A couple months ago, I kicked off “Adventures in Book Writing” as a way for me to publicly update my book writing process as I went along. I haven’t updated in a while because I’ve had nothing to say.
And that’s a big problem.
I haven’t made any progress. Zip. Zilch. Nada. Goose egg. Nothing.
I haven’t developed characters. I haven’t even named them. I am no closer than when I wrote the first update. That’s why I’m writing this post – I’m confessing the truth, and it is a genuine update on the progress of my book.
Why am I admitting this?
You know the old saying: “The first step in fixing a problem is admitting that you have one.”
I’ve fallen into the old Blame Game trap repeatedly in my head:
- “You keep running out of time.”
- “Your brain just isn’t working that early in the morning.”
- “This copywriting work is keeping me too darn busy.”
And so on. I haven’t been harsh with myself. I’ve just been treading water in hopes that some day I will just wake up and want to write this book.
Except I know it’s not going to happen that way. The work isn’t going to find me. I need to go out and get it.
How I’m going to fix it
I get up at 5:00am every day now. I stumble downstairs, tell my cats to shut up (they don’t get fed until 5:30am), and eat breakfast. I read a bit (when I should be studying copy first and foremost), then go upstairs to shower and get ready for the day.
If I want this book to be done, I need to build some momentum and come out of the gate swinging. From now on, my wake-up routine is going to look like this:
- Get up at 5:00am.
- Stumble downstairs, binder in hand, and tell cats to shut up.
- Make breakfast.
- Open binder, study copy. No tablets, no phones, no Kindles. Just studying.
- Go upstairs and shower/change.
- Sit down for one hour and do absolutely nothing except work on the book.
If I stick to that schedule, I’ll be done with two of the more challenging parts of my day (studying copy and working on the book) by 7:30am. It’s all part of eating that lousy frog.
I’ll check back here in a few weeks to update my progress and see if it works or not. But I need to start prioritizing the act of showing up.
Are there areas in your life where you’ve been absent? How are you going to start showing up?