Natasha Khullar Relph is a multiple award-winning journalist and bestselling author of eight books, and divides her time between New Delhi, India and Brighton, UK.

She has written for The New York Times, TIME, CNN, ABC News, The Independent, Forbes, Ms., as well as every women's magazine you've ever heard of, including Elle, Marie Claire, Glamour, Vogue, Self, and others.

Natasha is the founder of The International Freelancer, a website that shows globally-minded writers how they, too, can write for a living, tell meaningful stories, and find financial freedom.

Shut Up and Write by Natasha Khullar Relph

Stop procrastinating. Stop making excuses. Just Shut Up and Write!

This is the book for every writer who ever needed a kick up the backside to get words on the page. It's the no-nonsense talking to you know you need.

Shut Up and Write doesn't deal with writer's block. It addresses the thousand things going on in your head that prevent you from Actually. Being. Productive.

With her characteristic humor, practicality, and hard-earned wisdom, Natasha Khullar Relph demonstrates an understanding of the creative mind. She shows you how to write anything—and finish it.

She shares stories from her own 15-year career as a writer and journalist—and a procrastinator and excuse-maker—and offers solid advice and practical strategies that take the guesswork out of every part of the writing process.

Conversational in style, understanding in tone; Khullar Relph takes you by the hand and teaches you how to create the space in your life, your home, and your mind for the projects that matter to you.

In short, straight-to-the-point chapters, Shut Up And Write will help inspire your creative courage and get you started writing today.

 

REVIEWS

  • "I love this book- couldn't put it down after downloading last night. I follow Ms. Relph's blog and find her writing style unique- she's confident, conversational, and funny!"

    – Reader review

  • "Where do I begin? This is a wonderful book. I don't want to write a review that is gushing, but I can't help but gush about this book. I found myself highlighting so many passages and recognizing myself in so many lines. It was wonderful to find out that I am not alone in having trouble getting the work done, of procrastinating, over-analyzing, and fretting about not making that 1000 word count EVERY SINGLE DAY. The author shares her struggles with these and writes an inspirational and practical guide to getting the work done; a process that worked for her and I'm sure will work for me and others. Written in a wonderful conversational tone it's like sharing writing advice with a friend or, better yet, a writing coach. It truly is a no B.S guide to getting the words on the page. I'm sure I will refer to this book over and over again. I think every writer should buy it. (I'm serious.)"

    – Reader review

  • "Reading this feels like you're listening to an old friend, a mentor of sorts, except that this mentor would admit to procrastinate and give herself excuses and eat chips in bed (I'm also so guilty of this!).

    This concise, pleasantly written book will make you feel like you can, you should, and you will, get back to what you want to write and stick with it... At least for a few days.

    After that, let's just read it again. And keep on working."

    – Reader review
 

BOOK PREVIEW

Excerpt

Every year in January, without fail, thousands of writers will set a 1,000-word daily writing goal. Most of us will write nowhere close to that number. If we wrote 1,000 words a day, which would take no more than one or two hours, we'd have written 365,000 words by the end of the year. Three novels. Write two hours a day and have three finished novels at the end of the year? That sounds doable, right?

So why don't you? Why don't I? Why don't most writers?

It's because most writers don't average 1,000 words a day; most don't come anywhere close to 500. We talk about writing. We read about writing. We obsess about writing. But often, we don't write.

This is not always your fault, as we'll explore in the book. But recognizing your trouble areas can help you go from no book a year to three books a year in no time. I've done it. You can, too.

Typically, however, writers fall into two camps—either we push too hard (overwhelm! burnout!) or we don't push hard enough. The latter leads to feeling bad, falling behind and struggling to catch up, which leads to overwhelm and burnout. Both situations wreak havoc in your life. What you should do is set reasonable daily targets and do whatever it takes to meet them.

Many of us beat ourselves up about not meeting goals. In certain situations, I think we're far too easy on ourselves as well. After my son was born, I suddenly found it much too convenient to forgive myself when I didn't meet my daily targets. I had the usual excuses at the ready—small child, a busy workday, a family to look after, and so on. But I was setting those goals for a reason. So either I had to scale down my goals and expectations or I had to stop letting myself off the hook for not meeting them.

There's a reason you picked up this book and are taking the time to read it. Ask yourself what's stopping you from writing. Is it truly a lack of time? You're undoubtedly a busy person, so maybe you can't write 1,000 words a day. Could you write 500? If not an hour, could you allocate a half hour or even fifteen minutes for your writing?

The only antidote to overwhelm is consistent action. Take care of that and you'll never feel overwhelmed again.

In this book, I'll guide you toward the process of doing that.

Are you ready to write? Let's begin.