Welcome to the Creative Pen podcast.

I'm Joanna Penn, thriller author and creative entrepreneur, bringing you interviews, inspiration and information on writing craft and creative business.

You can find the episode show notes, your free author blueprint and lots more at thec the creative pen.com. And that's Pen with a

double N. And here's the show. Hello creatives. I'm Joanna Penn. And this is episode number 774 of the

podcast. And it is Saturday, the 5th of October, 24 as I record this with a bit of a cough, hence the husky voice.

In today's show, I'm talking about author mindset, writing and marketing nonfiction with Ariel Curry.

We discuss the mindset needed for a successful author career no matter the genre,

why you need to shift your viewpoint to that

of your target market in order to write a book that satisfies them, the key elements of a book

map and how you might use it as a plotter or a discovery writer, aspects of platform, and much

more. So that's coming up in the interview section.

In writing and publishing things, do you struggle with imposter syndrome? It's definitely common

to many authors and something I've definitely struggled with often when I go to events

and just feel like, well, like, how am I here?

But when will we ever be good enough? This is one of those questions. Rachel Heron tackles this

topic on her podcast, Inc in Your Vains this week, in an interview with poet Lynn Thompson. They

recommend embracing imperfection, being kinder to yourself

and also giving yourself permission to succeed. You have to acknowledge that imposter syndrome and

do it anyway. So yes, if you're at an event and you're like, I don't believe I should be here,

I'm not good enough to be here.

Then just to kind of shrug that off and do it anyway. Submit your work, do that talk,

publish that book. And don't let your own self-absorption get you off track. In some tough love,

...