It’s Easy to Write a Book

So, Just Do It!
Start anywhere. If you can’t think of anything, then write about yesterday.

What happened? Something happened,
write your thoughts, feelings, actions during at least one part of the day.
Maybe you had an interesting dream.
How did you feel once you woke up?

Write about that. Write about your last dinner, a date, an argument.
Then, write about it from a different viewpoint.
See where that takes you.

The important thing is to just start.
Then you won’t have a blank page.

After all, it really isn’t difficult to write that book.
Well, maybe a smidge.

“You’ll get it done,” your soothsayers will tell you.
“Just write what you want to share.”

They don’t have the same passions you have though.

What they don’t mention is the craft behind the writing.
How it makes the entire book flow.
That’s how much craft matters.
Character matters.
Place and setting matters.
Most of all, a good story matters.

With craft it comes alive with power.
A good writing coach will show you
how to move the line,
bounce the ball,
push toward the objective to write
clean and true.

A good mentor will cheer you on.
Show you what to do. Sometimes how to do it.
They have hard won experience, expertise.
Training. Knowledge. Tools.

All the bells and whistles too.

It isn’t difficult.
Just follow direction.
Listen to what they say.
Do what they tell you to do.

Then you can
sit back.
Watch the rewards come in.
Feel the glory of the win.
Know your power.

After all, you aren’t the robot you secretly think you are.
You have a mind.
A thinking mind.
A mind that knows the difference between truth and lies.
A mind that can follow orders or take a different path.

You will fail — we all do at one time or another — many times in fact.
Your mind will tell you it’s someone else’s fault.
Not yours. Especially not yours.
You don’t deserve to feel bad about your mistakes.
Look at how you worked.
Sweated over it.
Crossed too many important things out,
too many times.

Something or someone is to blame if things don’t go right.
The mind does that because it likes sameness. Smallness. Comfort.
An easy ride without much work.

What it doesn’t tell you though is that you learn from mistakes,
If you want to truly want to know how.
You write, and write, and write.

Alone.

Edit and then edit more.
Remove paragraphs, put them back in, but in different places.
Create anew. Learn your craft.
And even then, there will be something more to do. Make another change. Add something; take it out.
And still….it just isn’t quite right. Something’s missing.
Maybe story. Maybe craft.

Change it up. Again.
Until you have a finished product.
That’s the writing process.

Life isn’t about roses and lollipops. It’s about how it’s lived.