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As we step into 2026, many writers feel ready to begin—yet remain stalled or exhausted from the year before. In this episode, I show you how to reclaim momentum through creative alignment and the one thing you must do to harness your success. We explore the three essential things every writer must do: shed limiting beliefs, build supportive habits, and set boundaries that honor who you’re becoming—so you can step into the year with clarity, sovereignty, and authentic momentum.

Episode Highlights

• 1:53: Why Your Momentum is Flagging or Lagging
• 6:09: Shedding Unhelpful Beliefs
• 12:33: Modifying Your Habits
• 16:34: Evaluating Your Relationships
• 28:10: The Most Important Practice to Cultivate in 2026

Resources for this Episode:

• What’s Up with the Year of the Fire Horse
• Welcome to the Year of Fire Horse 2026: Exploring Chinese Zodiac Horse's Cultural Meanings & Traditions
• What Are You Ready to Shed
• Identify Your Memoir’s Essential Question
• Ditch Your Inner Critic Now

Lisa’s Bio: Lisa Cooper Ellison is an author, speaker, trauma-informed writing coach, and host of the Writing Your Resilience podcast. Working at the powerful intersection of storytelling and healing, she blends her writing expertise, clinical training, and soul-centered practices—including Akashic Records work and Human Design—to help writers turn their hardest experiences into art. Her essays—on sibling loss, grief, trauma healing, and the craft of writing—have appeared in The New York Times, HuffPost, and The Loss of a Lifetime: Grieving Siblings Share Stories of Love, Loss, and Hope, among others.

Sign up for Revise Your Memoir series: https://bit.ly/4ooLTDi

Get a taste of the series by signing up for Identify Your Memoir’s Essential Question

Sign up for Revise Your Memoir series: https://bit.ly/4ooLTDi

Connect with your host, Lisa:
Get Your Free Copy of Ditch Your Inner Critic: https://lisacooperellison.com/subscribe/
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Produced by Espresso Podcast Production

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In this encore conversation, author and teacher Melanie Brooks and I explore the lifelong impact of silence—within our families, our communities, and our writing lives. Drawing from her memoir, A Hard Silence, Melanie shares how unspoken truths shaped her understanding of grief, identity, and faith, and what it took to finally claim her voice on the page. Together, we discuss how silence keeps writers stuck, the power of finishing the stories that haunt us, and how narrative medicine helped her weave two complex narratives into one.

Episode Highlights

• 2:55: The pain of living with secrets
• 5:54: Navigating anticipatory grief
• 15:45: The transformative power of finishing your story
• 20:00 The magic of timing and the stories we tell ourselves
• 26:00 The influence of narrative medicine on Melanie’s story
• 30:00 Marrying two stories into one
• 37:00 Melanie’s best writing advice

Resources for this Episode:

• My Family Kept My Dad's Secret For Years. I Wasn't Prepared For What Telling The Truth Would Mean.
• Interrogating the Cost of Silence and Finding My Voice
• Ditch Your Inner Critic Now

Melanie’s Bio: Melanie Brooks is the author of A Hard Silence: One Daughter Remaps Family, Grief, and Faith When HIV/AIDS Changes It All (Vine Leaves Press, September 2023) and Writing Hard Stories: Celebrated Memoirists Who Shaped Art from Trauma (Beacon Press, 2017). She teaches professional writing at Northeastern University and creative nonfiction in the MFA program at Bay Path University in Massachusetts. She holds an MFA in Creative Nonfiction from the University of Southern Maine’s Stonecoast writing program. She recently completed a Certificate of Narrative Medicine at Columbia University. Her work has appeared in Psychology Today, the HuffPost, Yankee Magazine, the Washington Post, Ms. Magazine, Creative Nonfiction, and other notable publications. She lives in New Hampshire with her husband, two children (when they are home from college), and two Labs.

Connect with Melanie:

Website: melaniebrooks.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/melanie.brooks.1690

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/melaniejmbrookswriter

X: https://twitter.com/MelanieJMBrooks

LinkedIn: http://linkedin.com/in/melanie-brooks-504826121

Book: https://bookshop.org/p/books/a-hard-silence-one-daughter-remaps-family-grief-and-faith-when-

Sign up for Revise Your Memoir series: https://bit.ly/4ooLTDi

Connect with your host, Lisa:
Get Your Free Copy of Ditch Your Inner Critic: https://lisacooperellison.com/subscribe/
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Join me and Pushcart Nominee, TedX Speaker, and multi-passionate creative, Acamea Deadwiler for this encore episode where we talk about normalized violence, how our attachment styles can influence the way we approach our memoirs, and the importance of connecting with your inner compass. During our conversation, you’ll also learn what transcendental meditation is and how Acamea used her TM practice while writing her memoir, Daddy’s Little Stranger.

Acamea’s bio: Acamea Deadwiler is a Pushcart Prize nominated memoirist and essayist who received praise from Publishers Weekly and authored the memoir, Daddy’s Little Stranger. Her work has appeared in Bellevue Literary Review, North American Review, and Beyond Words Literary Magazine, among other publications. Acamea’s media features include the New York Post, Cosmopolitan, Bustle, and the FOX television network. She is also a TEDx speaker. Currently residing in Nevada, Acamea is an Indiana native. She is a fellow in the MFA program at Randolph College.

Resources Mentioned During This Episode:

• How Different Attachment Styles Affect Relationships
• What is Transcendental Meditation
• Ditch Your Inner Critic Now
• Sign Up for Revise Your Memoir

Episode Highlights

• 1:00 The Stories We Carry
• 7:00 Dealing with Normalized Violence
• 11:29 Choosing the Right Moments When Trauma Is High
• 15:30 Writing About Abandonment
• 18:00 Attachment Styles and Storytelling
• 24:12: Essay Collections vs Memoir
• 28:00 Writing About Bad Behavior
• 35:19 Transcendental Meditation and Writing
• 41:50 Connecting With Your Inner Compass
• 43:00 Acamea’s Best Writing Advice

Connect with Acamea:

• Instagram - @acamea
• Twitter - @acameald
• Website - acameadeadwiler.com
• Book - Daddyslittlestranger.com

Sign up for Revise Your Memoir series: https://bit.ly/4ooLTDi

Connect with your host, Lisa:
Get Your Free Copy of Ditch Your Inner Critic: https://lisacooperellison.com/subscribe/
Website | Instagram | YouTube | Facebook | LinkedIn

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Join me and Andrea Firth for this encore episode of the writing your resilience podcast where we explore what personal essays are, how writers can uncover their essay’s aboutness, and how to develop resilient editing practices. As an added bonus, learn the inside scoop on how to get published on the Brevity Blog.

Episode Highlights

• 4:00 The Difference Between Memoir and Personal Essay
• 7:00 Exploring the Inciting Incident for Your Essays
• 14:00 Common Struggles Essayists Have: Aboutness
• 21:00 The Power of the Braided Essay
• 25:00 Resilient Editing and Workshopping
• 34:00 Submitting to the Brevity Blog

Resources Mentioned During This Episode:

• The Beauty of a Busted Fruit by Natalie Diaz
• Secret Words by Andrea Firth
• Broken Glass by Andrea Firth
• Old John by Andrea Firth
• Brevity Blog Submission Guidelines
• Snot-Bubble-Cry Dance Parties that Boost Your Creativity by Lisa Cooper Ellison
• Looking at an Eclipse: A Braided Essay About Braided Essays by Lilly Dancyger
• Ditch Your Inner Critic Now

Andrea’s Bio: Andrea A. Firth is a writer, editor and educator living in the San Francisco Bay Area. She is an Editor at Brevity Blog and cofounder of Diablo Writers’ Workshop where she teaches creative writing and provides developmental editing. Andrea has an MFA in Creative Nonfiction from Saint Mary’s College of California. She was a finalist for The Missouri Review's 2021 Perkoff Prize in nonfiction, and her work has appeared in Dorothy Parker’s Ashes, Allium, The Coachella Review among others. Learn more about her and read her recent work at www.andreaafirth.com.

Connect with Andrea:

Website: https://www.andreaafirth.com/

Substack: Everything Essay! with Andrea Firth

Instagram: @andreaafwriter

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/andrea.firth.58

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andreafirth/

Sign up for Revise Your Memoir series: https://bit.ly/4ooLTDi

Connect with your host, Lisa:
Get Your Free Copy of Ditch Your Inner Critic: https://lisacooperellison.com/subscribe/
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Join me and Hannah Sward, author of Strip: A Memoir, for an encore episode where we go behind the scenes of her writing process—how she wrote her first draft by hand, in one long, unfiltered sentence; how she found the courage to put her full truth on the page; and how she distilled years of experience into a memoir that moves with incredible precision and power. You’ll also learn transcription tricks, sex scene-writing tips, the unexpected doors publishing your book can open, and some somatic techniques for navigating your vulnerability.

Episode Highlights

• 4:46 Hannah’s memoir writing process
• 10:16 Transcription tips
• 17:47 Somatic strategies for writing vulnerable scenes, including sex scenes
• 23:35: Placing insights into your book
• 24:37 Tricks for writing concisely
• 28:57 The post-publication life of your book
• 34:39 Writing what’s next

Resources for this Episode:

• “My life after meth: Learning to open and close the curtains” by Hannah Sward
• “The Sharp Edge of A Shell” by Hannah Sward
• “Making Even The Smallest Mistake Filled Me With Terror. Then 2 Little Words Changed My Life.” by Lisa Cooper Ellison
• Ditch Your Inner Critic Now

Hannah’s Bio: Hannah Sward, daughter of the late poet Robert Sward, is the IPPY Gold winning author of Strip: A Memoir. For the past 25 years, Sward’s work has been widely published in literary journals in the US, Canada, and the UK. Her most recent work can be read in the LA Times, HuffPost, The NY Times (Tiny Love Stories) and The Rumpus (Voices on Addiction). Sward is on the board at Right to Write Press, a nonprofit that supports emerging incarcerated writers. She believes strongly in good literary citizenship and is actively involved in the literary community. She lives in Los Angeles where she is working on her next book. Learn more at hannahsward.com

Connect with Hannah:

• Website: hannahsward.com
• IG: @hannahswardauthor
• Threads: @hannahswardauthor
• BlueSky: summerjar.bsky.social

Sign up for Revise Your Memoir series: https://bit.ly/4ooLTDi

Connect with your host, Lisa:
Get Your Free Copy of Ditch Your Inner Critic: https://lisacooperellison.com/subscribe/
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Produced by Espresso Podcast Production

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What happens when you commit to showing up—again and again—for your writing life? In this special bonus recording in celebration of my 100th episode,, I reflect on ten years of creative work and the ten lessons I learned about growth, resilience, rest, and trusting your own process. If you’re questioning your path, feeling stuck, or wondering whether your effort matters, this episode will remind you why it does.

Episode Highlights

• 2:48: The Most Important Thing to Know
• 6:04: Failing Up versus Floundering
• 9:03: The Counterintuitive Nature of Progress

Resources for this Episode:

• Quantity Leads to Quality
• Gratitude Leads to Greatness
• Ditch Your Inner Critic
• Revise Your Memoir

Lisa’s Bio: Lisa Cooper Ellison is an author, speaker, trauma-informed writing coach, and host of the Writing Your Resilience podcast. Working at the powerful intersection of storytelling and healing, she blends her writing expertise, clinical training, and soul-centered practices—including Akashic Records work and Human Design—to help writers turn their hardest experiences into art. Her essays—on sibling loss, grief, trauma healing, and the craft of writing—have appeared in The New York Times, HuffPost, and The Loss of a Lifetime: Grieving Siblings Share Stories of Love, Loss, and Hope, among others.

Sign up for Revise Your Memoir series: https://bit.ly/4ooLTDi

Connect with your host, Lisa:
Get Your Free Copy of Ditch Your Inner Critic: https://lisacooperellison.com/subscribe/
Website | Instagram | YouTube | Facebook | LinkedIn

Produced by Espresso Podcast Production

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Have you been trying to fit your life story into the hero’s journey and find it’s just not working? What if it doesn’t fit the mold because you were never meant to be the hero, but rather you were meant to be the queen? In this 100th episode of Writing Your Resilience, I’m joined by Stacey Simmons, a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, Certified Psychedelic Therapist, and author of The Queen’s Path. Together, we explore sovereignty, archetypes, and why so many women’s stories end before they ever claim their full power.

Episode Highlights

• 4:35: Understanding Sovereignty
• 9:25: The Hero’s and Heroine’s Journey
• 15:30: Blindness and Entering the Divide
• 22:05: Our Curses and Marks
• 25:15: The Dangers of the Queen’s Path
• 31:20: Exercise: MIPEs, MISORs, and Our Commitments
• 38:33: Sovereignty Is for Everyone
• 41:52: Psychedelics and Sovereignty

Resources for this Episode:

• The 5 Elements of Dramatic Structure: Understanding Freytag’s Pyramid
• Definition of an Archetype

Stacey’s Bio: Stacey Simmons is a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and Certified Psychedelic Therapist. She is a clinical supervisor at Hope Therapy Center in Burbank, California. Her practice focuses on creative professionals, where she works primarily with writers, directors, actors, and musicians. Her research focuses on creativity, archetypes, psychedelic psychotherapy, neuroscience and consciousness research. She is a volunteer researcher with the Semel Institute of Neuroscience at UCLA, as well as a researcher with the Trance Science Research Institute in Paris, France. She holds a PhD from the University of New Orleans, and a Masters degree from Pacifica Graduate Institute in Santa Barbara, California.

Connect with Stacey:

• Website: https://staceysimmonsphd.com/
• Facebook: @staceysimmonsphd
• Instagram: @staceysimmonsphd
• TikTok: @staceysimmonsphd

Sign up for Revise Your Memoir series: https://bit.ly/4ooLTDi

Connect with your host, Lisa:
Get Your Free Copy of Ditch Your Inner Critic: https://lisacooperellison.com/subscribe/
Website | Instagram | YouTube | Facebook | LinkedIn

Produced by Espresso Podcast Production

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What if the pressure to “find the silver lining” is actually keeping you from healing?
In this episode, Dr. Risa Riger and I unpack the subtle—and sometimes harmful—ways toxic optimism, avoidance, and “bouncing back” culture disconnect us from our own truth. Together, we explore what real resilience looks like, why honesty must come before hope, and how trusting your capacity to be with discomfort can transform the way you meet your life.

Episode Highlights

• 2:13: The Self-Owned Mindset
• 3:50: The Problem with Silver Linings
• 7:44: The Fallacy that Everything Happens for a Reason
• 12:15: Building Self-Literacy
• 19:11: The Unsustainability of Bouncing Back
• 26:10: Cultivating Self-Trust

Resources for this Episode:

• Disruptive Conversation with Acamea Deadwiler
• Disruptive Conversation with Dana Cohen M.D.
• Disrupting the Inner Critic: Writing Change and the Self-Owned Mindset with Dr. Risa Ryger
• Writing to Heal with Laura Davis
• Sign Up for Revise Your Memoir

Dr. Ryger’s Bio: Dr. Risa Ryger is a Clinical Psychologist, International Speaker, Author, Founder of 93% Consulting, and the Creator of The Self-Owned Mindset(TM). As an Expert in Change, she knows that positive change can happen at any point. Her goal is to help women build confidence and self-trust to powerfully step forward into their lives through developing their Self-Owned Mindset.” Dr. Ryger has held clinical appointments including Professional Associate of Psychiatry at New York-Presbyterian Hospital and Clinical Instructor of Psychology in Psychiatry at Cornell University Medical College. She has served as a Consulting Psychologist for Victim Services NYC and on the Advisory Council of Mindfulness Without Borders. She has presented to Microsoft, Mastercard, CitiBank, United Bonds UAE, National Alliance on Mental Illness, and Her Justice. She is a contributing author for Mind Body Green, Thrive Global, and The Female Quotient. She hosts a weekly Instagram Live Series, Disruptive Conversations with Dr. Risa Ryger, to highlight female disruptors in their fields. Her debut book on The Disruptive Self-Ownership Process(TM) is set to launch in early 2026. Dr. Ryger earned her Master of Science, Master of Philosophy, and Doctorate from Columbia University. She is the proud mother of two amazing daughters and lives in NY with her husband and two dogs, Penelope and Sammy – the dog who smiles.

Connect with Dr. Ryger:

• Instagram: www.instagram.com/dr.risaryger
• Website: https://www.drrisaryger.com/

Sign up for Revise Your Memoir series: https://bit.ly/4ooLTDi

Connect with your host, Lisa:
Get Your Free Copy of Ditch Your Inner Critic: https://lisacooperellison.com/subscribe/
Website | Instagram | YouTube | Facebook | LinkedIn

Produced by Espresso Podcast Production