Welcome to another inspirational episode of Late Boomers! We’re your hosts, Cathy and Merry, and today we’re diving into a topic so many of us dream about but rarely act on: writing a book. Have you ever said, “Someday I’ll write my book”? What if that someday is today?

Our guest is Dr. Rhonda Lawson, an award-winning author, book coach, and literary strategist who’s making it her mission to help people just like us get their stories onto the page and into the hands of readers. Dr. Rhonda Lawson brings a unique perspective, transitioning from U.S. Army Master Sergeant to successful author and founder of Meet the World Image Solutions. Whether you want to leave a legacy for your family, grow your business, jumpstart a speaking career, or simply prove to yourself that you can do it, this episode is for you!

Key Takeaways

• Everyone has a story worth telling: As Dr. Rhonda Lawson reminds us at 06:02, “your story matters,” and even the most “ordinary” lives are full of lessons, courage, and inspiration.
• Focus on your message, not just your story: People may not care about your biography, but they do care about the message and meaning behind it (17:01).
• Overcome self-doubt: The biggest obstacle is often yourself (12:14). Don’t talk yourself out of writing; just start!
• Start small and specific: Use Dr. Rhonda Lawson’s “sun diagram” technique to brainstorm themes and narrow your focus (13:24).
• Publishing has never been more accessible: Learn why self-publishing might give you more control and fit your lifestyle (24:45).
• AI is a tool, not a solution: Let AI help brainstorm or outline, but keep your voice at the forefront (35:32).
• Storytelling wins over perfect prose: Readers crave authentic, engaging stories more than flawless writing (32:22).
• Marketing is part of the job: Simple tricks, like adding your book to your email signature and organic social media posts, help you reach more readers (40:08).
• Find your writing community: Writing can feel lonely, but joining groups (like Dr. Lawson’s Write to Win Writers Community) can help you stay motivated (47:21).
• Just start: Don’t worry about being perfect. Write it all down, then shape and edit later (44:52).

Has this episode given you the push you’ve been waiting for? If so, we challenge you: start writing your story this week even if it’s just one paragraph! Share this episode with someone who dreams of writing a book.

Want more inspiration? Visit Dr. Rhonda Lawson’s website and check out her Horizons Author Lounge podcast. And of course, subscribe to Late Boomers on your favorite platform especially on YouTube to support our mission of inspiring new chapters, no matter your age.

Remember: It’s never too late to rethink what’s possible. Start your story today!

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Have you been saying someday I'm going to write my book?

And what if someday is today?

Our guest is an award-winning author, book coach, and literary strategist who's helping people finally get their stories onto the page and into readers' hands.

Yeah. And so whether you want to leave a legacy for your family, grow your business, or simply prove to yourself that you can do it, today's conversation could be the push you've been waiting for. And today you will discover why your life story is probably more valuable than you think.

And whether traditional publishing or self-publishing really makes more sense today.

Yeah. And how can one use AI, and should you use AI as a writing partner without using your— losing your authentic voice?

Stay with us because your book may be closer than you ever imagined. Welcome to the Late Boomers Podcast, where we bring you inspiring stories of people creating exciting new chapters in life with purpose, passion, and possibility. I'm Cathy Worthington.

And I'm Merry Elkins. And today we're talking about something so many people over 50 tell us they want to do, like write a book. Maybe it's a memoir, maybe it's a novel you've carried around for decades. Maybe you've built a business and have wisdom you want to share. But so many people never even begin, or they get stuck somewhere in the middle.

And the publishing world has changed dramatically. Today there are more opportunities than ever, but also more confusion. Should you self-publish? Should you find an agent? Can AI help? How do you get someone to actually read your book once it's finished? Fortunately, our guest has answers.

Dr. Rhonda Lawson served our country as a U.S. Army Master Sergeant before reinventing herself as an author, publisher, literary strategist, and founder of Meet the World Image Solutions. Today, she helps aspiring authors turn ideas into books that not only inspire readers but also build businesses, speaking careers, and lasting legacies. Rhonda, welcome to Late Boomers.

And thank you for having me. I'm really excited to be here today.

It's great to have you.

Thank you.

You have one of the most fascinating career pivots we've ever featured, from US Army Master Sergeant to helping people tell their stories. How did that transformation happen?

Well, part of it is writing has always been a part of what I do. I've been writing probably since I was about 12 years old. I actually even wrote stories that I never did anything with. One day I'm going to try to find those manuscripts and actually try to publish them.

Yeah.

But my mother noticed that I had a talent and a love for writing, and she poured into it and she encouraged it. And I always credit her for that because I think sometimes parents will see that their child has a talent, they'll just say, oh, that's cute, but I want you to do this. I want you to go for this career. I want you to go with the career that's going to make you some money, or something like that.

Mm-hmm.

And my mother just saw that I had an interest in writing and a love for it, and she encouraged it. And it's something that stayed with me. So when I went to college, I became an English major, communications major. And then when college got a bit expensive, I decided to join the Army, and I found out that I could actually continue my love for writing in the Army. So I became a public affairs specialist, at that time an Army journalist. And, um, oh, we have a lot of people don't—

What does an Army journalist do?

Exactly. A lot of people don't realize that the Army actually has its own journalists. We have our own newspapers. We have our own radio stations and TV stations. And I was a print journalist, so I worked on the base newspaper. And we actually were able to go out, interview people. I was able to meet a lot of officers and noncommissioned officers who were doing amazing things. And I actually got to learn probably a little bit about every job in the Army because I was an Army journalist.

So I worked my way up from being a writer to being an editor. And then my last job before I retired from the Army was actually running a local American Forces Network radio station and TV station. A lot of people don't— they— a lot of people may have heard of American Forces Network. Maybe you watched the Bob Hart.

Yeah.

You know, back in the day when they would go to all of the military installations and perform. You might have seen the, um, Good Morning Vietnam. That was actually about a broadcaster, believe it or not. Um, yeah, where, you know, he would start off saying, good morning, Vietnam, right?

That was an Army broadcast.

Robin Williams. That was great.

Yes, exactly. He worked in a, in a radio station, a military radio station. And that was my last job before I left the Army, was being a station manager at American Forces Network Benelux, which is in Belgium. So, I did that for 5 years before I retired.

Okay, Rhonda, many people think my life isn't interesting enough for a book. I think most people think that. So, why do you believe almost everyone has a story worth telling?

Well, one of my favorite slogans is that your story matters. And I think sometimes people don't realize what they've accomplished until they sit down and look back on it. I mean, just here I'm at the National Book Club Conference in Atlanta, and there are people here who are signing their books, and their books are about their lives. And one conversation that I had with a young man who wrote about his mother is that when he was a kid, a lot of the things that he saw just felt normalized because it was what he saw every day. But looking back on it as an adult, he saw things differently. And I think sometimes, um, because we are in our lives, we live our lives, we, we see things as just normal, regular everyday stuff. But then there's somebody else who's watching us who thinks that what we've done is amazing.

Mm-hmm.

There's somebody may be going through the same thing that you're going through, but they don't know how to handle it. You were able to not only handle it, but you were able to overcome. So when you tell your story, you're going to actually inspire that person who may be going through the same thing that you're going through and they don't know what to do. So sometimes it's very healthy for us to tell our stories. Other times it's very therapeutic because you may have gone through a lot of trauma Um, you know, back when you were growing up, I talked with one lady, one lady, um, a couple years ago. She's still struggling with whether she wants to tell her story or not, but she had actually gone through a lot of trauma as a teenager. In fact, when she was talking to me, I knew what she had gone through. But when she talked to me, her eyes just filled with tears because there were certain things she didn't have to say because I knew what she had gone through as a teenager.

And just even though she felt like she had overcome it, when she was telling me, she just broke into tears.

Just like reliving the pain.

Exactly. Exactly. And, um—

So when people get it out on the page, they can feel better, right?

And yeah, not only do they feel better, but sometimes they can see things, um, because they're now— they're reading it. They're not just— it's not just in their head anymore. they're actually writing it down, they're actually able to get it all out.

Mm-hmm.

And when you can get it out and you're able to talk to other people about it, you're not bottling it up anymore. It's no longer just something that's inside that you're afraid to let out. And sometimes when you talk about it, it helps you to deal with it and face it a lot more. So one thing I always ask people when they're ready to tell their story is I'll say, are you ready to relive this?

Yeah.

And are you— yeah, that's the first thing I ask them. And then I ask them, are you ready to strip down in front of the world? Because when you tell your story now, there are going to be people who are going to read your story that you have never met in your life, and they're going to be judging you. Are you ready for that judgment? Um, it doesn't— it doesn't mean that it's going to be bad or it's going to be great, but somebody you don't know is going to read your story. So those are 2 questions I always ask them. Are they ready for relive it? And then 2, are you ready to strip down in front of the world? Because if you're going to tell your story, you might as well be real with it and not try to paint it. Which is another thing that I tell people a lot is that, like, for instance, me, I didn't grow up running from the police. I didn't grow up— I've never been to jail. I've never— I don't know what it's like to live on welfare or anything like that.

So somebody might think that, well, maybe I don't have a story worth telling because I didn't have a so-called struggle story. But it doesn't mean that I didn't have certain struggles in my life. I just may not have had the same struggles that somebody else did. And—

And some stories people might consider too niche. But you, you say that is actually an advantage and not a disadvantage. Can you talk about that a little bit?

Right. And, and that's exactly where I was going. Just because I didn't have the so-called struggle story does not mean that I don't have a story that may inspire somebody. And so when you tell your story, maybe, or maybe somebody out there needs to see or read your story to know that they can make it.

Well, you do have an inspiring story going from—

Right, right.

writer to publisher.

The crazy thing is, even, even now, even though I— a lot of people tell me that my story is inspiring, sometimes I'm like, man, I see other people whose stories are way more inspiring than mine.

Sure.

Yeah.

But luckily, we don't have to rank them on a, on a list.

There you go. Exactly. You don't have to rank them. Just tell your story because there's somebody out there who needs to read your story. so they can be inspired, so they can be motivated, so they can see it as, wow, this person grew up kind of just like I did, but they were able to make it. They were able to start this business, or they were able to join the Army and make the second highest rank in the Army as an Army noncommissioned officer. Sometimes people need to read that.

Yeah.

So don't think that just Because your story is regular, it doesn't mean that somebody can't be inspired.

That's true. And for somebody who's dreamed of writing for years but never even started, what do you think? Is that the biggest obstacle, or what is the biggest obstacle, and how do you tell people to get past it?

I tell people they need to get past themselves, actually, because what happens most of the time is that somebody wants to write a story And they'll say, man, I've been wanting to write a book for years and I just don't know where to start. Or they'll— or I actually have a client, or he's a prospective client, who was excited about writing his story. And then when I said, you should also become a speaker, he's like, I don't know if I have the credentials. So sometimes what we do is we talk ourselves out of things because we don't think that we're good enough to tell our story. Or we don't think that we're good enough to write a book. But like I said, there's somebody out there who needs to hear your story or they need to read your story because you have something that's inspiring somebody else. So often I tell people, don't worry about thinking that you're good enough or that you're not good enough. Tell your story.

And what I normally do is when they have finally decided, okay, I'm ready to tell my story, I tell them to go back to, um, elementary school. If you remember back in elementary school, um, and you had to do like sentence, um, those sentence trees, so to speak, you know, where you had to, um, or when you had to brainstorm.

Oh yeah.

Yeah, like the diagram.

Yeah.

And so I tell them to go back to the diagram, um, draw a circle in the middle of a piece of paper and write down, let's say you just write down your name and then take the little, draw these little sticks so that way your circle now looks like a sun.

Ooh.

And then at the end of each of those sticks, write down 10 things about yourself that you think you would want to talk about. Maybe it's your time in the Army, maybe it's growing up as a military kid, Or maybe it's growing up in a bad neighborhood or growing up with sexual trauma. Whatever it happens to be, write down those 10 things. And then from those— from that little sun that you just made, let's draw another circle from each of those rays. What are 5 things that you can talk about that are related to that one subject. So if I wanted to talk about my time in the Army, what are 5 things that I might want to talk about that has to do with my time in the Army? It could be my transition from being a civilian to being a soldier and what that was like. Or maybe it could be leadership. Or maybe it could be deployments.

Whatever it happens to be. So you do that for each of those subjects. When you find that you have— the most to talk about with this one subject, maybe that's what you write about. Because nobody wants to hear about your story from the time you were born up until now. We don't need every single, every single detail.

Right, right.

But if your memoir is based on a specific time or a specific message that you want to share—

And don't they say with a memoir, it's a good idea to start with something really big that happened maybe in the middle or later? Start with that and then you could back up to fill in where you got to that.

That's a great way to do it. Sometimes think of that catalyst that moved you from one way to, or one situation to the next situation. I'm working with 2 clients right now. One is 93 years old. He wanted to write his memoirs, but the memories that he was giving me were based on his work with civil rights and advocacy. So that's what he focused his memoirs on.

Perfect.

Yeah. So he did talk about when he was born, but he didn't give me every detail about when he was born. Right, right, right. He gave me just enough detail that would add some context to what he was about to to tell me about later.

You know, I've never heard that— the way you phrased it earlier about the diagram, I've never heard that from anyone before. That's pretty unique. And it's not necessarily so easy to do because you really have to do some self-searching, don't you?

You do. You absolutely do. But if you— if you're wanting to write a story about your life, and often I get people who tell me, I want to write a book, and I'll say, well, what do you want to write about? and they'll say, I want to write about my life. Okay, what about your life? It doesn't mean that your life doesn't matter, but what do you want people to know? What is your message? When somebody walks, closes the book, they've gotten to the end and they've closed the book, what do you want them to walk away from? Or walk away from that book knowing about you?

Yeah.

Or what do you want them to learn? What is that life lesson that they, that they can continue to live with.

Yes, right.

And because I tell people, and it sounds cruel, I tell people all the time, nobody cares about your story. Nobody does. However, they do care about your message. So you can tell your story to add context to your message, but what do you want people to know? What do you want people to learn? What do you want people— what is it about you that you want to inspire people? with? And once you're able to really think about that message, you write your memoirs around that message. Everything should connect somewhere around that message. And that also helps you to stay focused. Because if you try to tell every bit of your story, everybody has, everybody has a zigzag about their life. Nobody, very few people live life in one direction, just going like this.

They usually do this.

Yeah, but you know, a lot of authors don't even know what they're writing about. They don't even know their message until they end the book, until it's done, and they go, oh.

Well, maybe you figure that out before you publish it, and then you can edit before you publish. But you also say people— you also say people should think beyond simply publishing a book. Because an author being a— becoming an author can change someone's business or career or personal brand. So would you address that a little bit? Do you find that happens a lot?

Yeah, it can, it can be their personal brand. One thing I, uh, another slogan that I have is every business owner needs a book.

Right, we've heard that.

If you are a business owner, you should have a book, and it doesn't have to just be a book about your life. It can be if you're a plumber. I don't know why I always go to the plumber example, but for some reason I always do. But even if you're a plumber, what about 10 ways to make sure that your pipes don't explode during the winter or they don't freeze over? What that does is it sets you up as an expert in your field. Then with visibility right now, AI visibility, Um, not only are you, because of course everybody's thinking about SEO. Um, I want, I want somebody to find me in a Google search. I want to be number one in a Google search. But think about it.

If some, the way people are looking for people now, they're looking, they're going to ChatGPT or Claude or Perplexity.

Mm-hmm.

And they'll say, um, can you, can you recommend the top 5 plumbers in my city? Um, if you have a book that teaches people about how they can protect their plumbing, if, um, you also have, let's say, a YouTube channel where you give people tips and you have, um, a very active, um, social media, and you also have a website that it's— that's updated and it doesn't have a lot of outdated information in it, the AI bots that are going through and looking for who to recommend. They see that you are an authority in plumbing. And so, um, what happens is if they see all of these authority signals and your authority signals are high enough, what they're, they're going to do is they're going to recommend you to that person who's looking for a plumber in their city.

And I try to, I try to envision how a plumber could possibly have time to do the book and the social media. It's like, Yeah, it's a whole other thing. It's great if you could do all that, but it's very hard to work.

There have been times where, um, something has broken down in my house and I'm like, I am not calling over a service, a service person for this, a service provider for this. I will go to YouTube and I'll say, um, I've— okay, let's— perfect example, the key, the key fob for my car, it died. And I thought I was gonna have to buy a new key fob, but I went to YouTube and said, my key fob for my car died. And, um, I put in the name of my car, what type of car was it, what, what year it was, and I found all these YouTube videos on how to fix my key fob. And I found out that I saved about $500 because I thought I was gonna go buy a new key fob, and all I had to do was go buy a um, a battery from the grocery store and changed— and told me how to open up the key fob and put the new battery in.

And super—

I love that. That's so true. And let's pivot back to writing a little bit, because what, what do you think is the biggest mistake first-time authors make even before they begin?

Well, one is talking themselves out of it. Um, you know, saying that then they don't have a story worth telling, and everybody's story matters. Another thing is they try to put too much information into the book. Um, and like I said, everybody doesn't need to hear about every detail from the day you were born up until today. Um, if you're going to write your memoir, write about the things that have to do with your message. It helps you to stay focused. Um, so often, sometimes people want to— they want to publish it themselves and they don't want to spend any money. So what happens is, is they try to edit it themselves, or they try to get their cousin who might have made an A in English back in high school to publish their book or to edit their book.

Edit. Yeah, yeah.

Just because—

just because your cousin made an A in English back in high school does not mean that they know how to edit an entire book. There are so many things that you have to look for, and it's more than just whether the words are spelled correctly and whether it's grammatically correct. There are other things that you need to look for, such as timelines. Do the timelines make sense?

That's true.

Yeah. Um, are, are your scenes realistic? You know, there are certain things that you need to look for, and a trained editor Um, can look for those things. So, but because you want to, you don't want to spend money on an editor, you think you can just do it yourself or run it through AI. And as much as I'm an AI consultant and I love using AI, I will not let AI edit for me because it's going to tell me the words spelled correctly, but it's not going to, it's really not going to find the things that I've, um, that I'm looking for. It's not going to find the repeating.

Right.

information. It's not going to find whether the timelines make sense. There are so many things that AI is going to miss, so you can't just depend on AI to do that, right? And I tell people all the time, yes, yes, I'm an AI consultant. However, when I, when I edit somebody's manuscript, I use these eyes. I human edit every manuscript that's given to me. First of all, somebody's paying me a lot of money and they're giving me a lot of trust with their work. And I don't want to just run it through a computer and say, okay, here's your book back. So I read everything.

Now I might use AI to help me to check over things, but I think right now in this day and age, people think that they can save money by just running it all through AI. And AI should be a tool. It should never be a replacement.

Right.

And I use AI as a tool. It's one of the tools in my, in my arsenal when it comes to taking care of my clients. But it's not the only thing.

Yeah, you've worked with both traditional and independent publishing, so has the old debate changed? Who should pursue traditional publishing and who is better off taking control through self-publishing?

I think it depends on the person. For me, I prefer to stay self-published only because I have— I'm very busy. Like, like today, I told you, I'm— I just finished a book signing and I jumped right onto this podcast. I don't, I don't have the time to dedicate to somebody else's timeline right now. I mean, I have clients to take care of. I have book signings. Um, I have my— I have a day job, believe it or not. So, um, I can—

Yeah, tell us about the book you're promoting down there in Atlanta right now.

Oh, and I just left it on the table, but yeah.

Oh, oh yeah, but you can tell us what it is. Because I think it's really charming.

Yeah. Oh, it's called Surprise Swipe Right. And, um, I actually wrote this book last year and, um, I promoted it while I was writing it so that way when it was time for the book to come out, um, people were already buying it. I think that's another mistake.

How did you promote it? How did you promote it while you were writing it?

Well, um, I had, um, I created the COVID prior Prior to, or while I was still writing the book, 'cause I already knew what the book would be about. And I would talk about it on social media. I was basically priming my audience, letting them know I had this new book coming out. I would post the book cover and I would say, coming in October. And, you know, I would—

And it's fiction, right? It's fiction.

Yes, I did not put my mom— I did not put my mom on a dating app.

Oh good, because that's what it's about. It's about— yes, a woman in her 70s who goes on a dating app.

Exactly, exactly.

Successfully, we hope, and humorously. I can't wait to read it.

Very humorously.

I wanted to—

it was going to be funny and feel good for the holidays, and that's what, um, I'm proud to say that I succeeded in that.

That's great. That's great. Well, talk a little bit about your company, Mo. Meet the— what is it? Meet the World Image Solutions, right? And so tell us—

Meet the World Image Solutions is a publicity and literary services company. Um, I support, um, up-and-coming authors. I also support, um, business owners and nonprofits. Um, I, um, I added the AI piece to it about a year ago. First, I was using it just to— well, what I was doing was teaching authors how to use it ethically. I tell them all the time, it should be the accelerant. It should never be the solution. So I teach them how to use it to help them in their planning process when they're planning to write a book, and then how they can help it to streamline their business processes.

But then as I got deeper into AI, now I'm helping people with AI visibility. So I created a service called AI Discovery, or excuse me, GEO Discovery. And what that does is it helps authors and small business owners become more discoverable on AI so that AI can recommend them in a search. Because people are starting, more and more people are starting to, instead of going to Google, and I still use Google, believe it or not, I love Google. But there are more and more people who are starting, instead of going to Google, they are, they are going to their favorite, um, chat like ChatGPT or Claude or Perplexity, and they're asking it to recommend books.

Wow.

And we want to make sure that your book has the, um, opportunity to be recommended by AI. But if your, if your presence, if your social presence and your web presence is not, um, is not consistent, if it's, um, not updated, then the AI bots will actually pass you up and you'll be virtually invisible.

Mm-hmm.

Um, because it's going to go to somebody with a higher authority signal. So, um, what I do is I teach authors how to optimize their social presence so they can be, um, they can have a better chance of being um, recommended in the AI search. So I, I do that, and I still do ghostwriting. Um, I still do editing. Um, and, um, I also have a podcast that I do every Monday night where I, um, feature authors. And, you know, I let them talk about their book. I talk about— we talk about their writing process. I ask them to give tips to up-and-coming authors who might be watching the show.

Mm-hmm.

Because what this does is it actually helps us to pour into the pool of— into the literary pool so we can do our part for creating better authors and better writers.

What's the name of your podcast?

It's called the Horizons Author Lounge. It airs on Facebook Live, YouTube Live, Spotify. It's also on Apple Podcasts and LinkedIn Live. A lot of people may not realize everything.

You're just going live with it. You don't record. No, I do my show live.

Yes.

Yeah, exactly.

Which sometimes is a bit of a risk because, right, yeah, there have been times where somebody's, um, some— somebody's, um, uh, microphone may not be working or the speakers may not be working. We, we have it all. We, we work through it.

Oh yeah.

Cancel right before the show, and I was like, oh goodness, well, I guess I'll just be talking for the next 30 minutes. So, and I've done that. Yeah, there have been some times where I said, okay, I'm gonna find a new author to take that person's place. And then there are sometimes I say, you know what, we're not looking for a replacement. I'm just going to talk about, um, AI visibility. Or I'm gonna, I'm gonna talk about, um, ethical AI use, or I'm gonna, or I'll talk about an event that I might have coming up. So, um, we do everything that we can to fill that entire hour, but I have 2 30-minute slots on there. Wow.

And then sometimes I'll work until the next guest pops on, and then I'll let the next guest in. Or if it's the second guest that's missing, sometimes I'll tell the first guest, hey, you want the entire hour? You can have the entire hour.

Great. Merry, you'll have to go on her podcast when you get your book done.

I love it.

Yeah, I really want to. I'm writing a novel.

Really? What's your novel about?

Oh, well, I guess I should promote it on our podcast, right? It's about a young woman. It's really a coming-of-age story about a young woman who is She has really little agency, and she learns how to gain her own voice. And it's truly a message to all the young women out there who perhaps may not know what their voice is and what their own story is and how they can improve their lives just by understanding what it is they really want with their lives. And it's— that's what it's about.

Sounds like a beautiful story, and it fits in with the theme of everything that we're talking about today.

Yep, it does. And you always say there's a difference between great writing and great storytelling. So can you explain the difference and why storytelling wins with readers every time?

Well, storytelling does win with readers. Um, however, um, the reason why I said that there's a difference between great writing and great storytelling is because some people— I've read some books where the story was really good, but the writing was lacking, and it made it very hard to enjoy the story. So it was an interesting story, but had they worked a little bit more on their writing, or had they gotten a better editor, it would have been a stronger story. So, um, there are, there are people out there who tell a heck of a story. I have seen people who— I've seen comedians who tell great stories But when it comes to actually writing it down, that makes it a bit more difficult.

Mm-hmm.

But you're right that even if the writing is weaker, if what will keep the reader sometimes is that the story is good. But I— what I try to do is help people balance the two. I want you to tell a good story, but at the same time, make sure that the writing is strong enough to keep the reader interested and keep the reader invested. And if you balance the two things, oh, you have something special on your hands.

Yeah.

Yeah. Let's pivot again to— back to AI, because that is taking up everybody's thoughts these days. And I know that when you're querying an agent, for instance, they always say, did you use AI to create this story? And the answer is, is it yes? Is it no? They don't ask you how you used it. So it's, as you work with AI all the time and you know it's changing every profession, how has it changed the writing world in ways that can help authors in their writing and also in their, as you mentioned, in their promotion?

Well, here's the thing. I do know, I mean, what I've learned, I've, I had a very in in-depth conversation with an agent. And she told me that there are publishing companies out there who don't care in what way you used AI, they will not touch the book. And then many people may have heard about the author whose book deal with Hachette Publishing was pulled because she was accused of using AI. And I am of the belief, I'm really hoping that the publishing world will kind of evolve their thinking on AI because just because an author might use AI does not mean that they've let AI write the entire book. I believe that there are people like me who use AI as a thinking partner. There have been times when I was writing Surprise Swipe Right, that book is totally written by me, but there were times where I did not know where I wanted to go next with the story. So I would turn to chat and I say, okay, I'm on this part of the story.

I need some ideas on how would I get my character from point A to point B and how can I make it make sense? And they would give me some ideas and I would look at the ideas and I say, okay, that's a good idea. And then I would go back to writing. But I did not let the AI write the book for me because one, I'm a true author and I love writing. I didn't want, I didn't want the AI writing the book for me. Plus, I kind of feel I'm a better writer than AI.

I agree.

Probably are.

AI is a template of a writer.

Right, right.

Well, some people worry that AI makes, makes the writing less authentic. Of course it does.

But it does make it—

explain a little more how writers can use AI without sacrificing their own voice. You mentioned one. How do I get from point A to point B? And is that the only safe way to use it right now, um, so that you wouldn't get accused by an agency of, oh, you—

I think it kind of depends. Um, yeah, you can, you can use AI to help you to outline your story. I've used AI to help me to plan a story. I'm like, I know that I want to write about this specific subject. I have a historical fiction book that I'm eventually going to have time to write.

Ooh.

And what I wanted to do was go ahead and outline it because I feel like with historical fiction, you have to be very specific on many things. So what I did was I told my AI, okay, I want to write about this book and I want this to happen. This is going to be the subject. Help me to outline this. And it started to help me to outline it. Did I use that outline totally? No, I didn't. But it helped me to think. It helped me to brainstorm.

So when you use AI as a brainstorming partner, you are not letting the AI write for you. You're just using a brainstorming partner. You're, you're helping it to think. You're— or it's helping you to think.

It's almost like being in a writing group where everybody's putting suggestions out for you to help you write.

Exactly. Exactly. Now, if you have told— now, I will say this. Um, I do write a lot of articles for Substack, and, um, because I get very busy, um, like for instance yesterday, there, there is a Substack I'm just itching to write. I needed to get all of those thoughts out of my head because I'm not ready to sit down and write it yet. So I wanted to get all of those thoughts out of my head. So I fed them into, um, ChatGPT and I said, I want to write about this. Da da da da da da da da.

I put it all in, and it drafted something for me. Am I going to use that draft the way it gave it to me? Absolutely not. However, it helped me, like I said, to think. So now I'm looking at it. I'm like, okay, this is exactly where I was trying to go, but this is not how I wanted to write it. So once I'm ready to actually sit down and start writing, it's gonna probably look nothing like. what was drafted for me, but it at least gave me a thought process. So when I get ready to write, I know where I'm going now.

So, um, yeah, some people may try to do that for their book. I would suggest that if you do that, you need to recognize the writing patterns that ChatGPT or Claude or whoever it is that you use, um, look at those writing patterns.

Yeah.

Um, for instance, there's a big argument going on now with authors saying, I have been using the em dash for longer than, um—

Oh, right.

He has been around, and I don't want to be accused of using AI because I use the em dash. Yeah, but I tell you, as an author, you probably did not put 9 em dashes in one paragraph, right? And unfortunately, I know that's how AI writing is. There's a lot of em dashes.

Yeah, all those adjectives everywhere and adverbs, it's like, yeah. So, you raised a really interesting point about marketing earlier. So, let's talk about marketing. Many authors think their book—

Okay.

The book is the hard part and getting it published is the hard part. But you think that that's when the work really begins. Yeah. So what are some no-cost or low-cost ways authors can attract media attention and readers?

Okay, one thing, um, put your book in your, in your, um, signature block in your email. Ah, I'm gonna tell you, as a, as a public affairs officer, um, that's my day job. Um, I get emails from media all the time, and, um, there is this one journalist who wrote a book, and in her signature block is her book cover and a link to how you can get her book. I, I would have known— I would have never known she wrote a book if I had not seen her signature block, because I only know her as a journalist.

Hmm.

And I clicked on her link, and I'm gonna probably most likely purchase her book very soon because it looked like a very interesting book. That's a really no-cost way of getting the word out about your book.

Yeah, because you have to send emails anyway.

Exactly, exactly.

Right, right.

The thing is, um, talk about your book organically on social media. Everything on your, on your, um, social media feed does not have to be buy my book, buy my book, buy my book, my book. But right now I'm at this, I'm at this, um, book conference. I'm going to be posting about my experiences today on the book conference, and I'll probably say something like, it was so great being able to, um, to sell my book or put my, my book in the hands of actual book clubs. Um, so yeah, about my book, but I'm doing it organically. It's not buy my book, buy my book, buy my book.

No, you're just saying here's a great book that I got to expose to the world, and people are going to want to hear about that. They're going to want to look it up, right?

Exactly.

How do you— but how do you find the time to do social media and write?

Um, well, a few, a few ways. Um, first of all, you kind of have to sacrifice a little bit of sleep. I'm not I'm not a subscriber of, um, Team No Sleep. I'm gonna get my sleep. I might go to sleep a little bit later than some other people, but I will get my sleep. I will eat.

Yeah.

And I will take care of my, my family and my household, um, before, um, anything else. However, there are going to be some times where my family knows that I'm gonna— I need time to write. So, um, Sometimes on Saturdays or maybe after church on Sunday, they know I'm going to be holed up in my room and I'm going to be writing, and they know not to bother me because they know, okay, Rhonda's writing again. But I still want to make sure that I'm taking time for my family. So you do have to find that balance. When my daughter—

Gotta compartmentalize. Yeah, right.

Yeah, well, here's the thing. When my daughter was a kid, she would go on book signings with me. Um, and sometimes she would tell the people she wrote the book. I'm like— they were like, baby, you're 7. How did you write this book?

Well, you know what's funny? My daughter wrote a book when she was 7, and she did book signings when she was 8 and 9 and 10 for that book. And everyone came, and people would line up because here was this little kid. There'd be nobody at the other tables at these big book signings down at the LA convention. And it was so much fun because it was crazy. People like This little kid wrote this book because it was like a children's book about dogs.

Well, this book was not a children's book.

It did very well. Yeah.

The name of my book was Cheating in the Next Room.

So she was taking credit.

Yes. The name of my book was Cheating in the Next Room. She did not write that book.

You better not.

I love that she said she wrote it though.

That's just good.

So is she a writer now?

She actually did. Yes, she's 27. Well, she'll be 27 in November. Um, she joined the Army actually, but, um, she actually did publish her first, um, poetry book, and I actually was able to, um, to, um, do it for her. I was able to publish it.

That's exciting.

Wow.

How great.

Impressive. Poetry.

We actually wrote a book together. We did write a children's book together when she was younger, and I actually published that book book of that story as well.

In her name?

But well, in both our names. Well, I think I put it in her name actually. I didn't— I don't think I put my name on it because it was her. I wrote it, but it was all her, all her ideas. She, she told me where the story should go, and so all I did was just write it down because I was older than her and I, I could write.

Well, if someone— speaking of children, if someone listening wants to leave a legacy for children and grandchildren, future generations, but they're intimidated by writing an entire book, what's the first step they should take this week?

I tell people to write. Just write it down. Don't worry about getting published. Don't worry about what it— don't even worry about editing it right now. Just get that story out of your head and onto your computer, onto a piece of paper, Whatever, whatever your media is for writing, um, that's, that's what you want to do. You just want to get that story out there. Just, I call it free writing. Um, once you've free written it and you've gotten everything that you can think of about this story, then you can go through.

And that's the wonderful thing about technology right now.

Mm-hmm.

Is that, um, you know, you don't have to write this by hand. You can type this on your computer and then cut and paste as you need to and move things around. As you need to. But the biggest thing is just get it out of your head. And once you get in—

I call that first draft.

Yes, exactly. And once you get into the practice and into the, uh, the mode of writing, it's going to continue. You're going to write more, and you're going to write more, and you're going to write more. Um, you can also use writing sprints. And I just started— and I guess I was using writing sprints before I knew what they were. But writing—

I don't know what that is.

Well, writing— a writing sprint would be that you write nonstop, uninterrupted, for let's say 20 to 30 minutes, and then you take a break, and then you come back and do it again. If you keep doing that, you're going to find that you're writing more and more and more, and you're going to get this out. Even if you can only eke out a paragraph, that's one more paragraph than you would've written had you been waiting for the You know, I'm part of a writing group that meets every other Sunday, and we call ourselves the 20-Minute Writing Group, 20-Minute Stories.

And we put out 3 anthologies that are on Amazon now. And what we do is we, we use prompts, and we're— and we all read when we're done, but we write for 20 minutes and then read. And everything, even if we use the same words, and the same prompts. Everything is so different, and it's like a writing sprint. It's great.

That's great.

How many people, how many people are on that? It's online, right?

Uh, yeah, uh, about 7, 8. Yeah.

So you're getting 7 or 8 completely different stories when you're done, right?

Absolutely.

And it's great. I love that. I love that.

It's great fun.

I actually started a community. It's still very brand new called Write to Win Writers Community. And that's one of the things that I've introduced into the community is writing sprints. Like I said, I mean, everybody can't write. I remember the first time I did an anthology and I invited people to be a part of the anthology and I gave them their word limit and they were like, I can't write 10,000 words. That's so much.

In 20 minutes? That's, that's a lot.

Well, maybe not 20 minutes, not 10,000 words in 20 minutes. But if you write, if you write in sprints, write as much as you can in 20 minutes, and then come back maybe in a few hours or the next day, and then write as much as you can in 20 minutes again, you're gonna get to those 10,000 words pretty quickly because now you're putting yourself in that mode of writing.

Right, right. And you're timing it, right? How do we find that right— how do we find that right Is it online? Is it available to be in, join? What do you—

Yes, anybody can join it. Um, um, I have 3 different levels of membership. Um, you know, regular membership, I have a, um, a premium membership and a VIP membership. Um, and of course, um, depending on what you get is, um, how much more access you get to certain things. Um, but, um, you can find it actually on my website, www.mtwimagesolutions.com. And I actually even—

Can you repeat that?

Yes, www.mtwimagesolutions.com. And then if you go to the Work With Me tab, you'll find the Right to Win community there. And I actually even created an app that they can use to help them with their writing sprints. It has writing prompts in it as well. And, um, but really what I'm trying to do is create a community because writing can be such a solitary activity. Um, like I said, I'm many times I'm in my room by myself writing. But when you actually have a community of people who are all doing the same thing and they're all like-minded and you can bounce ideas back and forth, or you have people to say, oh, you wrote 5,000 words, that's amazing. Congratulations.

Even if they're online, it just makes— it just shows you that you're not in this by yourself.

Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah.

Well, that's great. I mean, it's a great, great thing to do.

I love it.

So when someone finishes reading one of your books or works with you personally, what do you hope changes for them?

I hope that they have a lot more confidence in their abilities and in their story. Um, when— whenever I— I have, I have a client right now. Um, last year she was a consulting client, and when she wrote, when she wrote the first draft of her story, it looked more like a summary. Um, like she was telling me, this is what the story is going to be about. She thought that was her story.

Mm-hmm.

And, um, we laugh about it today. She said, you hurt my feelings so bad, you came back and told me that wasn't a story. It was just a summary. But she was so glad that I did it because I didn't say it in a rude way. She just really thought that that was her story. And we were able to take that summary and turn it into a very beautiful story about a little girl in New Orleans who found her spark.

Mm-hmm.

And she actually started a group with her friends called the Spark STEM Squad. And Now she's writing her second book and she doesn't need that same level of coaching that I gave her last year. She's able to just write her story. And now she's come back to me as her editor instead of her consultant or instead of her coach because she's—

Fantastic.

Yes. She's found her groove with writing the story. She's found a lot more confidence in writing and she knows exactly what her goal is with her, with her stories. And so she does— like I said, she doesn't need that same level of coaching anymore. And I'm not going to take consulting money from her knowing that she doesn't need that. But I did tell her, when you're ready for an editor, I have you, and it's a whole lot cheaper than being a consultant.

That's great, Rhonda. You have reminded us that writing a book isn't just about seeing your name on a cover, right? It's about Preserving your experiences, inspiring others, building credibility, and leaving something meaningful behind. Thank you so much for joining us today.

Yes, thank you so much.

This conversation, oh, it's great.

And, and Rhonda, um, if people want to learn more about you, Dr. Rhonda Lawson, where should they go?

Well, you can go to my website, www.mtw.org. imagesolutions.com. But you can also follow me on Instagram.

Um, yeah, I want to follow you.

Thank you. Um, @neattheworldimagesolutions, all one word. I'm also on Facebook, I'm on TikTok, and, um, I do serious videos and I also do comical video— videos. I tried to do the Spider-Man challenge and it was terrible, but it was hilarious.

Ah. Oh, funny. I love it. Funny.

I love it.

Well, to our listeners, if you enjoyed today's conversation as especially half as much as I did, please subscribe to Late Boomers wherever you get your podcasts, and especially on YouTube, because it really helps us reach more listeners who are creating exciting new chapters in life.

And yes, so true. And if today's episode inspired You share it with someone who's always talked about writing a book. Maybe this is the year or day they'll finally begin.

And remember what we late boomers always say: It's never too late to rethink what's possible.