Thank you to those of you that have pre-ordered my 1st book already. What an exciting journey I am on. If you haven’t already placed your order you can at Amazon.
When I felt God put it on my heart to write a book I had no idea what that process would look like.
Knowing that many of you will write a book someday I wanted to share some of my thoughts around the process, hence the title of this blog - Process This.
1. It will take longer than you expect. Like, a lot more time. So be willing to give yourself grace while working within loose guidelines for time frames.
2. You will need the support/feedback from others. This will be important when you get close to the final version so that people can give you suggestions for improvements on the book but also in regard to having at least one or two people that are cheering you on and holding you accountable to make progress.
3. Did I mention it would take longer than you expect? Some people find it helpful to block a little bit of time each day or week to work on their project. I know one woman that has a very specific writing process that works for her. It involves going away for a weekend and doing nothing but praying, resting, fueling and writing. Knowing how you create best will be important and will take a little bit of time to figure it out. So don’t be afraid to try something new to see what works best for you.
4. Most things you likely will be able to do yourself for your book project. Two things that I suggest you hiring someone to help you with, unless it is one of your top strengths, is someone to design your cover and to edit the final version. The cover is why someone will read the book. The editing/or lack thereof could be why someone chooses to continue reading it or to stop.
5. As a Christian, I believe in spiritual warfare and have seen that play out in my book writing process. I have time blocked and am ready to focus on what I need to create and then POW! Something happens that de-rails me. I have heard that this is common for many people that create. My feedback would be that when you start to feel derailed to be prepared with scriptures to say out loud about the truth of the situation and focus on what you can do to take the next step towards being able to be focused, tell the devil he has no authority over you.
6. It's much better to be DONE than to be PERFECT.