Overcoming Fears & Obstacles to Book Writing

Posted by Aaron McMahon on Jan 18th, 2009 | 1 comment home title

No matter what fears or obstacles stand in our way as book authors, we must never give up until we have achieved our goal.

Being a book author may not always be easy. In fact, there will be times when it may be very hard. Our vision, passion, and fearless determination is what separates us as book authors from everyone else who just “wants to write a book someday.” We must be committed to our own vision!

“I don’t have time to write.”

Also see the related article
10 Ways to Kill Your
Book-Writing Vision

Do you want to write a book? I mean, do you really want to write a book? If so, then you’ll make time. You’ve been given 80 years of life to spend however you wish. It only takes a small sliver of those 80 years to write a book. Even if you only wrote for an hour a week, you would have a finished book. If you have passion, motivation, and dedication, you will make time to write. And if you can do that, you’ll have a finished product.

“Why should I write a book that might fail in the marketplace?”

I would rather attempt something great and fail than succeed at doing nothing. I’ve also found that any book we write will sell. Are we trying to sell one million copies? Not even a book publisher could predict that based on a previously-unpublished author. But authors and publishers take this risk all the time. Even if your book doesn’t sell a million, would you be okay if it only sold one thousand copies? What if your second book sold 10,000 copies? And your third book sold 25,000 copies? I say take a risk and go for it!

“What if my writing is bad and nobody wants to read it?”

There are hundreds of wonderful books, websites, workshops and community college classes designed to help you become a better writer. I highly encourage you to utilize these resources.

I have a personal motto: “If I have to choose between writing badly or writing nothing at all, I’ll write badly. This can always be edited until it’s publishable.”

Many people are afraid to write because they don’t want to write badly. They don’t realize that writing is often bad when it’s first put on paper. But at least something has been written. Then it will be obvious what needs to be changed. The most intimidating part of writing is staring at a blank piece of paper or a blank white computer screen. Write anything. This will spark creativity and new ideas. Even if it’s poorly written or badly formatted, you’ll at least have something to massage into a well-written piece of writing.

If you want to get over this fear of writing anything because it has to be perfect, try this. Use a timer that will beep after a specified number of minutes, such as the alarm clock feature of your cell phone or a kitchen cooking timer. Set it for 5 minutes. Now write as much as you can, as fast as you can. Write about what? Anything! Whatever comes to mind! The key is to just write. Don’t think about it. If you can’t think of what to write, simply write the words, “I can’t think of what to write.” The very act of writing causes your mind to become creative. This will break you out of a creative block and show you that you can write. Even if it’s bad, at least it’s something. It’s much easier (and cheaper) to remodel an ugly house than to build a brand new one.

Also keep in mind that technology has changed our culture significantly in the last ten or twenty years. It used to be that the only people making movies were Hollywood film directors. Then videocameras came down in price and everyone had access to a device that allowed them to make short, fun movies. But they only audience they had was their family and maybe a neighbor or two.

The Internet came along and changed everything. YouTube sprang up almost overnight and suddenly everyone was uploading their film masterpieces… and everything else. Yes, there is a lot of boring or tasteless video on YouTube. But they don’t care… they take it all and let the audience of the Internet find whatever videos they want. No matter how boring, how good, how moving, or how sleep-inducing a video may be, it will be watched by somebody somewhere. And no matter how bad a video is, there is probably somebody in the world who swears it’s the best thing they’ve ever seen!

Today’s technology is now offering the same thing to writers. People are now blogging their thoughts and discovering that people actually like reading them! Maybe the audience isn’t very big but that’s okay. How big an audience is enough? Everyone has to start out small and work their way to the big-leagues. Having any kind of enthusiastic audience, no matter how small, is an amazing thing.

In a later chapter, I’ll talk about the technology of book-printing which has changed the game, just like YouTube and the rest of the Internet.

“What if nobody buys my book?”

I can’t imagine a situation in which absolutely nobody buys your book. First of all, I’m going to show you in this manual that every book you sell will be profitable. You won’t need to sell 500 copies before you start making back your money. Second, I’m going to show you ways to market and promote your book. If you’ve written it with passion, if you’ve written it clearly, and if there is an audience for your information, you will sell it. Will you be able to quit your job? Probably not. The answer to this obstacle comes down to this: how many copies do you want to sell? Are you being realistic with your goals? You may not sell 50,000 copies in your first year. But who’s to say you won’t be at that level after writing 5 or 6 books. You’ll need a lot of exposure, but your first set of books will help provide that. If you keep your expectations realistic, you won’t be disappointed!

“I don’t have enough experience or wisdom to write.”

First of all, if you’re considering writing a book, you probably have more experience and wisdom than you think. Second, and most importantly, you will learn as you write. You’ll end up researching ideas and information to help you craft your ideas and write your book. You’re doing something the readers don’t have time to do: learn a lot about a topic, then format it into an easily-digestable book.

You should have more experience and wisdom about your teaching topic than your audience, obviously. How much more? Probably not as much as you’d think. If this particular obstacle/fear is blocking you, I would have to turn this question back to you: how much experience and wisdom will be enough for you to start writing? If you let this obstacle remain in your way, you may never have enough. This obstacle could be a fear that’s hiding behind a logical-sounding excuse.

If you’re passionate about your book topic (and you are!), you can read, learn, and ponder the information you want to write about. All of this reading, learning and pondering is what your readers don’t have time to do. They want to pay you to do it for them so they can read your insights in your book. See, people want to pay you to be passionate about your topic! But you have to give them the information in return.

“I don’t know how to collect and organize my thoughts into a book.”

This information is covered in detail in the Book-Writing Class and Aaron’s Kingdom Book Author’s Manual. You will be an expert at collecting and organizing your thoughts and ideas. They will no longer be a confusing, mismatched pile of ideas. You’ll learn how to get them under control and make them work for you.

“I’m afraid if I start, I won’t finish it. What if I’m just wasting my time?”

Writing is never a waste of time. Writing a book is an artistic venture that will be tremendously rewarding to you. The writing process itself is a time of self-discovery, when you see all the wisdom, ideas, and fun stories within you and get them down onto paper. And the magical moment when you see your printed book for the first time will be a moment unlike anything you’ve ever experienced.

Later in this manual, I’m going to talk about the importance of having a writing accountability partner. See Chapter 5 to learn more about this resource. Your partner will ensure that you keep moving forward. Also, your passion, dedication and motivation to write a book will help you drive your book forward until it’s complete. Of course, you’ve already spent time imagining what it will be like to have a finished and printed book in your hands. You’ve envisioned it sitting on a store display or in a reader’s bookcase. Keeping this vision in mind will help you to stay focused on your end goal: finishing your book so that vision becomes a reality.

“My friends and family will laugh if I tell them I’m writing a book.”

You have two options: tell them you’re writing a book, or don’t tell them you’re writing a book. Either option is fine. When I was writing These Signs Shall Follow, I was concerned that I might not finish it due to some of the obstacles I’m addressing in this chapter. I didn’t want to tell everyone I was writing a book and then never accomplish it. I only told two or three people and it wasn’t until I was about half-way done. Later, when I was about 80% done, I began telling a few select people so I could ask if they’d be interested in helping read it and provide feedback.

If you’re concerned about how people might react when they find out you’re writing (or have written a book), you have options. But please don’t let this become an obstacle that keeps you from writing a book. Because honestly, this is a terrible reason not to write a book.

You have something important to say and you have a vision, passion, and desire to say it in writing. Do this confidently without letting anyone else deter you from your goal. If you let someone else’s opinion of you derail you from your vision, then you have given your power to them. You have the power to see your vision become reality. You have the ability to ignore others who may not believe in you. The power is in your hands because you are a book author, so use it.

“My book idea isn’t unique. It was already written by someone else.”

There is no such thing as “uniqeness”. That’s like saying, “I can’t create a unique recipe because every possible ingredient on earth has already been used in recipes that other people created!”

You are affected uniquely by everything you see, experience, read, hear, feel, and touch. You will be inspired to create a unique expression of your idea.

Look for inspiration everywhere around you and use it! Don’t shy away from it because it feels like you may be ripping someone else’s idea off. It’s just an ingredient that’s going into your cake recipe. By the time you finish the cake, it’ll be so different, it will be unique.

Overcoming Obstacles

Plan for a season of writing by making fewer time commitments. Treat your book writing with respect and take it as seriously as your future readers will.

Write your vision for being a book author in large, bold print on a piece of paper (see the exercise below). Post this somewhere visible where you will see it every day.

Replace the phrases “I can” or “I want to” with “I will”.

Find supportive people to surround you and speak life into your vision.

Ask people to hold you accountable to your goals and your vision.

Complete one goal at a time. Make sure your goals are small and easy to complete.

Celebrate every milestone!

Believe you can reach your vision. Don’t let doubt, self-criticism or fear creep in and rob you of your destiny.

See yourself living your vision. See this vision often. Spend time daydreaming about your future.

Imagine yourself walking into a bookstore and seeing your own book for sale. Imagine what other books will be next to yours. What books by famous authors will your book be cozying up to on the bookstore’s shelf or table?