Welcome back, UNBOUND one. This is the 7th blog post in the "How UNBOUND Writing changes the world" series. In this part, we are exploring the fourth stage of the UNBOUND writing process: community.
You can read Part 1 right here Part 2 is right here. Part 3 is here Part 4 is here. Part 5 is here. Part 6 is here.
Stage four of the UNBOUND writing process is community.
In 2018 I ran the Live Your Gift retreat.
This was based on the work that was coming through in UNBOUND, but it was before the book was released.
I created this really powerful community around my writing, around my book, before it was even out there in the world.
This stage is about creating a community and movement around your book. It's a way of connecting with others.
Part of this is to share your writing as you go. Maybe you're thinking, ’I don't want to give it away. I don't want to share my writing too much because then people might not buy my book’. But actually, what you do when you share your writing as you go is you create interest and anticipation.
You can also be creating different offerings, different ways of connecting with your audience throughout your writing process. All of this informs your writing, so it becomes this expansive, dynamic process. Your book is a platform for other offerings and sharing your magic in different ways. That might be: - Workshops
- Retreats
- Programs
- One to one work
...the possibilities are endless. When you see your book-writing like that, it feels really expansive. This is about celebrating your book as well. When I wrote my first book, Heal Your Inner Good Girl, I self published. I did it all on my own.
I was working with an accountability buddy when I was writing it.
But when it got to releasing it into the world, it felt like a bit of an anti-climax.
It was like, ‘Okay, it's just me putting it out there’.
Believe me, I love Heal Your Inner Good Girl - I continue to have people coming to me talking about what they've taken from the book - but when I actually released it, it didn't really feel like a celebration because I hadn't been building a community around the book throughout the writing process.
It felt more like a solitary process.
So I invite you to think about how you can be creating community around your writing, your book, right from the outset.
What kind of community do you want to create?
Is it more of an intimate community?
Is it a large global community that you want to create?
How do you want your readers to feel?
How do you want each member of your community to feel? If you think about creating a movement around your book, what is that movement about? What is your intention for the work that you're releasing into the world?
How are people gonna be impacted by your book?
Start asking these kind of questions.
I guarantee it will get you really excited about writing your book and sharing it.
Your book becomes bigger than simply the book. It becomes this gorgeous community.
So that’s the four stages of unbound writing, and they intertwine with each other. We spiral around the different stages at different times.
Even once your book is out there, you will still be connecting with each of these stages as you make deeper levels of commitment to the magic that you're here to share. You'll continually be conceiving new ideas which can come into a new book, or new offerings you can create around the existing book. You'll continually be growing a community around your writing as well.
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.
Stay magical, UNBOUND one,
Nicola x