The short, sweet, and comprehensive guide to choosing a book coach who understands how to get your Big Book Idea out of your magical brain and onto paper
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Around 3,775 years ago in ancient Mesopotamia, a man utters the words, “What do you take me for!” thus demonstrating that humans don’t change.
Nanni was angry. So angry, he went to the trouble of seeking out a scribe to write a letter of complaint for him — quite possibly the oldest letter of complaint we know of. Nanni had been cheated by a copper merchant, Ea-nasir, who had taken Nanni’s money and provided inferior copper in return.
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There are some people who do not have a fear response. In the face of danger, they laugh and run towards it (literally).
One of the causes is an unusual genetic disorder called Urbach-Wiethe disease, which destroys the amygdala in the brain, and with it the ability to feel afraid.
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None of us has any control over a global pandemic or other people’s behaviour or thoughts or actions. I don’t think we’ve ever lived through a time of such uncertainty. And yet I was trying to control it anyway. Perhaps you were, too. That’s what humans do; we try to control stuff.
Which is, quite simply, exhausting.
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Last week, there was a row on my Facebook timeline.
Well, not so much a row, as a demonstration of white male privilege at its worst.
In the face of dozens of women sharing stories and actual facts and stats about discrimination and how unfriendly the world of engineering is to non-males and the ways in which the patriarchy damages all of us (not just women), one man explained to us how we're wrong.
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Be grateful for what you can do.
Your body and mind (which are inextricably linked) are incredible. What you can do with them is wondrous.
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Tight jumpers (I remember having a meltdown as a child because my mum made me wear a blouse with puffy sleeves, then put a tight cardigan on over the top. Got the panicky sweats just thinking about it now).
Woolly hats.
Woolly scarves.
Woolly gloves.
Wool on my bare skin (shudder).
Felt. UGH FELT.
Anything that feels tight under my arms. -
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I need to mind my business and keep buzzing onwards.
Not be swayed by what others are doing.
Remember this next time you're stuck. Remember it when something threatens to derail your plans to write. Be more like Beetrice, focused on writing your book.
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Criticism and feedback can feel like eating kiwi fruit with the skin on: uncomfortable, even painful, leading to shortness of breath.
But only for a few minutes. Maximum 7 minutes. Then I have to pull myself together and crack on.
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How many times have you heard someone say something like, "Just be yourself! BE YOURSELF!"
And you're over in the corner thinking, "But WHO THE HELL AM I, KAREN?" Me.
It's one of those pieces of advice that isn't really advice so much but doesn't actually help us.
And the instruction to "be yourself" is at its worst when it's directed at writers.
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I will never stop speaking out about what I feel is wrong or right.
I will never stop learning and unlearning and growing.
I will not dampen my voice or shrink my presence or water down my opinions to make anyone else feel better or more comfortable.
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Attitude is everything. Everything I do happens inside my head before it happens outside: and that goes for business and life.
A little while ago, someone commented that writing a book "seems unfeasible". Clearly it's not, because I've done it many many times, and many of my clients have done it.
