Donna Knutson, Founder of Write Journeys

This is the latest episode of The One Problem podcast. My very special guest is Donna Knutson, who talks about writing your story and moving through the obstacles you’re likely to encounter.

Hi there. My name is Avil Beckford, and this is the latest episode of The One Problem podcast. We all know there are lots of problems in the world, but we're just going to focus on one, okay? We don't want you to get overwhelmed. The guests come on, and it's a way for us to learn from each other. I met Donna Knutson, the founder of Write Journeys, on Lunchclub. I decided to have her on the podcast. Over to you, Donna, thank you.

Donna Knutson

Avil I really appreciate this opportunity to talk about The One Problem. And that's telling your story, overcoming obstacles. So, I'm a book editor and a writing coach. Basically, I help people to tell their stories. And the one main problem that a lot of people run into, is this fear and overwhelm. People come up to them all the time, and they tell them they have this great story, and they should tell their story. Or they know that they have a story worth telling, but they're not sure how to get started, and they're not sure what steps to take.

And it's just overwhelming. So, they're frozen, and they don't take a step. And yet even other people that I've run into, and worked with, have a story they want to tell for the kids. Or a story they want to leave for their family, like a legacy. Again, they just look at all the books out there, and they can't see how they can get from their idea to a published book. I'm going to give you five steps. There are five steps that I use when I help my authors get themselves ready and move through that fear to actually writing.

And you're a writer Avil. So, you know that even the most seasoned writers can run into trouble and can get stuck. The first step would be to collect information on the process of writing because it's a process. If you were going to go from sitting on your chair to running a marathon, you would probably collect some information on the shoes to wear. And how much training you need to do. You should look at writing the same way, even though it's something that we're taught when we're young.

Donna Knutson

If you're going to sit down, and you really want to write a piece, collect some information on different tips and things that can help you. There are things called writing prompts. And there are exercises that you can do to get that muscle of writing, and having those words come to you, smoothed out. So that would be the first thing – information. The second thing I would say would be organization. That is the one that hurts a lot of people. They start writing, and then they start writing something else, they start writing something else. And they feel like all this time has gone by, but they're not really sure where they are.

If you were going to go on a trip, from where you live to the other side of the country, you would not just start and go. You would probably get a map or GPS. Or decide where you were going to stop along the way. Some of those things would be part of your plan. And if you're going to write something, a plan is a nice thing to have.

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So, you want to decide what the main key elements are of the story that you're telling. And in what order you want to reveal those. And if you have those main points along the way, yeah. Then after that, it's a journey. But if you have some sort of blueprint or map, it really helps you get from point A to point B without taking these weird detours that might be confusing to a reader. The third step is direction. So that has a lot to do with what we just talked about as well.

Donna Knutson

Direction and creating that framework to keep your story together. You want to really make sure that if you have a framework like that, it's not the beyond and all, right. So, if you are like some people, you know, you've read stories or gone to movies where they're starting here, and then they kind of go on a little journey that they get here, and then they go on a little journey, but they get here. And it's a nice little meandering journey. I've been to other movies or read other books where they go straight from beginning to end.

It's like a risk. And the piece is really fast. Neither of those is right nor wrong. But you will get to decide when you're writing, which one works best for you. Feedback, that's my fourth tip. So, we're writing. We know exactly what we want to say. When we break that sentence, we are clear about what we're saying. But the people who are reading, they're going to come to that information with their own life experience. And that will color how they understand what you're writing. So, it helps to get feedback from people to see if what you meant to say is being taken in the context in which you meant to say it.

Donna Knutson

Sometimes you might need to add more information. And sometimes you might need to take some away. My example of that is when I was teaching, I used to work with high school students, and when I started, I could talk about the space shuttle explosion. By the time I finished, I had to figure out which space shuttle explosion I was talking about. And then the last group, there was no space shuttle. So really, each group needed a different amount of information to understand what the event was in a context based on their life experience.

And finally, the last step would be accountability. Now, accountability is actually a really good thing. And we need accountability because life happens. So, when I say accountability, I think of accountability, and cheerleading together. So, we're not talking about accountability, do it again. Do it harder, do it another day. That's not what we're talking about. Accountability in this case is you get to check in with somebody. They get to say, you did great. That was fabulous. If you had a great week, or if you had a week that was off because life happens, then that person helps you, say, all right, well, what are you gonna do next week to get back on track. And how can we do that?

So, accountability and cheerleading help you not to stop, and never get back to starting again. And those are my five tips for how to overcome the one problem when you want to tell your story and overcome those obstacles.

Avil Beckford

That's interesting, because as I listen to you, some of those steps apply to many different kinds of projects. When you're starting a project, at least when I start a project, my starting point is gathering information, especially if it's a topic I'm not that familiar with, because I need to understand the lay of the land. You know, what you pointed out. So even though you're talking about writing a book, it's applicable to other areas. So, thank you so much, Donna. I'm sure that my listeners and viewers, will learn quite a bit from you.

Donna Knutson

Well, thank you very much for having me. And I help people all the time. So, I just encourage people to reach out and give me a call or send me an email and set something up. And I love to help people tell their story. It's so important for us to communicate with one another as human beings. It's how we connect and understand one another. And so, I want to help with that process.

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