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What does it really take to get into a state of creative flow and what pulls us out of it? In this Editor's Round Table episode, I’m joined by fellow editors Sarah Chauncey and Lynn Shattuck to explore the Law of Increasing Flow: a framework built on presence, strategic rest, and stopping before you hit empty. Together we dig into the problem of tech distraction, the power of the subconscious mind, and why percolation–not pushing–is where so much of the real writing happens. If you've ever wondered why flow feels so elusive, this episode will leave you with both the insight and the practical tools to invite more of it into your life.

Resources for this Episode:

• “The Critic, Cookies and a (Cautionary) Colonoscopy” by Lynn Shattuck
• “To Write More, Better and Faster, Do This One Thing” by Sarah Chauncey
• Creative Intuition: The Skill That Makes Life and Work Easier
• It’s not Your Money by Tosha Silver
• The Walk for Peace
• Get Your Free Human Design Report
• Ditch Your Inner Critic Now

Episode Highlights

• 4:54 Constricted Writing Stories
• 6:19 Law Of Increasing Flow
• 8:46 Productivity Versus Creativity
• 23:35 Nervous System Practices

Connect with Lynn:

• Website: www.lossofalifetime.com
• Website: www.lynnlshattuck.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100064888772287
• Instagram: @lynn_shattuck

Connect with Sarah:

• Substack: https://sarahchauncey.substack.com/
• Counterintuitive Guide: https://counterintuitiveguide.substack.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sarahkchauncey/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sarah.k.chauncey

Lynn Shattuck writes on topics like grief, parenting, and mental health. She was a columnist at Elephant Journal for ten years, where several of her essays on the topic of grief and sibling loss, and parenting went viral. Lynn co-founded the website lossofalifetime.com, a hub of resources and community for those who’ve experienced sibling loss. She co-edited the essay collection, The Loss of a Lifetime: Grieving Siblings Share Stories of Love, Loss, and Hope, which was released in June 2025.

Sarah Chauncey is a nonfiction writer, developmental editor, and writing coach. Over her decades of experience, she’s written more than 100 articles for a variety of outlets, including Writer's Digest, Jane Friedman, Tiny Buddha, Lion’s Roar, and Modern Loss. Sarah is the author of P.S. I Love You More Than Tuna, the first gift book for adults grieving the loss of a pet. She also writes the Substacks “Resona

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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About this episode: Have you ever come to a point in your life where giving up was the way forward? If so, how was that different from defeat? In this episode, I unpack what healthy surrender really means, how it can actually strengthen rather than diminish your sovereignty, and how to practice it in both the big and small moments of your life. If the word "surrender" has ever felt triggering or like defeat, this episode will change the way you see it.

Resources for this Episode:

• Healing Ancestral Trauma: How Family Constellations Free You from Inherited Stories
• Get Your Free Human Design Report
• Register for Find and Refine Your Memoir’s Narrative Arc
• Ditch Your Inner Critic Now

Episode Highlights

• 00:00 Surrender Is Not Giving Up
• 01:58 What It Really Means to Surrender
• 17:10 A Daily Practice of Letting Go
• 23:46 Holding Boundaries with Compassion

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.

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

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

Send us Fan Mail

About this episode: This week, I’m joined by Jeannine Ouellette, author of The Part that Burns and a writing instructor whose deepest passion is using writing to connect us with our humanity. She sees the craft of writing as so much more than the words on the page, and I couldn’t agree more. We talk about how writing is a practice that helps you show up more fully in your own life, and how you can do this by finding your writing voice, writing close to the lived experience, and exploring from a place of discomfort. And you won’t want to miss our conversation about our shared obsession with a particular punctuation mark that we are absolutely claiming regardless of what anyone else thinks.

Resources for this Episode:

• Voice First: A Writer’s Manifesto by Sonya Huber
• Acetylene Torch Songs by Sue William Silverman
• Innocence & Experience: Voice in Creative Nonfiction by Sue William Silverman
• Finding Your Voice and Crafting Stories that Ignite the Soul with Sue William Silverman
• Writing Hard Stories: Celebrated Memoirists Who Shaped Art from Trauma
• “The Fourth State of Matter” by Jo Ann Beard
• Get Your Free Human Design Report
• Register for Find and Refine Your Memoir’s Narrative Arc
• Ditch Your Inner Critic Now

Episode Highlights

• 00:00 The Question That Opens Everything
• 04:33 On Voice (and Finding Yours)
• 15:27 Writing as a Living Practice
• 29:33 The Quiet Work of Finding Joy Again
• 32:57 Craft as a Way of Being

Jeannine’s Bio: Jeannine Ouellette’s lyric memoir, The Part That Burns, was a Kirkus Best Indie Book and a finalist for the Next Generation Indie Book Award in Women’s Literature. Her other books include Mama Moon and The Good Caregiver with Robert Kane, M.D. Her essays and short fiction have appeared widely in journals and anthologies, including Narrative, North American Review, Los Angeles Review of Books, Masters Review and more. Her bestselling Substack, Writing in the Dark, explores writing as a metaphor for life and attention as a pathway to becoming. She teaches writing at the Minnesota Prison Writing Workshop and the University of Minnesota and her craft book, One Word at a Time: A Creative Practice for Transforming Your Writing and Your Life, is forthcoming from Penguin.

Connect with Jeannine:

• Substack: https://writinginthedark.substack.com/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jeannine.ouellette.7
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/msjeannineouellette/?hl=en

Connect with your host, Lisa:
Get Your F

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