Wherever you are on your book writing adventure, you’ll find what you need here…
What to do if you’re just starting out on your Author Adventure: planning, preparation, and dealing with your Inner Dickhead
When you sit down to write a book and you realise how much bloody hard work is involved, and you're staring at the Blank Page Of Doom in despair, you're stuck.
How about if I told you I have a secret weapon that could be the key to defeating procrastination, anxiety, fear, and generalised woe?
It's *whispers* an outline.
Let me ask you again: why aren't you achieving your goals? Do you know what's missing? Which tiny beetle steps you need to take?
Writing a book isn't just about the writing; it's about the details, too. The fine points that mark you out as a professional. Stuff your readers may not notice on a conscious level, but if you get it wrong, they'll feel it. They'll know.
So pay attention to the details and don't let the excitement of finishing trick you into a similar horror...
Knowing what questions to ask when you start to write your book is the hardest part… We spend so much time looking for answers, we rarely stop to think if we’re asking the right questions. And sometimes we don’t know which questions to ask at all…
Beware the spooks, ghouls, and monsters lurking in the shadows, waiting to destroy your book…
You can create a sacred space even in a shared office, a busy home, or a public café; it just takes a little ingenuity and a certain amount of hard-headed resolve.
What would you do with your business and your products and services if there were no rules? If nobody was watching? If you could guarantee nobody would laugh?
Here's my top tip for you, if you're a serial non-fiction book-buyer: make notes as you read. Write down three actions you'll take in your business or your life now you've read the book – then take those actions.
Don't just read; do. Of course, some books make it easier to do that than others... Like my new book How The Hell Do You Write A Book.
Perfectionism keeps us all stuck, and it may well drive us into an early grave.
Dr Brené Brown calls perfectionism “the 20-ton shield”. She says “we carry it around thinking it’s going to protect us from being hurt. But it protects us from being seen… It’s a way of thinking that says, ‘If I look perfect, live perfect, work perfect — I can avoid or minimise criticism, blame, and ridicule.
Have you ever been stuck? Staring at the Blank Page of Doom in despair?
Yep, me too.
Have you ever blamed it on "writer's block"?
Yep, me too.
Here's the thing, though: there's no such thing as writer's block.
It's a made-up myth, a lie we tell ourselves to get out of doing the work.
Most of us are starters, not finishers. We're entrepreneurs, so we're easily excited and enthused by new ideas and big plans and the next shiny thing — but when it comes to finishing what we started...? Writing that book? Launching that course?
Ever had insomnia? Not just a little trouble sleeping, but the twitchy, panicky, staring into the void teetering-on-the-edge of madness insomnia?
Every now and then, it feels like you’re poised on the knife-edge of sleep—so you grab at it, wildly, desperately, only to feel sleep slip away, leaving you grinding your teeth.
To me, that’s what the Blank Page Of Doom feels like sometimes. When I have the seed of an idea I can’t quite hold onto—or too many ideas, boiling across my brain too swift to catch.
