Sometimes, doing a big, hard thing really is as easy as doing a bunch of small ones.
The phrase “I’m writing a book” evokes all sorts of feelings, doesn’t it? After all, books are, well…they’re books! The only people who write books are authors — not regular people! Writers place these and other roadblocks in front of themselves as a way to not write something so large as a book. I know this because I too was doing it for quite some time.
Since I began writing online, about 4 years ago, I have had every intention to eventually write a book — eventually. That has been the operative word. I had ideas, and the hunger to be the kind of writer who has a book under his belt . But every time I would begin to think of writing a book, the pressure would fold me like flimsy pair of boxer shorts.
Writing is Writing…is Writing
Writing a book seems like such a big thing to do — to have done. Only authors have written books, right? But I’m just a salesman — a husband, a father — with a mortgage and a driveway that needs shoveling. I’m not Tony Robbins or Elizabeth Gilbert; and that’s what has kept me from writing a book. So I resigned myself to write short pieces here on Medium for the past 4 years. Week after week, I’d start with a blank white space and a blinking cursor. I’d spend a few hours mulling over some topic, eventually settle on something, click “publish” and move on.
For some reason, that didn’t feel like writing to me — at least not the same kind of writing that makes a book. But recently I realized something: writing is writing. Composing an email to your friend, asking how she’s holding up after she got dumped — that’s writing. Jotting down how you feel about you partner in a Valentine’s Day card — that’s writing. Writing is writing. If you can do that, you can write a book.
A Book Is Just a Bunch of Words
We make so much out of books. We lean on them, we scour them for inspiration, we identify ourselves through them. Books have been, for the past several centuries, vehicles for inspiration and action. And while it is true that books can be so very valuable once published and read, they are just a bunch of words.
I don’t say that as a way to denigrate the power that books can have, and how worthwhile they are as an investment of time and emotion. I say “books are just words” because it is what the reluctant writer — the one depriving the world of her work due to her fear and insecurity — needs to hear.
Sometimes books are amazing works of of art from the time of their first draft; many times they are not. Sometimes books are well-received and heralded as life-changing upon their release. Most are not. But so much of that is not up to you, the author. You may think it is, but it is not. What is up to you — dear writer — is whether and to what extent you put your heart and mind into what you write. After you put forth full heart and mind, then arrange, edit, and worry about how it will all be received (maybe).
And So, I Gathered My Bunch of Words…
I should have known all the foregoing advice. But it took a candid conversation with my wife to realize it. After all my hand-wringing and pacing around the room about what big thing I should do in 2019, my wife simply asked:
“why not write a book?”
When I asked what about, she said:
“you’ve written what, like 200 articles already? You’re telling me there’s not a book in there?”
And so it was. I reminded myself of how much I love to think and write about big problems, and help others do the same. Then I looked for the articles that I thought would help the most when put together. Then I wrote about the writing I’d already done, put a new essay in there, and published it.
Okay, there was a lot of editing there, but you get the idea. I didn’t have to reinvent the wheel in order to write a book. I had already done the hardest part: starting and producing chapters. All I had to do was put them together — which was actually pretty fun.
The Moral of the Story: Run a Marathon — 1 Mile at a Time
The best way to write your first book is to just write a book without meaning for it to be a book, and then making it a book afterward. If writing a book is the literary equivalent of running a marathon, then consider my advice to be this: run a marathon by running a moderately-paced mile — 26.2 times.
I wrote and self-published an e-book, which depending on who you ask, may not really be a real book. But part of my mind — that part that kept telling me how impossibly big a project writing a book is — accepts it as a book. So I’ve effectively shut up that part of me that was keeping me from just going after the bigger things I’ve been thinking of.
The book is out now, and I couldn’t be happier. Whether it’s great or not-so-great, it’s my first step, and I’m glad I took it. Now I’m much less hesitant to take the next step — which doesn’t seem as big as it used to.
So, speaking of first (and next) steps…what’s yours?!
Thanks for reading, you can pick up your own copy of my book: Be, Think, Do on Amazon. A paperback version is in the works, so if that’s your preference, stay tuned in the coming weeks.
