Writing a book, or writing anything that matters, is one of the most terrifying things you’ll ever do.
I was an Australian kid who spent her summers at the swimming pool. When I was 12 I took a bus to the fabulous pool in town. Among its many pools was one with lots of diving boards, including one we called ‘top tower’.
I wanted to jump off top tower. I climbed the stairs. I stood on the edge. It was a very long way down. I did not jump. And then the pool attendant got tired of me and shut top tower. He told me if I came down the stairs I would be banned from top tower for the rest of the summer.
I jumped. I screamed all the way down. I clambered out of the pool and up the stairs and for the rest of my swimming childhood you couldn’t keep me off top tower.
For adults, writing is our top tower. The jumping. The screaming all the way down. The doing of it over and over again.
Those who show up for the longing to write that is haunting their born days know I am not exaggerating.
Writing self-aligned words on the page – and then making those words visible to others, even a small group of trusted others – is the bravest thing we’ll ever do. It demands our exposure. It is like wrestling with bears.
People used to say I was brave walking across Italy and through the Balkans. This was nothing compared to writing – and publishing – a book about it.
Writing what matters to us requires huge internal overcoming. It is an awe-full tension between ‘see me’ and ‘don’t see me’, the paradoxical dance that comes with the territory for all brave new and unpublished writers.
The good news is that very little in your life will ever be as hard again.
Ultreia, we keep going.
Stephanie Dale is an award-winning journalist, author, researcher and founder of the International Wellbeing-through-writing Institute. In 2014 she launched The Write Road, a wellbeing-through-writing initiative for rural and remote Australians. She is passionate about pilgrimage, and in 2017 initiated Walk & Write Camino for pilgrim writers.