My Tenth Book Will Make Itself Known to Me SOON

My ninth book (Become Shamelessly, Fearlessly YOU: How to Stop Hiding in Plain Sight) isn’t even out yet (that should happen by mid-November), but it’s finished except for the cover, so now I’m expectantly awaiting the arrival of the tenth topic worthy of an entire book.

For me, the process goes like this:

I begin to feel emotionally/spiritually pregnant. I know a seed has been implanted, but I can’t tell yet what it will become.

This has happened to me already with the tenth book. I’m at this stage right now.

At this (earliest) stage, all there is, is the sense that something significant is about to reveal itself to me–something significant and substantial enough to be able to wrap a whole book around it.

So I brood and I brood, waiting for the moment when The Idea bursts forth inside my mind.

It usually comes with the feeling that I can write it easily and quickly. It feels like I can see and understand the entire length and breadth of the topic already.

It’s almost as if I’m channeling another person’s thoughts; call it Muse, Creator, or God, whatever satisfies your particular paradigm. Whatever it is, it’s more than just me. It comes through me but it doesn’t feel like I’m the originator or I could produce it at will right this very second. I’m the conduit, not the conductor. (By way of contrast, as a copy and content writer, I am 100% in control. I can produce on command. It takes more time because I’m manufacturing it: I’m shaping and massaging it. I’m making the copy or content behave exactly the way I want it to. The process is repeatable and not at all woo woo or mysterious. As an author, I’m a conduit, not the conductor. Do you understand the difference? Copy and content writing is an acquired process; getting ‘pregnant’ with a new book is providence–the seed/words are provided TO me, not produced BY me. Of course, my well-honed skill with words from being a professional writer for so many years helps me craft my books to best effect, but crafting comes after I’ve transcribed the impressions I receive from Spirit/Muse/Creator/God.)

I expect that the forty-plus transmitters of the Old and New Testaments and the singular transmitter of the Quran (the Prophet Muhammad) felt the same kind of thing. But much (if not most) most of their information came with pain and extreme fear at times. (How many times in the Bible did people have to be reminded, “Fear Not!”) Mine never has, and I hope it never does!

For me, it feels like my concept of early pregnancy (think of the West Side Story song “Something’s Coming” to get the full impact of this longing.) followed by a fast, painless, joyous delivery as the words pour forth through my mind and fingers onto the keyboard and into the manuscript.

I only feel pain, discomfort and distress when I begin to believe that my ‘pregnancy’ is taking too long and I’m overdue for the delivery.  I begin to feel like there must be something wrong with me since I can’t discern and draw out whatever it is that is seeking expression.

When it finally arrives, I simply record it and add my perspective and personality to it. (I suspect the transmitters of the holy books did, too. It’s nearly impossible to step outside one’s own culture and paradigm to faithfully transcribe exactly what comes in without polluting it with one’s own imperfect understanding.)

Musicians and other Creatives have mentioned the same thing:

Musicians will confess that lyrics and/or a tune will arrive full-blown while they sleep or at some other time of contemplation. It’s suddenly there and irresistible; it has to be put down on paper.

Graphic designers will jump out of bed in the middle of the night to put down a concept on paper, knowing it may well be gone forever in the morning if they don’t.

Lots of writers get ‘pregnant’ before their progeny are sufficiently advanced to reveal themselves.

These are gifts given by a disembodied, ethereal Transmitter. They’re something like a supernova–a brief moment of brilliant transcendence that requires the receiver to document and share it with others.

It isn’t a choice, it’s an obligation.

It isn’t for the transmitter alone; it’s for everyone.

It’s a miracle, really! That’s what I call it.