Are you committed enough to take the book you’ve been dreaming about writing across the finish line marked “Publication”? In a previous blog post I talked about the fact that 80% of the North American population has thought about writing a book, 40% of those people go ahead and start the project, and 2% of the 40% actually finish their manuscript. Today I thought I’d talk about what it takes to become a Two Per Cent-er. What differentiates the people who start writing a book from the people who finish?

This is not a project for the faint of heart. As a five-time traditionally published author currently working on my sixth book I know how much hard work and dedication it takes to stick with the project long enough to see it through. There have been times during a book writing project when I felt like giving up and times when I never thought I would finish.

It took me 13 years to finish my first book and substantially less time than that to complete the others. So, I’ve walked that book writing path a few times myself and I am personally very familiar with all the roadblocks people come across in getting a book done. Part of it is about Divine Timing. Part of it is about Motivation. Part of it lies in the strategies you use to align yourself with the project. And part of it lies in the kind of assistance you get with the project.

But I’m not only knee deep in my own Author Journey, I’m also a book coach and editor, and I work directly with people who want to be Two Per Centers but who need a boost to get themselves there. Watching people take delivery of the book that tells the world they are now an author is an enormous thrill.

I started my first book—a novel—when I was just pregnant with my second child. My husband and I lived in a big house on a beach and the environment was perfect for being a writer.

I had a beautiful office with a balcony overlooking the lake and the soft breezes blowing in from the water’s edge would surge into my window. It was an incredibly idyllic life.

Writing a book should have been easy for me. I was and still am, a professional writer. I’d had great jobs in journalism, and government and corporate communications and I’d worked for a number of years as a copywriter at a marketing firm. I had been edited nine ways to Sunday, so I had great sentence structure, terrific spelling skills, and a strong vocabulary. I’ve always been a creative person, and so coming up with a storyline and some character sketches was no problem.

So why did it end up taking me 13 years to finish my first book? Stay tuned for my next blog post and I’ll fill you in!

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