It’s not about getting words down on the page (though that will happen). It’s about listening to yourself, and seeing what rises up to meet your invitation. Then, the words give themselves to you.

writing a book by listening to what’s inside you is a spiritual as well as creative way to go about it.

I once worked for a medical publishing company, writing pamphlets for doctors’ waiting rooms. It was inconvenient in many ways—out in the boondocks on the edge of a big city and requiring an hour’s ride. And the writing itself was so regulated by protocols that there was no room for creativity, beyond an occasional evocative word. But the pay was good, and I was sticking it out, though not without complaints.

One day, a co-writer and I drove to the beach to have lunch together. The contrast between the smell of the ocean and its vast expanse, and our beehive-like working environment, was not lost on me. I complained.

“Oh,” said Sandy, “ that part’s not so bad. I’ve had worse jobs. At least there’s a gym membership, and great snacks. No,” she went on, “the part that really gets to me is the writing.”

“You mean the pamphlets,” I nodded.

“Yes, but also even my own writing. Writing I do on my own. Freelance articles for magazines. Even a stab at a novel.”

“Really! I had no idea you were that dedicated, that prolific.”

“Well…” She sighed. “Actually— ”

And here, her voice lowered, though there was no one else around except for a few windsurfers not far from shore, and the roar of the waves forming a natural sound barrier.

“Actually,” she confessed, “I don’t really like writing. It’s a struggle for me. A burden.”

My eyebrows went up. “Then why do you do it?” I asked her.

She smiled with a hint of embarrassment. “Because I like to have written.”

* * *

Does this sound at all familiar to you?

When you think about writing something—maybe even something you really want to write—do you wish it would just write itself, while you were busy doing something else—anything else? So you could end up with a finished product, a book with your name on it, and not have to go through the agonies of conceiving, laboring, and birthing it?

I used to feel just that way, myself. Once I even had a contract with an English publisher for a book I had proposed but not yet written, and every day I faced such agonies of indecision, confusion, and self-judgment that I wished I could find Aladdin’s lamp, let the genie out of the bottle, tell it to write the book while I was sleeping, and I would wake to find 250 or more perfectly written pages. I actually got to the point where I was thinking of pulling out of my contract. Fortunately, my editor left the publishing company and her replacement wasn’t keen on my book. So, indirectly, my wish was granted.

But it never felt good to have not written that book. I longed for a way to write a book that could free me from my then-current perceptions of how a book got itself written.

And that’s part of how I came to my current vocation as a Book Developer. I needed a much better way, and at last I found it—not through amazing and glossy new writing techniques, but really, through the cultivation of the inner life.

A Book Is Not a “Product” Until It’s All Done

The push to produce touches us all, in our culture. And while it has its place, I’m not sure sure that place is in writing a book.

The product orientation towards writing, especially writing meant to be published and reach an audience, is so much a part of our cultural conditioning that we tend to completely believe it without even realizing that things could be different. That the book being written could be connected to who we are and what’s in us.

When we assign ourselves (or are assigned) the “task” of writing a book, we can fall into the trap of viewing ourselves as a factory, producing so many words per time period. But just getting an impressive number of words down on paper doesn’t in itself make a book, or bring us intrinsic satisfaction. It can feel like going up a down escalator: “What, all that effort for . . . this?” No wonder it can be more enjoyable to “have written” than to actually write.

However, just because this is the prevailing advice for book writing doesn’t make it the only way to go about it! There truly are better ways.

Receiving Your Writing: Opening Your Heart and Your Hands

One reason why writing a book can feel so daunting is that we don’t know at the outset how to go about it. There’s no template, really—no “cheat sheet.” We have not only a blank page before us, we have a blank 200-plus pages! The frightened place inside us, leery of the unknown, wants to put something down, get something going—to produce something so that we can believe we are capable of writing the book. The 20th-century novelist Thomas Wolfe, who was incredibly prolific, was known to congratulate himself for his productivity by chanting, “I wrote 3000 words today, I wrote 3000 words today!”

But were they living words? Did writing those words transform the writer?

The Writing from the Deeper Self approach comes at it from a whole other direction. It’s not about getting words down on the page (though that will happen). It’s about listening to yourself, and seeing what rises up to meet your invitation. Then, the words give themselves to you.

Is this magic? Hypnosis? The luck of the draw?

Not at all. It’s a real, human capacity. A deep and sacred strata of our being lies underneath our outward sense of things. We may get distracted away from it, even to the point where we don’t even remember it’s there. But it’s always there, our deeper Self. And it calls us to make contact with it. It has valuable things to say to us, and through us. It will respond through whatever doors we allow to be open. We are only asked to be interested and receptive. And that is enough to write a book.

Because how you are when you write, as well as who you are when you write, makes the difference between delighted expectancy and dread.

And the energy in you when you write also will vibrate into what your readers receive.

If you’d like to know more about my work as a Book Developer & Creative Midwife, and how it might help you enjoy writing your book, go to my website: www.naomirose.net

“It’s like you say — when you go to the deeper Self, there’s something to be said, there. That’s the best part, writing from the deeper Self. Having that ability and exercising that muscle, and putting it all together — with your help.” —Dana Watt, chaplain to spiritual entrepreneurs

A Blessing in Parting

Liking to “have written” but not liking to write is like saying, “I like to have lived but I don’t like living,” or “I like to have breathed but I don’t like breathing.” Not allowing yourself the gift, the privilege, of being right where you are and enjoying it as you write from the true place within that seeks to be known in and through you is a deprivation that simply isn’t necessary. You can be your authentic self when writing, and even be more of your authentic self after having written.

May your experience of writing enhance your experience of yourself. May you be happy to have written, and grateful and present in the act of writing. May your process — and your book — bless you and many others.

If you have any comments or reflections after reading this blog, I’d love to hear them. To let me know, click here.

NAOMI ROSE, BOOK COACH / BOOK DEVELOPER & CREATIVE MIDWIFE, WELCOMES YOUR INQUIRIES AND OFFERS A GIFT SESSION

INSPIRED TO WRITE YOUR BOOK?
BUT DON’T WANT TO DO IT ALL ALONE?

I help people who value the inner life write the book of their heart. Together, we listen out what's there wanting to be written. And we discover your natural ways of creating, so you can be even more of yourself) in the process. Because you are essential to the writing of your book. And only you can do it.

As the creator of the "Writing from the Deeper Self" process, with over 30 years in the publications field, I have worked with many wonderful authors (often, first-time authors) whose books are now in print. I also provide help with self-publishing.