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
Are we asking the right questions?
I don't always ask good questions. I ask obvious ones. Like, "Why do I always procrastinate?"
When I ask myself a question like that, my brain comes up with answers like:
Because I'm lazy
Because I don't know where to start
Because I have too much to do
And I start to believe it. Do you know how unhelpful that is?
The more I learn about anything, the more I realise I don't know much at all.
Learning is bizarre because our brains get everything barse-ackwards.
When we know nothing at all about a subject, and we know we know nothing, that's cool. But if we learn a little something, then we become dangerous.
We get all overexcited in this first flush of learning something new and we think we're experts. I look back on myself years ago, when I first started my business, and cringe: I had a little knowledge and I thought I knew it all.
Your book is just the beginning...
It's not enough to have a book out there (although that is AWESOME obviously) – it needs to work for you.
It feels like banging your head against a brick wall.
You’ve written a great book, you’re getting wonderful feedback on it, people are contacting to tell you how they’re getting on and how much they love the book, and yet on Amazon... it’s crickets.
Tumbleweed.
Maybe you have a handful of reviews... but other than that – nothing.
It is incredibly frustrating because you’re getting all this private feedback, but you can’t make it visible on Amazon where it’ll really help your book move up the ranks and encourage others to buy.
For a lot of people, this is the perfect time to try something new: bright hair; experiments in makeup; painting; learning a language or an instrument; baking bread; patience.
And I've had a lot of emails from people who've bought my book saying they're using this time to write their books (and I'm so bloody excited for them!)
Don't let anyone shame you into ridiculous productivity.
Don't be pushed into doing more than you want to.
It's okay not to be okay.
It's incredibly tempting to throw everything you have at your courses and products and articles... but how about, instead, you go deeper and narrower?
Lust is greed; love is a gift
The punishment for lust, according to the Bible, is being smothered in fire and brimstone, which sounds pretty horrific if short-lived.
I reckon a more imaginative punishment for lust would be to spend eternity naked with the ex you never want to see again. If I were into punishing people for lust, which I am not.
I don't know about you, but my days are incredibly full.
I haven't shut my business, so I'm not swimming in free time; and although my client work has dipped, I'm using this time to do stuff I've been wanting to do for ages.
Stop. Breathe. Listen.
Then pick a thing and do it.
Let’s talk about sloth, shall we? One of the 7 deadly sins, and something that’ll scupper your ability to write a book (or, in fact, anything else).
The punishment for sloth is eternal death by spider bites over and over again. Or possibly being forced to sit in front of a blank page and be unable to write—forever.
Michael Stipe was right, eh?
Oof. What a few days, eh?
It's the end of the world as we know it.
