Bella Mahaya Carter on Health, Hammocks, and Happy Writers

Welcome to The Writing Coach. On this podcast, I speak with the instructors, editors, coaches, and mentors who help writers and authors create their art, build their audience, and sell their work.

In episode #110 of The Writing Coach podcast, I speak with Bella Mahaya Carter.

Bella Mahaya Carter is the author of Where Do You Hang Your Hammock?: Finding Peace of Mind While You Write, Publish, and Promote Your Book. She is a creative writing teacher, empowerment coach, and speaker, and author of an award-winning memoir, Raw: My Journey from Anxiety to Joy, and a collection of narrative poems, Secrets of My Sex.

Bella has worked with hundreds of writers since 2008 and has degrees in literature, film, and spiritual psychology. Her poetry, essays, fiction, and interviews have appeared in Mind, Body, Green; The Sun; Lilith; Fearless Soul; Writer’s Bone; Women Writers, Women’s Books; Chic Vegan; Bad Yogi Magazine; Jane Friedman’s Blog; Pick the Brain; Spiritual Media blog; Literary Mama; several anthologies, and elsewhere.

During our discussion, Bella describes:

• How our body, mind, and spiritual health influence our writing
• Why “striving” isn’t necessarily a good thing
• What she learned as a dancer that transferred over into her writing career
• Why she coined the term “universal doubt” and how it applies to writers
• What she hopes readers will take away from her new book
• How hanging a hammock in her back yard lead to a creative breakthrough
• And much more!