*This is a very lightly edited copy of the show notes.

This is just an introductory episode. I’d like to go over

who I am
what this podcast covers
what it doesn’t cover
and what you should expect

I’m Kathleen Guire your host. In the introduction I share -that I’ve taught writing to elementary junior high high school students. And the last several years I’ve had a lot of women reach out to me for help with crafting their authentic stories. Maybe they wanted to write an article or a memoir. They were kind of stuck.

What I’d like to talk about now that you know my experience is what I’ve learned. Sometimes people are reluctant writers. Maybe that’s you. maybe you had some sort of hidden desire for years. You want to be a writer but you’re not sure where to start.

What I found with my students was there were several things that were holding them back. Writers are afraid of messing up. Who is afraid of that red pen? I mean really! That’s what students are really afraid of. Students believed they were going to write something and it was going to be just ripped to shreds… which is a realistic fear depending on the teacher. My philosophy on that is writing is not editing writing is writing. This leads me to another thing that holds writers back.. and listen I’m not saying that every single student of mine wanted to be a writer or should be a writer in their future career. This is just kind of a common denominator- I saw with kids who did really have that desire to write. Here’s another biggie- not sure what to write about. Maybe you have a desire to write but you’re not sure what to write about – which is one of the big issues I will cover in this podcast. Obviously not in the introductory episode.

You can be assured that that will be a common theme because to be a writer or have that desire to write does not mean we know exactly what we want to write about. That’s part of the process. I will say most definitely that being a writer doesn’t begin with:

actually, take pen to paper
or writing on your iPad
or your phone
or typing on your computer

Writing begins in your mind. Writing begins with those ideas coming together. And it’s a thought process in weeding out what you want to write about from what you don’t want to write about it. It is definitely a process – which we will be covering.

Now let’s talk about the fear of rejection because of weaknesses. I could have started with this one and talked about it all day. Fears such as – well I have a weakness. I can’t spell. I don’t feel like I can write coherently. I have dyslexia.

All of these things we would put in our weakness category. We say, “Well I’m not going to write because I have these weaknesses.”

Something amazing I found out, especially with junior high students, and you can apply this to yourself too, (I love teaching junior high students because when I told them that I did not care about their spelling I did not care about their grammar). Writing is

putting your thoughts down on paper
or your story
or your plotline
or forming characters
and having things for them to overcome
or writing an article because you feel so strongly and passionately about something

It’s not about editing. Editing is a completely different process. If you have that desire to be a writer and you’re letting those things hold you back – STOP.

This is one of the main reasons I started this podcast and remodeled my whole website- I saw this constant theme over the years. Like I said, over the past several years just women have come to me with an idea to craft a whole book. Or they had this novel in them. Or something they’d overcome and felt so strongly that God was saying –Share this so that other people will know they’re not alone or know that they can also overcome. Maybe that’s you. You have a book within you. I said you know I’m sharing what this podcast will be covering but what it means for you.

What does it mean for you?

I am not going to share how you can write a novel in 30 days. Not that I don’t believe it can’t be done. That’s not what I want to be sharing. Plus I am not going to share how you can make six figures with your writing because there are people that can share that and teach that. That is not me. What I would like for you is for you to step over that fear. Or do it afraid. Actually begin writing. When you begin writing – not writing randomly – but strategically about the thing that you feel most strongly. I’ll share tips and tools to help you in your writing journey. I’ll also be interviewing authors that have already written books, articles, and have websites with blogs to encourage you. They will share their stories you can say, “You know what, I’m not the only one.”

You’re not the only one. For years I let fear hold me back. I let my weaknesses – what I thought were my weaknesses… Actually, I will share how they can become your strengths in a later episode. Don’t be held back by those. Don’t let those be the driving force of what you do or don’t do. Let the driving force be your desire to write. Take that desire and turn it into your purpose. Then take your purpose and break it down into goals. I’m getting ahead of myself. I’ll talk more about that later. What I strongly encourage you to do right now is to go on my website Kathleenguireauthor.com and grab your free road map for crafting your authentic story with courage. It’s free. Here’s the reason- not only is it extremely helpful, but it will also take you from fear to final product. That’s the PDF tagline.

You’re going to hear me turning pages becuase I printed the whole thing off so I can share a few things with you in this introductory episode. This is a six-step roadmap moving from the desire to write to your final destination – an article, a series of articles, and finally a book. I will be working through the roadmap on the podcast for -I don’t know how many months is going to take me – I’m not going to make any promises. Here are some questions that are asked in the beginning of this roadmap:

would you like fear to stop bossing you around on your author Journey?
would you love to craft an article book or series of articles to help others?
what you’d like to move forward in Courage instead of living in denial?
are you ready to pursue crafting your authentic story with courage?

If that’s you then go to the website right now and download this free PDF. On the roadmap, I said there are six pit stops.

Desire to Write
Denial
Discipline, Determination, and Direction
Development
Desert
Destination

Number one is desire. That’s your desire to write. Number two – we always face the denial – like oh maybe I heard that wrong, that’s not me, I can’t do that. We’ll talk about ways to cope with denial and strategies to overcome it. The third pit stop is discipline, determination, and direction. We all need those in our author journey. Let me just say discipline and determination alone are not enough. You have to have direction. You have to know what you’re aiming for.

This is a roadmap. It’s directions. You wouldn’t just get in your car without a direction and just drive and hope that you arrived at the destination you wanted to arrive at. We all know that wouldn’t work.

The fourth pitstop is development. That’s where we’ve already got a schedule but we’re continuing ourselves in our author journey. We’re continuing to learn about writing while we write. We’re continuing to educate ourselves while we write. Do not educate yourself first and after a couple of years of listening to podcasts, reading, studying, and making sure I have all my ducks in a row perfectionism- then I’ll write. No. Write and develop at the same time. The fifth pit stop is the desert. That’s where we can get tripped up by our weaknesses. I will say this roadmap is a very curvy road. It’s got what’s called switchbacks. Where I live in the mountains a switchback is pretty much you’re driving in a direction that is taking you back to where you came from before you get to where you’re going. If you live in a mountainous area you know what a switchback is – which means some of these pit stops we’re going to go back to other pit stops. It’s just a process. Every writer goes through these things.

Every writer has these pit stops whether they’re making six figures or not whether they’ve been on the bestseller list or not. They all struggle with weaknesses, imposter syndrome, determination, and having a schedule. That’s why I want to talk through this roadmap and get some strategies in place. We’ll learn – this is very important – about our weaknesses and how they can actually be strengths. Pit stop number six is destination – a finished product! what do we do when we get there? Go back to the beginning. We go through the process over and over and over again. Of course, there’s a lot more detail in the roadmap. Next week I will be talking about the first pit stop- desire. I will probably spend more than one week – maybe two or three. I’ll spend quite a bit of time on desire first. We’ve got to get that solidified and planted and let it grow a little bit. Then move on.

The final thing I went to say is this is a coffee break podcast. What does that mean? Listen to it:

In one sitting
or while you’re washing the dishes
or you’re
you’re cooking dinner
or your kids are taking a nap.

I don’t like him to be too long. When they’re too long I tend to myself not to be able to listen to the whole thing. Then I tell myself well I will break it up into four days you know 15-20 minutes a day and it just never happens.

I’m going to wrap this up here make sure you get on the website KathleenGuireauthor.com and grab your free road map on the home page. We will start with desire next week.

Thanks for joining me.