Hello, UNBOUND one. Welcome back to the blog series "How UNBOUND Writing changes the world". You can read Part 1 right here.
First, let’s acknowledge some of the fears and doubts that might be holding you back from getting your book into the world right now.
These are some of the most common doubts, fears, limiting stories that I've experienced myself, and have also heard from other women who I work with:
The first one is this idea that you need a bigger audience before writing a book.
This is a toxic combination of small list shame ‘Oh, I don't have that many people who are interested in what I'm doing. I don't have enough people on my email list. I don't have enough people following me on social media’ - and imposter syndrome, which bring forwards thoughts like, ‘Who am I to write a book? Who do I think I am?’
All of this stuff can come up when we think about writing a book.
What I've learned to do with these doubts is first to acknowledge that they're very, very common.
Most people experience at least some of these in one way or another.
When it comes to the idea you need a bigger audience before writing a book, if you're going to go down the traditional publishing route then yes, that probably is the case.
They'll be looking for someone with a bigger audience, with a big existing platform.
But there are SO many other ways to publish today.
You can self publish.
You can publish through something like The Unbound Press where we're a hybrid between self-publishing, and the traditional publisher.
You don't need to wait until you've got a big audience before writing a book.
And, actually, a key part of the unbound writing process is the idea that you grow your audience as you write.
So we're not waiting until your book is out there and then starting to grow your audience then.
I encourage you to start growing your audience and creating a community around your book as you write.
This means that your book is a way of growing your audience, rather than waiting for the growth before you write.
Maybe the ‘Who am I to do this? Who would want to read what I have to share?’ thoughts are holding you back?
Believe me, we’ve I experienced these doubts at times.
Even the best known authors, the most successful authors in the world will experience these kinds of doubts at times.
When you recognise that everyone experiences these kind of thoughts, then it helps you to move through them.
Also, when you're really connected to the vision of what you want to create around your book, and how you’re choosing to be fully expressed through writing your book, it helps you to move beyond these kind of stories.
The idea that you should be completely clear about what you want to include in your book before you start writing is another one that can keep you stuck.
There can be this idea that you need to have it all mapped out, you need to know what all your chapters are gonna be, your subheadings, and you should be completely clear about that before you start.
I'm a big believer in gaining clarity through doing. So you don't wait for clarity, you write for clarity. You gain that clarity as you go. This is really about trusting your own process.
Maybe you are relatively clear about what you want to write about.
But like I said, most of the women I work with have such a multifaceted range of experience, and things that they could be writing about, sometimes it feels like there are SO many ideas that they're not sure what to focus on.
I always encourage them just to start writing.
Start writing whatever is coming through day by day. Just allow it to come and you gain clarity through writing. {Read about UNBOUND author Sarah Lloyd's unbound writing experience here, and Erica Walther's process here}.
With a lot of these doubts that I'm talking about, these fears and limiting stories, we're really turning them on their heads.
And rather than saying I have to wait until (insert whatever doubt is coming up up) to write my book, you say ‘No! I'm gonna write my book to help create what I want to create’.
There can also be this idea that writing a book will take too much time.
So maybe you feel you haven't got the time to write?
Writing a book can take as long as you want it to take.
It really depends on your process and your intention.
The important thing is to make your book a priority.
Once you commit to your book and make it a priority, you will find the time to write it.
And actually, you can write your book in a shorter amount of time than you might imagine.
You've most likely already written quite a lot that can go into your book.
But even if you haven't, you can write your book in small chunks of time if that works better for you.
I wrote both of my books, Heal Your Inner Good Girl and UNBOUND, in really short time bursts, no longer than 30 minute chunks of time per day - and not even every day! I just can't write in big expanses of time. If I have a whole day, I'm not going to sit and write for a whole day; I just don't work like that. I bring ideas through very quickly, so I gave myself permission to write in these small chunks of time.
You can slot short writing sessions in amongst the rest of your day. It doesn't have to overtake your whole life when you're writing a book, not by any means.
There can also be this idea that surely it's more important to focus on activities that have greater income-producing potential. You want to be creating an abundant income in your life, in your business. It can feel like there are other activities that are going to bring money more easily into your business.
Certainly if you're relying on book sales alone, then writing a book is probably not the best way to make money.
But, again, with the unbound writing process, what I encourage you to do, is to see your book as this incredible foundation, this platform for other offerings in your business, for other creations in your business, other ways of sharing your work.
You don't have to wait until your book is written in order to start doing this.
As you're writing your book and ideas are coming through, it may well be that you create some kind of event, or workshop around that, or it influences the way you work with your one-to-one clients.
Or you create a mastermind group around your book.
You can do all of this throughout the process, and it really infuses your book with this really gorgeous dynamic energy as well.
You can start making money from writing your book right from the beginning of the process if you choose to.
If any of those doubts are holding you back, I hope that's helped reframe them in some way.
I think it's really important to know that these kind of fears, doubts, limiting stories come up for everyone, and we can choose to see them in another way.
You always have a choice. I want to show you throughout this series how these fears, doubts, and stories are irrelevant when you choose to write unbound.
The unbound writing process is really about turning the writing process, the book-writing process on its head, and in the third part of the series we look at what writing UNBOUND can mean for you.
Until then, UNBOUND one,
Nicola x
PS. If you don't want to wait to embark on your own unbound writing journey, I'd love to find out more about you and your writing plans.
Click here to schedule a complimentary exploratory chat.'