How many times have you thought about writing a book about your life? Or even a part of your life?
Maybe you’ve had an experience that you think might be interesting or helpful to someone else.
Maybe your whole life has been full of experiences that would be interesting or helpful to others.
But how would you go about it? How would you know what to share and what not to share?
Where would you start?
How much would you share? Would you need to keep some things to yourself, or would you bare all?
What would people think? Would you be judged or ridiculed or rejected? Or would you be embraced and understood and received with gratitude for your courage for creating a space that gives permission to others to share?
Let’s explore this further…
Every single one of us has at least one story to tell, but sadly, not everyone wants to write a book.
I often think our lives are just like books with many chapters and plot twists. Some are good and some are not so good.
Just like a good work of fiction, though, what makes our stories most interesting when we retell them, is not so much what happens as how we respond to what happens in our lives and who we become as a result of the people and the events that show up in our lives.
One of the exciting things about writing our own story is that we get to acknowledge our strengths, explore our weaknesses, and grow from the lessons we learned along the way.
Then we get to think about who we want to be in the future. It’s a powerful experience to reflect in this way and if you are a journal writer then you already know what I am talking about.
Journal writing is truly a great tool for personal growth and can give you the bones of a great book if that is what you decide to do.
Just like the main character in a good mystery novel, we don’t often know ourselves or what we are truly made of until we are tested by life.
If you were to write your story, though, consider these questions:
Would your story be a drama or an adventure? Would it be a romantic comedy or a thriller?
Think about yourself as a main character.
How would you describe yourself? Would you be strong, resilient, courageous, brave, and victorious?
What sort of things would your main character have overcome to get to where they are now?
What would they have learned about people and life along the way?
And what would they say to anyone following in their footsteps? What message would they want to share from their experience?
You can inspire others with your story. Your experience can be helpful and can serve as a guide for anyone who is facing the same challenges that you have conquered.
People really are hungry to learn how to overcome their pain and attain more happiness in their lives and they want to be moved.
So, if you have overcome a challenge, then chances are your story could be the turning point for someone else. Imagine that!!
If you have a story about love and loss, about broken relationships that have led to new and better outcomes, health challenges that have been overcome, or you’ve a rags to riches story, then you have a story worth publishing.
If you have a story about overcoming abuse or rising above poverty or learning to value yourself after being minimised, hurt or humiliated, then you have a story worth publishing.
If you have a story about having a dream and achieving it against all odds, then you definitely have a story worth publishing.
The trick is to know how to write your story using the right blend of information mixed with the right level of emotional vulnerability so that your reader can connect with you and feel moved as a result.
One thing I loved about my days as a counsellor was how while most of my clients had similar challenges in their lives, every single one of them felt differently about their challenges for different reasons, and I was always curious to understand what motivated each of them to feel the way they felt, and to respond the way they did.
It really isn’t the plot or the events in our lives that make our stories truly interesting. The greatest stories can come from the most mundane events.
It is how we feel about the events and how we respond to them that makes our stories interesting.
If you have thought about writing a book about your life, or about an aspect of your life, and if you have ever thought that your life wasn’t interesting enough, I encourage you to think again.
We can help you share your story in a way that moves and engages people. You might be surprised by how moving and engaging your story really is.
That’s it from me for this week but I encourage you to follow the link below and book in for an information call if you would like to explore the idea further and between us we can determine whether or not you have a story worth publishing.
It could be the beginning of a whole new chapter for you – the chapter where you become a published author.
Bye for now.
Click below to book in for an Information Call
