Getting Started
Just earlier today, one of my good friends congratulated me on the release of my new ebook that I had recently self-published. She said that she'd always wanted to self-publish, but sadly had never finished anything. I had the same problem, actually, and do you know what that problem was? Making excuses. A lot of us think it would be nice to write a book (just to be able to say that you have), a few of us have gone through with it. Most of us probably haven't. Why? Well, we keep making excuses.And I use the term "we" deliberately - meaning I make excuses as well.
I'm a firm believer in the truth that it's only when we stop making excuses as to why we can't that we can get down to what I affectionately refer to as "canning" - in other words - we actually get crap done.
There's usually three or four excuses that I and those around me constantly make as to why we can't write:
1: No time.
2: I just haven't found my "muse".
3: I need the right "setting"
Now for the fun part - I get to tell you that each and every one of these excuses are just that: excuses.
Take Five Minutes
The first one, my favorite to start with, is the myth that we need lots and lots of time to write something. I know that a lot of us have it in our heads that we should have hours of time set aside to be able to sit down, undisturbed, in peace and quiet, and type away in order to write a book. This is just not true. My favorite example to use is the famous author JK Rowling. When she was writing her famous Harry Potter books, she didn't have oodles and oodles of time at first. She wrote whenever she had a spare minute, often putting whole passages on napkins at a cafe. The point being - you don't need to have a huge block of time set aside, five minutes will do.Be Brave, Take Control
As for the second excuse of "I just haven't found my muse" - this was one I was extremely guilty of. This also is a lie we tell ourselves. What I had to learn through the blood, sweat, and tears of trying to salvage a sagging middle that my "muse" just didn't find interesting enough to write is this: I control my muse, my muse does not control me. Sometimes you have to give your own muse a kick in the pants and just start writing. One sentence is all it takes, whether you're writing a book, an essay, a poem - anything. It doesn't even have to be a good sentence, just write something. One of my favorite quotes that I use to apply to my writing is by Bilbo Baggins from The Lord of the Rings Trilogy. "It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don't keep your feet, there's no knowing where you might be swept off to." You see, often times, all it takes is the bravery to proverbially step out the door - write that first sentence and see where it takes you. You don't need a muse to tell you when to write. Type something, anything. Whether it's complete crap or not doesn't matter - it's called a "rough draft" for a reason. I like to call my first drafts "dump drafts" - it gives me the freedom to just type and not worry about whether or not it's good enough. That can be fixed later. I've found that once I get down to typing - there's no stopping me.Just A Pen and Paper
Now, for the final excuse - the setting. Some people think that they need to be in a completely quiet room at a special desk, with a steaming mug of tea that overlooks a lake. Some people think they need to write in a bustling cafe, with just enough people and background music to get lost in. These are really, really nice ideas - but real life doesn't work like that. If you keep waiting for the right setting to write in, then you will never write. All you need is a laptop with Google Drive or an word processor, or an old fashioned pen and something to write on. Learn to tune out annoying sounds - buy some noise canceling headphones if need be. If you like background noise, there's a lot of good white noise tracks on Youtube. If you like music, then you just need the internet and Youtube and some headphones. It's not that hard.This is what beginning to write a book boils down to: don't let anyone or anything hold you back, including yourself. All you need is five minutes and one sentence and you have begun - and once you begin, there's no telling where that story may take you. Everyone has a story to tell.
