Make it so small you can’t fail
Do you worry that you don’t know enough?
I do.
Allllll the time.
Every time I sit down to write a book, it happens: who am I to do this?
What do I know?
There are people out there who know far more than me. I should know more about this topic.
I SHOULD KNOW EVERYTHING.
Even just looking at this now, I realise how ridiculous it is.
If I studied creative nonfiction and writing until the heat death of the universe, I still wouldn’t know everything about it.
Nobody can.
And isn’t that actually a really cool thing? Because there’s always something new to learn.
So I acknowledge that worry, and I get on with it anyway, because that way I get to write AND I get to go learn new things.
I know that my clients worry about this too. Most of my authors have told me this worries them in one shape or another.
Here’s something that helps me.
I’m not writing to impress anyone.
I’m not writing to pass an exam, or win the approval of whoever is currently sitting in an ivory tower.
I’m not writing for status.
I’m writing for the reader who’ll find my book valuable, and entertaining, and useful, and transformative in some way.
If I start from there, the worries fade enough for me to get on with it.
And with a short book, they fade even more because we get to ask ourselves — what does my reader need to understand first?
Before any of this other stuff — what do they need to believe?
How can I help them get there?
That cuts the fluff and bloat.
It gets rid of my ego’s need to impress.
And it helps me focus on a single, valuable idea that might be transformative for someone else.
Walking away from a “big” book to write a tiny one can be transformative in itself. It doesn’t have to be huge and wordy.
It can be micro and mighty.
If you want to write a book but something’s stopping you, ask yourself this:
How can you make it so small, you can’t fail?
I’d love to help.
I have templates, frameworks, and live workshop sessions to help you do just this during March, in MicroBook Magic.
All the details are here — we’d love to have you join us.
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Hi I’m Vicky and I help misfits + weirdos write incredible rule-breaking books. Season 2 of MicroBook Magic has just come to a triumphant close. I’ll be opening Season 3 in March — DM me for details :)
