by Annie Cook

Making the leap from dreamer to published author takes a truckload of self-belief. That in itself can be a lot for many people to ask of themselves. So many have told me they feel they have a story to tell but they just don’t know where to start. What I always say this: just start. And write about what you know or feel. As the saying goes, “writing what you know unleashes the flow.” The easiest way to gain confidence and find your flow is to write about something you’re familiar with.

I have a full and rich life, personally and professionally. All of my career and life experience puts me in a great place to write about what I know, and I am literally bursting at the seams with snippets of information I can use to bring my characters to life and make their situations more convincing. I often have to supplement my work with elements I’m not sure of, such as medical outcomes after an accident, or distances between locations. Where those elements are important to your story,  make sure to do your research and then — once again — you’ll be writing about what you know.

Thinking about structure can be daunting, too. I suggest not getting too hung up on that at the beginning. Feeling like you need to have the whole structure or plotline set in stone from the outset can sometimes bring the kind of pressure that results in a failure to start or finish. Flexibility is helpful, especially when you’re developing a character or a plot. I’m constantly surprised at how my characters and stories unfold, and how often I end up feeling like I’m running along behind them, trying to catch up!

I’m a big fan of the “free-flow” — sitting yourself down at the computer, creating a blank page, and just typing everything that’s in your head. It might all seem a bit jumbled and incoherent in the beginning, but once it’s there on the page, it represents the embryonic start of what you want to achieve, and you can start playing around with it.

Sometimes it can take a while to truly find your voice. Being patient with yourself while you find your groove and start running with it allows you to develop your own unique writing style. It’s tempting to copy the style of someone else, especially if it’s a writer you really admire. But telling your own story — whether it be biographical, fictional or factual — is a lot more real to the reader if it’s told in your own authentic voice.

For various reasons, a lot of brilliant, talented writers still struggle with the basics, such as grammar or punctuation. It’s important for all writers, to have their work properly checked and edited before it goes out for public consumption. At any point in the process of writing, it’s good to do this. Reading your work out loud, to yourself or to someone you trust, also helps to identify hiccups in the flow.

Sometimes it can take a while to truly find your voice. Being patient with yourself while you find your groove and start running with it allows you to develop your own unique writing style.

Writing a short story or a book is a brilliant way of bringing your voice to the world, and many would-be authors have already made a start, but they haven’t taken it any further. There are untold reams of wonderful works just sitting around in drawers, because their authors don’t have the confidence or the impetus to finish or polish them and put them in the public arena. It is daunting beyond belief, laying your work bare for public critique, because not everyone will like what you write, but the intrinsic reward of having something published is immensely satisfying. I wish I hadn’t waited until I was in my 60s to find the courage to publish my first novel! But now I’ve started, and found my flow, there literally is no stopping me.

So, if you have a book in you, go ahead and make a start. And if you already have a manuscript on the go, drag it out, dust it off, jump back in, and find your flow. Your story could be truly inspiring, but there’s only one way to find out.

Annie Cook is a psychologist and holistic therapist. She is the author of an emerging heptalogy of connected novels that focus on the power of vibrational healing from various traumas. Her debut novel, “No Small Change” is available now on Amazon and other bookselling platforms. Her second novel, “The Power of Notes and Spells” is currently in the pipeline and will be available later in the year.  Annie was born in Lancashire, grew up in New Zealand, and now lives in southern Italy with her husband and a much-loved menagerie of critters.

Find Annie on FB here. Visit her website here.

If you’re an indie author and you’re interested in guest posting on this blog, email here.