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I’m thrilled that you will be joining me for my upcoming What's Your Word Workshop event on Monday, December 30th at 12pm ET.

A confirmation email with all the important details you need to know is on its way to you now, so keep an eye on your inbox.

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The world is waiting to hear your story.
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Latest from Instagram

patti_m_hall

Patti - Author and Writing Coach
As a Frankenstein fan back some 40 years, I waited As a Frankenstein fan back some 40 years, I waited to comment on the movie. 

There was too much to say. 

But I wanted to applaud the art, and note how pleasing it was for me to see the Creature be closer to how this reader visualized him from Mary Shelley’s words.

Want to hear what else I have to say about the film
AND catch a glimpse of this limited edition Bernie Wrightson print that Nakatomi released a few weeks ago?

get over to Behind the Book, the Substack page where I write. 

link in bio or just type 

Stack
Hey, as a Frankenstein devotee, I spend alot of ti Hey, as a Frankenstein devotee, I spend alot of time straightening out what Mary Shelley wrote versus what we see in adaptations. (I HAVE ALOT to say about Guillermo Del Toro's adaptation. That post is coming)

But I mostly love to talk about what's Behind the Book. 

Today on Substack I revealed (kind of like a book nerd or literature student) one of Mary Shelley's influences. 

Truth be told, I have studied The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and was never a wholehearted fan. My bestie will attest to my eye rolling at her mention of the albatross. BUT, Mr. Coleridge has a MASSIVE influence on the young Mary Shelley. 

Check out how a Gothic poem's structure found its way to Frankenstein's frame narrative on Substack. 

Come on over and say hello. 

comment "Stack" below for the link, see the link in my bio for Substack, or click on LinkTr.ee for my post list. 

Or just DM me and I'll send you something to read.

#frankenstein #mariner #coleridge #maryshelley #thecreature #gothiclit #gothicstyle #shelley
We have all the excuses. Not here. It’s too pu We have all the excuses. 

Not here. It’s too public.
Not how. I don’t have my favourite notebook.
Not enough time. I have to pick up the kids. 

Drag your writerly go-bag and setup in a lovely corner.

My essentials
💻 Mac book pro giant size
📓Apica Notebook CD15 7 x 10
🖊️Before Breakfast Onigiri Rollerball

Write everywhere. Write anywhere. 
#writenow 

@laywines 
for the finest pen selection in Canada. Love the Before Breakfast

#writersofinstagram 
#writeyourbook 
#writeon
Do you have a favourite writing spot when the weat Do you have a favourite writing spot when the weather turns?

Mine is 
🛋️on the couch, propped on pillows
 🔥fireplace at my back,
🪟 the window and weather on my left. 

With the right access to a hot cuppa and a blanket, I can log six hours easily without budging. 

#writeanywhere 
#writeeverywhere

#writersofinstagram #writingforlife #writeon #writeyourbook #writingcoach #write #startyourstory
Readiness is less about preparation and more about Readiness is less about preparation and more about permission.

Many aspiring authors wait for the mythical moment when life aligns—more time, less stress, perfect clarity. That moment rarely arrives.

Readiness is not circumstantial; it is internal. It’s the willingness to begin with whatever you have—it’s all content.

Here’s all you really need:
--a Why strong enough to withstand discomfort
--some kind of container—a folder, a notebook, a Scrivener file—ready to receive words
---space in your day to give it air.

Right now, get as ready as you can.

Waiting longer, gives you time to make up an excuse that seems real! Writers are great at making walls.

Perfectionism disguises itself as readiness.

It whispers: once you take one more course, once you organize perfectly, then you’ll deserve to write. Reject that voice. 

You deserve to write because you are here, with a story pressing at your ribs.

Let me tell you a client story:

Sarah told me it wasn’t time. She wanted to have 100 blog posts in the can before she tried to outline her book. That will be enough to see the themes, ideas, and organize what I’m teaching. We weren’t in touch for a couple of months while she kept writing 1500-word posts on her lunchbreak. When I heard from Sarah again she said her boss “talked her out of the writing idea.” It was a “waste of her time,” and she could be doing more sales calls instead. Sarah was exhausted, defeated, and really disappointed in herself. “I should have just started when we talked and I have chapters of my book by now, not more clients for my company.”

These is a sneak peek at a sample tool from my FOUNDATION Masterclass which is now on Substack!! 

Type Foundation in the comments and I'll send you the link to this post about readiness.
Thanks for a good friend who asked me yesterday— Thanks for a good friend who asked me yesterday—what's the Frankenstein connection to you? I'm finally revealing that my next book is in process and looking for its publisher. 

It's not a Gothic novel, but it has a Gothic slant.

In preparation, I asked a talented illustrator to "Gothicize" me, without talking to them about what that might mean. The full reveal is on Substack. Curious? 

Type Link below 

and I'll DM you the link so you can see ALL the Pics.
If I don’t write it, it didn’t happen.
That’s how I process the world. Through words, or not at all.

At a recent event with @biggestmodernwriter, I listened to her speak about height: the stigma, the scrutiny, the ache of being seen only for what set her apart.

I felt the echo in my own life. Walking beside my son’s extraordinary growth. Meeting stares and crude questions with quick retorts. Learning that tall meant big, and big meant different.

What struck me most was not the pain itself, but how writing gave us a way through it. Susan handed her daughter words to face cruelty. I handed my son the same. We turned the hurt into story, because story is the only way difference transforms.

The origins of your book are already living in you. They are hiding in the places you have been stared at, misunderstood, set apart. They are waiting for you to give them form.

To read more about Susan’s memoir, my own encounters with height, and how origin stories reveal themselves head here: substack.com/@pattimhall

If difference is the doorway to story, what door in your life is waiting to be opened?
Even light can be violent if we force it. Victor Even light can be violent if we force it.

Victor wanted to save the world from darkness. Mary Shelley, a teenager haunted by loss, understood that impulse better than most. 

We all want to bring light to what hurts. But creation born from grief walks a narrow edge between devotion and control.

When you write from pain, try to remember: not everything broken wants to be fixed. Sometimes it just wants to be witnessed. 

Mary Shelley wasn’t warning us to avoid light; she was asking us to let it come gently.

Stop to notice what came up as you read this.
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