Catalytic Prompts, the new technology you need for your writing
Intentional skill-building + clear vision = your book gets done, gets published, impacts readers, changes the world. Group coaching launches Aug. 13. Sign up now!
Forget prompts. Commit to intentional skill-building.
The internet is littered with writing prompts. There’s no shortage of ways to get started on your writing.
It’s as if writing coaches everywhere believe all writers have Stage 4 writer’s block.
This is not your diagnosis.
Intentional skill-building + vision = Your book
What’s in short supply is intentional skill-building with a vision aligned to YOUR book—the book you are meant to write and only you can write.
What’s in short supply is prompts that make you smarter -- not work harder. Prompts that help you right-size your book from the get-go.
Call these prompts nuclear. Call them cataclysmic.
Because they are precise. And they are aimed at honing YOUR voice for YOUR book.
They train you in how to make the magic happen on the page.
The secret to my catalytic prompts is this: Fuse vision with skill.
Become “trait literary”
When you practice with the discipline of a Zen meditator or a long-distance runner, you’ll notice that you’re summoning that magic all the time. It’s naturally unfolding on the page as you draft and revise.
Then you have “the writer trait.” It’s embedded in your personality. It’s instilled in the ink of every pen you pick up. I call it: Trait literary.
Here, I am borrowing a term from the science on meditation disciplines. Researchers such as Dr. Richard Davidson, PhD, director of the Center for Healthy Minds at the University of Wisconsin, have produced evidence that people who meditate change their brains, minds and bodies. In his book, Altered States, which he co-wrote with Daniel Goleman, author of Emotional Intelligence, he calls this “trait mindfulness.”
With intentional skill-building, a clear vision and a disciplined practice, you can become “trait literary.”
The problem with ordinary prompts
The problem with the garden-variety prompts you can find anywhere and everywhere is that they keep you spinning your wheels for a very long time. The danger is they put you on the path to generate, but generate what? Without vision, without skill, you are making yourself a word factory.
Now, if you’ve been hanging out in this space for a while, are an author-client working with me on book coaching or a developmental edit, have participated in a writing retreat or joined us for the Stories + Songs Writer Refuge, you know that I believe in the power of free-write practice.
To join our next monthly zoom meetup with the Stories + Songs Writer Refuge, register here. It’s free!
So, open-ended prompts are an integral part of the discipline, too. They are the way you get to what’s on your mind, then what’s really on your mind. They are the path to originality. They are how you get the raw, wild beauty on the page.
Even so, open-ended prompts are a conscious practice. That’s why I call the discipline The Uncommon Write. Download my free guide to the Uncommon Write to get started or renew your writing practice.
I often advise author-clients and workshop participants to develop this discipline first, then on your second pass, lean into Catalytic Prompts.
The Uncommon Write + Catalytic Prompts = Your finished book is clear, compelling and original
Why vision and skill make a happy marriage
Vision-making is important to head off any red-light issues -- big picture problems that send your book off track or leave it fundamentally flawed.
Skill-building is important because the more you have in your toolkit, the easier it is to execute your vision.
Catalytic prompts are the technology you need as a writer. They give you the edge with agents, editors and other publishing gatekeepers -- they get you a yes faster. They hook your intended readers because they help you master the authority, compassion and presence.
And they build your confidence that you are doing this right.
Come, be an empowered writer!
How this will work
I’ll post Catalytic Prompts in several topic areas, all of which are crucial for intentional skill-building, whether you’re writing self-help/transformational nonfiction, fiction or memoir.
How to tell good stories
How to speak to your ideal reader
How to engage the reader emotionally
How to use literary techniques such as dialogue, setting and plot
How to use embodied storytelling to make your reader feel like she’s right there with you
How to write with authority
How to master the art of the little story (an anecdote or parable)
How to write stellar sentences
Writers you may see here
SELF-HELP/TRANSFORMATIONAL NONFICTION
Peter Attia, Outlive
Lisa Feldman Barrett, How Emotions Are Made
David Brooks, The Second Mountain
Brene Brown, The Gifts of Imperfection and Daring Greatly
Susan David, Emotional Agility
Richard Davidson, Altered Traits
Glennon Doyle, Untamed
Clarissa Pinkola Estes, Women Who Run With the Wolves
Gay Hendricks, The Big Leap and Conscious Luck
Tara Mohr, Playing Big
Michael A. Singer, The Untethered Soul
FICTION
K.L. Cook, Last Call
Percival Everett, Erasure and James
Barbara Kingsolver, Demon Copperhead and The Poisonwood Bible
Colum McCann, Let the Great World Spin and Transatlanti c
Lorrie Moore, A Gate at the Stairs
Sena Jeter-Naslund, Four Spirits
Arthur Phillips, The Song Is You
Richard Powers, The Overstory
Joan Silber, Ideas of Heaven
MEMOIR
Kate Bowler, Everything Happens for a Reason
Mary Gauthier, Saved by a Song
Mary Karr, The Liar’s Club
Fintan O’Toole, We Don’t Know Ourselves
Maggie Smith, You Could Make This Place Beautiful
Patti Smith, Just Kids
Jeannette Wall, The Glass Castle
Alice Waters, Coming to My Senses
Tara Westover, Educated
NARRATIVE NONFICTION
Timothy Egan, The Immortal Irishman
Patrick Radden Keefe, Say Nothing
Erik Larsen, Isaac’s Storm
Barry Lopez, Arctic Dreams and Horizon
Robert McFarlane, Underland
Elizabeth Rush, Rising and Quickening
Terry Tempest Williams, Red and The Hour of Land
Catalytic Prompt: Your Opening Story
Here is the first Catalytic Prompt, from Susan David’s Emotional Agility, about how to find the right opening story.
Together, we are mighty. INTRODUCING: Monthly group coaching for authors writing a mighty book
Join us for Group Coaching! We’ll center these Catalytic Prompts in our discussion, but there are a million more questions you can ask me while you have my attention.
Starting August 2025, Story Catalyst group coaching will keep on you track, whether your burning questions are about outlining, writing, publishing or platform-building.
