My updated vision for the Dream to Draft book

or, "how books change along the way as you write them"

When I start a nonfiction book, it has a solid plan

However, as we shall soon see, I don’t make the plan out of iron or titanium.

When I began the substack, I envisioned the book for Dream to Draft as a book version of the course, which covered the topics we discussed each week.

But over the past few weeks, when I took a break from writing weekly here, I realized the book had a different purpose.

New novelists have a number of fears when writing books

Throughout the Dream to Draft intensive, we did address craft, but this was also a way to stave off the fears the students felt about the big question:

Will I be able to finish this novel?

The structure I created when launching this project was to cover the same topics in written form.

I now realize that doesn’t work, independent of the community aspect of the course.

The new format will change to a comfort book for novelists

The content I have shared up to this point will remain, however the craft elements will be shifted to an index at the back for reference.

What I will be writing going forward is a book that looks at the vast undertaking of writing a novel at the beginning. I will follow with a series of chapters that address the most common fears I see in students in clients, with the steps and mindset shifts that can help them overcome them.

One fear, one chapter.

I’m currently revisiting the concept of the book to re-outline it. This feels so exciting, and is a much better form for what I hoped to create with the book.

There are many excellent craft books out there. I didn’t want to create a cafeteria approach to a bunch of those.

This book covers what is missing: the psychology of novel writing.

I see many books about psychology and writing, as well as writing to help mental health. What I don’t see is the mindset and psychology of someone writing a long-haul project.

That is what this book will be.

I do realize this is a different project to the one I began with. If this is less exciting to you, I completely understand if you choose not to follow on.

But for those who are enticed… I can’t wait to dive in.

More coming very soon. If you haven’t yet subscribed as a paid reader, this is your moment, if you want to continue to get full access.

Thank you thank you for all your support. New sections are in progress now.