Where Do Writers Get Their Ideas? Filling the Creative Well

Where do writers get their ideas? In this Footnotes episode of the Coach Write Podcast, Helen ONeill explores the creative well: why it runs dry, how to refill it, and what a century of research on creativity can teach coaches who write. In this episode, you’ll discover: Why writer’s block is often procrastination in disguise, and the simplest way to get words on the page How Julia Cameron’s ‘filling the well’ metaphor applies to your writing and your coaching practice An honest look at morning pages and artist’s dates, including their roots with Dorothea Brande and Peter Elbow, and when they help or hinder Graham Wallas’s four stages of the creative process, and why research isn’t always procrastination Why boredom and sheer volume of output are two of the most underrated sources of ideas Mentioned in this episode: Scribe Circle writing sprints: https://coachwrite.co.uk/scribecircle Coach Write Residency waitlist (opens January 2027): https://coachwrite.co.uk/residency The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron https://link.amazon/B09LanqxI Gallup Strengths Finder https://www.gallup.com/cliftonstrengths/en/strengthsfinder.aspx Becoming a Writer by Dorothea Brande https://link.amazon/B04XcnizL The Art of Thought by Graham Wallas https://link.amazon/B06jSqFbl Connect with Helen: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/oneillhelen/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/coach_write Coach Write Reflections newsletter: https://coachwrite.co.uk/reflections Books: https://link.amazon/B07UGqmT8 Subscribe to the Coach Write podcast wherever you’re listening. If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a review. Your words can make a difference; a review can too.  

Can creativity and play make you a better coach, supervisor or therapist? In this episode, Helen ONeill talks with Gillian Walter, a leadership, life, and transition coach and coach supervisor, ahead of the launch of her second book, Brave Journey Home: Holding Space for Creative Reflection. Gillian explains how art, poetry and hands-on exploration can open up reflective practice, and why there is no wrong way to play. In this episode, you’ll discover: How Gillian went from hiding her doodles and poems out of shame to publishing them to support other practitioners A simple non-dominant-hand drawing exercise for naming your inner critic and putting it at a safe distance How images, poetry and hands-on ‘explorations’ can be used in supervision, coaching sessions and your own reflective practice Why Gillian chose to self-publish a full-colour book with IngramSpark, and how setting up her own imprint lets her sell direct How running open, reflective practice groups shaped her new book and taught her how to talk about it Connect with Gillian Walter Website: https://www.inside-out-coaching.com/ Book: https://link.amazon/B02N5phhJ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gillian-walter-mcc-mp-actc-esia-664a6575/ Mentioned in this episode 2027 Plan Your Portfolio Strategy founder session: Friday 4 December 2026 9.30am to midday, online, £27 founder price https://coachwrite.co.uk/2027plan/ CoachWrite Residency: https://coachwrite.co.uk/residency Support the show on Patreon: https://patreon.com/coachwrite Connect with Helen LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/oneillhelen/ Instagram: @coach_write Coach Write Reflections newsletter: https://coachwrite.co.uk/reflections Books https://link.amazon/B07UGqmT8 The Murder at Kendrick Manor, writing as Jody Derby https://link.amazon/B05qV8bal Subscribe to the Coach Write podcast wherever you’re listening. If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a review. Your words can make a difference; a review can too.

What do coach authors need to know before using AI to write a book? Ethics, confidentiality, copyright, platform rules and a practical way to decide. In this Footnotes episode, Helen explores the ethics, the practicalities, and the choices that only you can make, from Amazon’s AI declaration to protecting your author voice. In this episode, you’ll discover: Why the ethical question is less about whether AI is allowed and more about the promise you make to your reader, and whether you deliver on it What Amazon’s AI content declaration asks of authors, and why honesty matters whether you publish independently or traditionally How confidentiality, copyright (the UK and US positions differ) and your own voice shape the decision Where AI can genuinely help, from admin and thinking partnership to structural feedback and repurposing, and where it risks wiping the personality out of your book Why transparency is the common thread, and how creating your own AI policy gives you a clear place to start The Coach Write Residency opens in January 2027 with a founder discount for the first five members. Join the no-obligation waitlist at https://coachwrite.co.uk/residency Connect with Helen LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/oneillhelen/ Instagram: @coach_write Coach Write Reflections newsletter: https://coachwrite.co.uk/reflections Books: https://link.amazon/B07UGqmT8 Subscribe to the Coach Write podcast wherever you’re listening. If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a review. Your words can make a difference; a review can too.

How a conference talk led to a Routledge book deal. Clare Mulligan-Foster shares her path to publication, plus drafting, peer review tips, and cupcakes. Midlife career change and portfolio careers with occupational psychologist Dr Clare Mulligan-Foster, author of Supporting Midlife Career Transitions Through Coaching: A Psychological Guide. In this episode, you’ll discover: How a conference talk led to a Routledge book deal, and why booking meetings with publishers in advance is worth the effort Why Clare writes in extended blocks of time rather than daily word counts, and how a long first draft and peer review shaped her book What goes into planning a community book launch, and why the cupcakes stole the show Why mid and later life career transitions are growing, what portfolio careers look like in practice, and the contextual factors coaches need to understand The true cost of writing a book alongside client work, and how to decide what you want your book to do for your practice Connect with Clare: Website: https://www.drclaremulliganfoster.co.uk/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/claremulligan/ Book: https://link.amazon/B0iQimQFd Connect with Helen: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/oneillhelen/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/coach_write Coach Write Reflections: https://www.coachwrite.co.uk/reflections Resources mentioned: 2027 Portfolio Career Planning Session waitlist: https://www.coachwrite.co.uk/2027plan  Coach Write Residency expression of interest: https://www.coachwrite.co.uk/residency  EMCC Global projects funded: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5yQpssPbiU  Enough: Rethinking Resilience in a World That Never Stops: https://link.amazon/B0eU7nUOn  Neilson title editor: https://www.nielsentitleeditor.com/titleeditor/ ALCS: https://www.alcs.co.uk/about-alcs/ Joanna Lott’s business of coaching: https://joannalottcoaching.com/ Gladstone library: https://www.gladstoneslibrary.org/

How much does it cost to self-publish a book? Helen walks through the six main areas where you can spend money, with UK figures for 2026, and shows how to choose between bootstrapping, independent publishing, and hybrid publishing. In this episode, you'll discover: The three price point options (bootstrapping, professional independent publishing and hybrid) and what each one is likely to cost you Why editing is the one area to protect if your budget is tight, and what developmental editing, copy editing and proofreading each involve What to expect to pay for cover design, formatting, ISBNs (in the UK), plus the legal deposit requirement for UK and Irish authors How to weigh your time against your money, and where you can sensibly save on formatting and marketing Connect with Helen: Join the founder wait list for the 2027 Coach Write 90 programme: https://coachwrite.co.uk/coachwrite90 Newsletter: https://www.coachwrite.co.uk/reflections    LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/oneillhelen  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/coach_write Books: https://amzn.to/3MPS2Lq   Resources Mentioned: CIEP: https://www.ciep.uk/ 99 designs: https://99designs.co.uk/ Canva: https://www.canva.com/ Vellum: https://vellum.pub/ Atticus: https://www.atticus.io/ Neilsen ISBN Store: https://www.nielsenisbnstore.com/

How do you take an idea from a free PDF to a hardback planner in its seventh edition? Helen talks to Fay Wallis, career and executive coach, host of the HR Coffee Time podcast and creator of the Essential HR Planner, about iterating a product, working with printers and Amazon, and how what you publish can be part of a service led business. In this episode, you'll discover: How a free PDF of HR awareness days became a hardback planner, and what changed with each edition What a printer taught Fay about paper, finishes and print batches, and how print on demand through Amazon changed the risk How Amazon's low content book classification and the rise of AI-generated books affect anyone publishing a planner or workbook Why mistakes slip past even careful proofreading, and how Fay put things right when they did How a planner can feed a coaching business through planning days, monthly accountability sessions and client gifts Connect with Fay: The Essential HR Planner: https://essentialhrplanner.co.uk/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/faywallis Website: https://brightskyhr.co.uk/ Connect with Helen: Book: Enough: Rethinking Resilience in a World That Never Stops https://link.amazon/B0g9QtMZu Coach Write Reflections: https://coachwrite.co.uk/reflections Wait list for the 2027 Coach Write 90: https://coachwrite.co.uk/coachwrite90 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/oneillhelen/

In this solo episode, Helen answers listener questions about her own path to publication, sharing an honest look behind the scenes of an independent author's book launch on the eve of releasing her fifth book, Enough: Rethinking Resilience in a World That Never Stops. In this episode you'll discover: Where the idea for Enough came from, and the three pillars, affiliation, achievement and autonomy, that shape Helen's model for resilience Why Helen chose independent authorship over a traditional publishing deal, and what that decision means for control, timeline and royalties What actually happens between typing 'the end' and publication day: editing, cover design, metadata, ISBNs and going wide across distributors How an Advanced Reader Team helps a book get discovered, and why early reviews matter as much as revenue in the first weeks The promotion strategy behind the Enough launch, from LinkedIn title quizzes to a discounted ebook and a reader-list promotion stack Connect with Helen Buy the book: https://link.amazon/B01LuboFk Newsletter: https://www.coachwrite.co.uk/reflections    LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/oneillhelen  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/coach_write Subscribe to the Coach Write podcast wherever you're listening. If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a review. Your words can make a difference; a review can too.

We're tackling a common misconception this week: that writing has to be a solitary pursuit. Helen unpacks why we default to picturing writers working alone, and makes the case for why writing alongside other people, particularly virtually, changes everything. In this episode, you'll discover: Why the image of the lone author at a mahogany desk is a myth, and where that image actually comes from The three reasons we default to thinking writing has to be a solitary act How writing without commitment or accountability leads to drift, doubt, and eventually giving up Why virtual writing sprints and body doubling can be more effective than writing in person How the Scribe Circle works, and how to find or build your own writing community Connect with Helen: Join the Scribe Circle: https://coachwrite.co.uk/scribecircle Buy Enough: Rethinking Resilience in a World That Never Stops: https://link.amazon/B0dyg7r41 Newsletter: https://www.coachwrite.co.uk/reflections    LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/oneillhelen  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/coach_write

Helen is joined by Heidi Dawson and Dr Lorenzo Mugnai, co-founders of Y Root Coaching, to talk about how a chance meeting turned into a coaching practice, and how their framework became a book, The Y Root Method, published just days before this recording. In this episode, you'll discover: How a corridor conversation between an astrophysicist and a leadership programme facilitator led to a coaching business and a shared framework How the Y Root method borrows its "goal, checks, factors, actions" structure from space science, and why asking 'why' is the opposite of a dirty word in coaching Why Lorenzo wrote the book with Heidi in mind as the reader, and how that shaped its structure and tone What it's really like writing a business book in your second language, and the surprising advantage of learning grammar rules as an adult How Heidi and Lorenzo use AI as a sense check without letting it write their voice, and their honest take on independent publishing, cover design and the "when is enough, enough" question of editing Connect with Helen Newsletter: https://www.coachwrite.co.uk/reflections    LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/oneillhelen  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/coach_write Join the no commitment wait list for the next cohort of Coach Write 90: https://www.coachwrite.co.uk/coachwrite90 Books: https://amzn.to/3MPS2Lq   Connect with Heidi and Lorenzo Website: https://yrootcoaching.com/ Heidi Dawson LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/heidi-dawson-36a26820/ Lorenzo Mugnai LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mugnailorenzo/ Book: https://link.amazon/B0eE4wgyz   People and Resources Mentioned Written word media podcast episode on A+ content: https://www.writtenwordmedia.com/how-to-set-up-amazon-a-plus-content-in-30-minutes-or-less/ Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/ Preorder Enough: Rethinking Resilience in a World That Never Stops https://link.amazon/B04frvgKn Coaching at work magazine: https://www.coaching-at-work.com/

In this solo episode, Helen explores what a strengths-based approach can teach coaches about how they show up not just with clients, but on the page. Drawing on frameworks like Clifton Strengths, DISC, MBTI, and the Enneagram, she looks at how understanding your own strengths can shape a writing process that actually works for you. In this episode you'll discover Why a strengths-based approach beats a deficit-based one, both in coaching and in writing The roots of strengths-based coaching in positive psychology and the work of Martin Seligman Three simple ways to spot your own strengths: natural talent, energy, and other people's feedback A tour of four popular frameworks (Clifton Strengths, DISC, MBTI, and the Enneagram) and what each one reveals How to use your own strengths profile to build a writing process that fits how you actually work Connect with Helen Website: coachwrite.co.uk Newsletter, Coach Write Reflections: coachwrite.co.uk/reflections LinkedIn: O'Neill Helen (linkedin.com/in/oneillhelen) Instagram: @coach_write Subscribe to the Coach Write podcast wherever you're listening. If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a review. Your words can make a difference; a review can too.