Warning:
Reading this blog post will make you obsessed with writing your book!
So don’t read this unless you’re ready for your memoir, novel, or business book to consume your thoughts and hijack your time and energy so you can’t think about anything but finally getting it done… published… and into the hands and hearts of readers everywhere.
Obsession!
That is the reality of what it takes to write the best possible book.
YOUR book.
The book that can change your life and even change the world.
The book that can actually save lives.
As someone who’s written and published nearly 80 books, let me tell you, the feeling of accomplishment when you print your manuscript and hold the warm stack of paper in your hands—a stack of paper covered in words that poured out of your heart and soul onto page after page—well, it’s indescribable, even for me as a writer.
The following words only begin to describe this experience: exhilarating, intoxicating, thrilling, fulfilling, and joyous.
And let me tell you one more thing: when you get in the groove of writing, when you’re finally focused on the supernatural act of unleashing your ideas from your brain, through your fingertips onto the keyboard, the screen, and the page—or through your pen onto the paper—you will enter a flow state that is incomparable to anything.
Because it’s all you.
It’s the magical place where you become one with the creation that is forming before your very eyes, word by word. You realize you’ve lost track of time and space and have entered an out-of-body experience where you’re on autopilot as the words flow like warm honey and you don’t want anything to interrupt you or stop you from being in this extraordinary state. Not the phone, not a person, not even the need to eat, drink, or go to the bathroom.
You may realize that the room is suddenly dark because the sun set. When you wake up in the morning, after dreaming about the sentences and ideas that you want to add to your manuscript, your heart will flutter with excitement that will jolt through you. You’ll leap out of bed, get your coffee, and go straight to your writing space to immerse into your creative workshop where you string together words and assemble sentences and build paragraphs and form full pages of ideas and narrative and dialogue.
You may laugh or cry, riding a rollercoaster of emotions as they ripple through your mind and body and splash onto the pages.
And as you near completion of the manuscript, new excitement and anticipation will flood your senses, adrenaline will surge, and you’ll become even more obsessed with reaching the end. You’ll be itching to go back and read it from start to finish, to admire what you created and to polish your diamond-in-the-rough into a sparkling gem that will delight, inspire, entertain, and teach readers everywhere.
The deeper you feel it, the more your readers will absorb the emotion you poured onto your pages. The more heart you invest in your book, the more those words will leap up and dance off the page, into the brains and bodies of people who will be forever changed by your words. Your story. Your ideas. Your wisdom. Your blueprint for success.
All of this applies whether you’re writing a memoir, a novel, or a business book. When I’m coaching aspiring authors, they often lament:
“So many people have already written about this topic. Why should I even bother to add my book to a saturated market?”
Because it’s yours!
Nobody can tell your story your way. It is entirely unique to YOU. If you’re an entrepreneur, nobody can tell the origin story of your business, what inspired your mission, the rough road you followed to finally achieve success, the mindset you needed to make it happen, or the special way that you serve your customers.
If you’re sharing your life story in a memoir, it’s uniquely yours. Period. There’s only one you who experienced everything from your birth until now, influenced by your parents and people who raised you, and that’s what makes your story fascinating. As humans, we want to peek into the lives of others to see how they triumphed or suffered or overcame impossible odds to say, “I survived” and “I thrived” and “Now I’m sharing my success secrets with you.” We also crave the escape of immersing ourselves in someone else’s life story or a novel that sweeps us into another world or a whirlwind romance or a journey from distress to success.
Life is about stories. Think about how bedtime stories, for many people, are one of the greatest highlights of childhood. They imprint our young hearts and minds and teach us, entertain us, and help us drift into sleep. Not to mention, they can be a cozy bonding time with our parents and siblings and family members.
And if you didn’t grow up with bedtime stories from loving parents, that’s part of your testimony, too, and we want to hear about it.
As a ghostwriter for people who have incredible against-the-odds success stories that they entrust me to write and publish in their memoirs, I’ve had the honor of interviewing people who grew up impoverished or abused or neglected in households where books and bedtime stories were not part of their childhood. Instead, they were laying in bed hungry or crying after a beating or hearing rats scamper around a dirty hotel room where their entire family lived.
Those are true stories and that is the story for them. Stories. What are yours? When you start writing your book, you will draw on the stories that you’re always sharing at dinner parties or with people you just met. If you don’t know how or where to start writing your book, you can start there. Just make a list of all your favorite stories that you’ve told over and over.
If you don’t like to write, use the voice-to-text function in the notes app on your phone and simply tell the story out loud. Voila. It’s transcribed.
Then piece together those stories, organize them in chronological order or in sections that showcase a particular theme, such as “childhood” or “my rebellious years” or “things I wish I’d never done but learned everything from.”
Be creative. Go to town. Be bold. If you’re bored when writing, your reader will be bored. And don’t write while you’re sleepy or tipsy or distracted. Writing is sacred. Chronicling your life story and/or creating captivating fiction is a sacred act that should be honored, treasured, cherished, protected, and only done when you can fully devote your time and attention to it.
Hence, obsession.
When I wrote my first novel, I was a reporter at The Detroit News. That’s a big job, as reporting and writing on deadline in a big city is high energy and high pressure. Still, I was so obsessed with writing—this was before laptops were ubiquitous—I handwrote on a yellow notepad in the cafeteria at lunchtime. I got up 5 a.m. to write a few hours before work. Though I was planning my wedding, I devoted weekend time to writing.
And I finished my first draft in three months!
Because I was obsessed.
If you want to find the portal where you can access this genius zone within and become obsessed with writing, publishing, and promoting your book, then get still and silent and ask:
What is stopping me from doing this?
Am I scared?
Worried what people will think when I tell my truth or write that erotic novel or share things about myself that might embarrass or anger people in my life? Then ask yourself:
What if I never write my book?
What if I take my life story, my ideas for novels, my business success secrets, to the grave?
What if my legacy is never recorded in my own words for my family to cherish for generations to come? Sadly, most people’s life story only gets written after they die and a family member is writing their obituary under the duress of grief, without the person there to provide accurate dates and details for life milestones.
Don’t let that be you.
Start writing right now.
Become obsessed.
So how do you become obsessed?
- You need to envision the outcome that you desire for your book.
- And you need to understand why you want to become a published author.
- You need a framework, a structure and a schedule for writing.
- And you need to break through the fear that might be holding you back.
And use your imagination. See yourself holding your book. Envision people lined up to buy it as you write a special message with your autograph on the title page. Imagine people telling you, “Great job!” and “This book really touched me!” or even, “Your book changed my life! Thank you!”
The sky is the limit, but you’ll never touch if it you stay stuck in fear, anxiety, confusion, overwhelm, procrastination, and the long list of other things that, brick-by-brick, pile up as writer’s block, leaving you unpublished and unable to share your gifts with the world. Hopefully you’re convinced that now is the time to start writing.
And if you want help writing your book, please let me be your guide. As a book coach, I’ve helped everyday people across America become bestselling authors.
You can email me at TwoSistersWriting.com and tell me how I can help you, then we can schedule time to talk about how you can finally write and publish your book.
And if you’re in Southeast Michigan, please join my intensive How to Write Your Book in a Day workshop on Sunday, April 26, 2026, from 10:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. You can learn more and register here.
Sponsored by The Detroit Writing Room and held in the beautiful Storytelling Lounge inside the historic Michigan Central Station, this high-energy, interactive, hands-on workshop will help you:
- Get clarity on your topic;
- Outline your book;
- Get inspired and motivated and sustain that obsessed energy until you write “the end;”
- Learn how to publish your book; and
- Discover how to promote and prosper from your book.
Plus, you’ll receive an autographed copy of our new Amazon bestselling workbook, Write Your Book in a Day: The Blueprint for Turning Your Book Dreams into Published Reality by Elizabeth Ann Atkins and Catherine M. Greenspan (a $24.99 value).
You’ll also enjoy morning coffee and bagels as well as a delicious, energizing lunch from Breadless, a local healthy eatery.
Bonus! You’ll be entered into a raffle for prizes including my books, purple Detroit Writing Room journals, and copies of Detroit Voices.
Space is limited. Registration closes on Thursday, April 23, 2026 at 9 p.m. EST.
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Elizabeth Ann Atkins is co-founder of Two Sisters Writing & Publishing®. As a bestselling author, elite ghostwriter, book coach, motivational speaker, podcaster, certified meditation teacher, and publisher, she has written and published nearly 80 books and has taught college-level writing.
Elizabeth Ann Atkins is a bestselling author, Emmy-nominated TV host, actress, and award-winning journalist. She co-founded Two Sisters Writing and Publishing with her sister, Catherine M. Greenspan, a company that has written and published over 60 memoirs, novels, business books, and journals since 2016. With a master’s degree in Journalism from Columbia University and a bachelor’s degree in English Literature from the University of Michigan, Elizabeth has written over 20 books and is widely known as America’s Book Coach. She also hosts The Goddess Power Show, a podcast and YouTube channel that explores topics empowering women to live bigger, better, and bolder.