"What to Write" by Dina, author of The Bitter Root Series
Two years ago, when I penned my first book, Rewriting My Story, I discovered then that many of my friends and associates also aspired to become authors. I was thrilled with that discovery, believing that I had inspired them to achieve their goal. Two years later however, only two of the (let’s just say) 25 people who had expressed their interest, have actually taken the steps to write and eventually publish their books!
Seriously? I spent two years encouraging 25 people to publish their books and ONLY two have actually done it?! AHHHH!!!!!!!! To say the least, I was frustrated! I felt that my encouragement and enthusiasm was in vain and therefore, I just stopped pushing them.
Recently, a dear friend of mine expressed interest in becoming an author.
“Here we go again,” I thought to myself and internally rolled my eyes. She asked “How did you do it?” My answer to her, like those before simply was, “JUST WRITE!” Her response blew me away… “Write what?” That's when it hit me – perhaps the problem with the others was that they didn’t know WHAT TO WRITE!
When I began writing my first book, I had several challenges in regards to what I should write about. I knew that whatever it was going to be, I wanted it to be profound, inspiring, and entertaining. But how was I going to achieve that goal? Would it be through my experiences? Would it be fictional? And what message did I want to convey to the readers? You see, it was also a challenge for me to narrow down WHAT TO WRITE. I had so many ideas, but no clear cut direction. When I realized this, I began journaling. On a daily basis, I just wrote my thoughts – whether good, bad, fictitious, etc – it didn’t matter. I simply wrote! A few months later, I began reading my journal and I noticed a trend – I was angry (As you’ll find out from my first book, a particular incident also triggered my focus). The result? The Bitter Root Series! Several personal stories in my journal were included in my first book. And some of the fictitious stories that I wrote became the inspiration for my second book, The Rage Within.
So if you don’t know what to write, don’t worry and don't wait... JUST WRITE! Eventually, everything else will fall into it's rightful place.
