I Will Do Anything To Not Write This Book

I mean it...Anything!

I will read and research. I will scroll through social media. I will do my laundry and clean out my car. I will finish client work before my own. I will care for my children and parents.

And I will scribble down a few notes here and there so I can lie to myself.

I can lie to myself and say, “See? You’re making progress…it’s just slow progress. All good things come to those who wait.”

I can lie and say, “I just don’t have time today.”

I can lie and say, “ You know, work is really crazy right now. As soon as this project is out the door—THEN I’ll make this book my #1 priority.

THEN I’ll give it my undivided attention.

THEN I’ll have the bandwidth to finally focus and write every day.

What a load of crap!

I know how to do this book writing thing. I’ve written dozens of books for clients and myself. It’s WHAT I DO.

And I know what this is…

It’s a ritual I recognize.

It’s the birthplace of every book ever written. And the death of every book not written.

It’s Author Freakout #1.

I’m intimately familiar with it because I help other authors through it all the time.

People talk to me about what they do and who they help and somehow I can instantly “download” their books in complete detail. I can see the structure and the flow. I can see how the chapters should lay out. I can see the publishing and distribution model—all of it.

I do the same for my books too, of course. I know in my head and in my heart what this book is supposed to do. I know who it will help. I’ve outlined it to death. I’ve fantasized about the formatting.

But until I escape this freakout—I will continue to NOT WRITE.

You will continue to NOT WRITE.

Forever.

It doesn’t matter who you are or how many books you’ve written (or not written), you will encounter the Five Author Freakouts. All of them. In the same order. Every time.

The only way out of their trap is to RECOGNIZE that you’re in one and to KNOW how to escape. The only way to recognize traps and escape is to be in them often.

That’s why I’m writing this book. And recognizing the trap is how I have (just now) overcome the first freakout.

So what about you? What are your perfectly "legitimate reasons" for not writing your book?

They are the trap of the first freakout. Getting out of your own head and getting STARTED is how you escape.

Oh, and by the way, outlining is not starting.

Outlining can be more lying to yourself—until you actually start writing.

THEN you’ve escaped the first freakout.