Don’t get it right. Get it written.
Do you struggle with writing? I’m talking about literally having trouble getting words out of your head and getting them onto a word doc, or onto paper. I do. I know that as a book coach, I’m not supposed to say that out loud, but it is the truth. I know from my own personal experience, as well as from regular feedback I receive from aspiring authors, that it’s not uncommon for writers to become paralysed by what I like to call our inner editor. We have an idea that we want to explore and we start putting things down on paper, or typing things into a note on our computers, and before long we are reading and rereading the few words we’ve written, and editing them, and we’ve lost our creative spark. Or worse, we don’t even start putting our ideas on paper because we just get so stuck…
Audiobook, ebook or print book?
What is the best way to go for your book? This is going to sound funny, coming from a book coach, but I don’t read books. I used to. It was not unusual for me to absorb at least one book a week, but I now prefer to listen to books, and I know I am not alone. My 2nd favourite way to consume books is on my kindle app. I love, love, love the idea of being able to take my entire library with me everywhere I go. That thought alone fills me with great joy. And I love having a visual of what I am listenning to. Side note: Did you know that listenning and reading at the same time actually helps you to absorb more content? I heard that from Alex Hermozi. (If you are in business and you don’t know who he is, look him up.…
The Power of Possibility: When People Put Their Minds to Change
Have you ever stopped to marvel at what extraordinary humans can achieve when they set their minds to something? Throughout history—and in quiet corners of our modern world—people are solving impossible problems, rising from heartbreak and hardship, and creating movements that ripple far beyond their original intention. From grassroots campaigns that transform communities, to everyday individuals who turn pain into purpose, the common thread is this: they decide they want to make a difference. They choose to speak up.They choose to take action.They choose to believe that their voice, their story, and their ideas will matter to someone. And when they make that choice, lives change. At Disruptive Publishing, I get to witness this power firsthand. I work with women—many in midlife and beyond—who are no longer willing to stay silent or sit on their dreams. They’re ready to tell their story, build their legacy, and turn their life experience…
Your Voice Matters…
How many times in your life have you felt unseen, unheard and undervalued.
OMG, it hurts doesn’t it!!
As children, it is a common experience – sometimes too common – to feel this way, and each time it happens it erodes our self-confidence further and further, and some of us begin to believe we’re not worth listening to.
As adults, we then carry an empty, black hole around inside us. We seek validation from the wrong people and that emptiness inside remains unfulfilled.
In fact, each time we try to speak up and are not listened to, or we feel we are not being valued, the wound gets worse.
For many, by the time they’ve reach adulthood, they’ve given up on trying to be heard and that is soooooo sad.
If this rings true for you I want you to hear this:
As long as you are alive, life’s not done with you yet…there’s so much more to your story.
Let me explain…
What happens when you decide you want to become an author?
What does the author journey look and feel like?
Like any other journey into unknown territory, there is often a lot to learn, and the only way to learn it and achieve our goals is to move toward them, putting one foot in front of the other and asking for help along the way.
Romecca’s path to becoming an author has been nothing short of inspirational. We’ve witnessed her reliving her story, facing challenges with unwavering determination, and emerging as a beacon of hope and creativity for so many others.
We understand the emotional rollercoaster that authors like Romecca embark upon when they set out to share their own stories, not only in reliving their own experiences but in allowing themselves to become vulnerable to their potential readers.
The first draft is for you…
How is your writing going?
Today, I especially wanted to speak to those of you who are writing non-fiction books. It is really important for you to understand this so take note:
The first draft of your book is for you.
The second and subsequent drafts are for your reader.
Writing a book, especially a memoir, is a very personal and often confronting experience that requires truckloads of patience and self-compassion.
More often than not, a first draft is more like a dump than a book, and that is perfectly fine.
If you want to sell books, however, and especially if you want to help other people with your experience and expertise, the second and subsequent drafts have to be for your reader.
No one wants to hear what you have to say :(
Have you ever felt like this?
If I had a dollar for every woman my age who had been told that children should be seen and not heard, I would be the richest woman on the planet.
Or for those who were told that they were greedy if they asked for what they wanted, and that what they wanted didn’t matter because there were more important needs to be taken care of and those needs just about always belonged to someone else who was more important than us.
And we didn’t hear these things once or twice throughout our childhood. We heard them over and over and over with great passion, so it was literally drummed into us that speaking up made no difference.
Worse than that, speaking up sometimes made us a target for anger, and possibly even violence.
So, it should be no surprise to know that one of the greatest needs of many of my counselling clients was, first and foremost, to be heard.
The validation that comes from feeling heard is a powerful experience, and people will pay for that experience because being heard is such a deeply held basic need for human beings.
It’s also the beginning of the healing process for many of the deepest wounds.
So why do we need to heal and what has this got to do with writing books?
How long have you been thinking about writing a self-help book?
Writing a self-help book was something I had wanted to do for many, many years but I didn’t know what I wanted to write about or how to go about writing it?
I was on a perpetual personal development journey, and I’d journaled daily most of my life – pages and pages every day – but there was never one particular theme or area that I wrote about that I thought I could develop into a book. At least I couldn’t see it.
I had so many questions about writing a book. ALL. THE. TIME. Where would I start? How would I know what to write about? How would I get it published? Who would want to read my book?
I agonised over it for so many years before I finally wrote a book and published it and shared it with the world, and I know so many more people who live with the same angst that I lived with of wanting to write that book.
If you are feeling this, then read on because this week’s blog is for you…
Getting started on your book: What’s stopping you?
This might sound overly simplistic, but the first step in writing a book is getting started.
Getting started on a book can be a huge hurdle for writers and is possibly the most common reason why a writer never becomes a published author. How sad is that!
So why is it so difficult for some authors to get started? And how can an author overcome the blocks that are keeping them from realising their dream?
Do you have a healthy author mindset?
A healthy author mindset is the set of attitudes and beliefs that I believe writers must adopt to help them succeed in becoming published. It is the mental framework that allows writers to approach their work with the dedication, passion, and the willingness to learn and improve that they are going to need to realise their goals.
A healthy author mindset is crucial for any writer who wants to achieve success and fulfillment in their writing career so in this blog, I wanted to explore what a healthy author mindset looks like and why I think it is important.
What exactly is a healthy author mindset?