What does it take to write a book?

“My answer to the question ‘What does it take to write a book?’ was this: Don’t try to write a book; try to become somebody who enjoys writing everyday.”
–Donald Miller, in Hero on a Mission

I published my first book in 2024. I tried (and quickly gave up) writing a book in 2018. Then I tried to write another book in 2022. I gave up on that one too. There are a few explanations for why I gave up, but the most obvious one is this: I didn’t write every day. 

When I tried to write a book the first time, I had barely written at all. That’s what inspired me to start blogging. When I tried the second time, I had written a lot, but I wasn’t consistently showing up for my book. When I tried the third time, with the effort that eventually became my first book, I committed to writing every day until the first draft was done.  

This is why consistency and confidence should be protected at all costs. Above quality, above a great idea, above originality, a creative persons’s consistency and confidence should be paramount. Confidence leads to consistency, and after enough consistency, success will follow. Quality will follow. Originality and perspective will follow. 

Someday in the future, when you finally achieve your creative ambitions, and you become the thing you’ve always dreamed of, and you get the title you’ve always wanted, do you know what you’ll be doing every single day? You’ll be doing the work. You’ll be creating your art. You had better love it. And since you’ll be doing it every day then you might as well speed up the process now, and start doing it every day now.