Hi, I’m Phi
I help writers with no time to write get consistent and confident with their writing.
I spent years stuck in a vicious pattern. I’d feel inspired to write, ready to birth my magnum opus. I’d go to a cafe and order the frothiest latte, and create a new google doc confidently entitled “Solo Travel Memoir” or “Divorce Memoir” or “Coming Out Memoir”. I’d work on it for a week and then… Oh, and then.
I’d get overwhelmed by how many directions this could go. Voices would slither into my head like toxic fumes under a door, hissing their vicious nothings into my ear, “This is a journal entry not a book. You didn’t go to school for memoir, who do you think you are trying to write one? Whoa, whoa, pick a lane, dude,” and poof. I’d stop writing.
I’d feel stupid for even trying while at the same time feeling like a failure for not completing the book. But then, months later, I’d feel the call to write again and the same cycle would repeat.
I took workshops, went on retreats, had writing dates with friends. It worked somewhat. I did put things on the page. But the underlying issues were still there, waiting to come back as soon as the retreat ended or my writing buddy left the Zoom room.
You’re in the right place if this sounds painfully familiar and…
Writing is who you are, it’s how you understand the world, but you simply don’t have the time to do it.
When you finally do sit down to write, you get flooded with thoughts of “where do I start?” and “what’s even the point of this?” and “this better be perfect right out the gate.”
You get so overwhelmed, you decide the best use of your writing time is to wash the dishes. Or better yet, doom scrolling till you feel not just bad about not writing but also bad that everyone else is writing more and better than you.
You are sick of this cycle, you know it’s taking more energy not to write, to constantly second-guess yourself and beat yourself up.
So what is the solution?
First, you have to understand the real barrier in the way of your writing… and it’s not time!
The problem is the thoughts you have about your writing that stop you from consistently putting words on the page. You often get stuck in “where to start?” followed quickly by “where to go now?” You second-guess and over-edit and you have enough drafts of half-begun projects to wallpaper your house. You worry about what others will think and that you’ll be ostracized for writing about people you know.
It is these very thoughts, the thoughts that your brain tells you about your writing, that I help you to understand and move past.
And I’ll tell you right now, most writers have these thoughts about their writing. And most writers don’t know there’s something you can do about it. No one teaches this in writing classes.
Here’s what I discovered about the writing process, and it didn’t come from a writing class—it came from life coach training.
When I began life coaching training, I learned tools to help my clients with mindset issues in various aspects of their lives, those painful thoughts and long-held beliefs that were holding them back from their desires. I began to coach myself in all parts of my life. Including my writing.
For the first time in 20 years, my writing flowed. Projects began and continued. I began to recognize the inner chorus of “You’re a fake and everyone knows it” and “This is not good enough” that had lived in my head so long they had paid off the mortgage of the seaside villas they had built in there. I began to see these thoughts as just thoughts and not The Truth, and I began to squash those little fuckers one by one
—just kidding.
I tended to them with compassion and they began to ease up. Which meant I began to write more.
Slowly, so slowly, I began to release the chokehold I had unknowingly placed around my creativity. My inspiration could breathe. Writing became fun again. It began to flow. As did my confidence.
I still have thoughts of “This is dumb, this is too much, pick a lane already.” Maybe not daily, but they definitely come. But now I know how to manage these mind gremlins. To see them as just part of my writing process. And to tend to them till they settle their asses down and I can go back to writing again.
The problem isn’t actually about not having time to write. It’s about the mindset issues that keep you from writing, the mind gremlins that most of us are unaware of, but that are causing pain and stifling your creativity.
I’ve created a program that helps you identify your mindset issues, and I teach you tools to work with them, not against them, so that your writing flows with confidence and consistency.
Why Hire Me:
I have been writing fiction and creative non-fiction for 20+ years. I can proudly say I have zero degrees in writing (which my brain used to judge me very harshly for). I taught myself to write using craft books from local bookstores and taking various writing classes over the years. But mostly, I learned by writing.
I have a BA in English Lit and a BEd in Education. I’m a certified life coach and a yoga and meditation teacher. I have been attuned at Reiki Level II. I’ve been a writing teacher since 2016 and am the editor of the anthology, “Black Elder Voices”. My writing has been published in “Good Girls Marry Doctors,” “All the Women in My Family Sing,” and “Yoga International.” My zines include “Queer Brown Love Story” and “After Happily Ever After.”
Complicatedly Ever After:
I still have mindset issues surface when I write. I’ve come to see them as friends (or pesky little cousins who just wanna play) rather than big bad boogie monsters. The key is, I’m much quicker at recognizing them, and I have an arsenal of tools to use to work with them, not against them. Once I’ve identified my own issues, it’s fun to use my tools on myself, and it’s thrilling to watch myself get out of my own way. To feel the flow in my fingers as I get back to writing.
Fun Facts:
Being a Capricorn sun and Leo rising means I love spreadsheets and performing onstage respectively. Sometimes, I tell stories about spreadsheets which is the most fun of all.
I used to roll my eyes at writers who said, “The book just came to me and I wrote it in a month,” till my novel came to me one afternoon as I watered my garden and I dramatically dropped the hose (why do anything if it’s not dramatic) and raced to my writing desk and wrote it in three weeks. Damn. And also dammmnnn.
I’m practising softening my perfectionism issues by taking Spanish lessons and not doing my homework ever. It’s muy stressful and muy thrilling at the same time.
Ready to get writing?
Book a Free consult
A 20-minute call where we’ll talk about what’s stopping you writing and how you can find your flow.