Join us as we hear from our BookSparks authors on where they write to find inspiration.
Introducing – Where I Write!

Where I Write – R.W. Burke

I began writing the book that became Quiet The Rage in 2013. I wrote the first hundred pages, put it down and walked away. I didn’t feel like it was fully baked at that point; it lacked a complete vison, along with the inspiration necessary to finish it. About 18 months later, I returned to the book. I re-wrote the entire first hundred pages, and the rest of the book in 90 days.

During the first attempt, my writing style and approach was arduous. I scheduled time to write and fully expected to be able to “write on demand.” As I learned the hard way though, creativity doesn’t always bend to the laws of time management. I also found a couple of workspaces that I felt were conducive to the task. One was the conference table in my home office and the other was the dining room table. There were many days you’d find me at either location sitting in a chair, wrapped in a blanket, hood of my sweatshirt up, hovering over the keyboard, tapping away.

The second more successful attempt was completely different. The words that ultimately ended up on the pages, were first formed in my mind, often during a 7-mile run. The physical location became less important, because the writing was taking place untethered. My writing process morphed into more transcription than creation. The real challenge became re-attaching to the train of thought, almost like a computer searching for an available internet connection, once connected, the writing could happen anywhere…and it did.

As I became more adept at re-connecting to the “thought stream,” I was able to write everywhere: at the hotel (usually early in the AM), at the gate waiting for a flight, on the plane, at the hotel’s pool cabana while visiting my son at UCLA; any break in the day that afforded a moment to open the laptop and continue that streaming content…almost like Netflix remembering where the last viewing binge ended, and then picking it up from there.

For me, writing has become less of a physical place and more of a cognitive space. And breaking through that limiting construct has allowed me to become a more prolific writer.

Richard Burke

R.W. Burke is a Certified Professional Coach through the Institute for Professional Excellence in Coaching. He holds a bachelor of science degree in accountancy from Providence College, and a master of business administration degree with a concentration in finance from Providence College’s School of Business.

For thirty years, he’s worked in and around the automobile business. For the past six of those years, he’s worked to become a top coach on Ford Motor Company’s Consumer Experience Movement (CEM) project, covering twenty-five dealerships in seven states. In his capacity as coach, he’s responsible for developing the dealerships’ 2,500 people (and the organizations themselves), both personally and professionally, to better understand the ways those people are limiting themselves in life and to break through those limitations to new levels of performance. As a result, he has logged over ten thousand hours of individual coaching, with the vast majority of those hours specifically focused on helping others manage conflict.