Stop Procrastinating
For about 30 years I’ve had this internal mantra rambling in my head. Stop procrastinating, and write the book. This self-imposed mandate never stopped replaying in my head. Until?
Describe the Writing Process
I thought it would be fun to describe the process I struggled with before I made it to the finish line of having my book published. How did I stop procrastinating? Read on.
The idea for the book was the result of my many years working with churches to help the homeless on the streets of Boulder, Colorado, New York City, New York, and Paris, France. As I rambled through life, I put the desire to write this book on the back burner. And before I knew it almost 30 years had passed me by. Could I ever stop procrastinating?
Serendipitous Opportunity
Serendipitously an opportunity presented itself for me to take a 12-month sabbatical. During this sabbatical, I decided it was time to start writing. I know it sounds simple enough. But as a king of procrastination, it was a challenge. I had to say no to first doing the crossword puzzle. Then I had to say no to doing the Sudoku. I had to say no to reading the comics and the newspaper cover to cover. I had to say no to fixing a snack, cleaning the floor, well you get the idea.
Finally, I managed to quell my procrastinating tendencies and dodge all my distractions to get myself in front of the computer. Staring at the blank page, I lamented that I did not know where to start.
Just start writing anything I told myself. I started to write the first thing that entered my mind. I quickly discovered I did have an idea of what I wanted to write so at least I perceived some sort of direction. I’ve only been thinking about what to write for 30 years. Duh! I began a brain dump of all the times I remembered God intervening in my life.
Interesting a Few Evenings Earlier
A few nights earlier My wife and I were out with friends and I was telling them about my desire to write a book. We discussed some of the topics I was thinking of including in the book and our friends seemed genuinely interested. I repeatedly asked them if my stories bored them. And repeatedly their answer was they thought my stories were fascinating. They were either accomplished liars or maybe my stories were actually, interesting.
Oh yes, besides procrastination I was a little light in the confidence department when it came to writing.
Within weeks I had over eighty thousand words written. Yes, eighty thousand words! Enough for a full-length novel. However, my eighty thousand words of writing were just ramblings of my life stories. None of it was in any kind of storying telling formatting. It was very raw, long, and boring, as I found out later when I asked Jodie to look it over.
She gave me some constructive suggestions. They were great suggestions as she is very intelligent and an avid reader.
My Reaction
What do you mean it is not an NYT bestseller? That’s me, without learning the craft I wanted my brain dump to be the next Harry Potter or something. But I knew the eighty thousand words needed abundant amounts of structure and refinement.
I Tried
My quest began. I downloaded every free document I could find with instructions for writing a book, outlining a book, starting a book, book structure, and book marketing. But I would start to get bored in the middle of the assigned tasks and not finish. Then I would jump to another writing book topic. I just could not grasp anything in the fullness of what the tutorials were describing. Oh, sure I made an ill attempt of an outline. But I really did not know how it all should flow. I was scattered. Then I jumped to try to list all the characters as I was renaming almost everyone in the book. I would get lazy, bored, frustrated, and give up because I could not put together a concrete plan. Discouraged, I tried formulas touting to write a book in 9 days. Unmotivated I stopped on day 2 because the craft of writing was not coming easily to me. I could not or was too lazy to implement the concepts. I had the same result with fill-in templates. I felt lost, nothing motivated me.
Illumify Media
During my time of frustration, I was introduced to a collaborative book publishing company Illumify. Actually, I first received an invitation to a writer’s conference to be held at a local church in Lakewood Colorado. Jodie was just picking up steam with her fashion blog, JTouchofStyle and we thought it might be helpful for both of us to attend writing classes.
Illumify was one of the vendors that had an informational booth set up that we could pursue in between classes. Mike, Illumify’s president, and Jen, the operations manager were very informative and friendly. I was motivated for about 2 days.
Sparks Here and There
As I continued attending more writing classes, Illumify kept popping up in my life, lighting little sparks of motivation each time. I finally met with Mike for a free consultation. He liked my brain dump and gave me lots of constructive instructions to get my writings into the form of a manuscript. This motivated me for about 3 days. But I kept reviewing his suggestions and revisiting all the writing a book materials I had accumulated. But I just couldn’t get myself disciplined enough to make much headway.
Ghostwriter?
To make a long story long LOL. The year 2020 hit, and I began to reevaluate my life along with the rest of the world. I decided I would hire someone to write my book for me. I called Mike from Illumify and asked if Illumify had such a service. It turns out he had ghost authored many very popular books during his career. But he indicated it was expensive. We discussed quotes for ghostwriting my book and also the more cost-effective option of using their book coaching services. I went with the book coaching and I am so glad I did. I had about six months of coaching which was so fun and motivating and it help me develop my own writing style. Karen my coach is so talented and encouraging and patient. I loved the entire process and learned about the craft of writing.
So there it is my story of how I landed at this point where my manuscript is now in the copy-editing mode and moving to typeset mode. And I think I am most excited to see the artist’s rendition of the book cover. I will continue to update my author page with the progress of my book. And of course, soon I will announce an actual publishing date. I can’t wait. Pinch me 🙂
UPDATE: My book is now available paperback or 3book on AMAZON. Also available as an Audiobook HERE
Thanks for reading.