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
The longer you leave it, the harder it gets. And the more pointless it seems…And the more you should have started last week, last month, last year — so you may as well not start at all. It’s too late now, after all. What is even the point of it allllllll?
The first time I picked up The Heretics by Will Storr I got about 25 pages into it — not even past the introduction — before I had to put it down because I got so angry.
It’s about people who think the Earth is flat, who believe homeopathy can cure cancer, who think they’ve been abducted by aliens.
It’s weird, what happens when we set out to write Something Important, like a book or an essay or even a social media post. Our bodies and minds are taken over by the ghost of our primary school selves, worried the teacher will take the ideas our imaginations made and squash them into a boring little cube that fits the system.
Lockdown, 2020.
I was a copywriter who also helped people write nonfiction books, but the world had just shattered + shut down.
And who the hell was going to indulge writing a book when the ship was sinking?
It was decision time: do I crash and burn? Or go all-in on what I really want to do?
This here is Toby Tortoise, who I take care of sometimes.
He lives just along the lane from me and he has strawberry on his face (living his best life!).
All he needed was a little sunshine and warmth to do the thing he does best: eat and snooze.
What do you need to do the thing you do best?
I’ve done a lot of scary things. Made a lot of terrifying decisions — and they were the best decisions I ever made.
You already know you want a book out there with your name on.
Maybe you’ve already started it!
But when it’s out there with your name on, people might see it, right? They might not love it. They might not love YOU.
Find a daffodil and look at it. Look at it until you remember how beautiful the world can be.
Stand in the sunshine and let the sun soak into your face, until you remember that there are more people who want the world to be kind and gentle than those who want to spread fear.
Then, pull your socks up, buckaroo, and get writing.
You’re a writer. You are, or you wouldn’t be here reading this.
So I have a question for you today: how do you feel about big tech AI companies stealing your work?
If you’re in the UK, please read on — then take action.
My face is one giant grin right now because I’m reading the reviews coming in from yesterday’s Find Your Funnybone microworkshop.
Julia’s starts with:
“The “find your funny bone” workshop had all the elements of a perfect workshop…”
Do you know what your most powerful weapon is in fighting the current rise of fascist ideas and literally saving the world?
It’s your brain. Your voice. Your ideas.
The words you use and how you put them together to subvert and combat misinformation, cruelty, and outright lies.
3 pieces of writing advice you may want to put in the bin — and what to try instead…
Have you ever created something and then just thought it’s the best thing you’ve ever done?
That's sort of how I feel about MicroBook Magic.
Back in November 2022, when the world was starting to get back to normal after all the Covid lockdowns, I realised something was changing.
