My book took about four years to write, two to get published.
What took so long?
Procrastination is Fear: I continually chose simpler, easier tasks on my to-do list ā wash the dishes, clean the yard, laundry, groceries. There was always tomorrow to write. Tomorrow added up to lost time. The fear? I felt vulnerable writing about my private life, my failures and awful events of my life. What would my friends and family think?
Perfectionism is Insecurity: How many times can, and did I rewrite a sentence, paragraph, and page? Many times. Even now that my book is finished, Iām thinking I couldāve added something here, taken away there, used a different word. Sometimes I wasnāt sure if it was good enough.
Imposterās Syndrome is Doubt: Writing a book is for real authors, not me. Despite countless times being told what a good writer I am, it took a long time before I changed my self-perception. Who am I to write a book?
***
My efforts to not procrastinate, amounted to putting one foot in front of the other, step- by-step. Sometimes I got a lot done, other times not much. And I had to be satisfied with that. Once in a while the last item on my to-do list was āwrite.ā It was good to run out of excuses.
At some point, when dealing with my writing having to be perfect, I had to convince myself it was good enough. It was time to turn it over to readers and editors. There'd be other opportunities for revisions.
Somewhere I read that once I'd written a book, I could call myself an author. I'm still getting used to that notion. Itās like trying on a new suit. Thankfully, the Lord impresses upon me, āYouāre that guy.ā
