Why You Should Write the Book of Your Heart

By Karen Booth

If you’re reading this, chances are you’re hoping you’ll write a bestselling book. You’ve imagined what it would be like to hit the top of the NY Times list and having people line up around the block at book signings, just so they can tell you how brilliant you are. If you’re reading this, chances are you’ve thought about what might happen after you write your book.

And that’s a good thing. We all need motivation and goals. We all need dreams. I’d be lying if I said I don’t have that exact dream.

But as a creative person, how do you get there? How do you feed your writer soul and find success? If there was any one way to do it, and I could tell you exactly what it was, I wouldn’t be writing blog posts. I’d be charging admission. But I do think there’s a way to guarantee you’ll get one of those two things (the feeding your writer’s soul part) and quite possibly get the other. 

My suggestion is this: write a book that could fall flat on its face. Write a book that could make agents and editors reject you. A lot. Write a book that makes your mom cringe. But make it the book of your heart. 

So let me start with my friend, Holly Gilliatt, because Holly put all of this into perspective for me. Holly passed away in 2015 after a long battle with pancreatic cancer. She was a fellow author, incredibly smart, spirited like a house on fire, and hilariously funny. She was a mother, a wife, a daughter, beloved. She was a good friend. She wrote amazing books, and she wrote like feeding her writer soul was the most important part.

When Holly passed away, she had an unfinished book. Terribly sick, she came to me and asked an unbelievable question—would I finish the book for her when she died? She said it was the best idea for a book she’d ever had. On the days when she was physically able to write, it poured out of her. 

I cried a lot the day she asked me that question, and of course I said, “yes”. YES. Tell me what to write, tell me where to send the royalty checks. Unfortunately, the conversation that followed ended very quickly. She said, “thank you” and that was it. It was the last thing she ever said to me. She left us before she ever had the chance to tell me more. That’s when I really got thinking about what it means to let a book come straight from your heart, and what makes us a success.

Holly followed her writer’s instincts first. She worried about the business part after the book was done. What’s in your head and what you put on the paper (or on the screen) is the only part of this you control. It’s also what sets you apart from everyone else. In a sea of books, setting yourself apart is crucial. The closer your book is to your heart, the further you set yourself apart. No one else knows what’s in your heart like you do.

Setting yourself apart is scary. It means you’re breaking rules. Everybody else? They’re over there. You’re choosing to be over here. You’re not just throwing caution to the wind. You’re sending it through a paper shredder. It’s lonely being apart. People will tell you you’re not thinking straight, but please don’t listen. Don’t think straight. Think as crooked and messed up as you can. You’re going for greatness here, not sameness.

Let’s look at some of the biggest breakout novels of the last twenty years. Harry Potter, Twilight, Fifty Shades of Grey, Gone Girl, The Help, Lessons in Chemistry. Those books did not fit neatly into a marketing cubby-hole when they came out. And their authors all had one thing in common—they felt compelled to write the book. It was fighting to get out. Marketplace be damned, those stories demanded to be written. It was, in many cases, the book of their heart. (You might have more than one book of your heart. There’s no science to this.)  

If you’re struggling to finish a book, the book of your heart will be easier to finish. It might even finish itself. You heard me. It might finish itself. For me, the book of my heart was my first book, the one Holly and I laughed about. Writing it was an unbelievable catharsis. I sat at my desk and wrote like crazy every day for months. I wept. I laughed. I thought harder than I have ever thought in my entire life. I wrote about love and family and parenthood and the ways we disappoint each other and the things we must do to fight back from that. I had absolutely zero trouble finishing it. I gave up sleep and food to do so and never once felt as though I was making a sacrifice.

And, no, that book hasn’t given me massive book signings, nor has it landed me on the NY Times list. But it gave me a lot. It told me that I could write a great book. It gave me a sense of accomplishment that is unlike anything else. It landed me a multi-book deal with a major publisher (for future books, not the book of my heart…although my editor said it’s one of her top ten all-time favorite books), which in turn got me an agent. It’s a book that has me standing a little straighter when I say, “I wrote this.”

It’s also a book that got 108 rejections. But that’s another story.

I know one thing for sure—if you are compelled to write, you have words inside of you that have to come out. There’s no other reason to endure the mental agony of being a writer. So, please don’t leave this earth with those words trapped inside you. The book of your heart is the greatest gift you can give yourself and the world. It just might set you on a path to something incredible.

—

Karen Booth is a Midwestern girl transplanted in the South, raised on ‘80s music and way too many readings of “Forever” by Judy Blume. Her day job is writing romance where the sparks fly and the banter goes on as far as the eye can see. She’s married to her real-life Jake Ryan, has two grown kids with epic hair, hundreds of houseplants, and a very bratty cat.

Website: karenbooth.net

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/karenboothauthor/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/karenbbooth/

NOT SO FAST

“Of the recent crop of Formula 1 romances, this one’s way out in front.” — Publishers Weekly Starred Review

In Formula One getting revved up is all part of the fun in this sizzling, high-octane rom-com for fans of Rush and The Hating Game. And when the curves are this dangerous, only a race car driver will do…

Mia Neal is a champion overthinker. Find something, fixate on it and spiral down. Fortunately, she puts that energy to good use: in a podcast about Formula One, her favorite sport in the world. There’s nothing about racing Mia doesn’t adore. The speed. The drivers. The fierce competition. The single-minded ambition. Ironic for a woman who’s changed careers more times than she can count.

Only now, her salty takes on gorgeous Brit driver Xander Bishop have gone viral, and the podcast feels more and more like what she’s meant to do… Then Xander’s teammate invites her to the Miami Grand Prix to see F1 up close–and get in Xander’s head. He’s not exactly delighted at the shade she’s been throwing his way.

It should be all-out war. Instead, Mia and Xander are stunned by the sudden crackle of…something sexual arcing between them. It’s irresistible, unbelievably hot–and Mia’s warning flags are waving. Because this reckless attraction is coming at Mia all too fast…

From showing up to glowing up, the characters in Afterglow Books are on the path to leading their best lives and finding sizzling romance along the way.

https://karenbooth.net/not-so-fast

Tags: featured, women writers

Category: Contemporary Women Writers