
The thing you want to do is not that hard.
by Penelope Stephens
Seriously, hear me out...
Since I was around 8 years old, I have had a notebook on me at all times.
These notebooks have been filled with stories, ideas, prose, poetry, and essays.
Every year I write out my goals inside these notebooks and there has been one on this list for as long as I can remember - write a novel.
Over the years, other goals have been ticked off - start a business, travel the world…
But writing a novel has always been put on the back burner.
Even though writing is my strongest passion, writing a novel has always seemed so out of reach.
It has always felt “too hard” and unknown.
It felt like running experiments in a lab or building a rocket. Heck, I felt like I could learn those quicker for some reason.
Is novel writing being gatekept? Is it only for a select few talented people? Are these secrets locked up in a vault?
No. They’re readily available to the public.
So today, I looked up how to write a novel.
And after watching two hours of YouTube videos and reading a few blogs on the topic, it doesn’t seem that hard.
Why? Because now I know how.
Writing a novel is now in reach. There are steps to get to the end goal.
There are steps to do anything you want in this life, you just have to look for them.
Like literally just Google anything and there will be information on how to do it.
It all starts with the interest from you. The information is there for you to take.
Just like how you want to grow your quads at the gym, it starts with the targeted exercise.
Just look them up and do them right?
Yes. Literally.
Each day you work your quads, the better you get at the exercise and the bigger your quads get.
Eventually, you have grown your quads.
It all starts with a goal and then the steps to get there follow.
Just like how I looked up how to write a novel.
You build out your plots, build your characters, and give your protagonist a goal to achieve with some obstacles to overcome, all while adding signposts throughout the story to keep the reader turning pages.
Writing it out like that is so simple.
It’s literally like 5 things.
Yes, 5 things that I will have to work on over the course of a few months and dedicate the time daily to do it. But discipline and habit stacking is a topic for another day.
Anyway, the crux of this is that anything you want to do is really not that hard, you just don’t know how to do it.
No one is born with the knowledge of anything.
You have an interest in something and grow that interest into knowledge.
That’s it.
Stop being afraid of your goals, it’s probably less than 5 steps to get there.
Just a thought.
XO
P