Posts by Valerie Cantella
You Don’t Need More Options. You Just Need A Filter.
If you don’t know where to start writing your memoir, you’re not alone. During my vacation, I woke up with the very clear realization that I’ve been too focused on doing more: spending more time on business development, learning new things, and analyzing data. My inbox reflects this. I’ve got a stack of emails, tips…
Read MoreYou’re Standing Too Close to Sort It Yourself
If you can’t decide what belongs in your memoir, I get it. I spent the morning volunteering at the thrift store, and I found a pair of men’s Levi’s for $4. I would never have picked those up on my own. But a creator I follow, Outfits with Alix, who teaches women how to shop secondhand,…
Read MoreThe Mirror Was Never Objective. Neither Is Your Memory.
For most of my life, I dreaded having my picture taken. The woman I saw in the mirror and the woman in the photograph never seemed to be the same person. I would look at a snapshot from a day I had genuinely enjoyed and feel a familiar disappointment settle in, and after enough years…
Read MoreBefore the Sorting Starts, There’s a Harder Question Underneath It
I’m prepping my own ideas right now for a second book, answering the same questions I ask clients about how to decide what belongs in your memoir. My blueprint process is adapted from Jennie Nash’s methodology (she’s the founder of Author Accelerator and the author of the Blueprint for a Book), and it’s the same one I walk…
Read MoreThe Year I Needed A Navigator
Six months into asking how can this be easy, I found out where that question actually comes from In December, I wrote about the phrase I was taking into 2026: How can this be easy? I borrowed it from my business coach Krista Smith, and I loved it immediately. Not because I was looking for simplicity, but because…
Read MoreI Wrote An Entire Memoir But Needed An Editor To See That It Was Really Eight Different Stories
The proximity problem is real. You can’t see the architecture from inside the material. A story and a book are not the same thing. A story is what happened to you — the events, the sequence, the actual details. A book is different. A memoir is organized around a specific theme and an undeniable change:…
Read MoreThe Gap Between Dreaming of a Book and Actually Writing One
How a Candle Shop Illuminated Me Why I Do This Work You’re here because you have a lot of material and no table of contents. You know something is in there, but you just can’t see its shape from where you’re standing. So let me tell you about a birthday, my college roommate, and a…
Read MoreHaving A Story Is Not The Same Thing As Having a Book
My husband is wearing a continuous glucose monitor right now, not because he’s diabetic or even pre-diabetic, but because he’s working on improving his health. This data will give him information to make decisions. I’ve been watching him navigate it with the fascination of someone who has been doing this for forty-six years. He’s smart,…
Read MoreWhen Perfectionism Looks Like Analysis Paralysis: Is The Perfect Answer Really Hiding In the Numbers
I’m learning to have the courage to say I have enough information to move forward. It sounds simple. It’s not, at least not for me. I can geek out on analytics related to my business (an artifact of tracking diabetes-related data since I was 10). Weekly data reviews, tracking what resonates and what doesn’t, information…
Read MoreWhy Does Your Hardship Get to Matter?
The Voice Underneath “Before you write a memoir, there is often a question underneath the writing: Does my story matter enough to tell?” Steven Pressfield calls it “resistance” (The War of Art). That force that whispers you’re not ready, not talented enough, and definitely not the kind of person who writes books. That you should…
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