Do you have an influential story? Or maybe a framework/process you know could help other people? Do you have an online course that could benefit from a up-selling funnel tool? Have your friends been saying, "You should write a book about that," for years?
If you answered "yes" to any of these questions, you definitely have a book inside of you that you should be writing.
But that can be a really difficult thing to do if you don't feel like you're a writer.
"I'm not a writer," is probably the number one reason I hear from people who WANT to write a book but haven't yet. That and the "I don't have time" excuse, but we'll talk about that one on a different day.
The first step to writing your book is to address this internal narrative.
The truth is, if you keep telling yourself you're not a writer, you will never finish (or potentially never even start) that book you so desperately want to get out into the world. Why? Because you're constantly telling yourself that you're not a writer, and it's extremely hard to get yourself to write a book when you're always telling yourself that you don't write (or that you're bad at writing). Your brain believes what you constantly repeat, so breaking this internal narrative loop of "I'm not a writer" is the first step to achieving your goals.
I like to relate a lot of writing principles to athletes and working out because I love the gym, and the more memoirs I read from professional athletes, the more convinced I am that all principles of success can be found in the high performance athletic world.
That being said, imagine if a person who wanted to become a professional football player told themselves, "I can't play football. It's too complicated. I don't have the skill set. Real professional players are so much more athletic than I am." Do you think they would even start the training necessary from a young age to go after that dream?
If I was a betting woman, I would put money on saying that they wouldn't.
Your writing is no different. No one pops out the womb as a magnificent writer. Sure some people have the desire to write more than others, but there are still skills and techniques they need to learn in order to become a good writer. And they learn those through reading and writing-- putting in the effort to train.
If you really want to write this book, get over that negative mindset and make a conscious decision to learn and practice being a writer. You don't have to start off writing a whole book. You can begin by writing out blog posts, or Instagram captions, or entries in a journal that no one ever has to see. Take writing classes. Hire a writing coach. Do what you gotta do to start building those writing muscles.
The other truth is, you don't actually have to "be" a writer to be an author.
If writing is truly an energy draining, time suck for you. If it makes you feel absolutely miserable, you probably, actually shouldn't be doing it. You really aren't a writer. And that's OK! That still doesn't mean you can't author your book. There are other avenues you can take to make sure your story gets out into the world. You can voice record your whole book, and then hire someone to transcribe it for you (although I definitely recommend you do a book outline to keep your thoughts on track). If you already have an online course you've launched, you can get transcripts of your modules and turn that into a book.
If you want to take almost all of the legwork out of it, you can also hire someone to ghostwrite your book for you (if you want more details on this, head over to our Contact page and let us know! We offer exclusive ghostwriting services for particular types of entrepreneurial books).
Using any of these routes does not make you any less of an author. It makes you smart and resourceful because you're playing to your natural strengths, AND you're giving someone else an opportunity to use their natural strengths. This doesn't mean you're not the author of the content.
If your belief that "I'm not a writer" is stopping you from creating your book, squash that thought dead against the table like an unwanted, annoying bug.
Because really that's what it is.
If you have any questions about the writing process, or how to write and/or publish a book, let us know! We're here to help you on every step of this writing journey.