10 Jan 41. Write Your Book Before It’s Too Late

What if you never write the book you dream of writing? 

That would be a loss for you and for your readers, but it doesn’t have to happen.

You can write your book before it’s too late. Get started now.

In this episode, I share why today is the best day to write your book and how to begin on the road to becoming an author.

Mentioned in This Episode

Jump-Start Your Book – Are you thinking you just might have a book in you? Then you do! This free jump-start will help you get it on the page.

Episode Transcript

Hey there. Welcome to Nothing but the Words. I’m your author coach Candice L Davis.

In this episode, I want to tell you why now is the time to write your book, and how you can get started on your road to becoming an author today. No more delays.

I’m not a person who despises Mondays. I love what I do. I work with brilliant people and we discuss writing and books all day. I’m incredibly appreciative of the fact that I get to do work that combines my gifts and my passion and puts me in a position to connect with people I respect and admire.

Also, Mondays aren’t that different from any other day for me. My husband and I both tend to work on weekends, so we’re not really going back to work on Monday.

But this Monday was a little different. By 2:00 in the afternoon, I was tempted to crawl back in bed and start again on Tuesday.

The day started well enough, but then I got one of those phone calls that shifts your day.

My friend Anita called to tell me that a mutual acquaintance had passed away over the weekend.

Even though I wasn’t close to this person, I liked her, and hearing she’d passed away peacefully while watching television in her home, rocked me.

Linda wasn’t elderly or frail. In fact, she was a vibrant, politically active woman, who only recently shared on social media that she’d gone kayaking on a nearby lake.

She was a business owner, and a woman who spoke her mind.

I’ve unexpectedly lost people I was much closer to, including my best friend and my nephew.

I’m sure you’ve experienced similar loss.

I don’t know about you, but that kind of unexpected loss of life stops me in my tracks and makes me reconsider what I want to have done before I leave this earth, what I want to leave behind, the impact I want to make.

Very few people get to die empty, and I want to be one of them.

I want to tell all my stories, write all my books, help thousands of people write the best book they possibly can, grow my business to create jobs and a legacy to be proud of and help other people get the knowledge and wisdom they need to do the same.

And that’s the thing.

The person who passed away in peacefully in front of the television last weekend could easily have been you or me.

I want to encourage you to write your book today because you may not get to write it tomorrow.

My youngest client to write a book was twenty-four years old–not including my 14-year-old niece who co-wrote a book with her mother–and my oldest became an author just as she reached her seventieth birthday.

Some people would say the twenty-four-year-old was too young to write a book, especially a memoir, but he wrote it anyway.

Some people would say the seventy-year-old was too old.

Young or older, neither of these authors is taking their book to the grave.

One of my clients once told me the graveyard is the greatest untapped resource because most people take their dreams, their goals, their best ideas with them to the grave, having never gone all in to make them a reality.

Either you believe you have something worth saying in a book or you don’t.

Either you believe writing your book can help you grow your business or you don’t.

Either you believe you have a story someone else wants and needs to hear or you don’t.

Books have saved my life in the darkest of times. They’ve helped me grow as a person and a professional. They’ve pushed me to challenge and defend my values. And they’ve provided pure entertainment.

All of those things are valuable.

Your story is valuable. Your knowledge and wisdom are valuable.

I want you to stop delaying and start writing your book today because someone is waiting on you.

I said I would tell you how to stop procrastinating and get started writing your book, so here’s the how behind the what and the why.

I can give you all the time-management strategies.

Put your writing time on your calendar.

Protect that appointment like you would any other.

Decide what you’ll give up in your schedule to make time for writing.

All of those strategies work, and maybe I’ll do a whole episode on making time to write in the future,

But all the strategies in the world will not serve you unless and until you decide to believe your book is worth writing.

If you believed completely in the value of your book, there’s a good chance you would’ve already written it.

Practice believing that what you have to offer in a book matters.

Practice believing you can learn whatever you need to learn to write a phenomenal book.

Practice believing your book will serve you and your readers.

You practice believing by responding to all those doubts and fears every single time they rise up and give you a reason not to write.

Talk back to your brain and tell why it’s wrong about you.

Journal every day about your commitment to becoming an author until your brain is convinced.

Write 100 times “Someone is waiting on my book,” or whatever you need to believe to get started and keep going.

Listen, if you don’t convince yourself that you’re capable of writing this book now and that it’s worth writing, you will never get it done.

I can believe for you, but my belief on your behalf will never be enough.

If you don’t know where to start or you’re worried about your writing skills, don’t let those perceived limitations stand in your way.

If you want to write better, take an English composition or creative writing class, and strengthen your skills.

If you don’t know where to start, go back to episode #1 of this podcast and start there. I walk you, episode by episode, through the process to write a better book.

Great books have been written by people less smart than you because they believed in their ability to learn how to write a great book, and then they put in the work.

You can do this. I believe in you.

That’s all for this week, my friends. If you need a concrete starting place for your book, visit CandiceLDavis.com/jumpstart and download my free guide. The 5 questions in that simple guide will get you moving in the right direction.

Thanks for listening to Nothing but the Words. I’m your Author Coach, Candice L Davis, and I’ll see you next time.