Writing Solo, Winning Big: Hard Work and Determination in Your Author Journey

Hard work and determination are the foundations of my success. -Anonymous

Hard work and determination are the foundations of my success.

-Anonymous

Writing a book is an deeply solitary exercise. We sit alone in a room with our computer or notepad and we write.

It’s not like a team sport where you can lean on your teammates if you’re not having a good day. The only person to lean on is you, which is why attitude is a critical component of writing success.

The challenge of writing is that the accolades don’t come until months after we’ve done the hard work of writing the book.

There are no stadiums filled with screaming fans watching us write.

The world doesn’t even know we exist until our book is written, edited and published.

And even then, we must market our work successfully so our soon-to-be raving fans can find us.

All of that can be very disheartening if we get obsessed with it in this moment.

Make determination and hard work your foundation.

Set a deadline for your first draft and refuse – belligerently refuse – to allow anything to come between you and successfully achieving that deadline.

Your detailed Roadmap for Success is just the first step.  Writing your complete first draft is the second step.

Forget about everything that must come later.

Focus on the job at hand.

Get your first draft written.

Celebrate all the small wins along the way.

Your sense of purpose and accomplishment will be your reward.

So will sharing your success with someone who gets it. (Me)

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