As a Book Developer (someone who helps people write the books of their heart), "But how do I begin?" is the question most often asked. Wanting to be the most help possible, I do not give aspiring writers steps to complete. I don't even give an outline (at least not always, and not right away). Often, I don't even give my clients assignments.
"What? Then how do I know what to do?" one might wonder, especially in the days of "write a book by numbers" (yes, there is such a thing).
Well, this is a different approach. It's more of a "Slow Food"-type approach to writing a book, you could say. It's based on Writing from the Deeper Self, an approach I created years ago when no amount of technical advice about writing spoke to the longing in my soul seeking not only to express itself but to be known ~ to me, as well as to readers.
In this approach, you kind of feel your way around at times, and you listen to yourself as closely as you can. You cleanse away the cobwebs of fear, doubt, feelings of insignificance by listening to yourself: what your heart wants, the obstacles your mind may be putting up to fulfilling these deep desires, and your own special ways of connecting with the creative path that is part of your birthright. You learn to nurture yourself, as you enter into the book-writing journey. You learn to see yourself with more clarity and more love.
And in the process, you start writing a book.
When you don't know where to start ~ when the blank page is more threatening than inspiring ~ start with yourself. Consider yourself as a fertile field, that can hold any seed you plant there if you cultivate it. Maybe first, the field itself has to be cultivated: the rocks removed from the soil, the dirt tilled and turned over, the field mulched with compost, or the last year's crops turned under. When the soil itself can support growth, then you can plant what you want in it.
How do you till and nourish the soil of your own being? That's what my book, Starting Your Book, is all about, and what these blogs will be about. If you really pay attention to what's inside you, then what comes out of you will be good, resonant, and fruitful (or flowering). If you really pay attention to what's inside you, you don't have to worry about what comes out of you in writing. It will just emerge ~ maybe not in perfect, final form; but revising can be fun, too. Even glorious, at times.
You are the treasure you seek. What wants to be expressed through you, and how it wants to come out, is the magnificent journey you will be setting out on. If you try to control it all ahead of time, you'll perhaps produce some text ~ but you won't have the enlivening experience of finding out more and more about who you really are and what's inside you.
When you write a book from the deeper Self, you can still be successful. You can still reach readers where they live, and make money from your book(s). What's important is to come from a true inner place when you write, and even before you write. That's really what we all long for ~ to express the depth of who we are (no matter what the subject or genre of your book), and, as readers, to read books that show us the depth of who we are. This is a win-win situation.
You can write a book by tuning to what's real in you. You don't have to begin at the beginning (though you can): you can start where your interest is, and back up from there, connect the dots, weave the threads. There is no one right way to write a book. But if you pay attention to who you are and what's inside you, your own true way will guide you.
You can get some real anchoring and inspiration by reading my book, Starting Your Book: A Guide to Navigating the Blank Page by Attending to What's Inside You. I'll quote from and riff off excerpts in this blog, so you can be assured I'm not only trying to hawk my wares. I really want you to come to a place of trusting what's in you, because it's that that wants to be expressed. And it's that that we all are needing to read ~ your unique portion of our common human (and divine) experience. So if I mention my books, my services, and so on, it's to encourage you to really pay attention to what's within you, and to let that current of light be your compass and your guide. Many of my clients have done it already.
You can too.
The following products by Naomi Rose are available to help you write your book in a deep, fulfilling way. Check them out, buy them, and work with them. They will give you the guidance and encouragement you need to find the guidance and encouragement in you.
Starting Your Book: A Guide to Navigating the Blank Page by Attending to What's Inside You. $17.95 print/ $12.95 ebook.
Process Notebook for use with Starting Your Book. $14.95
Flower Essence Remedies for Writers & Readers ~ to help you with your writing in a real, embodied way. "You Are the Treasure You Seek" is the remedy that goes with Starting Your Book. $15, or $12 if purchased with the book.
Special discount of 10% if you purchase all 3.
Available from http://www.essentialwriting.com/startingyourbook.htm.
"[Starting Your Book] was very helpful to get over myself and find the confidence to just start writing. Rose gets it right about what freezes up the imagination and passion, and she offers good insights to help one get over the challenge of the blank page. Her book is the nurturing teacher you always dreamed of that would coax and praise you to reveal your heart." ~ Linda Eckmann
What are your concerns about starting your book? Leave your comments here, and I will respond.
You can also sign up to get my free monthly newsletter on Writing from the Deeper Self by clicking on http://www.essentialwriting.com/webnbrochures.html (archived articles available to browse through).
No comments:
Post a Comment