WRITING TIPS I WISH THEY TOLD ME: New Book

 Denver, CO

How about a non-fiction, self-help book about writing?

WRITING TIPS I WISH THEY TOLD ME is now available in paperback and ebook (Kindle). Get your copy here.

I wanted to give back to the writing community by sharing advice I dispatched to friends, family, readers, and strangers over the years. 

I also wanted to make this self-help book accessible to as many aspiring writers as possible, which is why the ebook is only $4.99. 

Here's the book description:

WRITING TIPS I WISH THEY TOLD ME is for aspiring writers from age 13 to 113. It is a self-help book for new writers... teenagers, 20-somethings, and adults returning to a long-delayed creative goal... who want honest, practical guidance without cliches, gatekeeping, or false promises.

Most people who want to write quit because no one explains what writing actually looks like at the beginning.

This writing advice book focuses on what actually matters early on. So new writers can avoid confusion, self-doubt, and wasted time.

Included are 50 short writing exercises to help generate ideas, overcome writer's block, and help you start writing right away.

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BACKSTORY

This book would not be possible without Jen Leo. I have a vivid memory of the first time she told me I should write an ebook sharing writing advice. We were playing blackjack with my brother at the Plaza Casino in downtown Las Vegas when she pitched me this idea. Over the years, she's often brought up the concept. "When are you going to write that writing advice book?"

Well, here it is! Better late than never.

WRITING TIPS I WISH THEY TOLD ME is advice I would tell my younger self. I suffered pletny of bad beats and made poor decisions along my journey, so I hope this book can help you avoid the same pitfalls and heartache.

No cheesy affirmations. Just the straight dope and clarity about what matters early on, and how to approach writing as a learnable skill rather than a mysterious calling.

The goal is not to promise success, but to help readers start on the right track and to help them avoid the mistakes that cause most beginners to stall or quit.

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TARGET AUDIENCE
• First-time writers unsure how to begin
• Aspiring writers seeking realistic, no-hype guidance
• Adults returning to writing later in life
• Readers tired of inspirational but impractical advice

WHY THIS BOOK STANDS OUT
• Focuses on the beginning, where most writing advice fails
• Drawn from real-world writing experience, not theory
• Calm, practical, and non-romanticized
• Relevant across age groups and genres

Get your copy today! WRITING TIPS I WISH THEY TOLD ME is now available in Paperback and Kindle.

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P.S. If you're waiting for a new novel... there's one on the way. Stay tuned.

I'm excited to publish a third new novel in three years since I moved to Colorado, or my fifth book in the last six years. To put that in perspective, it took five years to finish LOST VEGAS and another five to finish FRIED PEACHES. Yup, only two books in ten years. This year will feature two books in 2026 with one non-fiction self-help and one fiction.

In the meantime, catch up on my last four novels:

THE KICKER (2025)
FADED (2024)
GUARD THIS (2021)
FRIED PEACHES (2018)

The Puke Secret

By Pauly
Los Angeles, CA

A friend, stuck in a writing funk, flat-out asked via text message, "What's the secret?"

I answered quickly: "Not to sound like a stoned Yoda, but either you do, or you don't. There is no try."

A blank page is intimidating if you let it. I look at blank canvases and all I see is color combinations. When I look at a blank word document, I see a huge ocean that I have to swim across in order to tell a story. It's daunting. It's scary. But that's the way it is. If it was easy, then everyone would be doing it. Simply put...  I open up a blank page (for blogger or M-Word) , take a deep breath (or toke), close my eyes, and then puke words.

That's what it's all about. Puking words. I have to figure out how to expand that 2-word sentence into a 300 page how-to book so I can sell it for $20 to lost writers with a serious block or some other impediment.

That's the secret. Puke words. It's not really a secret. It's all puke, no talent. You just have to have the courage to puke... everywhere. There's so much puke out there that you don't have to be good, rather you just have to be not the worst puker out there. Sounds sad, but it's true. The standards are so low that even I can be exceptionally mediocre enough that people actually pay me money to puke words and suck less than everyone else. That pretty much described my entire career in poker. I might have been awful at times, but I was less awful than the average awful. That's how I paid my bills. That's how I continue to pay my bills.

It says "writer" as the occupation on my tax returns, but I know better. It should say "word puker."

Every morning I have a free write and its essentially free puke. For the Tao of Pauly, I used have a set time (15 minutes) and go for it. Blog puke. If I have extra time to put more into it, I'll give it twenty or thirty minutes. Sometimes I'll take a second pass or even rip through a rare third draft. With a few exceptions (David Foster Wallace essay or The Accidental Coach), the structure of Tao of Pauly is like a late-night set at a seedy jazz club. It's dark and smokey and lots of improvisation while trying to drain out the background chatter of uninterested drunks.

This corner of the web is always evolving. Looking back to when I first created Tao of Pauly, I realize what I used it for in 2002-03 was what I use Twitter for today. Along the way, it has morphed into longer form writing although it was seriously neglected during the peak years for Tao of Poker 2006-09. Just when I thought I had figured out what to do with this space, some weird things happened in life, and I say this like a lot of things I started in my life -- it became a burden -- and the last thing I wanted it to become. I took some time off and came to the realization that this is and will always be the most important soap box for me, or the perfect stage for me to puke words five days a week.

Puke words.

Seriously. That's it. That's the key to success. Step up to the laptop, open up the faucet and let the words flow through the tube-like fingertips. When it's done, turn off the tap and hit publish. Most of the time it's horse crap. But every once in a while it's edible puke. I'm very fortunate you want to spend a few minutes every day reading this tripe. Or, spending a half hour once a week on Monday mornings catching up on the last few days of posts while procrastinating. Or most likely in this modern age, you're problem reading my shit while you're taking a shit. Seems fitting. I always said Jack Tipper Stole My Dog was a great bathroom book. It wasn't a long-ass book so most people weren't too cranky with the ending. When you invest a significant time in a piece of work, you want a bigger pay off. The shorter the story... the smaller expectations. That's why Twitter is so easy. That's why Twitter is a cop out.

Anyway, I puke words. Other writers struggle and it's like drawing blood. Squeezing blood out of their soul one excruciating drop at a time. Don't fret over blood, just shove your finger down your throat and hurl away.