creative writing | creative life
Rambling writer alert! Read at your own peril... I have very little to offer you on this Thursday afternoon, dear reader, and yet I still feel compelled to pick up a pen and scratch a few lines. Perhaps I should write in my journal and keep my muddled thoughts private. But. I am sitting here …
When you run an online biz you have to get comfy with REJECTION. You say, I've created this amazing, creative writing community. People say, Maybe later. You say, I wrote this really cool book. People say, Whatevs. You say, I recorded a podcast. People say, I'd rather listen to Frank Sinatra. You say, I bought a new teapot. People say, Oo, pretty! …
A writing coach recently asked me why I don't mentor people one-on-one. Okay. So in the past five years, thousands of authors and illustrators have come through girl&duck. Whether they've joined the Scribbles Academy, hung out in the Duck Pond, completed one of my online 'capsule courses', read my blog or simply watched my videos …
1. Get Good Photos. Lots of 'em! For me, this tip originally came from Denise Duffield-Thomas. And then from watching Leonie Dawson's branding reach magical proportions. Get good photos. You will not regret it. It's made a huge difference to my biz and continues to raise my profile. Truly. Everything started to shift and change …
Okay. So I wanted to call this post, Three GREAT business tips I got, gleaned, sifted, extracted from Tim Ferriss. Not him, literally. From his book. But space. And time. So... In the world of online business, just about everyone I know has read The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferris. It's a big book. Thick. …
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Greetings, dear reader! Thanks for dropping by! I'll get straight to it, shall I? This is a looong post. I hope you have a teapot handy... 1 Why another photoshoot? Since our tree change in 2018, I've changed a lot. I've become more 'myself' if that makes sense and I wanted girl and duck to …
Continue reading "Our Latest Website Photoshoot: Behind the Scenes"
Years ago when I was nursing, we used to attach long cardboard labels to the patients’ bedheads. The labels alerted the staff to any ‘peculiarities’; anything the doctors thought the staff should be aware of such as Nil By Mouth, Allergies, Diabetic. I remember one patient well. On admission she tore off her label and …
In the world of girl and duck, I get this often: Jen, I feel like I've known you for years. I always feel like you're talking to me, personally. This doesn't happen by accident. When I decided to take girl and duck online, I knew I had a lot to learn. Especially about marketing. I …
I run a business. It's called girl & duck. It feels weird to call it a business. I didn't know you could love a business. But I do. I adore it. I'm obsessed with it. When I'm creating stuff for girl & duck, I'm in my genius zone. (Have you read that book? The one …
Continue reading "How I started an online business. And accidentally created a thriving community"
One of my favourite moofies from the 1980s was Heartburn with Meryl Streep and Jack Nicholson. I’m not sure why I loved it so. I’ve always been gaga for Streep. Also, she wore some snazzy (1980s) outfits in that film. Good beads. Capacious shoulder-bags. New York boho actress/writer/intellectual look. That was a look, right? And …
Continue reading "How to stay happy, productive and vaguely sane in the publishing industry"