There are at least 7 people on my marcsjustice.com email list who are book authors. I relied on other writers at times to verify what I was trying to communicate on my winding journey after Marc left earth. I’ve felt the need to look to others experience as I drink my bitter pill each day. Some people have the uncanny ability to open up and share their own journey of victory over death, or just victory making sense of life in this sometimes crazy world. Reading how others face the impossible takes your mind off yourself, helps you know you’re not alone!.
Do you hope to write a ‘how to’ book, a story of a personal experience? A legitimate human struggle will find an outlet. I’ve written a journal for over 20 years so writing often was not a new adventure, but the new part was revealing to the public painful things about grief and the investigation of my son’s murder. As unsure as I was in revealing things in my blog … It was liberating to do it …. and it saved my life! So writing should be a bit scary but also liberating!
Sometimes we hear people say they want to write a book so I’m sharing a few pointers …. to confirm, encourage or disparage. Writing a blog is similar to writing a book. I used to think a blog was for moms on some parenting website, or for grief support groups. When I lost Marc in such a horrific way something deep within automatically took over and started learning to blog, which led to writing a book. Your book might start out that way.
There are many posts on google for serious writers, but here’s my suggestions for starters:
You have to get beyond the ‘hype’ and do some soul searching!
All people have a unique story that’s known only to them and God. But …. just because someone tells you ‘you should write a book’, or just because you suffered a deep loss, doesn’t mean they know what they’re talking about. You have to write cause you ‘want’ to, not because it’s the ‘in’ thing to do. Some people will flatter you cause they know you have an experience worth , they want to know you when you’re ‘famous’. They’re interested in your glory, not you. You have to get beyond the ‘hype’ and do some soul-searching!
Most people live lives of ‘quiet desperation’ and it’s that side of life that many times makes the best story. Maybe you saved a plane load of people, climbed the highest peak in Mongolia but most books, even songs, are about our inner battles. And it’s in our private struggles where we find the real fabric of who we are, what we stand for, and will die for. People are so ignorant of history, great literature, the Bible …. so now we have blogs, vlogs or books to share the human condition. And people want what’s genuine.
I’ve had some rants on my blogs at times, but ‘rants’ don’t make a lengthy read or sell well. Rants are good for FB, Tweets. Some recent political personalities have written books and they came out as mostly a complaint, a ranting against offense to them, not the telling of history, not the dealing with a public problem and some solution. No one really has the time to get inside anyone’s mind to understand his or her anger over some issue. How did ‘Da Vinci Code’ really help the public? That was a rant inside fiction.
Not everyone’s life story needs to be read in a book, some people can channel their ‘message’ thru some kind of service to society, and believe me …. it’s something many people really appreciate in others. Many things benefit society, not just books. Every life has value, every good service that comes out of a grateful heart means much!! We need good teachers, Dr’s, police …. any worker who puts love in their profession, who thinks of others first.
There are pragmatic things to consider when writing a book. Unless you plan on hiring a ghost writer, ask yourself if you have any writing experience? It requires so much discipline on various levels …. daily editing, research, networking. Writers work in the realm of art, the mind where they share what they learned after going thru a personal challenge, a cultural shock or sudden tragedy.
Your life story or reflections may be better used in some other fashion if you’re not into the long hours and discipline of writing. God knows what you’ve gone thru, He will bring your story out in the long run, even in the life to come, you’ll have a story you can share. There’s plenty of avenues to share with others if you’re in certain professions. Your experience or story need not be forgotten. But don’t spend endless hours or days trying to contact some writing guru to magically make you a wealthy writer.
Some of us writers don’t go to the moon and back, we go to ‘hell and back’. We don’t write glamorous, sexy or necessarily deep, insightful pieces. It’s no journey to ‘La La Land’. There are many moments of doubt about this or that aspect, and public feedback can be quite interesting. It’s not an easy ride, but can be very rewarding. To me, writing can be the most vain thing a person can do, so take note about why you’re writing. Good writers aren’t better than some leader, general or whomever, it just means they put their service to others into their writing. Getting that perspective right is important to sanity.
There has to be an end purpose to what you write,and for me, God has to get the glory. The greatest part of my walk maybe has been the refusal to accept murder, death as a final say-so and to slug it out every day till there’s a legacy for Marc. I just trusted the God who’s been with me all along. I had to subject myself to His sovereign authority on earth, as much as it hurt. Nothing can
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