Successful Author Diaries – (Part 2)

Make sure to read part 1 first!

As in my last post, I knew I needed to get back to craft. I’m a huge believer in God’s timing and following His guidance and things showing up when you need them. You just have to open your eyes and ears and not ignore the signs. 

I believe in miracles and making your dreams reality. God wouldn’t have put this desire on my heart nor gave me the talent, intelligence, and fortitude to see this through if he didn’t want me to be successful. So I asked and thanked God for showing me the way.

Through what I’ll call divine inspiration, I stumbled across exactly what I needed. The first of which was David Farland’s writing courses and his book titled Million Dollar Outlines. He taught Brandon Sanderson, Stephanie Meyer, and several other very popular New York Times bestselling authors.

I HIGHLY recommend the Super Writers Bundle. There were so many golden nuggets for me.

When I started his course, for the first time I actually believed I could really be something. It was like a light flicked on in my head and a warmth filled me. 

David Farland (without knowing it) gave me the permission to write a book and be an author that makes millions. He said something that profoundly affected my mindset. He said Stephanie Meyer came to him and asked, “How do I write the best selling young adult novel of all time?” and we all know she went on to do just that.

And that one question changed my mindset on rapid release and writing as fast as I could to make money. 

Because if she can do it, why can’t I? I turned that question to myself and thought, I want to write the bestselling fantasy romance series of all time, or be the bestselling fantasy romance author of all time because I won’t stop with a single series.

I thought, I’m going to sell a ton of ONE book (series) rather than write as many books as I can and sell a little of each. 

And no, I may not have sold millions of copies yet but I believe I will. This is what I mean by delusional. People will say it will never happen until it does. 🙂

I ask myself on a regular basis: are you going for what you want or what you think you can get? 

For a long time I was a self doubting mess.

What you think you can get is usually something small, something attainable for the average person. Something others wouldn’t call you crazy for. Most of us from a young age are taught to fit in, that it’s dangerous to stand out, so don’t even try. 

We don’t want to look stupid in front of our peers. And if you go around saying that you’re going to be a success and you’re not yet, people think you’re stupid or at least that’s the fear. 

I made a decision to change that. I don’t want to be average. 

People who fit in, who are like everyone else, aren’t successful. They’re just average. And they want to be average. If you’re reading this, I bet there’s a spark in you that wants to be great and brave. Because it takes bravery to think this way.

Are you willing to be delusional? To think so big even you’ll think it’s crazy and others would too if you told them.

And everyone you tell will think you’re crazy or delusional or not realistic until you’ve made it and then they’ll say “OH I knew you could do it all along!” Or “I always believed in you!“ 

For me, as far as books go, what I wanted was for people to LOVE my books. To rave about them, say they were life changing, beg for the next. CRY! FALL IN LOVE with my love interest. 

I wanted to create a book boyfriend they’d adore. I wanted to impact the readers so they’d never forget my stories. I wanted readers to get tattoos and want merch and I wanted to sell millions of copies. 

I can tell you that no one is going to believe in you if you don’t first. If you don’t believe, you’ll never even try! Because if you don’t think it’s possible, what’s the point writing it, right?  I find a lot of authors are very self critical, and tend to think the worst. We don’t want that.

If I kept staying small, avoiding greatness, talking myself out of what God called me to do, I wouldn’t have written Bow Before the Elf Queen. I wouldn’t have had the courage to post videos that went viral on Tiktok or take the risk of spending money on Instagram influencers or asking the Bookish Box if my book could be one of their special editions.

So are you going for what you want or what you think you can get? And I don’t just ask myself this as an author. I ask myself this for nearly everything now. 

But it’s going to take work. Making your dreams happen isn’t easy. It takes grit and fortitude and not giving up when you want to quit, and pushing on when you’re sitting alone with your computer putting in so much time to write the book that a small voice says won’t sell. You push that voice away. 

Your time to shine is coming. 

Next up, I’ll give you some actionable steps I did and do that you can too. Because after the mindset comes the work.

Read part 3 next!