Blog

Are You Dealing with Death on the Page?

by Cami Ostman | Aug 2, 2022

**Announcing: Death on the Page - August 10 at 5:30pm Pacific Time** Last week one of our TNP Get-Your-Book students wrote me, "Help! One of my characters is about to die, and I'm not sure how to handle this death in the book." I instantly thought about ALL of...

Don’t Hide Under The Blankets!

by Cami Ostman | Jul 6, 2022

Writers, when it comes to creating your platform and honing your performing skills, don't hide under your blankets! Baker, my Boston Terrier, has a tendency to hide underneath the blankets. He likes to stay cozy and comfortable, with his own bubble of personal space....

What Is Possible When You Have A Platform

by Cami Ostman | Jun 29, 2022

As Lisa Dailey from Sidekick Press and I gear up for our Platform & Performance 6-week deep dive class starting next week, I want to point you toward my dear friend, Laura Kalpakian, as an example of what is possible when you have a platform built and ready. (Make...

Why Build A Platform?

by Cami Ostman | Jun 24, 2022

Why build a platform? Good question, Writer! Let me tell you a story… When I first published my book, Second Wind, it was picked up by Oprah's Magazine, O—and I wasn't ready for the incredible opportunity. I didn't have my website yet, so people couldn't learn about...

How to Get to a Hard Finish Line!

by Cami Ostman | Jun 14, 2022

Dear Writer, Some of you know that in addition to being a writer, a writing coach, a business owner, a therapist, a dog lover, and a wine connoisseur… I am a runner. I started running half a lifetime ago, and I found that when I really decided to put my heart and soul...

Build an Author Platform!

by Cami Ostman | Jun 2, 2022

Getting a book DONE doesn't just mean written--it means getting the book into the HANDS of readers. And in order to do that an author needs a PLATFORM. An author's platform is the infrastructure needed for marketing and selling a book--and getting your message INTO...

Heads Up, Writers! Things Are Gettin’ Good! (…and ‘Mastermind Your Book’ class is cancelled this month…)

by Anneliese Kamola | Mar 9, 2022

Hello Writer! OMG we coaches are SO EXCITED!! Tomorrow we launch the 2022 Nine-Month Get Your Book Done program!! Congratulations to the writers who have jumped in and said YES to getting their books done this year! We are so proud of your courage and faith in the...

Writer, Get in Your Zone of Genius

by Cami Ostman | Feb 22, 2022

Four spots left!!! Writer, I can hardly believe we are nearly through the SECOND month of 2022! This year’s Write That Book Already conference was a blast in early January! And then we had 70 people join us for our Ready, Set, Write course, where we went over how to...

Happy Holidays

by Cami Ostman | Dec 22, 2021

Seasons Greetings, Writers! I wanted to take a moment at the end of this year to say CONGRATULATIONS to all of you. 2021 was (again) not an easy year for many of us, and YET you were still able to grow and write and create stories that will impact the world. Writing...

Mastermind Your Book

by Anneliese Kamola | Aug 9, 2021

Once a month, TNP’s ‘Chief Story Warrior’ Cami Ostman, along with us TNP coaches and our wildly brilliant writers, collaborate to help free one of our authors from a writing PICKLE!

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Testimonials from students

“Cami’s keen instructions, insights, gentle guidance and authentic caring for my writing woke my writer up! I have more enthusiasm for my writing now and more knowledge with which to approach my projects. I am more confident and joyous in my writing thanks to Cami!”

—JJ Joshua, Intuitive Coach and Self-help Author

“I was #1 in Russian Travel and I’ve won the Moritz Thomsen Peace Corps Experience Award for 2014! I even had the chance to do a book reading at the Kazakh Embassy in DC. My book journey is going well and Cami made that happen.”

—Janet Givens, author of At Home on the Kazakh Steppe: A Peace Corps Memoir

“When I hired Cami as a developmental editor for my memoir, my manuscript felt like a massive ball of tangled yarn. With her years of experience as a therapist, Cami has a keen eye for identifying themes, motivations, and resolutions, which allowed her to masterfully pull the threads of my story out of the mess. She laid them across the arc of my book with precision. Cami helped me to produce the book I truly wanted to write.”

—Colleen Haggerty, author of A Leg to Stand On

“Cami is a talented writer with a special devotion to bringing out the best in other people’s work. I contributed an essay to her book, Beyond Belief, and communicated with her on developmental edits for my piece. Her direction and notes were so valuable to bringing my storytelling to greater heights, and I am impressed at the level of care and detail she showed for each of her many contributors. I highly recommend working with Cami, and I recommend her books too!”

—Erin Seaward-Hiatt, contributing author in Beyond Belief

“If it had not been for finding Cami and the Narrative Project, I would still be limping through a terrible first draft, picking at line edits. Instead, in two and a half years I have transformed the narrative of the memoir I have been dinking away at for decades. The Narrative Project has provided me with more tools than I even knew I needed. Instead of dreading the writing that goes nowhere, I am enjoying the ride, creating new possibilities and diving in to discover more ways to share with the words that are just right.”

—Lora Hein

“I started with half a dozen personal essays. After eighteen months of hard work along with the smart feedback, keen eyes, and pertinent, invaluable critique from this program’s leaders and members, I finally had the first draft of my memoir!”

—Renee DeMont

“I participated in the first Narrative Project program in October of 2016 after returning from a three-week solo backpack trip in California’s Sierra Nevada Mountains with the specific intention of using that trip as the basis for a memoir I hoped to write. I had absolutely no idea how to start this project, but by the end of the program, I had a structure within which to write and a full 140,000-word rough draft! I can say with certainty that I would not be where I am with my memoir were it not for this well-structured and accountability-based phenomenal program.”

—Kathie Tupper

“After I suffered a traumatic brain injury, I wanted to explore the experience in a memoir. I started working with Cami Ostman in her nine-month Narrative Project course, and I followed up with her Next Chapter course the following year. I wrote somewhat slowly because of my injuries, but Cami supported my work, offered numerous suggestions for getting through the draft, and gave me many tools to understand what I was trying to express and how to do it. If you have a story to tell but have not been able to get yourself started, I cannot recommend highly enough the Narrative Project program as a way to push yourself, as well as create the best possible version of your story.”

—Sean Dwyer

The Narrative Project gave me everything I needed to shape mountains of research into the book I envisioned. More importantly, I have made lifelong friends and we have continued to support each other as we bring our stories into the world.

—Anne

Dabbling for over twenty years at writing the stories of my life with my husband and four children in Africa and Asia, I realized I did not know what I was doing when it came to writing my memoir. I attended one of Cami’s free writing workshops and committed my time and energy to her nine-month program. Cami Ostman and my critique group helped me find the threads that pulled my stories together and see myself as a writer.

—Tori

On a chilly September day in 2018, I entered Third Place Books in Lake Forest Park to attend a free one-day seminar held by Cami Ostman. Having never attended a writing workshop, I had preconceived notions that I would write. While I didn’t write that day, the kindling within my soul was sparked and my desire to write my story ceased being a dream and began to be a reality. I joined the 9-month program and went from 0 words on the page to over 70,000. I learned about the writing process, themes, and gained new confidence in my ability to write. The best is yet to come!

—KristiLyn

In my 18 months with the Narrative Project, I have learned that a writer doesn’t write alone. TNP fosters a community of value beyond payment or description. The support is that of a healthy family, and the critique is that of an inspiring Masters program. The Narrative Project has provided me with an all-inclusive roadmap for how to live my dream as a published writer, and the confidence to get my butt in the chair.

—Anni