Before we get into the practical advice of writing a book, we must start philosophically with this question: Why are you doing this?
Every meaningful creative work is won in the mind before it’s written on the page. Steven Pressfield refers to the invisible force that keeps us from finishing our work as resistance. He writes, “There’s a secret that real writers know that wannabe writers don’t, and the secret is this: It’s not the writing part that’s hard. What’s hard is sitting down to write. What keeps us from sitting down is Resistance.”1
You already know this is true. If this is your first book, I bet this isn’t the first time you’ve thought about writing a book. This is probably not even the first book about writing you’ve read. You’ve been thinking about it for years, but for some reason you’ve never acted on it. Or maybe you did, but you didn’t finish. And if this isn’t your first book, you probably remember how much trouble you’ve had writing in the past. You’ve probably delayed pursuing your current idea because of the work required last time. You may have been disappointed by how few books you sold in the past, too.
At the risk of sounding dramatic, there is a real crippling force out there that will leave you alone, as long as you don’t try to do anything meaningful with your life. But the moment you decide you want to write the book, or make the film, or start the business, or lose the weight, this force acts as a headwind, working against you in every way imaginable to keep you from doing what you know you need to do. Suddenly you’re tired. Busy. Distracted. Doubting yourself. You procrastinate, compare, and hold too closely to perfection. That’s resistance.
Did you know that Hitler wanted to be an artist? At 18, he took his inheritance and moved to Vienna to study. He applied to the Academy of Fine Arts twice, but he was rejected both times before resistance won and he gave up. It was easier for Hitler to start a world war than keep pursuing his dreams.2
So why haven’t you written your book yet? Are you afraid to start? Afraid of rejection? Is it a fear of failure or imposter syndrome? All of these are tools of resistance. What you need is the courage to create.
The best way to fight resistance is to have a clear purpose. So why are you doing this?
There are lots of ways to get your message out, and most of them are quicker and cheaper than writing a book. You could start a podcast, write a blog, or record a video with your phone and post it today. So why are you doing this? Why a book? Americans are reading fewer and fewer books.3 It’s staggering to consider that for much of history, people couldn’t read, but now we can and choose not to.
By the way, if it sounds like I’m trying to talk you out of this, I am. When I decided at a young age that I wanted to be a pastor, a profession that my father and his father had chosen, I was given some advice that circulates in pastoral circles: If you can do anything else, do it. They didn’t mean if you had any other skills; they meant if you could bring yourself to do anything else.4 The point was that young people should only pursue vocational ministry if there was absolutely nothing else they felt they could do with their life. It was a litmus test of sorts—if you could be talked out of it, it probably wasn’t meant for you. That advice applies to creative work, too.
If there’s anything else you think you might want to do with all of your free time for the next 12 months, do that instead. There are much better ways to spend your time and money than writing a book. So why are you doing it? You need an answer. J.P. Morgan famously said, “A man always has two reasons for what he does—a good one, and the real one.”5 So, what’s the real reason? This isn’t a press release. We’re not marketing yet. This is just for you.
In my experience working with authors over the years, there is usually a combination of three reasons:
1. You want to be a writer
2. You want a product to sell
3. You want credibility
Do you want to be a writer? Do you have something to say? That’s a great reason to write a book. People have been writing books for thousands of years, and you want to add your name to the list. It’s a creative calling. If you want to be a writer, you’re signing up for the craft. Rewriting. Edits. Obsessing. These are all a part of life for someone who writes.
Maybe you want to have a book to sell. That’s a good reason, too. While a book is not a highly profitable product, it can be a strategic one. A book can open doors to speaking. It can warm up clients before they ever hire you. It can sit on the back table at an event. Done right, it supports your primary business.
Maybe you want credibility. Even in a saturated market, books still carry weight. When someone introduces you as “the author of…,” people view you differently. A book signals depth. But it’s also true that a bad book hurts credibility. So if credibility is your goal, quality isn’t optional.
Whatever it is, you need a compelling reason that brings you back to your computer each day. The only wrong answer is money. That can be part of it, but money is not a strong enough reason to sustain you through the whole process, because at some point, you’ll start doing the math, realize that writing a book is actually a terrible way to make money, and quit.
Take a few minutes and come up with your answer. But there’s a second, equally important, question: Why are you doing this?
Why are you the right person to write this book at this time? I’m not saying you need to be the world’s leading expert in the topic, or have a massive platform or 20 years of experience. But you do need credibility. Notice I didn’t say credentials. Credibility means you’ve lived it and/or you know it.
It could be that you went through something personal and profound, and you think the world needs to hear your story. It might be that you had a front row seat to something that interests people. Maybe you have a unique perspective or some inside knowledge of a topic that is culturally important.
You also need a reason because as you write, self-doubt will have you feeling egotistical, self absorbed, or like an imposter. Hundreds of times during this process, you will wonder, “What makes me qualified to write a book, and charge people to read it?” Your clear, specific reason will be the guiding principle you can come back to when you face these thoughts.
If the first chapter of this book convinced you to quit, then the price you paid for it was worth every penny. I just saved you 2 years of your life. But if you are a stubborn, determined, obsessive, irrational fool like me, and you’re certain that the world needs to hear what you have to say, then keep reading.
