What’s Stopping You From Writing?

How many years have you put off writing a book? For me, it was 25 years and a lot of reasons why I couldn’t or shouldn’t…right now.

When you look at yourself in the mirror and see another wrinkle, when you blow out another candle on your birthday cake, when the kids move out from home…will you write? How many times have you said, “My family needs me,” or “I’m too busy with my career,” or “I’m not really a writer.”

What’s stopping you from writing…and when will you start?

The Unique You

I’ve been reading a lot of blogs and books lately that tell me that the world needs the book that’s inside of each one of us. Do you believe that? Do you have something to say that is uniquely yours to say?

I’m a strong believer in the uniqueness of each individual and, while we have so much in common in both beliefs and experiences, we each bring our own perceptions and understandings to the world around us. And it is that “unique-me” that needs to write my book, share my story, share the truth as I believe it to be.

Jeff Goins has an incredible course that teaches you how to find your “tribe”. Check out his website and you will see what I mean. I haven’t made it past the first of four modules. Why? Jeff walks you through on how to “Hone Your Voice”, the beginning in finding your tribe or your niche. It causes you to really examine who you are, what you want to say, and how to find others similar to yourself. And I have taken a deep-dive into who I am and what I want to say.

When you do this kind of self-examination of who you are and what you want to say then you have opened the door to writing your book.

Your Legacy

Many of us have legitimate reasons why we haven’t written our first book yet and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that. Life is meant to be lived and that usually doesn’t allow for countless hours spent in front of a computer screen, bleeding all over your keyboard as Hemingway says.

But you’re reading this now because something has awoken inside of you (I would argue it was never asleep, just napping) and now you know its time to write.

And it’s not because you’re older…it’s because you’ve learned and are ready to share!

Life has brought so many experiences our way — good and bad — that have shaped us and provided us with the insight that will flavor our novels and super-charge our stories. We can use those experiences to share with others what we’ve learned; and I’m including both fiction and non-fiction when I say this. Here’s some examples:

• Family – whether this includes children or not, how has your family shaped who you are? And what have you learned that could form a part of your book story

• Work – whether you’ve had a satisfying career or have held down a job just to pay the bills, think back on some of the things you’ve learned, even if you were so tired when you got home you only had enough energy to sit in front of the T.V. for a few hours.

• Religion – whether you believe in something or someone bigger than you or not, religion provides many opportunities to write a story. Good vs. evil, god and the devil, morals or ethics. How many of the books you’ve read have a religious theme infused in the story?

These are legacy experiences and would make great story themes or could become character traits in your stories. You have the experiences now you need to share them in a book.

You!

We come up with so many reasons why we can’t write or don’t have time right now but really…look in the mirror…the person looking back at you is who’s stopping you from writing.

• Got 5 minutes – jot a scene down

• See someone interesting – write it down, that’s a story character

• Turn off the T.V. or Internet – create a new habit of writing

• Tell someone – people actually think it’s pretty cool that you are writing a book

• Change your self-talk – quit lying to yourself…you want to be a writer…so write

With so many opportunities today to self-publish it’s not that difficult to take your work and post it on Amazon or elsewhere. That’s what I did…And guess what – when you put something out there…YOU ARE A WRITER! And see what that does to all the reasons you come up with to not write.

What excuses (um, reasons) are you using that is stopping you from writing?