Say it with me: MENTAL HEALTH PROBLEMS.

You cannot tell me that the algorithm isn’t literally (and I do mean literally) damaging our brains.

I open up Instagram and LinkedIn (and I don’t even go near TikTok) to see the following in this order:

  • “I asked ChatGPT”
  • Frogs doing frog things
  • Wars
  • Ads for plastic shit from Temu
  • Sabrina Carpenter opinions (at the same intensity as wars)
  • Manufactured outrage about a vulnerable minority
  • “I proposed to my girlfriend and this is what it taught me about B2B marketing”
  • Advertising telling me I’m ugly in 31 different ways
  • Humanitarian crises

All in delicious 20-second soundbites as carne por la máquina.

Distraction and sales-fuelled madness as the world burns, in order for a few people to profit at the expense of literally everyone else.

This ain’t about digging at the rich, either (well, the billionaires can suck it) — this is about changing things.

I want more wealth in the hands of people like us, and it is not going to happen while we’re all distracted by insufferable algorithmic bullshit and systems that are built to control us.

So I have a suggestion.

Sign up to hear from people who have important and/or joyful and/or helpful and/or inspirational things to say, in a way you can guarantee you’ll hear from them.

Best way to do that?

Email. Still.

Email marketing is far from dead.

In fact, I predict it’s going to be one of the most important ways to share information as we lose more and more control over how the media feeds us what it wants to feed us.

Here are some bonus Friday Goodie Bag links for you to check out and maybe sign up to:

Get on the Positive News mailing list because the world ISN’T all terrible. Some of it is wonderful.

Yay!

This way, we retain control of our attention (somewhat) and decide what we’re going to feed into our psyches.

Happy reading!

And happy writing…


And now, here’s what I’ve gathered for this week’s Friday Goodie Bag…

Will the real Bin Shady please stand up…

Meet the Singing Binman who will bring some joy into your Friday and a little song into your heart.

These obituaries for teenage girls who actually died when they said they were dying…

McSweeney’s is always good for some comedy writing, and this made me snort. You know how people (usually teenage girls let’s be honest) say “omg i’m dying” quite often? Well, here’s the aftermath of that…

This interesting piece about philanthropy vs remittances

Western donations and philanthropy aimed at “underdeveloped” countries gets a lot of attention… but hardly anyone knows that the biggest donors are the diaspora themselves. Check out this really interesting article about the white saviour narrative and the difference between philanthropy and remittances.

This dude who gives his paintings ridiculously elaborate names

I am absolutely here for naming things in ridiculous and extravagant ways — like this artist who paints sublime pictures of birds and then calls them stuff like “Fool Me Once, Shame On You — Fool Me Twice, And I Will Purposefully Utilize The Foundational Tool Of Democracy To Bring An End To The American Experiment, And With It, Democracy Itself”

This amazing chef who had no formal training but did have star quality

Edna Lewis was the granddaughter of a formerly enslaved man (yes, it’s that close to living memory) and she left a lasting legacy in one of New York’s most beloved restaurants. Her story is really cool, shows you don’t need all the advantages in life to do something wonderful, and she wrote a cookbook too!

Thanks to Sharon Hurley-Hall’s SHHARE group for this one!

What I’m reading

Right now I’m on holiday, so I wrote this in the past. Past me, though, is pretty sure I’m still working my way through The Expanse books! Space opera ftw!

What I’m writing

I’m working on some comedy bits on the beach. And I’ve got my watercolours out to paint some low-quality beach scenes. Woo hoo!

Word of the day

Spatula.

Honestly I just like the feel of the word in my mouth.

Quote of the day

“I tell you, we are here on Earth to fart around, and don’t let anyone tell you different.” —Kurt Vonnegut

How are you gonna fart around this weekend?


How to work with The MicroBook Magician

MicroBook Magic: Write your MicroBook in just 8 weeks — book for October 2025

Creative Playground: Write every day + get advice, support, and bonus access to my workshops! (1 week trial for £1)

Book Coach In Your Pocket: Let’s see how much you can get done in just 30 days

VIP Book Breakthrough Day: Make a quantum leap in book progress in just one day (or two half-days)

Nonfiction Book Ghostwriting: Idea to book in just 20 weeks

Buy My BookHow the hell do you write a book?


Mental health, bin men, and ridiculously elaborate names 🗑️

Categories

  • “open up your legs and stuff it all in”

    Occasionally I wake up at 4am in a cold sweat, as I vividly recall that time I silenced a crowded restaurant by making the following suggestion to my friend:

    “Well why don’t you just open up your legs and stuff it all in?”

    It’s not what you’re thinking. It really isn’t.

    Read more
  • Secret tracks, the Dewey Decimal System, and summer 🏖️ ☀️

    Things I don’t miss about the past:

    Cassette tapes getting tangled up and ruining the mix-tape you made

    DJs talking over the end of songs when you tried to record the Top 40

    Rotary phones (who has time to wait for it to click all the way back round from 0)

    Things I do miss about the past:

    Read more
  • Don’t work with me if…

    You’re not for everyone. Nor am I.

    And that’s not only okay, it’s brilliant!

    There’s not enough time or energy in the world for one person to help everyone.

    So, you probably don’t wanna work with me if you want a guaranteed bestseller...

    Read more
  • “Writing a book opens doors”

    My signature course, MicroBook Magic, wouldn’t even exist without this brilliant human.

    Misty is Executive Director, North Durham Chamber of Commerce and CEO of Trifecta Sales Systems. 

    She’s also the author of How to Be a Thick-Skinned Email Marketer and the upcoming How to Be a Thick-Skinned Salesperson.

    Read more
  • Secret stories, bridges, and The Screaming 😱 🌉

    Since I was a small goblin child, I’ve been obsessed with the acknowledgements in books.

    They’re a little piece of the story of how the book was created and the minds behind it and gratitude is always a delight to see anyway, right?

    And, if I’m being totally honest, part of me was hoping to see my name there, too.

    Read more
  • The Easy Yes Book

    I am surrounded by the decaying corpses of hobbies I have gotten excited about, started, and then abandoned.

    My hard drive is littered with the bones of books I began to write, but did not finish.

    This is how my AuDHD brain works.

    That doesn’t mean I don’t also create AND FINISH wonderful projects…

    Read more
  • Velociraptors, notebooks, and penguins in the military

    If you have ever looked closely at a fully alive and enthusiastic chicken, you’ll know they evolved from dinosaurs.

    When Jurassic Park came out, I was like WELL OF COURSE BIRDS EVOLVED FROM DINOSAURS LOOK AT THEM. I did not understand why this was such a controversial idea.

    Anyway, I am kept by chickens and they are 100% little dinosaurs. Velociraptors.

    Read more
  • Laura Chamberlain

    In every round of MicroBook Magic my clients knock my dinosaur-print socks off but every now and then someone just boggles me.

    Like Laura, who is a marketing professor at Warwick Uni, and runs Think Talk Thrive, a professional development and career strategy agency AND has small children.

    Read more
  • Sorry, mate, I didn’t see you! 🏍️ 👀

    I used to ride a motorbike — an R6, then a succession of Triumphs.

    And yes, I chose an extremely unsuitable bike for my first bike. But it was fun.

    It’s hazardous, riding a bike on the road cos of, you know, other people.

    One thing I’d often hear repeated by crusty old-timers to n00bs like me was:

    Read more
  • Vicky, with blue hair and an orange striped top, looks morose with notebook and pen in hand

    If you’re writing a book but you’re stuck in a rut, lemme ask you this: what have you tried so far?

    Maybe you’ve taken a course. Read a book. Bought a blueprint. Paid for one of those “write your bestseller in a weekend” bros… and been burned.

    So, when you see my MicroBook Magic program, you’re a little… sceptical.

    Read more
  • I tried to fit him into a “book box” and it completely backfired

    When he came to me for book coaching, I was really excited — he was full of energy and had a message and a GREAT story.

    I lined up all my pens and pencils and rulers and rules about “how a book should be written” and “what a book coach should do” and we got started and it did NOT go well.

    Read more
  • “Can’t write and never will”

    I didn’t know, until after we’d finished MicroBook Magic Season 2, that Sharon wasn’t just struggling with her own doubts.

    When she was in college, double majoring in English and Pysch, an English professor told her she “can’t write, and never will.”

    Read more
  • It’s my birthday and I’ll list if I want to ✅ 🎉

    It’s my birthday today and here are 46 things I’ve learned. One for each year I’ve been alive. And here’s my gift to you…If you've been thinking about signing up for MicroBook Magic Season 7 —I’m offering a FREE 60-minute private coaching call to get you fully ready to go when the program kicks off.

    Read more
  • The longer you leave it, the harder it gets

    The longer you leave it, the harder it gets. And the more pointless it seems…And the more you should have started last week, last month, last year — so you may as well not start at all. It’s too late now, after all. What is even the point of it allllllll?

    Read more
  • Front cover of Will Storr’s The Hertics

    The first time I picked up The Heretics by Will Storr I got about 25 pages into it — not even past the introduction — before I had to put it down because I got so angry.

    It’s about people who think the Earth is flat, who believe homeopathy can cure cancer, who think they’ve been abducted by aliens.

    Read more
  • This will change somebody’s world 💌

    It’s weird, what happens when we set out to write Something Important, like a book or an essay or even a social media post. Our bodies and minds are taken over by the ghost of our primary school selves, worried the teacher will take the ideas our imaginations made and squash them into a boring little cube that fits the system.

    Read more
  • Dictator satire, fckd facts, and real estate hide + seek 👑

    Lockdown, 2020.

    I was a copywriter who also helped people write nonfiction books, but the world had just shattered + shut down.

    And who the hell was going to indulge writing a book when the ship was sinking?

    It was decision time: do I crash and burn? Or go all-in on what I really want to do?

    Read more
  • Toby Tortoise

    This here is Toby Tortoise, who I take care of sometimes.

    He lives just along the lane from me and he has strawberry on his face (living his best life!).

    All he needed was a little sunshine and warmth to do the thing he does best: eat and snooze.

    What do you need to do the thing you do best?

    Read more
  • Your fear smells delicious…

    I’ve done a lot of scary things. Made a lot of terrifying decisions — and they were the best decisions I ever made.

    You already know you want a book out there with your name on.

    Maybe you’ve already started it!

    But when it’s out there with your name on, people might see it, right? They might not love it. They might not love YOU.

    Read more
  • Daffodils, strangers, and the Minecraft Library

    Find a daffodil and look at it. Look at it until you remember how beautiful the world can be.

    Stand in the sunshine and let the sun soak into your face, until you remember that there are more people who want the world to be kind and gentle than those who want to spread fear.

    Then, pull your socks up, buckaroo, and get writing.

    Read more
  • Robots, OnlyFans, and MAD podcasts 🤖 👯

    You’re a writer. You are, or you wouldn’t be here reading this.

    So I have a question for you today: how do you feel about big tech AI companies stealing your work?

    If you’re in the UK, please read on — then take action.

    Read more
  • Trouser holes, boxes, and truncheons 👖🎁

    My face is one giant grin right now because I’m reading the reviews coming in from yesterday’s Find Your Funnybone microworkshop.

    Julia’s starts with:

    “The “find your funny bone” workshop had all the elements of a perfect workshop…”

    Read more
  • Is there something you believe enough to fight for?

    Do you know what your most powerful weapon is in fighting the current rise of fascist ideas and literally saving the world?

    It’s your brain. Your voice. Your ideas.

    The words you use and how you put them together to subvert and combat misinformation, cruelty, and outright lies.

    Read more
  • Planting seeds, pavement cracks, and an Author Showcase

    Have you ever created something and then just thought it’s the best thing you’ve ever done?

    That's sort of how I feel about MicroBook Magic.

    Back in November 2022, when the world was starting to get back to normal after all the Covid lockdowns, I realised something was changing.

    Read more
  • Feck perfuction

    Beauty lies in the gaps. In the imperfections.

    Because the imperfections are what makes life interesting.

    The way the trapeze spins slightly faster than you were anticipating, so your movement quality changes almost imperceptibly and surprisingly, and your face makes a different shape to the one you were planning — but it works.

    Read more
  • Don’t make me plan – I just wanna start

    One of my MicroBook Magicians asked me this week — what if I don’t feel like planning today? What if I just want to dive right in? I want to write write write but I know I need to research some stuff!

    And to that I say: HURRAH!

    Fill yer boots, because there is no wrong way to write a book.

    Read more
  • There are (almost) no straight lines in nature ❄️

    Progress is never linear.

    It never takes us in a straight line from bad to good to excellent.

    It’s a wiggle.

    I’d like to think the wiggle trends upwards but we have to give it time to do that. Two data points aren’t enough, because that gives us the illusion of a straight line but it’s not, really.

    Read more
  • We need to talk about authenticity 😬 🫣

    When literally everyone with a megaphone on social media tells us we must be authentic, our true and unedited selves, or we’ll fail at business, life, and the 100m relay, try this instead:

    Don’t.

    Nobody wants our 100% true and unedited and authentic selves.

    Read more
  • Through tinted glasses

    I am currently obsessed with the TV show New Amsterdam.

    It’s fabulous brain-out beautiful people in unlikely storylines telly.

    But it also gets me thinking about perspectives, and how we badly need stories from people who don’t look, sound or live like us.

    Read more
  • How to create writing inspiration on tap

    My friend, if you’ve ever thought you need inspiration to strike in order to write your book, LET ME TELL YOU about inspiration.

    We’ve been sold a lie by antique romantic poets who — let’s be honest — were all off their tits on opium.

    Read more
  • Things that are good for your brain 🧠

    Some things are just good for your brain.

    No matter what’s going on inside it, what illnesses or challenges or mental health issues we may have — some activities are magic.

    Like…Walking among trees. Moving your body. Human contact. Journalling.

    Read more
  • Abracadabra! 🪄✨

    One of the reasons people don’t write books

    (and I know this to be true because they tell me)

    is that the idea of writing a book is just Too Big.

    And I totally understand that; I’ve written several books and they are Very Big. But I write for a living; it’s literally what I do.

    Read more
  • I want to write my bloody first draft

    “You’re an author? That’s so cool!”

    “I self-published it, it’s not in Waterstones or anything,” I replied.

    I had this conversation — paraphrased, natch — a few years ago, just after I wrote my first book. I felt uncomfortable with the praise, like publishing it myself was pure vanity.

    Read more
  • Tantrums to Titles 👠

    Tantrums to Titles: that was the name of the talk I gave yesterday at Circle Networks Live24.

    I stood up in front of a couple of hundred people…

    Shared some of my favourite book writing wisdom…

    And was beyond delighted when so many people said their big takeaway from the day was that they wanted to write a book of their own!

    Read more
  • Googly eyes on the side of a caucasion hand

    Ever wondered if your book idea (or you) is too... weird?

    Like — you look at all the nonfiction and business books out there, and yours doesn’t seem to fit?

    Maybe your face doesn’t fit, or your voice seems too brash, or your story seems a bit too out there compared to others in your niche...

    Read more
  • 8 weeks to turn “idea” into “manuscript” 💭 📖

    You see yet another “viral” post on LinkedIn or Instagram or wherever you choose to doomscroll in which someone says something so eyeball-grindingly obvious and shallow about your area of expertise you CANNOT EVEN and yet they’ve got 1,826 likes and 97 comments.

    Read more
  • What people THINK writing a book is like… 🌸 💀

    Come with me. Lemme lift the tablecloth and usher you into the den.

    Because you might be wondering: what’s it actually like to write a book?

    Well, tbh I don’t know what it’s like for you… but I can tell what it ISN’T like.

    Read more
  • Tiny but powerful 🥊 🐭

    One of the first books I ever read when I became a copywriter, in my first iteration of being a business owner, was A Technique for Producing Ideas by James Webb Young.

    It’s a teeny tiny little book of just 60-odd pages, a handful of which are (slightly overblown) prefaces by ad industry dudes.

    Read more
  • Are you a plotter or a pantser? 🗺️

    There are approximately 8,193 notes in my Notes app. Even more in my Notion.

    I’d say more-or-less 48% of them are lists. Plans. Plots, if you like.

    I live my life via lists, plans, and plots, or nothing would ever happen. They’re comforting and they make me feel like I’m making progress.

    Read more
  • I want to write my bloody first draft

    Every time I sit down to write it’s like whack-a-mole: which obstacle is my brain gonna chuck in the way today? Who knows? It’s a surprise!

    One consistent blockage, though, is my arrogant and pathological need to write a brilliant first sentence.

    Read more
  • Ep44 - Write Your Way to a Better Work Story

    When I used to have a job, I often wondered why it sucked so much.
    Of course, part of the problem was me and my attitude. Part of the problem was my undiagnosed AuDHD.

    Read more