We are all adept at creating reasons why we haven’t finished (or maybe we haven’t even started our book). How do I know this? Because I have been a master at inventing things more important than writing.

You can easily become a ‘busy fool’ or, if you’re like me, put the needs of others (and your bank account) first before continuing to write your books. There is nothing wrong or insidious about this, it is just a fact of life, especially in these days of bad credit.

 

Make no mistake, when writing your book there is no guarantee of instant wealth and retirement. Like the lottery, you have to play and be in the written and published category to have any chance of “winning.” You will also learn your craft and the vagaries of the publishing industry by writing and publishing something, no matter how small.

 

Perhaps it is a collection of poems or stories. The literary world is full of authors who only ‘made it’ through tenacity and perseverance. Some also only rise to fame posthumously. While this may not be of any benefit to you, just think about how you can leave a cultural legacy for the world and perhaps a financial legacy for your family.

 

Personally speaking, I collected all of my pensions before they lost even more money and I plan to not only make my writing my passive income, but also have a lifestyle that supports what is essentially a hobby.

 

Financial considerations aside, you may have a full-time job or family to care for. The latter, of course, is a full-time job in itself. Of course, you can have both. I’m sure you will be able to think of many factors that will prevent you from continuing to write.

 

For example, the physical space you want to write in may be cluttered and there is much needed cleaning to be done.

 

Now I am a big believer in the win-win situation as a motivator. Forgetting for a moment the benefit of having a book published, this little exercise at the end of this article is designed to find out what will keep you from writing your book. In the second part of the exercise, you will gain the collateral benefits in other areas of your life that you will gain from writing your book.

 

Exercise: Identifying Blocks

List the things that you think are currently preventing you from starting to write a book. Here are some examples:

• Full time work
• Familiar compromises
• Disorganized office
• No computer at home
• I need to do some research first
• Confidence in writing
• Lack of selfesteem
• Fear of ridicule, failure or success

Now make a list of the things in your life that you would like to change, maybe some bad habits:

• Not getting enough exercise
• Watching too much television
• Problems at work
• Family or relationship problems
• Playing computer games

Lastly, write how you would feel if you managed not only to write and publish a book, but also to deal with these problems in your life.

 

You can discover the many ways to banish writers’ block in my new book BLOCKS!