writing life

Ugly Success

Success rarely looks the way we imagine it. It isn’t always polished, confident, or accompanied by a triumphant soundtrack. More often, it’s messy, improvised, and held together with coffee, determination, and sheer stubbornness. Ugly success is still success—and it deserves far more credit than we give it.

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How to Expand Your Discoverable Surface Area

Solar Sail Theory isn’t about finding stronger sources of momentum. It’s about becoming better at capturing thousands of weak sources of momentum that already exist.

One newsletter subscriber won’t change your life. One podcast appearance won’t transform your business. One new reader or conference conversation or bookstore event won’t either.

Individually, they’re almost insignificant.

That’s why the sail is enormous.

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The Perfect Life for an Author? It Looks Boring as Hell.

If you’re serious about writing — I mean serious-serious — then at some point you’re going to have to give things up. And not just a Netflix show or two. I mean real, soul-wrenching, this-or-that decisions.

I’ve made them. I gave up socializing. I gave up making clothes and jewelry. I took lower-paid jobs so I’d have the energy to write.

Writing takes time. And if your life is already full, then something else has to go. That’s the reality. You can’t wedge a writing career into the margins of a life that’s already packed.

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