From all the blogs, articles, and stories that I’ve written through the years, it is easy to create one where all I want to say is, “Write”!
However, my students, clients, and those who lovingly and trustingly follow me, expect more. In the conversations we’ve developed, they have presented questions that are normal to ask, and usually cross the minds of all of us who at some point or other want to do something else. They seek to engage in a new venture, other than what they were trained to do at work, or what they studied in school, or thought they were going to be for the rest of their lives. Here are some questions they asked me regarding the writing and creation of a publication with their name for loved ones, business, their legacy, and generations to come.
1. How can I write, if I’m not a writer?
My simple answer in a conversational manner, during our coaching sessions or a social media message is to ask them these questions:
a) Can you speak?
b) Do you have feelings?
c) Do you like something in particular?
d) Are good at something?
e) What would you like to learn?
f) What do you know about the world, people, or a specific item that you can teach others?
You might think you are not a Writer, but that’s because you have humbly thought that you don’t have that title; hence, you think you can’t do it. Anyone can write. Some might like to do it in a journal, or using a feather quill, or a simple pencil, or a more sophisticated pen. Or even perhaps some might prefer to type on a typewriter, or write on their computers or iPads; others, even on their phone notes. But we all like to say, opine, speak, feel, believe, comment. Yes, even when we are quiet, our mind is up and running! Yes, or yes! Of course! So, you can write. Even further, you can write a book. Will you be intimidated by what comes with it? Of course, if you are not used to it, if you are not a journalist, if you are not a person that see writing as an everyday task. But you can write. Everyone is different. And that’s normal. So, let’s learn to put it all together, your way!
2. What am I going to write about?
To question here would be relevant only to help them find out what they like. I have friends, relatives, and acquaintances that enjoy many things in life. However, they see it as just that, an enjoyment that will pass and will leave nothing for them to remember. So, what do you like? Many tell me that they like ice-cream, the beach, exercise, traveling, working with children, solving difficult court cases, investigating an illness, dancing, sawing, painting, building, racing. So, so much. My question is, do you like it enough to teach others? To write a book where you leave a legacy? And to this I will add, ask yourself what am I good at that I can contribute with.
3. What am I going to do with my book once I publish it?
Although this is part of our course and our coaching sessions, I’ll briefly ask you not to be one of those people who think negatively about something that you can do, like, or develop.
a) You publish a book that you can present at work. This will give you a sense of trust among your co-workers and a feeling of security in your line of work.
b) You can offer the book you publish to the industries where you develop your craft, so that others can learn from you.
c) You can offer your books in schools, to students, teachers, or give them away during your presentations with them.
d) You can give away your book to the audience that comes to hear you at your public speaking conferences.
e) You can give your book to friends and family, and keep it as a legacy, as an author who is leaving a legacy for others to remember them by.
f) You can offer your book to colleges so they students can use them in their curriculum.... and so much more.
4. Can I combine my career, job, or business, with my book?
Absolutely! And that is my point when I say that anyone can write. Becoming a PR specialist, a nurse, a computer analyst, a banker, a flamenco dancer, a Yoga instructor, a realtor, a construction worker, or anything else does not limit your ability to create knowledge.
Teaching others your craft, sharing your opinions based on what you do, your ideas hailing from your time working on your career, your insights developed during years of building a business does not limit you from teaching and writing your story. On the contrary, you are the authority, the authority that has all the knowledge to be shared in a book.
5. I am too young to know what to write about?
One of my students working on a second master’s degree told me that she liked to write but that she had nothing to write about to put in a book. All I did, in my teacher mode was to start asking her questions about her life and education, apparently deviating from the question she had presented. It went something like this:
a) “Do you remember what you used to like when you were a child? Do you still like it?” “Yes,” she said. Ahhh ...
b) “Do you remember what you were good at when you were a teenager or started college? Are you still good at it?” “Yes,” she said. Ahhh ...
c) “Do you know what you are passionate about today?” “Oh, yes!” she answered. Ahhh ...
d) “Would you like to help someone or something to improve our standard of living in that area?” “Yes! I would love to!” she said. Ahhh ...
e) “Is there anything you know or learned that would help others.” “I think so,” she said. Ahhh ...
f) “What are you waiting for to write it down and share it to the world?” She laughed and said, “Oh my God! So true!” and wrote her book.
6. I am too old to go back to school and/or start writing, or remembering my stories now?
What I always tell everyone also holds true for the older community of writers. Not only can anyone write, but as you have lived more years, you hold something precious: Experience. And this experience you have accumulated through time can never be exchanged for naiveness, nothingness; it can never be replaced.
My mom retired and while she continued her life, she sought other ways of entertaining herself. Of course, she had already discovered that she was good at painting, so she created beautiful canvases. In fact, one of them formed the cover of her first book. And that’s where I want to get. She realized that she had pieces of writings in a drawer, and that she had also written comments on various topics on social media platforms. So, she realized that she would put all her skills together to create her first book.
Please, do not forget, that it is precisely the fact that you have lived what others haven’t (not only in time, but in instances of life) that will give you the key to create lessons and chapters in the book that you will be leaving as a legacy. Don’t get me wrong. Of course, you can also promote it, sell it, discuss it, talk about it in public events, but most importantly, you will be leaving your loved ones with a piece of you. Some ladies and gentlemen tell me how they would love to put their life in a book for their children and grandchildren. Others, tell me they want to do that and more; they want to help those who can learn from them.
And these people are from all walks of life. Love does not have religion, race, or any belief in particular. Love is simply destined to those we have around us and care for anywhere in the world.
7. Don’t you have to be a writer to write a book?
On this last question I am going to present to you here, a couple of my followers asked me what they needed to be writers: to have graduated from college with some sort of writing degree or a program that teaches students to write. Let me see. How am I going to honestly answer this one, because I personally have been a writer since I was six years old. However, after I moved to a new state and switched my Aerospace Engineering degree to Mass Communications I started learning about different ways and formats that comprise writing today. I was learning techniques to write better, to improve my skills, to create news pieces. But honestly, I realized that the “writing” part of it all was within me; it is in every one of us.
Writing is part of our natural being. I saw it in my teachers, in my classmates, in my news sources, in my co-workers, in my family, in my friends, in the children playing in the streets, in the elderlies’ minds as they sat on the park bench to enjoy the breeze caressing their faces. Writing is in society in general; it is part of our existence. We just need to tune in to it and rehearse it.
Cheers!
Laura
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