You have this incredible story burning inside you - maybe it's your memoir, a business book, or wisdom you desperately want to share.
But every time you sit down to begin, your mind spirals: Where do I even start? How do I organise years of experiences? What if no one wants to read this? The blank page stares back, and you close your laptop, promising yourself you'll start tomorrow.
The first in a series on memoir writing for women ready to tell their deliciously real and messy stories I am sure many of us feel exhausted from editing ourselves into being acceptable.… Read more: Memoir: Why Your Messy, Unfiltered Truth Matters
There's a particular kind of courage required to write about trauma. Not just the initial courage to face what happened, but the sustained courage to transform those experiences into words that might help others.
In this series of articles I would like to invite you on a journey where we can look at how the process of writing a book enables you to clarify and (re)build your business model.
It seems perfect to write this today because, as a perfectionist who is writing a book, I need to give myself some good advice. You see, I have written six chapters in six days.
There's a particular kind of terror that only writers know - the ice-cold fear that grips you when you realise the book you're truly meant to write is the one that frightens you most. It's the story that makes you feel slightly queasy as you reach for the keyboard. The truth that sits in your chest like a burning coal, too hot to touch but impossible to ignore. The words that would change everything if you had the courage to write them.
We put this ridiculous pressure on ourselves to have our stories perfectly wrapped up before we dare share them. To have learned all the lessons, healed all the wounds, and arrived at some… Read more: Why Your Story Doesn’t Need to Be Complete to Matter