My Book Writing Journey

Now that the days are shorter and we’re all slowing down, I would like to share a personal story.

It has been my dream to publish a book since I was 12. It has always been in the back of my mind, and finally, years ago, I wrote one. A cozy mystery that I felt turned out pretty good.

Then I stalled.

I started to feel doubtful. Was it good enough? Was I good enough? Could I do something as monumental as publishing a book?

Before I started actually writing my book, I browsed self-published books on Amazon, read the authors’ pages, and realized that many self-published authors didn’t have advanced degrees or had dedicated their whole lives to the craft. They were regular people with regular jobs, and they wrote a book. I thought, if they can do it, so can I.

Writing my book took over a year and was a challenging process, but it was all a labor of love. Even when I could only pull a few lines out of my brain for days or had to give up a fully formed idea or scene because it didnt fit, I loved it. Creating a whole world is amazing, and letting my voice out is therapeutic.

After I wrote the book years passed, and I still hadn’t gotten any closer to publishing.

I wondered why? This is my dream, so why was I not racing to the finish line?

I began to realize that I wasn’t going for what I wanted because I wanted it too much. My desire to publish a book seemed like some pie-in-the-sky fantasy that would never come true, so why try? I had put my dream on a pedestal, and it felt like I didnt deserve it. I started to pull at that thread and discovered a lot of incorrect thinking I’d been indulging in for years.

I had this idea that publishing a novel was the only thing that could make me truly happy. When I thought about it, I realized that’s not at all true. Many other things can and do make me happy. Writing will always be a part of my life, but publishing a book doesn’t hold the key to my happiness.

Making publishing a book the only way for me to be happy was another thing holding me back. It turned this very doable dream into something unnecessarily sacred. I felt like if I didn’t do it, I’d never be really happy, but it was something only impressive people did, and I wasn’t one of them. You can see how I was going in circles and keeping myself from pursuing what I wanted.

When I did a deeper dive into the process of screenwriting and professional publishing, something stood out to me. These professional writers, who had written best-selling novels and popular movies, all had teams of people behind them giving suggestions and critiques to their work. While the first draft and the first edit are mostly done solo, after that, it becomes a much more collaborative experience.

This realization made me a lot less possessive of my work, and suddenly reaching out to someone else for help didn’t seem like such a big deal.

When I got my manuscript back, the over 1,000 suggestions didn’t bother me nearly as much as they would have just a few years ago. I took an honest look and made changes where I felt they were needed. My work was more polished, and I was glad to have had such helpful feedback.

I was a lot more confident in my finished product, and I continued on my publishing journey. I also let go of the idea of perfection. It doesn’t have to be perfect; if I waited for that, I might never publish. I am focused on making it as good as I can, and letting that be enough.

Now here we are. I recently got the proof copies of my book from Amazon KDP. It was amazing to finally have the book I wrote in my hands! It was a literal dream come true! I am close to getting my book out to the public and all because I decided to take a look and find out what was truly holding me back.

If anyone out there is like me, please take the time to evaluate what you’re telling yourself, a lot of it could be just…noise holding you back.

When my book is live on Amazon, I will have a link to it on this blog.

Happy Writing!

-R.J. Byrd