tips and helpful advice. Also, we’d recommend checking out the “5 Writing Tips!” located in her Instagram stories.

We greatly enjoyed listening to episodes of Ann’s writing podcast “Ann Kroeker, Writing Coach", which can be found at: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ann-kroeker-writing-coach/id1021735830. She also has a writing blog at: http://annkroeker.com/blog/.

The Vebivore references a free mini-course titled “Make Your Sentences Sing: 7 Sentence Openers to Add Music to Your Prose” that Ann offers through her website. That course can be found here: https://annkroeker.teachable.com/p/writing-sentence-openers . She also has several other writing courses available for a fee at https://annkroeker.teachable.com/.

Ann mentioned an episode we did on imitation, that episode is titled Episode 22: Imitation as a way to find your voice. Ann’s episode on Benjamin Franklin’s method of imitation is Ep 189: Write to Discover New Skills and Techniques.

If you’re interested in finding out more about the 1:1 services Ann provides and her current rates, that information is located on her Work With Me page at http://annkroeker.com/writing-coach/.

Ann mentioned at the end of the episode that she’s providing a free gift to our listeners of “52 Creative Writing Prompts: A Year of Weekly Prompts and Exercises to Boost Your Creativity”. That gift can be found at: http://annkroeker.com/fable

Books Mentioned:

• Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within by Natalie Goldberg

Music from: https://filmmusic.io
’Friendly day’ by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com)
Licence: CC BY (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)