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Before you start writing your book, let’s talk about what can you expect during your journey.

At Scribe, we’ve helped over 1,700 authors write their books, and probably the #1 thing that separates those who finish their books from those who do not is having the proper expectations going in.

Why?

Because writing a book is hard, and if you’re not prepared for that fact, you’re far more likely to stall, and even quit.

But if you know the difficulty of what’s coming, you can mentally prepare to get past those obstacles when they come (and they will).

As my military friends like to say, “Proper preparation prevents piss poor performance.”

These are the major expectations to have as you write your book:

1. Expect this to be hard

Anyone who tells you that writing a book is easy is either trying to sell you something, has never written a book, or writes really bad books.

An average book is hard to write.

And writing a good book is even harder.

To overcome this, you’ll need to work hard. Yes, this should be obvious, but there are many people who seem to think, if only subconsciously, that there is some “trick” to make writing your book easier.

There’s not. There is no hack or trick or work around.

Anyone who tells you they have the “secret” to “write a book in 30 days” with “almost no effort” is selling you BS.

If you want to write a good book, then expect that it will require hard work from you.

2. Expect to get tired

Writing is tiring (especially if you do it correctly).

Expect to get tired when you write, and expect that it will drain you. Make sure to take the steps you need to be both rested and energized when you write.

I can’t tell you precisely what to do for proper self-care; that depends on you. Maybe going for a walk with your dog is fine, maybe you need to get more sleep, or maybe more coffee.

The point is not the details. The point is to know it’s coming, and to do what you need to in order to prepare, so you actually do it.

3. Expect to be confused

Writing a book is inherently confusing. It is not easy to properly position and structure a book. Outlining a book is challenging, and confuses even professional writers at times. Of course the actual writing can confuse you.

But what you’ll find as you work the Scribe Method is that while some of the things we recommend might seem unusual, they actually WORK really well—which is ultimately what matters the most.

If you approach the instructions like Daniel did in The Karate Kid, you’ll be great. If you didn’t see the movie, in The Karate Kid, Mr. Miyagi had Daniel do a bunch of isolated tasks that seemed to have nothing to do with karate: painting fences, waxing cars, etc. Daniel got frustrated and annoyed. But then, when he started doing karate, he realized that those seemingly unconnected movements formed the basis for karate.

Our process is similar. The exercises I put you through might seem disjointed at first, but no effort is wasted. The exercises are designed to build your book efficiently from the ground up, the first time—as long as you have the discipline to walk through them and do them right, it’ll work.

4. Expect to feel overwhelmed at times

When you write a book, a lot comes at you. And if you use our process, it will be like drinking from a firehose. You WILL feel overwhelmed at the beginning.

But understand this: overwhelm is simply not knowing what to do next. This is exactly why you are using our process. We solve this for you.

If you follow along and do what we say, you will ALWAYS know what to do next. We’ve made this process so that there are no surprises, and it can be worked step by step.

5. Expect to be emotionally uncomfortable (and maybe afraid)

This is a big one. Writing a book will unquestionably push you emotionally, and expose fears and anxieties.

That is never easy, and never fun, but if you want to write a book, it’s almost certainly going to be a necessity (don’t worry, we tell you what fears are coming and how to deal with them).

Fear is normal and OK to have. You need to expect it and then learn to deal with it. Do not discount this or minimize it. Fear is coming, and if you don’t deal with it properly, it becomes the book-killer.

“Nothing in the world is worth having or worth doing unless it means effort, pain, difficulty.”
—Theodore Roosevelt