Todd Henry recently came out with a book titled Louder Than Words. It discusses the idea of creating an authentic voice that makes your work stand out. It’s a good read thus far.

In the book he discusses the U shaped journey of pursuing our passions.

We stand on one end of a gorge. On the other side, we see the business, the book, the career. It looks so easy. We just need to hike down into the canyon and then up out the other side.

We start this journey with gusto and optimism. In the middle we start the hear cry of wolves and lose our bearing. The trees are tall at the bottom and we have to forge a river. The path gets spotty and it’s harder to follow. This is the part most people give up.

But, Mr. Henry says, this is when we need to dig in. This is where we start to move above our comfort level. Soon enough we break through this uncertainty, find the path again and get out the other side just before we are attacked by the wolves.

Why do I bring this up? Because we’ve all lost steam on a book or project and started to question if the journey was worth it in the first place. Below I list five ways to get excited about the rugged book writing journey again.

• Go back to the original idea or content. Why? Because this will get you in touch with the excitement you had at the beginning.
• Recommit. Tomorrow I’m going to start a new challenge on my blog. 7000 words in 7 days. This does not include my daily blog.
• Write with a friend. Having a companion, even if they don’t talk to you, can keep you accountable.
• Be honest. Are you not working on it because the idea is no longer good or because you are in the thicket in the story above?
• Don’t wait for the muse. Neil Gaiman said if you want to be a novelist you must learn to finish things. You can’t wait to be inspired.

If you are not committed to your book and know deep doing it’s a great idea and you want to continue but don’t know how, join me here tomorrow.

I’ve said this on my blog a hundred times, books are marathons not sprints. You cannot expect to get far and be great right away. It takes time and practice.