By Rachel Warmath

Becoming an author is a wild ride, and that’s what I want to talk about in today’s blog post: the emotional journey of publishing your work and how it’s an initiation into a new phase of your life. 

There are a lot of emotional highs and lows that come with the process, and it helps to embrace them! When you step into more authority and visibility, you’re going to feel a bit uncomfortable at first. But that’s when your real courage as an author kicks in. And the more open-minded and open-hearted you can be, the more you’ll receive from the experience.

Here are 7 things I’ve learned from my own author journey (and as a witness and guide to hundreds of authors as a ghostwriter, editor, and coach).

1. Writing is a transformational journey of healing and identity. It goes beyond expanding your career or becoming a bestseller.

Selling copies is wonderful, but there’s so much more to embodying your author identity than what people can see on the surface. When you become an author, your confidence grows in powerful and sometimes unseen ways. You carry yourself differently. You show up differently.

Finishing a project can feel like wholeness. Peace. Pride. Newfound self-assurance. Trusting your voice. You may suddenly find you have the courage to pursue other challenging projects you’ve previously held off on because you now know you have the endurance. Things shift for you at a soul level. 

For many of us, becoming an author is a lifetime dream achieved. Notice how happy your inner child is when you hold your book in your hands for the first time. Of course it’s great if the book opens doors to speaking opportunities or more money in your bank account, but it’s also about who you’re becoming as a person.

2. In the beginning, writing can be very messy, which can feel scary especially if you have perfectionist or control-freak tendencies.

I’m smiling as I write this because I definitely fall into this category. What’s really cool is that every book I’ve worked on has helped me heal my perfectionism through seeing the early stages of creation as a phase of experimentation. I run experiments in my first drafts, instead of needing to get it “right.” I have fun and go wild and let sentences be rambly and all over the place. I don’t worry about organizing the ideas yet. This allows the rawness of the truth and my lived experience to come out on the page. 

If you can stay out of your own way during a first draft, you open up a beautiful world where you get to play and see what happens.

As the great writer and writing teacher Anne Lamott says, “Messes are the artist’s true friend. We need to make messes in order to find out who we are and why we are here.”

3. At some point you are likely to feel a gnarly sense of imposter syndrome and question whether your story is worth telling at all. 

You may even give up on your book momentarily. 

Please don't let this stop you. And please remember that this is actually quite normal. Wanting to throw your draft in the trash and walk away forever is often a sign of a breakthrough on its way.

It’s like we say in the recovery community, “Don’t quit before the miracle happens.” You’re on the edge of something great and if you can surrender to the unknown, you’ll find stable ground again soon.

Walking through the fire is part of becoming an author. Writing a book often forces you to confront the places where you still don’t fully believe yourself. That can be tough, but keep trusting yourself along the way.

4. Getting to know your inner critic can be incredibly revealing and rewarding.

You might see advice out there saying to just “quiet” or “banish” your inner critic—the harsh, judgmental inner voice. But from what I’ve experienced and seen, that can actually be counterproductive and even harmful. Instead, get to know this part of you and how they have helped you survive.

What if you sat with your inner critic and had lunch or went for a walk? Go on a coffee date with them. What drink do they order? What are they itching to talk to you about? What’s their body language like? 

Ask this part of you what they want you to know. What are they worried about or stressed over? What do they need?

When you soothe and befriend your inner critic, you grow. Learning where this part of you comes from and what they’re wanting to manage or protect you from can help you learn a lot about yourself. As Richard Schwartz, the creator of Internal Family Systems (IFS), says, “Parts are little inner beings who are trying their best to keep you safe.” And your inner critic part may just need some extra love and reassurance as you step into this new chapter of creating a meaningful book and sharing it with the world. 

5. Writing a book is probably going to take longer than you think it will, and that’s okay.

Every book is on its own unique timetable. What if instead of rushing or trying to cut corners, you believed that you were right on time?

Give yourself ample time to rest and process your emotions. This will serve you and your readers and will give a calmer energy to the stories when people read them.

Hurrying and trying to use shortcuts only leads you back to yourself.

6. Structuring a book is hard.

Don’t worry about getting the order of chapters and the organization of ideas right on the first draft. Things might feel out of place. This is where an editor comes in. They can help you with structure as this is their zone of genius. Find someone who you feel safe and comfortable around, and be really honest with them about what you’re most concerned about. Let them guide you in tackling structure head-on rather than avoiding talking about it.

Trust the process. Take the pressure off. If you can create freedom and fun within the revision process, some amazing ideas will bubble up to the surface.

7. Save some energy for marketing and launching your book (because that phase is a whole new project in and of itself). And check yourself on what limiting beliefs are holding you back when you launch.

Many authors struggle to enjoy promoting their work. This often comes down to limiting self-beliefs. If you have a negative, yucky inner monologue all the time, it’s time to flip the script!

Here are the most common limiting beliefs I see authors needing to reframe:

• “I suck at marketing.”
• “Others will be annoyed hearing about my book over and over.”
• “People will just find my book eventually, so I'll just wait instead of promoting it.”
• “What if no one reads my work or cares?”
• “I'm not good with the tech side of marketing.”

Here are five reframes for those beliefs:

• “I love sharing about my work because my book helps others.”
• “Others want to hear from me, and my voice is important.”
• “The best way for my audience to know about my book is if I tell them.”
• “The right people will find my book because I have the courage to talk about it.”
• “I'm empowered to learn a new skill and I can ask for help any time I need it.”

This is profound inner work and growth. If you can create a safe, encouraging, and upbeat inner monologue around launching your work, you will go far.

Becoming an author will ask a lot of you, but it will also give back to you in amazing ways. Whether you’re just starting to write, you’re in the messy middle, or you’ve launched your book, keep enjoying the experience of trusting yourself more and more.

Choosing to keep going is what makes you the author you are.

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About Rachel

Rachel Warmath is a writer, ghostwriter, and book shaman based in Utah. She loves supporting authors. You can connect with her and learn more about her work at www.RachelWarmath.com.

Featured photo by Brooke Cagle on Unsplash.