Reading time: 3.14

903 words

Hey Reader,

I spend a lot of time thinking about why people don’t write the books they say they want to write.

And I’ve come to the conclusion that, although there are many reasons and circumstances, it often starts with a bunch of lies we’re told about how writing books works.

Here are three of my favourites. And when I say “favourites”, I mean they are ideas I’d like to take around the back and pang with a shovel.

👎🏼 Lie 1: You have to sacrifice everything to get it done

The publishing world abounds with romantic stories about people who sauntered off to their cabin in the woods for three months to write their magum opus.

They disappeared into a cocoon, shut away the world, and emerged like a beautiful butterfly with their masterpiece, as if by magic.

These people have names like Victor Hugo (although he hid in a loft with a scratchy blanket), George Orwell (who hid on the island of Jura), Henry David Thoreau (who retreated to write often).

There’s also, of course, people like Virgina Woolf, Stephen King, and Steven Pressfield.

Times have changed since the days of Victor Hugo, George Orwell, and Henry David Thoreau. And as for the second group: Virginia Woolf was never poor and had the resources to support her writing. Stephen King and Steven Pressfield may dedicated their lives to writing now, but they didn’t use to. They used to find time in between everything else they did to make a living. Only now are they able to dedicate all their time to writing.

And as for the modern advice to just “focus on this book to the exclusion of all else until you’ve finished it” — well. Look carefully at who’s giving that advice.

It tends to come from the marketing bros of the world, most of whom have a wife in the background taking care of literally all the stuff that enables them to focus on their books to the exclusion of all else.

And most of them have piles of cash as a cushion.

Remember that when you start to feel like you’re doing it wrong.

You’re not.

That advice is unrealistic for most of us, especially if we have families, are neurodiverse, or marginalised in some way. We don’t all have the same 24 hours in a day.

If you can’t dedicate three months to writing your book, don’t let that make you feel bad. I can’t either.

But if you have 20 minutes a day, you can write a book for sure.

Step by tiny beetle step.

We just need to begin.

👎🏼 Lie 2: Nonfiction books should be 50-80,000 words

Says who?

The traditional publishing industry?

Why though?

Meh.

Your nonfiction book can be as long (or short) as you like — the important thing is that it’s a great read and somehow transformative for the reader (and for you).

You can write whatever book you want, and you don’t need anyone’s permission, because the publishing world is changing.

Traditional publishers know what works. They have a model and they stick to it. But what they know isn’t everything, and they play it safe. They have to, because their model needs to make money for the stakeholders (and authors are often pretty far down that list).

There are other ways to write books, and they could be wildly successful too… but if your face, your idea, or your format doesn’t fit the traditional publishing model, they’re unlikely to consider publishing you.

Don’t let that stop you.

Don’t let other people’s ideas of “right” stop you from getting your message out.

Publishers want to sell as many books as humanly possible.

You, however, might want to sell just enough to the right people.

Sometimes they cross over, and that’s amazing.

But sometimes, you don’t need a huge audience. Just the right audience.

👎🏼 Lie 3: If you haven’t done it yet, you don’t want it enough

Ugh, SHUT UP.

There are a thousand reasons why you might not have written or finished your book yet and I’d be willing to bet everything in my pockets that it’s not because you don’t want it enough.

We don’t manifest books out of our backsides by wanting it enough, despite what all the behatted life coaches out there keep spouting.

This lie, that we “don’t want it enough” is vicious.

It’s designed to shame us and make us feel like shite, not help us. It’s a thought-terminator that makes the person who utters it feel somehow superior, while crapping on the person who’s struggling to write.

Which is why I always ask this question:

“What do you think might be stopping you from writing your book?”

And we go from there.

We figure it out.

That’s the first step — then we can take the second step, which might be to start writing.

Maybe the reason you haven’t done it yet is because all the advice you keep seeing is terrible and makes you feel like you can’t do it.

Maybe it’s because you don’t know where to start.

Maybe you have “too many” ideas.

I don’t know, but I can tell you this for sure: it’s not that you don’t want it badly enough. It’ll be something else, and you can figure out what.

Take some time to work out what’s getting in the way.

Then think about starting.

TTFN,

Vicky 🫡

p.s. Know someone who might enjoy this email? Please forward it to them and get them to sign up here.