My Book Writing Adventure | Nov 24 | No. 2
My Book Writing Adventure | Nov 24 | No. 2
The second post in my experimental, self-directed, gentle book coaching programme: outlining | ritual | support group | gentle intentions.
In this post, you will find:
A review of my experiments in the past month.
A link to My Book Writing Adventure programme index (this list of what to expect for the next 15 months is for paid subscribers).
Gentle suggestions and ideas for what you can do on your book project in the next lunar month with the November theme of Ritual.
An invitation to the full moon My Book Writing Adventure Support Group on Zoom - Friday 15 November 10-11am GMT (for paid subscribers).
My Book Writing Adventure is a gentle, experimental, pick ‘n’ mix, self-directed book coaching programme for people with full enough lives who are driven to write a book despite everything.
I am committed to writing a book, creating a series of experiments to help me and inviting people along for the ride. There is a monthly newsletter (free and published each new moon) and a monthly support group on Zoom (for paid subscribers around the full moon).
It is important that we tell and share our authentic stories (in a world of increasing ai).
If you missed the first post and introduction to My Book Writing Adventure, click here:
Click the button below to subscribe or upgrade your subscription. And scroll down for this month’s update.
My book writing experiments
I will begin by reviewing my past month and what I’ve been working on and then offer small suggestions as to what you could do.
Support Group
#wellbeing
Our first full moon book writing support group was so lovely :) Kind, encouraging and what can I say? Supportive! We talked a little about our projects, the space we’re making for creativity and what’s standing in our way right now. It was so good to chat a bit more to people I see on Tuesday guided writing sessions because during those sessions, we write together and share, but there isn’t much time for chatting outside of that.
This whole project is giving me massive accountability. It is making me work on my book because I have promised updates and I have people rooting for me. We also declared our gentle intentions for the month.
What you could do:
Join us next time! Friday 15th November 10-11am (for paid subscribers). Click the orange button in the top right-hand corner of your screen to upgrade.
OR
Create your own support group or accountability partner. Do you know someone who is also writing that you could meet up with regularly to check in about your project?
My first writing group was a spin off from an evening class I took. We’d meet monthly at each other’s houses and sometimes write together but mostly chat about our writing projects.
Gentle Intentions
#wellbeing #magic
At the end of the support group, we declared our gentle intentions for the month. I’m finding this a much kinder way to talk to myself. Instead of holding myself to ransom and being critical when I haven’t reached my word count or time goals for the day, I’m gently bringing myself back to my intention.
My days can be busy and varied. I don’t really know how each day will go as I support the different needs of my family. So what’s helping me is to ask myself two questions:
What can I do for my book today?
What can I do for my creativity today?
This has been so helpful. It can be a tiny thing, such as opening a document or typing up a few notes, but it can also be a bigger thing, such as writing a particular paragraph or scene.
I’ve noticed that the answers to supporting my creativity are often wellbeing things such as take a walk in the woods or clean out a space in my home. So I'm going to think about that and how I can also help myself play as I know that’s important for my creativity as well.
What you could do:
It’s new moon today, which is an excellent time for quiet, inward reflection. Everyone in the group had a different gentle intention for the month. So, if you like, yours can be more direct and focussed than my intuitive questions. But now is the time to declare an intention (to yourself or your notebook or stick it somewhere you can see it) for the month. What will you do to help your book or creativity this month? Feel free to use the comments on this post to share your intention too.
Outlining
#practice
Probably the most important book focussed thing I did this month was to create an outline for my book. Following last month’s exercise of Reviewing What I Have Already, I ended up with piles of paper, highlighted, cut up and paper clipped together. Then I got stuck. I also got busy and couldn’t face the piles of paper.
During this time, I came across an article about the ethical use of AI tools for authors. I am easily distracted and love a new tool (then just as easily get frustrated!), so I had a quick play with them. One thing led to another and I ended up pasting two years of Awen newsletters into Google’s NotebookLM, which organises and analyses your own documents.
I asked Notebook LM to summarise the main ideas and then asked it to create a book outline from the content I’d uploaded. I found this a helpful tool to organise my work. I then cut and pasted sections of my newsletters under headings from that outline.
This has given me a useful resource to write from and one that I was really struggling to create myself as I had over 100k words to organise.
Then - I looked at a couple of published books to see the structure of their introductions and Chapter 1s. From this, I created my own outline of the beginning of my book. The AI one has helped me organise my research and it is roughly in the right order so now I can easily navigate my ideas and things I’ve already written.
Then - and this is monumental! - I opened a new word document and called it: Awen Book Working Draft and immediately wrote 500 words :)
What you could do:
For this first book, I am working with 100k words that I’ve already written as newsletters or blog posts. You may or may not have words you have already created. If you haven’t got many words, focus on getting those words down. It’s up to you how much of an outline you create, but you could begin with just a list of ideas or topics to write about or getting the story written.
If you already have lots of words, then a reverse outline may be a good idea. This is looking at what you have and writing a line summary of each part (paragraph, chapter etc). Then you’ve got a brief overview that you can then rearrange if needed. Clearly, AI can now help with this!
We will come back to outlines in a more structural way in the new year. But for now, you don’t need to outline the whole book, just the next part. I find it helpful so that I know what I need to write next and I don’t face that blank page.
Ritual
#magic
Ritual is my theme for November. I will be noticing things that I do anyway and practising creating a more intentional space for my book and creativity through ritual.
I have a garden office but the electricity that runs down to it was causing power cuts in our house every time it rained. It took us two years and three electricians to figure this out. And I have been working from the dining table for the past few weeks. This is not ideal in a small house where everyone is at home most of the time.
So as the electricity issue (fingers crossed) is now fixed, it is time for me to move back out there. But I have some other things to do to set up the space again. This will be the focus of my ritual practice this month. Making a creative, nurturing place for myself to write.
What you could do:
Following last month’s suggestions of writing where you are, whenever you have a moment, this month, I invite you to think about how you can create a more intentional space for writing. This doesn’t need to be huge. It can be a special pen or notebook or cosy socks or a scented candle or fancy timer. Just something you always do when you begin writing to signal to yourself that this time is important and just for you.
To join the full moon My Book Writing Adventure support group (Zoom) on Thursday 17 October 1-2pm, if you are a paid subscriber, click here for the link. I will also send a reminder nearer the time. If not, upgrade by clicking this button:
What gentle things will you do this month to move your book project forward?
I’d love to hear about it - leave a comment below :)
Until next time…
