Own your breadcrumbs
When I set out to write my first book, What Gives You the Right to Freelance?, I created an outline for each chapter before I started writing. I mapped out five main sections, with ten chapters in each section, each chapter 800-1000 words long. I had never (successfully) written a book before, but I was confident I could get it done because I had seen the breadcrumbs.
The first breadcrumbs I saw were the content for each chapter. I had taken on various daily blogging challenges in the years leading up to writing my first book. Outlining 50 chapters sounds daunting, but once I started diving into the content I had already written, I realized there were a lot of ideas and frameworks I had already written about in my blog. These little ideas didn’t seem like much at the time, but they eventually added up to create my first book. I laid them out, remixed them, rewrote them, and came out the other side with my first draft.
The second kind of breadcrumbs I saw were my daily challenges. In the year prior to writing my first book, I attempted to write a different book. I didn’t finish it. I took a different approach, writing two days each week for multiple hours at a time. This didn’t work for me. When I tried again, I decided that I would write daily until the first draft was completed. This method worked for me in the past with my daily blogging challenges, and I knew I could write something short every day. So I committed to doing that, and after 52 days, I had my first draft.
Sometimes, a daily challenge doesn’t lead to much. On any given day, you might create something that isn’t very good. You’ll have to overcome the resistance, and swallow your pride to release something that you know isn’t great. But these are your breadcrumbs. You drop them behind you every so often on your creative journey. When you realize what it is the world can’t live without, and when you take it upon yourself to create that, these breadcrumbs will help you find your way back home.
Stop being ashamed of your breadcrumbs. Own your breadcrumbs. This is how stuff gets made.
