writing a book

The Final Page and Canary Spirit’s Perfect Message

Posted by Barbara Techel

The editing and the cover of my book, I’m Fine Just the Way I Am have been completed for a few weeks now and the manuscript is in the hands of those I reached out to for endorsements. It’s the final tidbits of book publishing I need to yet complete before it goes off to the design team who will put together the interior layout.

The past few days I’ve been working on the very last page of my memoir. The page I’m working on? The acknowledgments. I’ve been writing a little each day. Trying to find the most appreciative and heartfelt words to express to those who have walked this journey with me.

I’ve done this so many times before and yet again I find myself in this stuck place. I know it’s because I feel a depth of gratitude for those that have supported me, but then how do I truly convey that in words?

And so I did what I often do when I’m feeling stuck. I pulled some tarot and oracle cards. I received Guardian of Water (from Gaian Tarot – Healing the Earth, Healing Ourselves by Joanna Powell Colbert) and Canary Spirit (from The Spirit Animals Oracle by Colette Baron-Reid). 

Guardian of Water was part of a New Moon reading I did for myself on Sunday and Canary Spirit is my animal for the month of December from a year-long spread I did for myself at the beginning of 2019. Interesting their appearance again.

Right away I understand these cards as reminding me to continue to go with the flow and not against the current. The turtle on the card symbolic of the fact I can’t rush this, and the fish swimming upstream I see as trusting my own flow. I can’t force this, but allow it to unfold naturally. Water is symbolic of emotions and I’m swimming in them right now, though not quite sure how to express them. The shell I see as if holding to my ear, and to listen and tune in to my heart, and then let it flow.  Flow seems to be the theme here, now doesn’t it?

Canary Spirit reminds me that no matter what, this whole journey of writing this book has been about singing my own song. Tears actually pooled in my eyes when I pulled the Canary card as it is packed with so much meaning for me. The writing of this book has set me free in boundless ways – and no doubt will continue to as it goes out into the world.

And in the end, no matter what, I know I put my heart and soul into this and grew in ways I never imagined I would. This allowing and not forcing has been something I continue to hone. And so what a lovely reminder from these two cards to come forth as the needed reminder to allow the flow with gentleness and graciousness…and trust that it will all come together, just as it always has.

And so with this message of truth, I now sign off and head out for a walk, which always proves good medicine too…

xo,

Barbara

On Writing a Book. Question from a Reader. My Insight.

Posted by Barbara Techel

On Writing a Book. Question from a Reader. My Insight.

I often get asked how to write a book. Recently I received this question from reader, Jennie: “I have felt for several years there is a “book” inside of me but I just can’t seem to put it into words.”

So I thought I’d share my insight here to not only hopefully help Jennie, but to help others who face this question too.

I want to first start by saying that I feel there is no right or wrong way. The key, I feel, is to find out what your best practice is for accomplishing a goal such as writing a book.

But let me back up for a moment and share some writing advice I’d heard a few years ago. It resonated with me, so perhaps it will you, too.

It really is quite simple – just begin.  Put your pen or pencil to the paper or your fingers to the keyboard and begin. Everything we do, no matter what it is or whatever art form, you have to just begin, right?  Brush to canvas, hands to clay, one foot in front of the other.

Some other advice I heard at one time is this:  Start with 15-minutes each day. Just write. Don’t edit. Send that critic who will no doubt show up, out for coffee.  And while the critic is heading out, send the perfectionist along with her, too. If you start with 15-minutes each day that roughly equals one page per day. If you did this for 365 days you’d have more than enough for a book at the end of the year. Now, this isn’t something you can publish as is. But this is then where you begin to edit, revise, and hone in on how you want it to take shape. Of course, if you want to accelerate the process you will have to write for more than 15 minutes a day.

That analysis simplified it for me. I realized how often we tend to look at an end result and how huge it can feel, instead of taking that first small step and just beginning.

I’ve found that there is also something to getting into the motion of beginning to write, and then the words will come. While I am definitely one who feels I must be inspired to write, I’ve also come to understand that if I sit my butt down in the chair, even if I have to stare at the blank screen for a while, that eventually I will begin and words will follow one after the other.

I tend toward the side of perfectionist, so this has taken practice for me to know it will not be perfect the first time I sit down to write. Nor will it be perfect the second, third, or fourth time. Nothing will ever be perfect. But if I put my best effort forward, and I continue at that without judgement of myself (which believe me, isn’t always easy!) I find that I’m quite happy that I made the effort. I started. And starting creates this forward movement.

Just the other day I was also talking with an author who just released her first book. We had a great discussion!  She said at the beginning of her writing career she tried to write like how one or another writer writes. Or got hooked into the “10 best ways” to write or the oodles of articles on writing that are out there. I shook my head enthusiastically as she talked as I could so relate!

Like this author, I no longer do that. I follow my own inner impulses and try to stay as tuned into them as possible. Outside distractions are always going to vie for our attention, so you have to know what makes you tick… or not tick, for that matter. And this, my fellow friends wanting to persue writing, is a practice – an ebb and flow – and give and take – a seek and find.

All these insights I’ve shared above have come clearer into view as I finished my manuscript recently for Wisdom Found in the Pause – Joie’s Gift. I had fits and starts. I beat myself up internally for not being where I thought I should be with it at certain times. I wanted to throw the towel in a handful of times. But I kept at it not truly knowing if it would turn into something or not. It took me three years to write it. I didn’t write everyday. But I thought about it an awful lot, though there were times I didn’t want to think about it at all.

And I realize sitting here today that this was my process for this particular book I’ve just finished writing. It wasn’t meant to surface fully until now. There were things I still had to learn and experience that became part of the manuscript that make it feel complete to me now.

So just begin. Be curious about where it will take you. Be gentle with yourself. And most of all….enjoy the ride!

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Writing a Book is Messy. Where I’m At.

Posted by Barbara Techel
Writing a Book is Messy. Where I'm At.
My faithful writing companion, Gidget.

I’ve heard this phrase three different times the last few weeks- “writing a book is messy.” Once in a blog post, once in a podcast and once in a webinar.

It’s exactly how I’ve felt since starting my second memoir, which I began in the winter of 2013. While there have been many rewarding moments writing it, most of the time it has been messy.

I’ve wanted to quit a thousand times.

I’ve had to learn to accept this- it has been a tug and pull much of the time. My two children’s books and my first memoir (for the most part) came much easier for me to write than this new book I’ve been working on.

A part of me wanted to share more of the process with you sooner, but the other part of me was, honestly, too afraid to say anything. Afraid I may disappoint others if I don’t finish this book.

But today I completed another round of editing of the third draft of “Wisdom Found in the Pause.” I’m feeling way more clarity about it than I have in a long time.

The book feels like two parts—the first part of my time with Joie, my second dog with IVDD and in a wheelchair, who I adopted from Oregon Dachshund Rescue. As many of you know, I had to help her cross over ten short months after she came into my life.

It threw me completely off. Though honestly, looking back, I realized I had been off for quite some time, but was too afraid to look at why.

The second part is that Joie’s death was my wake-up call to sit with all the uncomfortable feelings I had at the time. Joie’s gift while beautiful while she was here, and I got to love and care for her, her deeper gift came after she was gone.

It was then that I discovered a new definition of purpose that I’m much more comfortable with. I learned how to sit in stillness and silence. I learned to see transition as a necessary part of life.

The messy part of writing this book has been trying to convey my time of solitude which was a sabbatical for me, into a book others will want to read – but more than that – how it can help others.

But over the past three months, since devoting more time to working on the manuscript, I have more hope that his messy business of writing a book- this new book – may just turn into the real deal.

Lastly, I’ve had huge fears around the idea that this book will not be “as good as” my first memoir, Through Frankie’s Eyes. How do I top my journey with Frankie and how that book has touched many lives? That fear has stopped me in my tracks as I’ve worked through the trenches of my not-so-pretty, but real fears.

The fears are now beginning to subside. I see a journey that is still much the same, but evolving—a new way to touch other’s lives through this new book. I have hope…

and this is where I’m at.

Creativity is a crushing chore and a glorious mystery.  –Elizabeth Gilbert, #BigMagic

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