I just completed my first eBook entitled “What You Draw Is Good Enough.” It may only be 32 pages long, with lots of illustrations… but for me, actually completing this project was like summiting Mount Everest! (Writers, you know what I mean!)
So, let me just say two things for the record:
1. Writing a book is HARD!
2. Writing a book is AWESOME!
It’s HARD, because you have to be:
- Clear: you actually have to figure out what you want to say! This goes beyond selecting the words to communicate your ideas… it’s about clarifying your ideas in the first place. What are the key points you want to convey? What’s your actual message? You may think you know what it is, but when you have to write it out you realize just how hard it is to crystalize that message.
- Concise: you have to distill all those great ideas that you’re excited to share with the world into simple, coherent statements that flow and actually make sense. And there’s a reason why my work is done via real-time drawings: brevity is not the source of my wit. (Translation: I use a lot of words to communicate my ideas!)
- Finished: at some point, you actually have to stop writing and call the book “done.” Believe me, this is harder than it sounds. It’s so tempting to add one more point, one more story, one more sentence, one more page… to keep improving it forever and ever. But then you don’t actually have a book to share. You have a draft to keep polishing. And I wanted to share this book with you.
Which leads us to Awesome!
It’s AWESOME, because you get to:
- Discover meaning: I’m passionate about my “Good Enough” message. But it’s a rare occasion where I get to sit down and explore what I’m really talking about when I say what someone draws is “Good Enough.” The writing process is a tremendous gift for you to get to discover what you really mean when you say something.
- Share with others: once you’ve got your message or story written down, it’s exciting (and a bit scary!) to send it out into the world for others to experience. If you’ve got something you need to share, then odds are good there’s someone in the world that needs to hear what you have to say.
- Ding the Universe: I can’t tell you how humbling and rewarding it is to hear from a reader who shares how your work has touched his or her life… sometimes in ways you’d never expect. Folks have shared that it’s shifted the way they think about what’s possible for themselves and for their work. Folks have shared that it’s changed the way they work. And whether it’s through your own work or the work of others who have read your book… you’re contributing something unique and special to the world. And that’s pretty darn cool.
Do you have a story that’s bursting to be told? Got a message you want to proclaim from the mountain tops? I strongly encourage you to write your own book – or eBook – and let your voice be heard!
(And if you want to build your confidence drawing out your ideas first… feel free to download my eBook!) ;^)
