Writing more humanly in an increasingly distracted world
Hey there, I’m MJ Halberstadt (he/him/whatever), a collaborative writer living and flailing in Portland, OR. I formed an LLC business called Find the Words as a container for some of the creative services I provide to authors and professionals.
These services include:
…supporting authors of self-help books as a ghostwriter, writing coach, cohort facilitator, and developmental editor…
…providing college essay coaching for high school students working on their Common Application essays…
…developing professional bios and homepage copy (and, more importantly, a genuine sense of professional identity) for therapists, coaches, artists, and other professionals.
…facilitating writing workshops and teaching classes for teams, communities, and schools.
In short: I am a creative thought partner for people who don’t yet have the words for what they mean to say.
I also host sporadic free writing workshops on different themes.
Check out recordings of previous events here, or subscribe to my Substack to be the first to know about new ones.
(Here’s one of my recent favorites:)
“Yes! That’s what I mean!”
As long as a person is willing, curious, receptive, and a little courageous, I’m pretty good at helping them unlock what they mean to say and learn important lessons from their writer’s block.
This is because I’m disarming, nonjudgmental, observant (in my Aquarius way), and come in with incisive questions that expose and explode patterns.
We can get that thing off your chest.
I don’t think about using AI for writing very much. To me, the rewards of writing include pleasure, emotional journey, personal growth, community-building, and confidence-development. AI precludes so many of those rewards and, oh yeah, might destroy the very species it plagiarizes and is actively displacing.
Besides, delayed gratification is a great antidote for slop and regret because it forces you to spend time with this thing you expect other people to care about.
Any project worth doing has unique needs
The best place to begin is a quick dialogue. During our vibe check call, tell me about your goals and challenges, and I’ll suggest a few ways forward.
I am especially interested in meeting future authors of self-help books and values-driven professionals working in the hybrid / self-publishing industry.