part 2, the forgotten inner work of writing and publishing

In my previous post I shared my sense that one of the most important aspects of potent writing and publishing is having a "good, settled sense of who we are" (as poet David Whyte puts it). We tend to focus on all the outer elements of writing and publishing and forget this inner work.

I wanted to pick up this thread again and ask: So what do we do if we don't have a good, settled sense of who we are? 

In my editing work, one of the most common problems I see is that the book doesn't have a clear premise, thrust, argument, idea, thesis. It feels blurry or fuzzy or confused, and not on purpose (for some books, the main thrust is to intentionally blur and confuse). 

Now sometimes this is because the author just needs more work with their craft or more time building out their story, but I think many times it's because the author is a little fuzzy about themselves and who they are and what they want. 

So, what do we do about this? Okay, here's the really good news...

The very act of writing a book is an alchemical process of discovery where something new is on the other end. And that "something new" can be many things, but I think it's often a good, settled sense of who we are. 

The very thing we are doing allows us to find the very thing we need!

I think this is so beautiful. And it's a real argument for working with many drafts of a book.

And I think it holds true for the process of publishing as well—the very act of becoming visible and putting yourself out there begins to reveal yourself to yourself. So maybe we try for at least a handful of "drafts" here, too.  

What do you think? I really would love to hear. 

With care,
Brianna 

photo by Cathy Cardno