Birthing Your Book

By Mark David Gerson

YOU HAVE A BOOK IN YOU...IT'S TIME TO LET IT OUT!

 

** 10th Anniversary Edition of an Enduring Classic – Revised & Expanded!

 

Intimate, informative, and infused with Gerson's unmistakable passion, Birthing Your Book is a must-read for anyone who has ever felt the call to share their stories with the world. Let this book be your trusted companion, illuminating the path as you navigate the exhilarating and transformative process of birthing a book.

 

82% of Americans say they plan to write a book someday. Will you be one of the few who does?

 

Let Mark David Gerson show you how simple it can be, with dynamic tools to get you started and keep you writing, surefire techniques to spark new ideas and fresh content, and compelling inspiration to keep you motivated, committed and impassioned.

 

Start Birthing Your Book Today!

(You don't even have to know what it's about!)

• Language: English
• Publisher: Mark David Gerson
• Release date: Mar 22, 2024
• ISBN: 9781950189434

Mark David Gerson

Mark David Gerson is the bestselling author of more than twenty books. His nonfiction includes popular titles for writers, inspiring personal growth books and compelling memoirs. As a novelist and screenwriter, he is best known for The Legend of Q’ntana fantasy series. His other fiction includes the novels of The Sara Stories, set largely in Montreal, his hometown. When not writing, Mark David coaches an international roster of writers and non-writers to help them get their stories onto the page and out into the world with ease.

Book preview

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Praise for Mark David Gerson’s

Books, Videos & Coaching for Writers

The Voice of the Muse: Answering the Call to Write

Birthing Your Book...Even If You Don’t Know What It’s About

From Memory to Memoir: Writing the Stories of Your Life

Organic Screenwriting: Writing for Film, Naturally

The Heartful Art of Revision: An Intuitive Guide to Editing

Writer’s Block Unblocked! Seven Surefire Ways to Free Up Your Writing and Creative Flow

The Voice of the Muse Companion: Guided Meditations for Writers

Time to Write

Write with Ease

Free Your Characters, Free Your Story!

Journal from the Heart

Write to Heal

Mark David Gerson is the best friend a writer ever had!

luke yankee – playwright, screenwriter, author of just outside the spotlight

One of the most lyrical, spiritual and beautiful books about writing I’ve ever read.

julie isaac – author and writing coach – los angeles, ca

Mark David Gerson will make your book-writing dreams a reality. I know. He did it for me!

karen helene walker – author of the wishing steps

A skilled magician, Mark David Gerson is able to draw reluctant words out of even the most blocked writer.

christopher kemp – chatham, nj

I am filled with awe at how easy Mark David has made this. No more writer’s block!

azurel efron – sedona, az

I owe so much to Mark David! He helped me believe in myself enough to write the book that got two wrongful murder convictions overturned.

estelle blackburn – author of broken lives

The catalyst I needed to set me free from a nine-year writer’s block.

leilani lewis – kamuela, hi

Coaching with Mark David Gerson: Best investment ever!

christine farris – denver, co

Without Mark David’s inspiration, example and encouragement, I might never have had the courage to publish my book.

nancy pogue laturner – author of voluntary nomads

A highly recommended guide from one of the most creative people around.

william c. reichard – author of evertime

Mark David is a master...one of the great teachers!

rev. mary omwake – maui, hi

More from Mark David Gerson

Self-Help & Personal Growth

The Way of the Fool: How to Stop Worrying About Life and Start Living It

The Way of the Imperfect Fool: How to Bust the Addiction to Perfection That’s Stifling Your Success

The Way of the Abundant Fool: How to Bust Free of Not Enough and Break Free into Prosperity

The Book of Messages: Writings Inspired by Melchizedek

Memoir

Acts of Surrender: A Writer’s Memoir

Dialogues with the Divine: Encounters with My Wisest Self

Pilgrimage: A Fool’s Journey

Fiction

The MoonQuest

The StarQuest

The SunQuest (coming soon!)

The Bard of Bryn Doon (coming soon!)

The Lost Horse of Bryn Doon (coming soon!)

The Sorcerer of Bryn Doon (coming soon!)

Sara’s Year

After Sara’s Year

The Emmeline Papers

Birthing Your Book

…even if you don’t know what it’s about

Mark David Gerson

Birthing Your Book…Even If You Don’t Know What It’s About

Copyright © 2014, 2024 Mark David Gerson

All rights reserved

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without written permission from the author, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

First Edition 2014

Second Edition 2024

Published by MDG Media International

Beverly Hills, CA

www.mdgmediainternational.com

Library of Congress Control Number: 2023952563

ISBN: 978-1-950189-42-7 (paperback)

ISBN: 978-1-950189-43-4 (ebook)

Author photograph: Kathleen Messmer

www.kathleenmessmer.com

More resources for writers

www.books4writers.com

More information

www.markdavidgerson.com

One day you finally knew

what you had to do, and began,

though the voices around you

kept shouting

their bad advice —

Mary Oliver

All the glory of the world would be buried in oblivion,

unless God had provided mortals with the remedy of books.

Bishop Richard de Bury

To the books I have birthed and to those I have yet to conceive. And to my daughter: the best, brightest and most beautiful birth ever.

Preface

to the Tenth Anniversary Edition

It’s February 2008. My first book, the novel The MoonQuest, has been out since June, and I have been asked to give a talk at The Well Red Coyote to help promote it. It’s my second talk at this (now sadly shuttered) Sedona bookstore, so I need to come up with something new to say. I had already used my stock topic — the unusual story of how the book was birthed (I share it in Birth of a Book in Section 3) — at my first talk there.

If you don’t know Sedona, you won’t know that this small Northern Arizona city is known as, among other things, a new age/metaphysical Mecca. Although I no longer lived there in 2008, I had lived there twice before by then. Often, through those two times, I would run into people who, when they discovered I taught writing and coached writers, would reveal that an intuitive reader had told them they needed to write a book.

But I don’t know what it’s about! they (non-writers all) would wail, first to the psychic, then to me.

When I remembered that, I knew I had the title for my presentation: Birthing Your Book…Even If You Don’t Know What It’s About. The bookstore loved it, and so did the capacity crowd at the event.

And, thus, this book was born…even though I didn’t know it at the time!

At the time, I was working on the final draft of what would become my first book for writers, The Voice of the Muse: Answering the Call to Write, with no plans to add new content to it. However, the material I had put together for my talk was so compelling that I suspended work on the draft to write a new section for The Voice of the Muse, to be titled, not surprisingly, Birthing Your Book…Even If You Don’t Know What It’s About.

Six years later, at the urging of a writer friend, I expanded that section into the first edition of this book, and readers — writers and non-writers alike — loved it.

So why a new edition? Why mess with success? And why now?

By early 2023, I had already revised and expanded The Voice of the Muse, along with my three other original titles for writers, Organic Screenwriting, From Memory to Memoir and Writer’s Block Unblocked. Only Birthing Your Book had been left behind. Once I realized that 2024 would mark the book’s tenth anniversary, I knew it was time to revisit it.

As I had experienced with The Voice of the Muse, Organic Screenwriting, From Memory to Memoir and Writer’s Block Unblocked, I was astounded by how relevant the original edition still was, including to me. That’s because I was not only in the midst of birthing two new books of my own, a new memoir and a fifth book in my Legend of Q’ntana fantasy series, I was nearly a year into a more intense version of the odyssey I describe in The Story Knows Best (Section 15). Moreover, as with those four other titles for writers, I realized that through my writing and teaching experiences over the past decade, I had more to offer on the subject then I’d had when I first wrote the book.

So, what has changed?

For a start, this edition is longer, nearly thirty percent longer, with much of the added material in the five Book Craft sections, themselves new in 2024.

The section on editing has undergone the most dramatic expansion, with new resources to help get you from the inevitable chaos of your initial draft to the ready-to-submit (or self-publish) polish of a final draft.

For novelists and anyone working with characters, either fictional or real, I have added cutting edge tools and tips designed help you bring your book’s people to life on the page

As well, I have acknowledged the ongoing technological revolution in writing by including chapters that address issues like hardware, software and cloud computing as they relate to your book projects.

I have also reorganized my existing rules for birthing your book and added new ones.

My reorganization and expansion don’t stop there. New tips and techniques are scattered throughout the book, as are new exercises and meditations. Moreover, I have shuffled some sections and many chapters for an enhanced book-birthing flow.

The result, I hope, is a more comprehensive and easy-to-follow roadmap for your book-birthing journey.

As I mention in You Have a Book in You (Section 1), eighty-two percent of Americans say they want to write a book someday. Most of those would-be authors never get past the wishing stage. That you’re here with me today tells me that you’re one of the tiny minority who is committed to being more than a statistic…who is committed to being an author. May Birthing Your Book illuminate that path for you and propel you forward on your journey.

Mark David Gerson

March 2024

Opening Words

If there’s a book you really want to read, but it hasn’t been written yet, then you must write it.

Toni Morrison

Every stroke of my brush

is the overflow 

of my inmost heart.

Sengai

I’m sure I have a book in me; I just don’t know what it’s about.

I have a great idea for a book, but I don’t know how to start.

I started this book, but now I’m stuck.

I’ve been told I should write a book, but I don’t know what to write.

I’ve been told I need to write a book, but I don’t know how to write it.

I have all these stories in me. How do I turn them into a book?

I really want to write a book, but I have no ideas.

I have too many ideas. How do I pick one to write about?

How can I write a book? I’m not a writer.

If any of these sound familiar, you’re in the right place. You can now stop worrying about whether you can write a book…or even write. You can stop wondering what to write or how to write it. You can stop worrying about how to begin. You can stop wondering whether you can keep your momentum going until the end. You can stop worrying. Period.

It doesn’t matter whether you’re a seasoned writer or starting out. It doesn’t matter whether you are writing in a familiar genre or are feeling called to something new. It doesn’t even matter whether you know what your book is about.

In the chapters ahead, I will offer you dynamic tools to get you started and keep you writing. I will serve up compelling inspiration to help you stay motivated, committed and impassioned. And I will guide you through exercises and experiences guaranteed to spark new ideas or expand on existing ones or, where relevant, unveil for you your book’s thrust and content.

Through it all, I will show you how simple it can be to birth your book, even if you don’t know what it’s about.

What if it’s not a book you feel called to write? What if it’s a screenplay or stage play, an essay or blog post, a short story or poem? What if it’s something more technical, like a research paper or dissertation? Although I focus mostly on book-writing here, nearly everything you will read in Birthing Your Book applies equally to any of those other forms. And although I use the word story to describe your content, my definition of story is broad enough to include anything and everything you might write, regardless of its form, medium or genre.

One thing Birthing Your Book is not is a step-by-step how-to. When it comes to creativity, I don’t believe in step-by-step how-to’s or, as you will soon discover, in rules. Rather, it’s a guided journey that will reawaken you to the creative vision, intuitive wisdom and expressive power you already possess — qualities that are as natural to you as is your DNA.

It’s that vision that will reveal your book to you…if you let it. It’s that wisdom that will write your book for you…if you let it. It’s that expressive power that, if you surrender to it, will translate the stories of your heart into stories for every heart…that will birth your book onto the page for all to experience.

So turn the page, and let the birthing begin!

1. Getting Started

Respond to every call that excites your spirit.

Rumi

Books choose their authors…

Salman Rushdie

You Have a Book in You

You have a book in you. Perhaps you have sensed this book for forever. Perhaps it has only recently made itself known to you. Perhaps your sole awareness of it comes from others who insist that it’s there. Or perhaps this book still lurks in the shadowy recesses of your unconscious mind, not ready to let itself be glimpsed.

Maybe you already suspect what this book might be about. Or maybe your opening page is not only empty of words but empty of ideas.

Regardless, you do have a book in you. You have a book in you not because you are unusual (though your stories may be), but because we are all storytellers. We each carry an infinite potential for self-expression-through-story that, if we open to it, can reshape our lives and the lives of others in ways we cannot begin to imagine.

It’s true for you.

It’s true for me.

It’s true for everyone.

It’s true, too, for the eighty-two percent of Americans who say they plan to write a book someday.

Will you be one of the majority for whom that someday never comes? Or are you one of the few ready to launch the journey of a lifetime: the journey into an experience of your storyteller self? Into an experience of your own creativity?

The good news is that the birth of your book need be neither painful nor laborious.

Here’s more good news: Whether you are conscious of it or not, you already know what your book is about, how to start it, how to finish it and how to fill in all the middle stuff.

Here’s even more good news: Your book already exists. It resides, full and complete, in that same realm in which your dreams reside…in that dimension somewhere beyond the three we know, beyond the fourth of time as well. It exists in that miracle-filled kingdom where everything is possible. It exists in your heart.

My job is to guide you to all those places within you where your book waits for you to acknowledge it, access it and make it manifest…where it has waited since the beginning of time to find its expression on the page through you.

Your job is to listen, trust and surrender — not to me, but to the voice of your book, the voice of your Muse, the voice of your inner vision, the voice of your heart.

They speak to you now. Are you ready to hear and heed what they have to say? Of course you are. That’s why you are here. That’s why I am here. And that’s why this book I knew little about, other than its title, birthed itself through me for you.

How to Use This Book

There are no rules for birthing your book, as I will remind you frequently in these pages. There is no right way and no wrong way. There is only the way that works for you, today.

Given that, why would I insist you read Birthing Your Book straight through to the end, the way you read most other writing books? After all, I didn’t write it that way. Rather, as I do with all my books for writers, I encourage you to use this book however it calls you to. If you choose not to follow the progression I have laid out for you, then flip to any page at random and trust that it will present the inspirational nugget or exercise perfectly suited to your book-birthing needs of the moment.

All I suggest is that early in your explorations you visit Write with Ease on the Muse Stream in Section 2, as it presents the philosophies that underlie not only this book but all my work.

Consider, too, keeping a Birthing Your Book journal. Use it, of course, for the exercises and explorations scattered throughout the book; it may prove helpful to have all those writings recorded in a single place. Use it as well for notes about your book-in-progress, to record your impressions and experiences of our journey together, and to release whatever anxieties and frustrations show up along the way.

Of course, in this digital age your journal needn’t be a written one. Keep an audio or video journal should that feel more beneficial.

Guided Meditations

Whenever I facilitate a workshop or seminar, I nearly always incorporate a guided journey as part of the experience. It’s an opportunity for writers to, in a sense, lose their mind and find their heart — the heart of a particular book project and the heart of their creative process. For that reason, I have included twelve guided meditations in Birthing Your Book.

Among their other purposes, these immersive experiences are designed to help you…

discover the theme and thrust of your book, if you’re not yet sure what it’s about,

connect with the spirit and essence of your book,

more eloquently express your vision for your book, and for yourself as its author,

make your book-writing experience more natural, free-flowing and spontaneous,

free yourself from harsh self-judgment and tame your inner critic,

affirm your creative power,

and, if you’re writing fiction…create compelling characters and place them in unforgettable settings.

How to Use a Guided Meditation

Record it yourself for playback (record it into your phone’s voice memos app for easy access).

Have a friend or writing partner read the meditation to you, then return the favor.

Get into a quiet place/inner space, set your music player for five to forty-five minutes of contemplative music or nature sounds (depending on the length of the exercise) and read the meditation slowly and receptively, following its directions and suggestions.

If you prefer a professionally guided approach, I have recorded six of the meditations (along with four others not included in this book) on my album The Voice of the Muse Companion: Guided Meditations for Writers.

Meet Your Muse (Section 2: The Voice of Your Muse)

Your Ocean of Stories (Section 3: Conception")

Let Judgment Go (Section 7: Creation)

Your Vision Quest (Section 8: Vision)

Make Friends with Your Inner Critic; on the recording it’s titled Taming Your Critic (Section 13: Book Craft – Revision)

You Are a Writer (Section 16: Parting Words)

How to Access the Recorded Meditations

Stream all but Vision Quest for free as a subscriber to most music-streaming services. Or download those individual tracks from Amazon or Apple Music. The two-part Your Vision Quest meditation is available only on The Voice of the Muse Companion album, not as a standalone track.

Experience a free video version of You Are a Writer and an abridged version of Let Judgment Go on my YouTube channel¹.

Download the complete Voice of the Muse Companion album from my website² or from Apple Music, Amazon or CD Baby.

First Steps

It’s time now to move forward with birthing your book. Are you