Do you want to write a book but don't know where to start?
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This is a point I’ve been stuck at for many years. I’ve known since I was a little girl that I wanted to write a book one day. I’d make attempts in fits and starts all throughout high school and college, but I felt that I just didn’t have enough life experience to write what was buried deep in my soul.
This confused me at the time because I had lived quite a bit and definitely had plenty I could write about. I have a few Substack posts sitting in my drafts folder regarding my life experiences that I’ve been hesitant to share exemplifying this. However, I don’t think life experience is a critical component to storytelling.
Hell, I don’t think there is a minimum age to being an author; I used to write a bunch of stories when I was in grade school. This block I was feeling to writing was much deeper. I’ve since come to the realization that the specific set of stories I’m meant to tell have required me to get to the stage in life I’m at currently.
So that’s where I’m at now. As someone who is not a trained writer in any professional capacity, I feel the imposter syndrome heavily. I remember when I was getting ready to leave my job to start my business, I told my therapist that I wanted to be a writer. He told me that it was a stupid dream based on my circumstances, along with my desire to be a business owner. I discuss this in the course I’m building on how to create an online, soul-led business. If you’re interested, you can join the waitlist here.
I’m taking what I’ve learned from starting a business and applying it to writing. The biggest lesson I’ve learned in my entrepreneurship journey is to just go for it. You can do all the research you want, which is crucial, however, nothing ever beats just taking action.
Action taking will teach you more than any amount of research ever will. Anything done out on paper will be effortless and straightforward; real-life application is a whole other animal. Your best laid plans are no match for the chaos of the 3D world, which is as exciting as it is terrifying - the world of entrepreneurship in a nutshell.
I’m using this experience to just take action on my writing. If you’re anything like me, the most challenging part is finding a place to start. I have a few ideas that I’ve been fleshing out at the moment, and I am unsure as to whether this is all one story or if these are multiple books that I will be working on in the future.
I came across a document in my Google Drive that has changed everything for me. I was working on this one piece that I figured would be my main focus for a novel, then I came across this lost work from 2021 in my Google Drive.
This work I found in my Drive was the result of a project a former friend and I began. We had the idea that, in our free time, we could write a book together. We’d have a shared Google Doc that we could work on in our free time and use it as creative fuel to play with; we thought it would be cool to play off each other’s voices and ideas.
I was beyond excited about this idea. We both wanted to write books but didn’t know where to start. This seemed like a fun project to get the creative juices flowing, and, if it happened to be any good, we could see where this joint project took us. I know I’ve written about this old friend before, as leaving her behind was the catalyst for a lot of change in my life.
Per usual, when it comes to stories with her in it, I was the only one contributing to this Google Doc. Being that she is the one that shared the doc with me, one day, out of nowhere, she locked me out of this document. I had completely forgotten about this work that we (I) started and I was amazed to see that I must have transcribed my own copy onto a separate document for my own purposes.
I re-read it, and I realized that this is the story that I need to be telling first and foremost. I’m not sure if the other piece that I’m working on will factor into this story or if they are two separate works. At this point, I’m leaving that up to the future.
What got me the most about this work I found from 2021 was how damn good it was. I didn’t write much back then, but what I did write was really good. It also had me realizing that some signs I’d been seeing in my external world had been guiding me back to this work for quite a while, I just didn’t consciously realize it at the time.
The challenging thing about coming back to this piece is that I feel that anything else I write will “ruin” it. I started off so strong, I don’t want to mess it up with the messiness that is the writing process. This is where my imposter syndrome has been coming in.
I don’t feel that I am professionally trained enough to do this work justice. I have been writing scenes that come to my mind and keeping them in a separate notes tab, as if nothing I write now is worthy of adding onto the story. This system of writing has been triggering my imposter syndrome, as well. I feel that this writing system, or lack thereof, is incredibly chaotic, thus making me an unworthy vessel for translating this story that is being channeled to me.
This has been holding me back from continuing until I saw a writer, the other day, speak to their process, and they said that this is their exact technique. They said that the way they write is incredibly frowned upon in the writing community, however, it is the only process that gets the story out of them. This gave me a lot of hope, encouragement, and a whole new perspective.
This writer concluded their advice by saying that there is no right or wrong way to write; there are no rules to writing, just write. This brought me back to everything I learned in starting my business. You can work everything out on paper, however the results only come from doing the work.
Later on that same day, I had a meeting with my mutual aid group. I am a member of their newsletter crew; we are currently rebuilding their defunct newsletter. It’s just a small team of us and we are doing our best with what we’ve got. We were sharing writing advice with each other, when one of the members mentioned some writing advice she received about just doing it shitty. Get a draft out on paper that is just shit - not even a first draft, this is something you wouldn’t dare show anyone.
The point being, just get started. Get the words out on paper and get some momentum. Obviously, the universe was being very direct with me, which has led me back to just writing; however that process looks. The only thing that matters is that I put down whatever comes to mind. This has led to a lot more creative freedom. It’s strange how much you can get done when you take the pressure off of yourself.
I’m writing this to you now as I listen to the playlist I created on my Spotify for my main character. I’ll go about my day and hear songs or see things that make me go, “oh that’s so main character.” The inspiration is everywhere once you allow yourself to just be, and tap in.
So, whether you’ve been looking for one or not, take this as your sign to get started. Either on that book or that thing that is being crushed by imposter syndrome. The unfortunate fact of life is that in order to do something well, we have to do it shitty. Most likely many times, first.
Here’s to doing it shitty!
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