Writing a book is work, but the word ‘work’ doesn’t have to mean something negative or something we don’t want to do. Watch the video below to find out why.

Hello my lovely writers.

I received an email and needed to share a little of the content with you to emphasise why writing a book is work, but good work. 

The email was from a Canadian lady called Kylie Redhead, and she talked about how, in this day and age, we use the word ‘work’ to mean something negative or something we don’t want to do. 

Kylie said she looked at the origin of the word ‘work’ and it actually means an activity that fulfils an inner desire. That really spoke to me as it encapsulated so much of what I talk about.

Writing a book is work

Yes, writing a book is hard work. There’s a lot going on and there’s so much to juggle, but writing is fun and it can be joyous.

The idea that it fulfils an inner desire really speaks into that. When you embark on a book, or a short story, there’s something you want to say, and saying it in the right way takes work.

But this kind of work is fulfilling. Something is calling you to do that work, something is driving you to write that story. It’s the kind of work that fills you up.

There’s a calling inside you that wants to tell stories and wants to share those stories with the world. 

If you can see that yes, writing a book is work but also it’s an inner passion, an inner drive, an inner calling, then it can make that work feel worthwhile and not a drudgery.

It stops being work you don’t want to do or work you keep putting off, but work as in you’re striving for something great, something beyond you, something that is going to outlive you. 

Reframe the word ‘work’

It’s striving for something that will give you inner peace, inner contentment, an inner sense of fulfilment and, therefore, work that is worth doing. 

That work is worth pursuing if it’s going to be that inner calling and give you what you need to have a more fulfilled, enjoyable and creative life. 

Reframe that word ‘work’ and see what happens. 

Emma xx

Emma Dhesi

Emma Dhesi is a Certified Author Accelerator Book Coach and bestselling author who helps writers let go of perfectionism, self-doubt and writer's block through her signature programme, Unlock Your Creative Block.

She is the host of the YouTube Channel, Emma Dhesi, where she interviews debut and experienced authors alike.

Through her 1:1 coaching programme, Emma helps new authors start and finish their first novel.

Emma provides personal written feedback on their pages and guides them through the emotional rollercoaster that is writing a novel!

As I thought about the changes my daughter is going through, it occurred to me that becoming a writer is like being an adolescent. 

Watch the video to find out why. 

Hello, my lovely writers. 

Do you know why becoming a writer is like being an adolescent? 

It dawned on me today. 

I was thinking about my daughter who is almost thirteen and how, when she was eleven, her body started to change as she entered a new phase of life. Her menstruation started, she started developing boobs and her hips started widening. All these little things started happening without her realising it. 

Every day while she went about her business and did what she needed to do, her body underwent all these changes. When I think back on her life, the pace seemed right until she got to this tween stage and suddenly everything shot forward as she stopped being this little girl and became a young woman. 

How becoming a writer is like being an adolescent

I realised this is exactly what it’s like when we’re becoming writers. We’re plodding along, we’re doing our own thing, we’re going through all these teething problems, we’re learning to walk, we’re learning to speak and we’re learning how to navigate the world in our writing space and in the context of our writing. 

Then, suddenly, we reach this adolescent stage where things start to speed up. When we look back, we realise, ‘Gosh, suddenly my writing took on leaps and bounds. Suddenly I moved forward. Suddenly I felt I knew what I was doing a little bit more. Suddenly I had some direction. Suddenly I felt some autonomy with my writing. I felt confident with my writing. I felt I was in control of my writing, rather than my writing being in control of me.’ 

It’s bizarre how our writing life is very much like going through toddlerhood. Going through those primary school years and then coming up to high school and into adolescence. Then that blossoming happens that I saw in my daughter. It is a beautiful thing. Both for her becoming a young woman but also for you becoming a writer. 

It doesn’t happen in a year, or even in six months

So, take heart that this is a big picture thing and it doesn’t all happen in one year. It doesn’t necessarily happen in six years. Sometimes it takes a while for the right thing to come along at the right time, at the right moment, where you find your voice, you find your groove, you find your rhythm and you find your independence as a writer. There’s a lot of trial and error in writing.

So keep writing, keep going and you’ll get there. 

Emma xx 

Emma Dhesi

Emma Dhesi is a Certified Author Accelerator Book Coach and bestselling author who helps writers let go of perfectionism, self-doubt and writer's block through her signature programme, Unlock Your Creative Block.

She is the host of the YouTube Channel, Emma Dhesi, where she interviews debut and experienced authors alike.

Through her 1:1 coaching programme, Emma helps new authors start and finish their first novel.

Emma provides personal written feedback on their pages and guides them through the emotional rollercoaster that is writing a novel!

It occurred to me that, with all the trial and error in writing, writers have a lot in common with scientists. 

Watch the video to find out why trial and error in our writing is a good thing. 

Hello my lovely writers. 

What does a scientist and a writer have in common? 

Don’t know? 

Let me tell you. 

It’s trial and error. 

That’s what a writer and a scientist have in common – they need to do things by trial and error. You’ll hear me say many times, ‘Writing a book is not a scientific formula. It’s not an equation you have.’ But there is an overlap in that, when you’re a writer, particularly a new writer, you’re finding your feet, you’re getting to grips with how to write a book and that means there is a lot of trial and error in writing. 

We all have a unique perspective and you are still figuring out not just what your process is, but also how you put together a first draft. Then how you go through your revisions, then how you go through your edits. You’re figuring all that out as you write. But, believe it or not, you’re also figuring out what type of book you are writing and what kind of storyteller you are. You may want to write in one genre but, bizarrely, you find you actually write in another type of genre. 

For example, I thought I would probably write literary fiction because, all through my life, I read the slightly more highbrow literary canon we have here in the UK. But when it came to the writing and putting a story down, I found I wrote very much commercial genre fiction and, even within that, I’m still finding my niche, starting off with women’s fiction and moving through to domestic psychological thrillers. 

Trial and error in writing is all part of the process

It’s all part of the process. It’s all part of that trial and error and that’s when being a writer is like being a scientist. It’s not that it’s formulaic, it’s not that there’s one size fits all and this is a universal law, but there’s trial and error. Trying something that doesn’t work. Trying something new that doesn’t work. Making things out of nothing and creating magic out of your writing. 

But don’t be ashamed of things not working and don’t be embarrassed that a story didn’t work. It’s all part of the process and I want to encourage you to see that trial and error as part of the fun of being a writer. You don’t know how it’s going to come out, you don’t know what’s going to happen next and that is what makes it exciting. It’s not that you need to be fearful of it or frightened of it, rather that it’s exciting, it’s part of the adventure and it’s part of the fun. 

That is how being a writer is like being a scientist. 

Emma xx

Emma Dhesi

Emma Dhesi is a Certified Author Accelerator Book Coach and bestselling author who helps writers let go of perfectionism, self-doubt and writer's block through her signature programme, Unlock Your Creative Block.

She is the host of the YouTube Channel, Emma Dhesi, where she interviews debut and experienced authors alike.

Through her 1:1 coaching programme, Emma helps new authors start and finish their first novel.

Emma provides personal written feedback on their pages and guides them through the emotional rollercoaster that is writing a novel!

We all have a unique perspective and it’s that uniqueness that makes our writing special. 

Watch the video or read the text below to find out more about our uniqueness. 

Hello my lovely writers.

I wanted to share a little bit of a conversation that came up for me yesterday about how unique you are and it’s that uniqueness that makes your writing special.

This is something a lot of new writers don’t trust about themselves – that they have their own voice, their own style, their own way of writing, their own way of putting down a story onto paper and their own way of structuring a story. 

We all have a unique perspective

Each of us come to the page with our own life histories, our own personalities, our own take on things and our own way of telling a story.

These things combined are what make us unique. They make you unique. Nobody else could take the same storyline and write it the way you write it. You could have ten people given the same brief or given the same story but each person will come to it very differently. You’ll know this if you’ve taken part in any workshops where you’ve been given a line or two and told to create a story from that line.

Everybody does it differently. Some people will start with the line. Some people will end with the line. Some people will put the line in the middle. Everybody brings their own unique perspective to it and this is exactly the same when you’re writing a book. Just the same as when you’re doing an exercise in a workshop, you bring your uniqueness to it. Remember though, even though your story will be unique to you, it’s not representative of your self-worth and your book is not your baby.

Trust the process

I want to encourage you to trust the process. You might not know what it is yet but there is a process and it’s only by doing the writing, by doing the practice, by finishing stories do you get to know what your process is and learn to trust it, learn to lean into it and ultimately learn to enjoy your writing. 

I hope that gives you a little bit of something you need today.

You are unique. 

Emma xx

Emma Dhesi

Emma Dhesi is a Certified Author Accelerator Book Coach and bestselling author who helps writers let go of perfectionism, self-doubt and writer's block through her signature programme, Unlock Your Creative Block.

She is the host of the YouTube Channel, Emma Dhesi, where she interviews debut and experienced authors alike.

Through her 1:1 coaching programme, Emma helps new authors start and finish their first novel.

Emma provides personal written feedback on their pages and guides them through the emotional rollercoaster that is writing a novel!

Do you keep putting off your writing? It might surprise you to know that it’s not a lack of craft skills. Rather, it’s all in your head. 

Watch the video to find out more. 

Hello my lovely writers. 

Let me ask you, do you want more than anything to write a book but, at the same time, you find you would rather do anything than sit down to write, so you never actually get to the writing? 

You keep putting it off, keep putting it off, keep putting it off, and beat yourself up about it every time because you know more than anything else you want to write this book. 

You want the writer’s life but you keep putting off your writing

You want to be the creative you see on Instagram, on Facebook, on the news, in newspaper articles and in interviews. You want to be living that life. You want to be writing books you love. You want to be talking to other writers who are writing the same sorts of stories you are writing and who you admire. You want to create this new life for yourself. You want it so, so much, you can almost taste it. 

And yet, you will find any excuse, any reason, not to get your butt in the chair and do the writing. Whenever you think about doing the writing, this wall of resistance lifts itself up in front of you and, before you know it, your desk is the last thing you want to get to. 

So, what’s that about?

You’re probably wondering, ‘Well, how come other people who are also nervous about their writing, get to it. They do it. They’re doing the do. They’re doing the writing. They’re publishing their books, they’re finding their agents, they’re finding their readers.’

Maybe you’re wondering, ‘What is it about me that stops me from doing it?’ 

The thing that’s holding you back from your writing

That’s where the switch comes. That’s where it’s not about craft. The thing that’s holding you back from your writing is not craft. You have no doubt taken lots of workshops, read lots of books, attended lots of webinars and done a lot of training. You know how to write a book. You’ve got the basics and the fundamentals to get you started. So why are you not getting started? Why are you not doing it? 

That’s when there’s something deeper going on. That’s when imposter syndrome comes in. You might not think you’ve got it. You might be looking at other areas in your life where you’re thinking, ‘Well, I’m really successful in my paid job. I’m a great parent. I’m a wonderful partner. I’m a really loyal friend. In other areas of my life, I’m super, so I don’t have imposter syndrome. That’s not me.’ 

I’m afraid it is. 

You have imposter syndrome

If you are not doing the writing, even though you want to do it more than anything else in the world, that’s where imposter syndrome comes in. I want you to have a think about that. I want you to be looking at where else in your life you might be stopping yourself from doing what you really want to do. Is it really craft that’s holding you back, or is it what’s going on in your head? 

If you want more motivation, more encouragement, more ways of seeing past this and moving past your imposter syndrome, then I encourage you to sign up for my free 21 Days of Writing Inspiration series. 

Over 21 days, I will send you a short little video motivating you to keep on going, helping you build that writing habit, to build your confidence, grow that confidence and help you move past imposter syndrome. Because, I promise you, it’s not craft that’s holding you back. It’s what you’re telling yourself about you as a writer and about your writing. 

If you want to move past that, if you want to start this life, a writer’s life, then join my 21 Days of Writing Inspiration. 

Emma xx 

Emma Dhesi

Emma Dhesi is a Certified Author Accelerator Book Coach and bestselling author who helps writers let go of perfectionism, self-doubt and writer's block through her signature programme, Unlock Your Creative Block.

She is the host of the YouTube Channel, Emma Dhesi, where she interviews debut and experienced authors alike.

Through her 1:1 coaching programme, Emma helps new authors start and finish their first novel.

Emma provides personal written feedback on their pages and guides them through the emotional rollercoaster that is writing a novel!