The scariest thing I've done in writing

This year I'm going to be bold

Can you believe it’s the 20s! The 1920’s were bold! They got called the Roaring twenties because it was a time where people pushed forward—society broke from the traditions they were used to and shook them up!

This year I’m shaking up my writing. I’ve played it pretty safe for 10 years and (mostly) written in fields that are familiar to me. I stuck to magazine and feature writing: articles of around 1000 words in very similar formats. I also worked for clients on their business, website or blog content—writing that I know will bring in the $ and is relatively unchallenging for me.

But this year has started with something different and honestly, it terrifies me.

I was asked to formally pitch an American agent on a non-fiction book idea. For a start, I’ve never written a whole non-fiction book. Secondly, I’ve never done a formal book pitch and when I researched how to do one I almost freaked out completely.

Formal non-fiction book pitches are expected to be around 40-75 pages!! That includes a 100-200 word summary of every chapter, a comparative title analysis (Huh??) and, my least favourite—a marketing plan (ugh). That marketing plan alone had me procrastinating for 2 months!

This week I sat down for three days in a row and forced myself to get it done. By late last night it was finished but I haven’t sent it yet.

This is when that writer’s doubt comes in, isn’t it. I’m sure you know the one. That voice that says, “There’s no point sending this pitch—they’re just going to reject it” and “If they say yes, no-one will buy it.” Best of all—“Who are you to write this anyway!”

Yip. That nasty little voice that stops us doing things. Stops us sending pitches. Stops us finishing our book. Stops us hitting publish.

I’m trying to be bold and ignore it, but it’s not easy!

Are you doing anything bold in 2020? I’d love to hear about it. Maybe your boldness will rub off on me too!

A New Year’s Gift

A great resource was sent to my inbox today. I’m signed up to a site that keeps writers updated on places to publish your work. They’ve put together their publication guide for 2020 and it’s really detailed with over 1500 places to publish! I’ve downloaded it to my desktop.

Go to Freedom with Writing if you want to get a copy too.

Happy New Year!

Kelly