My book

I have recently been reflecting on an interesting question: at what point in a writing journey do you call yourself an author? 

For the past couple of years, my LinkedIn profile has described me as an aspiring author because I started writing a book in 2023 before my son was born. Then I put it on the shelf for a while as I worked full time and enjoyed time raising my son.

Now I have dusted off this book and am taking some time to write it properly. The focus of my book is bringing together everything that I have learned over the past 20 years on learning and change. It is a big job, but an enjoyable one. It has caused me to reflect back on all the years of my working life and pinpoint how long parts of my process to implement learning and change have been there.

We take for granted so much of what we know and just apply it naturally in the way we think about a problem. My writing journey requires me to take apart my thinking process and then put it back together. While at the same time reflect on how to tell someone else why you think that or do that. Then to put that into words. It sometimes surprises me when I actually learned something and how I have shaped it over the years. Overall the writing process is improving me as a professional.

So while the writing journey is long and challenging, I’m more than halfway through my second draft. Next comes the third draft where I’ll polish and shape the story further. Before professional editing and, hopefully, publication by mid-2026.

This thought process brings me back to my question, whether to call myself an author. It reminds me of a movie I watched years ago. I don’t recall the movie but one line that has always stuck with me is, “if you wake up every morning and all you think about is writing, then you're a writer”. So currently all I think about is writing. So I will call myself a writer, but will wait until my book is published before calling myself an author!

If you’d like to follow along with my progress, I will be writing monthly updates. They won’t just be about word counts and drafts. I’ll also share reflections along the way that stand out to me in the writing process.

It would be great to have you along on my journey! It will also help keep me accountable. So thanks in advance! 😁

Sign-up

New resources are being added each month.

Sign up to receive a monthly update.