Calling authors and entrepreneurs!

Creating the New Economy Together

My new online course, Do you want to write a book? has just been published this week through ebrainz www.ebrainz.net.nz/write-a-book I’m excited to tell you about the course but first a bit about ebrainz which is a wonderful example of the new economy, or how we can prosper each other as we sustain ourselves, by living our passion and co-creating together.

Ebrainz is the brainchild of Heather Sylvawood in Golden Bay and Sarah Marsh in Christchurch and is intended to fill a gap created by the withdrawal of government funds for community education. It has started here in Golden Bay, a little community nestled between the mountains and the sea in the North West corner of the South Island of New Zealand. The beauty and remoteness of Golden Bay attracts many creative people: artists, artisans, writers, organic gardeners, eco builders; people who are into living a simple life, close to wild nature and in community. In other words there is a high concentration of people here who are living their passion and have skills and expertise to share.

Heather Sylvawood’s passion is using online technologies for multi-media learning, so courses may combine the written word, visuals such as diagrams and photos, audio, video, and an online forum. With Do you want to write a book? I am also offering live monthly teleclass link-ups (coming together by telephone) as an extra form of support and participation.

This means the inexpensive courses are taken from the comfort of home without any additional costs of having to get into your car and drive but still offer the support of a learning community. In fact there are two tiers of learning community: the tutors who are learning how to prepare their courses for publication and then how to market them; and the participants of a particular course.

Economically, it’s a wonderful solution for a small rural community, where especially in today’s economy there is meagre cash flow. The courses will be marketed globally, over time sustainable streams of income will be created and then this flows back into the local economy, so everyone prospers in every way. Brilliant!

Do you want to write a book?

I started with a passion for writing, a track record of completing and publishing self initiated writing projects and a leading question: “What is the difference between someone who wants to write a book, and takes it all the way through to completion and publication, and someone who sets out with a desire to write a book but doesn’t make it to the finishing line?”

In other words, how do we take a project, in this case a book, from seed idea to a finished product which serves others?

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Over thirty years, I’ve written three full length non fiction books, ten e-books, several volumes of poetry, a play, an unpublishable novel, four training manuals in community education, leadership and communication, and more than 60 blog articles. I’ve also worked with many hundreds of people helping them to understand the creative process and move through the stages with joy and self discovery. This was the experience I was drawing on as I pondered this question.

Here are some of the key factors I’ve identified for successful completion of your book writing mission.

• You have to really want to do it. For me, writing a book is one of life’s greatest creative adventures. Writing connects me deeply with myself and expands me into an intelligence which is much greater than me. A huge smile fills me up from inside every time someone tells me they have been touched or inspired by something I’ve written. It’s also a lot of work, and like anything else worth doing, the work isn’t always expansive and inspiring, it’s also at times nitpicky, repetitive and requires a lot of determination and stamina.
• Starting with a strong desire or calling will get you through the challenges.
• You have to believe you can. Even if there’s nobody encouraging you and even when your friends and family aren’t very interested, which is most of the time, you have to find the part of you that knows you can do this and that can push through all the self doubt that will inevitably arise. For me, it helps enormously when I stop taking it personally and realize that the book is actually something separate from me, something that I’m serving and midwifing into the world. If the book is part of your soul work, it will be your guiding light and you can choose to keep following that light wherever it takes you.
• You learn to write by writing. Very few people spring from the womb ready to be the next Shakespeare or J.K.Rowling. Most of us learn to write through years of practice. Building a rhythm through a regular writing practice creates success.
• It helps to have a community of support. Working with a mentor and/or a learning community keeps you focused, inspired and accountable; it takes away that feeling of the lonely writer struggling away in their ivory tower and adds social connection, companionship and fun to the mix.

Do you want to write a book? is a six month course comprising twelve sessions and it’s for first time authors who want to write a book for publication. My expertise is in non-fiction but the practices support any full length book. The course is designed to support you to establish a regular writing practice which will enhance your creativity in all areas of your life, prime the pump for writing your first draft, and build momentum. There are sessions to help you get really clear what your book is about and why you’re writing it, and to understand the different stages of book writing and the skills involved at each stage. In the second half of the course you will start to write your first draft, with the intention that at the end of the six months you will be well on the way to finishing your first draft and confident that you can. There’s an online writer’s forum where you can connect with others and the monthly Q&A sessions with me.

Each session provides learning points and action steps, and here’s the point: the main difference between someone who makes it to the finishing line and someone who doesn’t is that the one who completes takes regular action. It’s really as simple as that. Develop and commit to a regular practice. Find a community of support. Find a mentor who has walked the territory before you.

Good luck and maybe I’ll meet you at ebrainz!

Rose Diamond , July, 2011

www.awholenewworld.net

http://magnificentbeing.net/blog

Tags: writing