Writing a book is meant to be a great adventure!
(It’s all that bloody, awful work that can keep you from accomplishing it.)
When people are struggling to write their books, it usually boils down to three issues:
Time. Time - or the lack thereof - kills too many splendid ideas.
Feeling like the story just won’t be good enough.
Feeling like the writing just won’t be good enough.
And here’s the thing, most people are willing to put in the time and the work--if only they knew the outcome would be marvelous, magnificent, noteworthy, and remarkable.
Here’s the rub. We never know. Not at the outset. The adventure must be worth the cost to proceed forward anyway.
Many of you have heard me talk about the Hero’s Journey in storytelling. It’s a marvelous tool for fiction, and it surprises people that it works brilliantly for nonfiction as well. Why? Because it helps you tell a more epic story. It doesn’t mean you make up or aggrandize a single thing. It means that you look at your story in a more meaningful way, recognizing that you have lived more of an epic life than you have ever given yourself credit for.
Case in point, I had so many marvelous people at my last Inspired Writers Retreat, and Roxayn was one of those authors. She had taken a class with us before, made remarkable progress. . . and then life got in the way. There was her daughter’s wedding, and other vitally important things in life.
That happens. Life happens. Schtuff happens. It happens to every great writer I know.
The trick is getting back in the game!
Roxayn attended a retreat to get back in the game. I was proud of her! What I didn’t know was that she came the first night feeling rather isolated. This happens to writers, too. We know we have a story to tell, and that it’s important, but other people, especially those who are not writers, don’t always share our PASSION for the message or the story.
And then . . . there is the self-talk.
Oh, the endless self-talk that keeps us guessing about the effect and magnitude of our words. We have to let ourselves keep going despite that. Roxayn was dealing with that isolation and self-talk with which even the greatest writers of all time have struggled. Roxayn is an empowering writer for women. She takes remarkable stories of women and puts them together in ways that blow your paradigms wide open, and allows you to see the gifts inside of you for what they really are. But Roxayn was experiencing that “dark evening” that wouldn’t allow her to see that gift inside of herself.
By the next morning, however, during an experiential writing exercise outside, a miracle happened. All of the horrific, dragonish voices in her head diminished. Instead of isolation, she experienced oneness. Instead of self-doubt, she experienced an infusion of joy that she put into her writing. She crossed a threshold and allowed her warrior, goddess self to take charge of her writing again. It was a marvelous miracle for the rest of us to behold as even her countenance changed and she was shining, in between her writing surges!
Writing will do that.
Invite it.
Winston Churchill said, “Writing a book is an adventure. To begin with it is a toy and an amusement. Then it becomes a mistress, then it becomes a master, then it becomes a tyrant. The last phase is that just as you are about to be reconciled to your servitude, you kill the monster and fling him to the public.”
CAN. I. JUST. TELL. YOU?
I know Churchill’s sentiment all too well. Honestly, this happens to me every time I write a book, even now. You see, you may have lived a Hero’s Journey that you are now writing, but you must always experience a hero’s journey in the writing of a good book. You must cross from the ordinary world into the extraordinary. You must be thrust into battle within yourself to make the very best of your messy adventure. And, you must be willing to save the day, seize the sword, slay the dragon (the voices in your head) and as Churchill says, fling the book out to the public!
Writing is a quest, a great adventure, a great battle, and a wonderful reward, all in itself. Give it the credit it is due. Give yourself the credit you are due in the writing. And get that monster out into the public, where it belongs. . . so that you may change the world.
You know you have it in you.
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Want to experience the hero's journey for yourself? I have a program that is sure to help you craft a life-changing journey for your reader.
If you are stuck trying to outline your story, or trying to squeeze too many threads into your book, or find yourself going around in circles with no way out of your writing maze, The Hero's Journey will resolve these issues.
Click the link below!