358 Holly Worton ~ How To Write Your Book and Tell Your Story

Holly: Hello and welcome to the Into the Woods podcast, episode 358. This is your host Holly Worton and I am back with another solo episode; today I am going to talk about how to tell your story. This is a topic that has come up because I have been getting emails from readers of my books, and podcast listeners, asking me questions about writing their own books. And with some people I sense a little bit of hesitance, some people have had practical questions, but with some people I think maybe they are wondering: is my story worth telling? And my answer of course is: yes it absolutely is! And I know that because I went through the same process when I worked through my first walking book, which is called: Alone On The South Downs Way, and I have just released the second edition adding the part where I walked the trail for a second time and I share the story of just how different that journey was. Despite the fact that I enjoy reading people’s books about other people’s walking adventures, when I was writing my own book I wondered if my story was actually worth telling. Thankfully I did write the book, I did tell my story. Then, I went on to write three more books about my walking long-distance-trails. Next year I hope to update my book on the Ridgeway, in the same way I updated my South Downs Way story this year and share the two stories in it, because I really think that kind of adds to the richness, the same person walking the trail, but two times, and it can be just a world of difference.

So what are you going to learn today? How to tell if your story is worth sharing? How to get started sharing your story? How to decide on the format of your story? How to get clear on the things that get in the way of putting it out there and finally how to get the mindset you need to tell your story.

So first of all, how to tell if your story is worth sharing? Well I said it absolutely is, but the question to ask yourself is are you excited about it? Are you excited about sharing your story in a book or some other format? Are you excited about whatever the topic is that you have chosen, whether it is using my books as an example, writing books about business mindset, or writing books about walking, or writing books about trees, are you excited? Are you willing to invest the time, effort and the money needed to tell your story and get it out there to the world? And finally, are you happy to put in that time, effort and money even if no one reads it? And I ask this question because a friend of mine, I was talking with a friend of mine a couple of months ago and she had mentioned something about how maybe she might be interested in writing a book, but what is the point in writing a book if no one reads it? And my first reaction was, I mean obviously I want people to read my books because I do {laughing} because I write them not only to tell my story and for the creative process, but also to help people, to help encourage people to get outdoors and to walk and spend time with the trees. But if no one read my books I would still write them because creative expression is such an important part of my life and it is such a deep need that I have, and it is so deeply satisfying and nourishing at a soul level. I love writing my books. I really miss, now that we have been in lockdown a couple of months, I miss being able to do my work-cations where I go and hyper-focus on a book for two days. I love it, I love it, I love it, I love it so much. And I have been writing but it is not quite the same, but I still love it. I would be very happy to put in the time, the effort, and the money even if no one read it.

What about you? Because it does take a lot of time and effort to write a book…you might write a short book and that will take less time but it takes time and it takes the effort of sitting down at your desk or somewhere else and it does require some investment, you are going to need to hire someone to do the cover, you are going to need to hire someone to typeset the book, to format the ebook, you might learn to do those things yourself but you are probably going to have to invest in software to do it. Are you happy to put in time, effort, and money even if no one reads it?

Next, how do you get started on sharing your story? First of all get clear on your why, what is the purpose of sharing your story? With my mindset books, I have released second editions of two of them this year so far and I am going to be releasing the further two later on this year, so my purpose at the time that I wrote them was because that was the work I was doing: business mindset. And I know I could only reach so many people by doing one-to-one work because my one-to-one sessions weren’t cheap, so I wanted to help a bigger audience in a bigger way at a smaller investment. So some people could read those books, go away and either train in a technique themselves, or work with someone else, or find some way of doing the actual mindset work. So my books helped you figure out the stuff that you needed to work on. Or in some cases, it did drive traffic to my business, it did get me clients. But that was kind of a secondary why, my main why was to help more people in a bigger way with their mindset, their business mindset specifically. So that was why I released the first edition, the second editions, I really thought hard about that because what was the point of updating them if I wasn’t doing that work any more but I decided to do that because I thought that I had learned a lot about my business and business mindset since I had written them and there were things that I could add and things that I think people needed and the first editions had just been ebooks and I really wanted to release print and audio and also workbooks. So I wanted to get the book out there in more formats to appeal to more readers because I think they were really helpful, I have had really good feedback about those books over the years.

So with my walking books, as I said, I really want to help people get out there and connect with nature in different ways but with the walking books specifically through long distance walking. So I have had several emails from people over the years saying: I never thought I could do a long-distance trail, but I read your book and I thought I would give it a try and I did, and it was great. I think the fact that I was very honest and unfiltered in sharing my story and explaining how difficult it was but I still did it, and I still enjoyed it, I think it encouraged people to give it a try because they saw: yeah, it is not a walk in the park, but maybe I can do it. So my intention was to try and get people outdoors doing something that they think, or thought, they might not be able to do. With my tree book, the trees asked me to write that book but also the intention was to encourage people to get out into nature, to connect with nature in different ways, and enjoy the trees. So those were my whys. So what is your why? What would be the purpose of telling your story? Whether it is writing about your own long distance walking experience or creating a collection of stories about the way you interact with nature or something else? Maybe you want to write about something business related, maybe you want to write about personal development? Whatever, what is your why? Why do you want to tell your story?

Next, you need to map out an outline and make it as detailed as you want but, at the very least, you need to map out the chapters and that is pretty much what I do. I create an outline with each chapter title and then I set that up in some software called Scrivener and you don’t have to use Scrivener but I find it really, really, easy to work with because I can drag and drop the chapters because often, once I start writing a book, I find the chapters need to go in a different order and I add chapters, delete chapters, so the outline may change and it needs to be flexible and it helps if you use a software that allows you to be flexible. Now if you are walking a book about your walking trail the chapters are probably going to be day 1, day 2, day 3 etc but there is more to that in my walking books, I also talk about what to pack, where to stay and other practical information, so it is really useful to have an outline because also it breaks the big goal down into smaller chunks, which makes it much easier to complete the project I think. If you can write a blog post you can write a book chapter and then you just need to write the next chapter and the next chapter and the next chapter. It is really not hard, assuming you are super-excited about your topic, you know why you are doing it and you are willing to invest the time, effort, and money into this project.

So even with my short reads books, of which I have only released one at the moment, my Into The Woods Short Reads, even those have an outline, they have a format, so the short reads books are designed to be read in about half-an-hour but it starts out with a chapter that says, “About the Into The Woods Short Reads”, what is the purpose of it and what are the sections. Then I go into what you are going to learn and it is five bullet points about what you are going to learn and then I go into the main content, then I have three actions you can take related to the content and then I have a chapter with the links to the stuff that I mention and finally I have a list of related podcast episodes. So those books were created to drive traffic to my podcast, to try to get new readers to the podcast, to provide bite-size books, short actionable content that can get people taking action on something to make their lives better. But, as you have seen, even that has an outline. No matter how long or how short you decide to write your book or share your story, break it down into an outline of bite-sized chunks.

Now the most important thing, and I am assuming you are going to self-publish rather than traditionally publish, the best part of that is that it doesn’t matter how long your book is, it can be 10,000, it can be 20,000 words, it can be 80,000, it can be 100,000, it can be however long or however short you want because you don’t have to follow someone else’s guidelines, so make the book as long as it needs to be to sell your story.

Next, decide on the format of your story. So I am assuming that you are going to be writing a book because that is what people keep writing to me about but a book has different formats, you could write an ebook, you could write a paperback book, you can write an audio book, you can write a workbook.  I think your book absolutely needs to be available on both ebook and paperback because while ebooks are really popular these days a lot of people prefer paperback. So if you only produce your book in one format you are not going to make that book available to people who prefer the other format. Audio books are one of the fastest growing areas of publishing now, if not the fastest area. A lot of people don’t read books with their eyes anymore they listen to their books. Podcasts are becoming more and more listened to so again, that requires a bit more of an investment to create an audiobook but if you don’t you are missing a huge audience. And finally workbooks, with my mindset books I have been doing workbooks with them all because it gives people a space to write out their answers to all of the questions that I include in the main book. With my walking book it wouldn’t make sense to do a workbook, with my tree book it did make sense to do a workbook. So a workbook is a great extra income stream, but it may or may not be relevant to your book. So again, I am assuming that you want to write a book but maybe you want to do a podcast where you tell your story in a series of podcast episodes, maybe you want to start a YouTube channel and do videos talking about sharing your story. Whatever is right for you. Again, I am focussed on books because that is what my great love is and that is what people seem to be writing to me about lately.

Next, it is really important to get clear on the things that might get in the way of you not only completing the project but also putting it out there. So maybe you think you don’t have enough time to write a book, look in your calendar, figure out where you can spend some time writing the book. Figure out what things you can delete from your calendar so that you have more time. Maybe you need to stop listening to podcasts for a while, maybe you need to stop watching television for a while, I don’t know. Look at where you have got time that you are spending on other things that you can delete for a while, I am not saying you have to quit watching television forever, but maybe for the duration of this project. Find the time, if this is that important to you, you will find the time and make it a priority, if it is indeed a priority for you.

Next, self-confidence, self-esteem, self-worth: am I good enough? Will people want to read it? That is a big thing I think for a lot of people, especially for people telling their own personal story. I just felt really vulnerable, not so much when I wrote the business mindset books but when I wrote my first walking book and all my walking books. So my first walking book, it was very difficult for me, it was harder than I expected it to be, I had a rough time and I felt very vulnerable about putting that out there because so many of the walking books or hiking books that I read, it is all these people who [say]: I didn’t train, I didn’t have any experience, I just bought a backpack and packed it and then I walked the Pacific Crest trail, or then I walked the Camino Santiago… It is a bit daunting because I walked this tiny little 100 mile trail and I had a rough time, so I felt really insecure about that and I have a couple of one-star reviews for that book of people who are like: this person is too negative, this is a great trail. This person was whining all the time. Ugh, so that didn’t help! Handle the self-confidence, self-esteem, self-worth issues and don’t read your reviews, have a trusted friend or a family member look at them for you.

Learning blocks, a lot of people have blocks around learning, like: I don’t know how to write a book and I can’t learn how to. Or I can’t learn the technology, or a I can’t learn the publishing stuff. That is something, if you feel like you have that kind of block, that is something that you need to be aware of, the sooner the better.

Fear of bad reviews: what will people think of me? Bad reviews are, you are going to get them, everyone gets them. Every time I feel bad, I don’t look at my reviews but sometimes I am looking at my book page because I am thinking I need to update the description or something I will accidentally see a bad review and it still affects me it is like a punch in the gut but you know, every time that happens I will go to a book that I have loved and I will read the one-star reviews for that book and I will think: I feel so much better, everyone gets one-star reviews. People are just hateful, miserable, people and want to trash books they read, a lot of one-star reviews are quite honestly not just for my book but for people in general, just really bitter and angry and non-sensical, the things that people give one-star reviews for, it is ridiculous. So don’t be afraid of bad reviews, don’t look at them, again, I usually have my husband look at them and I say: is there anything I need to be aware of? Is there anything that people are constantly complaining about? If there are common threads you need to pay attention to that and maybe update your book but a lot of times the one-star reviews are just ridiculous.

Finally, fear of being visible. When you put your book on Amazon, Amazon is the second biggest search engine, or third, after Google I think, but I don’t know if that statistic includes YouTube, but they are same company. So Amazon is one of the biggest search engines and people are going to find your book that have never heard of you, people that aren’t your friends, that aren’t your family, that don’t know who you are, they don’t care, but they might be interested in your book and they buy it and they read it and they review it. And that’s scary! Especially if you are sharing a personal story and you are being vulnerable in the story, that can be really scary, so if you are aware that you have a fear of being visible dig all that stuff up, write down all of your fears, this is really, really, useful, I talk about this all the time, but don’t sweep them under the rug, get them out into the open where you can shine a light on them and look at them and see them so that you can do the mindset you need to book out there.

So how do you get the mindset you need? Start by getting the clarity on what might trip you up. I have just talked about that. Next you need to get clear on what you do need to believe about yourself in order to achieve your goal. So if you believe that you don’t have enough time, stuff like: I have all the time I need and more to write my book, I make my book a priority. If you have self-confidence, self-esteem, self-worth issues you might say something like: I am good enough and smart enough to tell my story / I am good enough and smart enough to write a book / My story is worthy of sharing. Learning blocks: I am a great learner / I am great with technology / It is easy for me to learn new technology. If you fear bad reviews you might need to believe something like: no matter what people think of me my story is worth telling / It is safe to receive bad reviews… I don’t know something like that. If you have a fear of being visible: It is safe and appropriate to be visible / It is exciting to be visible. So get clear on what you need to believe about yourself to achieve your goal.

And finally do the mindset work to get those beliefs. So you know I am a big fan of PSYCH-K®, I would say train in it yourself so that you can do the technique, it is an investment and not everyone has the money. Tapping is really good if you go online and search for tapping videos, you can find tapping videos for all kinds of things. Again you can see a practitioner for that but if you want to do it for free go online and get a free tapping video on I don’t know self-worth, self-esteem, learning blocks, visibility, whatever and get that done. Do the work yourself or hire someone to help you. Depending on your budget tapping videos might be all you can do and that is fine, anything that you can do to clear those limiting beliefs and implant the enhancing beliefs, the positive beliefs, is fantastic. 

So that is pretty much all I have to say. I hope you found this interesting and useful. If you have any questions please email me at: [email protected]. If you have an idea for a book or a story that you want to tell, please email me I would love to hear from you, I get really excited about people who want to write their own book and I would love to cheer you on.

So that is all for this week, next week I am super-excited, I have a podcast episode with my friend Adam Wells, we talk about once again, walking a long-distance trail. I really loved having Adam on this show – I have wanted to get him on the show for a while and just now got around to doing it. We recorded the episode yesterday it was really good. Adam runs a walking group here in London and Surrey and he has all these really great nuggets about walking philosophy, he has a really good way of putting into words things that I have known and felt but I have never really known how to explain. And we talk about that in the episode. It is such a good episode and I am really, really, excited to bring this conversation to you. So tune in next week to hear some more about long distance trails.

And that’s all, thank you fo listening. If you enjoyed this episode please subscribe on whatever podcast apps you use, if you haven’t yet left a review I would love it if you did that will help more people find out about this podcast.

That’s all for now, remember to visit: https://hollyworton.com/358 for the show notes on this episode. Thank you.