Red Rocks of Sedona, Arizona
Write a Book in 5 Days Retreat
To my readers,
Yes, I have been silent for a long time since writing about the book retreat I was preparing to go to last June. I did attend it from June 23-28 in beautiful Sedona, Arizona with over 30 other participants.
It was an experience of a lifetime – challenging, frustrating, full of hope, full of joy. It was a time of physical and emotional release as I wrote about something I hadn’t planned on – wounds of the heart and letting go of them. But the process our amazing coach, Tom Bird, took us through resulted in me birthing a book about that topic in spite of my initial resistance.
I wrote the first draft of my first book in less than five days with the help of Tom and a physiotherapist skilled in myofascial release treatments, Lori Zeltwanger. Without those treatments I wouldn’t have made it through due to a number of physical issues I was experiencing.
I had planned to chronicle what transpired each day of the retreat but writing 50,000+ words during that time didn’t allow any extra time or energy for me to write blog posts about it.
When Tom announced to the rest of the group that I had finished my book, I burst into tears. What an emotional time that was as everyone in the room cheered and celebrated with me. Then the tears turned to smiles as it really sunk in as to what I had accomplished.
Here’s Tom and me at the end of the retreat.
50,000 words and smiling
Publish Now Program
And when I returned home, ready to participate in Tom’s Publish Now program, I again planned to chronicle the journey of writing my draft manuscript, then revising it, having it go through the editing process and finally, publishing it.
But as happens to many of us, life seemed to get in the way once again as I have gone through a never-ending series of challenging personal issues in my life the past several months.
As an update, I did fit in time over the next several months to complete the revisions at the same time as I began writing a second book. My first manuscript went through a style editor last November where I received very positive feedback, and I made a few revisions based on that. The editor said it was ready for a copy edit but I held off.
My Writing and Publishing Dilemma
I was awaiting feedback and an endorsement from a well-known highly successful author, Robert Allen. He had offered to review draft manuscripts of students enrolled in his Multiple Streams of Millions program, which I impulsively signed up for shortly after the writing retreat.
Robert Allen wrote that he didn’t think my book was finished. His philosophy is that your book is supposed to be your business card. It should lead to promotion of other information products you create and market at increasingly high costs for those who are attracted to what you offer initially. He didn’t see my book as having that kind of draw. At his conference in January, I spoke with him. He suggested I rewrite the book to focus on solving a problem for a more targeted audience so I could develop a comprehensive information product empire for that audience.
Sigh… all I wanted to do was write a book from the heart that would offer hope and inspiration to those who chose to read it. I used Tom’s techniques of free-flow writing where words just poured out in a creative way. I had not set out to become a big-time author and to create a million-dollar information marketing business. Before going to the retreat, I prayed and asked God to use me to write what He wanted me to share with the world.
Tom offered to send it to another style editor. And that editor’s opinion was as different from the previous feedback I received as Vancouver, British Columbia is from Sedona, Arizona.
So, I have been sitting on the manuscript since early January, struggling with next steps.
- Do I continue the publishing process and put the book out there with the hope that the people who need it will find it amid all the other books in cyberspace?
- Do I strip out some chapters and sections that could create issues for individuals in my current or past life, which I was concerned about even at the time of the retreat?
- Do I refine it (or rewrite it) based on the advice of Robert Allen who felt it didn’t have a market? (To be honest, I really wouldn’t know where to start on doing that.)
- Do I bury it in a file on my computer and start over with another book that is “marketable”?
- Or do I simply chalk this up to another experience in life and decide my lifetime dream of being an author really meant to be an “unpublished author”, so now I can check that one off my list?
I am still waiting to hear back from Tom with his advice on next steps.
And if any of you have thoughts on this, I would love to hear them too. Have you gone through similar angst when you wrote your first book or did your writing path seem clearly defined with few hiccups along the way?
Who am I to write a book? Who are you not to write a book? ~Tom Bird
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This post includes 7 tips for busy authors. It was written by Lynne Klippel and is shared with permission. (see below)
As an entrepreneur and an aspiring author, it can be challenging to find time to work on your manuscript. Use these quick tips to keep you on track and get your book finished:
- Plan your content. Nothing wastes more time than confusion. If you can create an outline or mind map of your book before you begin to write it, you will write much more quickly.
- Break your writing project into small chucks. It can be daunting to sit down to write an entire chapter of your book. Instead, break each chapter of your book into small sections, covering one key point in each section. Then, when it is time for you to write, tackle one section at a time. This strategy will give you a sense of mastery and completion, which will give you the energy to continue with your book.
- Commit to writing on your book project every day, at least five days per week, for a short period of time. If you can commit to a 10-15 minute writing session every day, you will make much more progress than waiting to find a block of 2-4 hours to work on your book. Slow, steady progress will help you more than writing in a sporadic bursts.
- Schedule your writing time in your calendar and keep your appointment with yourself. Your book is important so it deserves as much respect as your appointments with your best clients.
- Write at the very beginning of your work day. Once you begin work for the day and dive into emails, phone messages, and projects, you will become bombarded with all sorts of details and demands. It is hard to turn off all those demands and clear your mind to write. Instead, begin your day with 10-15 minutes of work on your manuscript. Your ideas will be fresh and your creativity will flow. Plus, you can celebrate that you’ve made progress on your book right off the bat.
- Reward yourself regularly. Writing a book is a big endeavor. If it was easy, everyone would have multiple books already written. Every time you finish a chapter, write consistently for five days in a row, or complete a tricky session of your book, it’s time for a reward. Give yourself something meaningful- a walk in nature, time to read for pleasure, dinner with a loved one, an afternoon with an old movie, or your favorite nurturing treat. Chocolate always works!
- Pay attention to your thoughts. If you feel stressed or inadequate while you are writing, it’s hard to write creatively. When you notice negative thoughts, stop, and replace them with positive affirmations.
Your writing matters. It is worthy and important. Follow these seven steps and you’ll find that you’ve completed your manuscript more quickly than you imagined possible. Happy writing!
Lynne Klippel is a best-selling author, publisher, and book coach who specializes in helping non-fiction authors write books that build their business and transform the world. For a f.r.e.e. assessment that will help you see your author strengths and opportunities, visit http://www.BusinessBuildingBooks.com
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Your signature is your calling call. It’s how you present yourself to the world. ~Mark Zyga
What Does My Signature Have to Do With Writing a Book?
The Tom Bird Write Your Book in 5 Days course, which I am attending from June 23-28, includes four preparatory webinars.
During this week’s webinar, Tom introduced Mark Zyga, a lifestyle coach and wellness coach. In his presentation to the retreat participants, Mark focused on handwriting analysis.
I really liked one statement Mark made, “Your signature is your calling call. It’s how you present yourself to the world.” He showed us signature samples of many famous people and asked us to guess who each one was. The samples included, among others:
- Adolf Hitler (his signature becoming smaller and more and more insignificant over time)
- Osama bin Laden (I guessed Charley Sheen, well it could’ve been, I think Charley might have had a spinner with a prong sticking out off the circle above the first letter of his name too),
- Elizabeth Taylor (large and flamboyant signature),
- Queen Elizabeth (elegant signature, lots of flowing lines), and
- Mahatma Ghandi (small and condensed, illustrating his humility).
Mark even showed us the signature of Tom Bird and asked if we would take a course from this person. I immediately responded “no” on the chat line before Mark said whose signature it was. Oops, my fingers were quicker on the keyboard than my brain was engaged. I hadn’t actually looked closely at the signature – it was kind of faint on the screen so it didn’t ooze with confidence like some of the others.
When Mark walked through the handwriting analysis for us, I felt reassured that I’d be happy to take a course from my literary midwife starting next week. Hanging head in shame (well, not really), I even sheepishly apologized to Tom on the chat line. What can I say? I ate too many sweets before the webinar and I was on a reckless sugar high while I chatted online throughout the webinar. But all is forgiven, and I think I can face Tom in person next week.
Changing Your Signature Can Change Your Life
Here are some questions Mark posed for us to consider:
- What does your signature say about you?
- How do signatures differ from regular writing?
- Does it affect your writing?
- Is this an area you want to change?
- What do you want your signature to say about you?
He concluded with sharing that “Changing your signature can change your life.” And he gave us several tips. I only captured a few because I was multitasking – reading and going full steam on the chat line at the same time. But here are a few key ones: eliminate down strokes, don’t include strokes going through your name, and ensure the first letter of each name has a bigger presence.
So what does this have to do with writing a book? Well, during my distracted-during-the-webinar sugar high, I didn’t really focus in on that. But as I sit back now with a clearer mind and no sugar in my system, I believe Mark’s points really speak to the following:
- Who are you?
- Who do you want to be?
- How are you going to change your own perception of who you are?
- If you don’t like it, change it. It’s as simple as the stroke of a pen. (Really?)
- The person you are is the person who is going to give your message to the world.
- What message are you going to give to the world?
Can Your Signature Help You Market a Book?
And I also think Mark’s presentation really speaks as much (or more) to the marketing of one’s book as to the actual writing of it – because what our signature says about us is what we are whispering or shouting to the world. It’s about:
- how we value ourselves,
- how we value others,
- whether we are insecure and need to work on getting out there and showing our face to the world,
- whether we believe in ourselves, are confident and willing to take risks in our lives,
- whether we are able to build a successful marketing platform in general and to show we have something to offer – in face-to-face or online engagement, speaking engagements, webinars, seminars, and other ways of getting people interested in our message.
If we don’t send a message of confidence to literary agents or publishers, why would they care about our message? (Not sure how they’re going to know what our signature is saying if we type everything, but hey, these are just my off-the-top thoughts on this.)
Anyway, I think I’ll practice my signature a bit. Right now, it includes only the first letter of my first name and my full last name. The first few letters are big and bold, and then the rest of it becomes a scrawl and turns into a flat line at the end. When I asked on the webinar about it flat lining, Mark didn’t seem to think it was a problem, but I wonder, I really wonder. The longer I live, the less there is of a legible signature. Does that mean I am really writing myself out of existence? Scary thought! I don’t like it. Maybe I need to bring back more of me into my signature again before my scrawl turns me into a non-entity. The idea of signing me out of existence isn’t the happiest thought in the world.
So what do you think your signature says about you? Are you growing into the person you have always dreamed of becoming or are you fading away? You can change it. Be, do, have. Be committed to do what it takes to have what you want.
One Week and Counting
Sedona, here I come….
4 days till I’m leaving on a jet plane….
1 week and counting till I meet Tom and the other retreat participants….
Who am I to write a book? Who are you not to write a book? ~Tom Bird
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There is no gray, only black or white – nervous or at peace. You’ll be back and forth in one of those places between now and the retreat. ~Tom Bird
Trust the Process – Really?
Did I really believe when I wrote my last blog post – Write Your Book in 5 Days: Trust the Process – that all was well with my world and would be for the remaining four weeks before the Write Your Book in 5 Days Retreat?
Uh, yes, I really did. I had it all figured out. I knew all I had to do was trust the process and it would be smooth sailing all the way. But something happened this past Sunday morning. My internal dialogue is captured below.
- Doubts coming back. Trust the process.
- Wondering if it’s for real. Trust the process.
- Will I really write a book? Trust the process.
- Do I have anything worthwhile to say? Trust the process.
- Is my time really Your (God’s) time to share more with the world? Trust the process.
- Will I physically be able to manage through the complex regional pain syndrome in my left hand and tendinitis of my right arm? Trust the process.
- Will Tom wish he hadn’t said my physical limitations wouldn’t be an issue? Trust the process.
- Has he dealt with others with issues bigger than mine? Trust the process.
- What if I don’t finish my book there – will I feel like a failure as others celebrate? Trust the process.
- Breathe in. Exhale. Trust the process.
Below are some additional highlights of what has happened in the past two weeks.
Preparatory Webinar 1: June 1, 2011
Tom held his first webinar on Wednesday, June 1. He spoke briefly about the retreat, then said he was going to have some guests speak at the prep sessions about different methods to support his work and our success as authors. That week his guest was Lori Zeltwanger, a physiotherapist trained in advanced release therapies, including myofascial release. She offers sessions before and during the retreat to assist people who have soft tissue issues.
I contacted her after and shared a bit about my medical challenges and she responded that she’d LOVE to help me release the trauma from my injuries. So I booked an appointment prior to the retreat and tentatively scheduled shorter sessions during the retreat.
Who Are You – A Road, Fish, Animal or Fowl?
Tom gave us our first writing assignment following the June 1 prep webinar.
As part of the essential group building energy that will be primary in carrying you through to the success you will experience at the retreat, I am asking you to not only get used to the retreat forum and to using it but to introduce who you really are to the group by replying to the following three questions and then posting them on the forum:
- If you were a road, where would you lead and why?
- If you were a fish, animal or fowl, what would you be and why?
- What one event or situation, more than any other, has made you into who you are today?
So was I the keener that I usually am? Did I sit right down the day after the assignment and get the job done? Not this time. I was actually angry about the questions. Or maybe I was angry because I didn’t know what to write. They seemed like really silly questions to me.
I finally started writing a response to the first question on Sunday morning. Then I abandoned my work because I felt I was going nowhere. On Sunday night, I decided to work on the assignment again because I didn’t have much free time before the June 8 webinar when the responses were due.
I turned on the Transitioning Back to the Author Within CD that Tom gave us and started on the first question. By the time I had written a somewhat lengthy response, I was really tired, so I wrote much shorter responses to the second and third questions. I went to the forum and saw that others had written even shorter responses. I thought maybe I should rewrite the first one to cut it down, but it was getting late. So I posted my comments and went to bed.
The next day when I went back to the forum and reread my responses I came to an ah-ha moment. I realized that I had been angry because I had to be vulnerable in order to answer those questions – I had to share personal things about myself with 30-odd people I have still not met. What would they think of me? Was I revealing too much? Was I revealing too little? I have trouble sharing on a personal level even with people I know. So what does that say about me? And even more importantly, what does it say to me? I think two weeks will tell.
Preparatory Webinar 2: June 8, 2011
Yesterday, Tom held his second preparatory webinar. His guest, Victoria Benoit, conducted a session on holographic programming. She shared what she sensed to be the beliefs that upcoming retreat participants hold, then she moved us from holding onto negative beliefs to embracing positive beliefs. Here are the beliefs she identified for our group:
Negative beliefs
- I can’t control my hand when I write.
- I can’t write perfectly.
- I’m afraid to write.
- I am punished if I don’t write.
- I will never make a difference through my writing.
- I am too stupid to write.
- If anyone implies that my writing is imperfect, I get angry.
- I have nothing to say that is worth reading.
- I hide myself so no-one can get to know me.
- I avoid expressing myself through writing.
Positive beliefs
- I write from my heart.
- I choose what I want to write, and I write and express myself with inspiration and ease.
- I have the courage to project who I am into the world through my writing.
- I am successful through my writing.
- Others accept and love what I write.
I wasn’t keen on saying the negative beliefs aloud with the rest of the group because I believe that “what we focus on is what expands.” And most of the negative beliefs didn’t resonate for me personally at that time anyway except for “I will never make a difference through my writing” and “I have nothing to say that is worth reading.” But give me a day or two and some of the others just may surface too.
I really liked the idea of the positive beliefs – I plan to repeat them every day as positive affirmations to ground myself for the retreat. They remind me of the Law of Attraction, especially the last one, “Others accept and love what I write.” Focusing on the positive will bring the positive into my life – after all, I attracted an iPad2 into my life just a month ago in a Twitter contest.
The best part of the webinar was when Tom said that there is no gray, only black or white – nervous or at peace – and that between now and the retreat we will be either one or the other. That was an encouragement. Earlier in the week I shared on the forum that I felt like I was on a teeter totter – up comes fear, down goes excitement, up comes excitement, down goes fear. I am going to remind myself of Tom’s words and embed them into my mind along with the phrase, “Trust the process.”
So now I feel grounded and at peace again. And next time the teeter totter moves again, I will be ready for it and remind myself that this too shall pass (after June 28). Trust the process.
2 weeks and counting….
Who am I to write a book? Who are you not to write a book? ~Tom Bird
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