Winter Solstice
Today is the day that my book Selling Without Selling Your Soul launches!
I can’t believe that this thing was just an idea a year ago, and I had no intention of writing a book. It was a series of 28 blog posts based on the four stages of the hero’s journey applied to seven topics related to sales.
Finding others to write was the only way I have been able to develop a writing habit. Then having others read and respond to my writing, even in a very raw or slightly edited form, was the fuel to dig deeper. Seeing others do likewise and writing some incredibly inspiring stuff was the encouragement to keep pressing on.
Today is day three hundred and twenty. It doesn’t quite sink in. 320 days in a row of writing and having others read what I wrote. That is pretty crazy.
The chief anxiety I had around shipping the book was the personal stories. What would people think? What would my kids think about my use of the word ‘bong’ regarding my use of said instrument?
The day before publish date, an affirmation arrived.
I forgive myself for my mistakes. I thank life for giving me the opportunity to become more wise and accepting. I’m not who I once was. I’m transforming and being made new.
It has given me some distance with which to look at my old life and not feel as much shame. I guess those experiences have been processed and reframed in a way that makes me grateful for them.
The same goes for how I see myself as a writer. I always loved working with words, but never took the craft seriously until I developed vibrant and life-giving relationships with incarcerated individuals via letter writing.
Developing a dailie practice of putting out words for others to see, as opposed to keeping a diary, has helped me clarify my ideas by seeing how they resonate with others.
How I see myself has also changed. Having a book I’ve written, day in and day out over the year.
I’ve always been one that starts and never finishes. It gave me the message: I was a flake, not a hard worker.
Becoming an author has helped me see myself as someone who finishes. I can be intentional and deliberate and see something through to completion. The next time I’m considering doing something monumental and scary, questioning if I have what it takes to finish it, I’m going to point myself to my first book!
Yes, you heard that right. First book. The next book is well under way and I’m starting it today. Much of the stuff that didn’t go in the first book will end up here.
The next book is called Free To Lead. It is about how I volunteered at a prison and realized I was more locked up than the guys I met. It will have themes of connection as a means to freedom. It will talk about racial equity and mass incarceration as modern day slavery. And have Christ at the center because who the Son sets free is free indeed!
Much of it will be co-written with some inmates or formerly incarcerated, and members of the High Ground Board at Angola Prison will be featured.
The writing process is going to look a little different this time. I will continue the 500 words a day. For the first 21 days (starting 12-21-202) it will be on the book structure, audience and positioning. The stuff I didn’t do for my first book until it was ~70,000 words.
Then January 12 will start the actual manuscript. Writing for 100 days until April 21. It will be new stuff and reworking stuff I already have.
Then on my birthday, April 21, 2021, I’ll work with a development editor to complete the structure. Work on this for the month of May. Identify the gaps. June will be clarifying the audience and positioning. Then I’ll keep writing and thrashing around. October will be a full month for line edit. November I will retype the thing like I did this year in NaNoWriMo and had a lot of fun. Then copy edit and book design and content layout and ship Free To Lead on December 21, 2021.
Lets go!
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