Just do the thing...

Whatever it is that you've been preparing for.

One of the great things about the internet age is that you can find advice on how to do just about anything. You probably find several YouTube videos, a blog post, and a Substack article on whatever endeavor you are undertaking. I genuinely love this, but I am going to argue here today that you should just do whatever it is you’re trying to do.

One of these days I will figure out how to add a GIF to my articles and mere mortals will tremble. Anyway, back to my point.

Advice is good. Really, I am not trying to say it’s all hogwash. I really appreciate a lady who wrote an obsessively detailed blog post almost 10 years ago about how to use tracked changes in MS Word. I was very lost about how to use my editor’s changes and notes in my manuscript when I got it back. I also appreciate people like Brandon Sanderson who films and posts his BYU lectures for free on YT. Or Mandi Lynn-Stone Ridge Books who posts step by step uploading process videos for self-pub tools and the US Copyright office. I’m being specific here because I have used all of these.

That being said. No amount of advice or classes or seminars will help you as much as just doing something. I think there is a particular type of procrastination that hides behind preparation or learning. Listening to a writing advice podcast still feels productive, even though it doesn’t get any words in that WIP. Same goes for watching videos about how to market your book on social media or reading Substack articles about growing your subscriber list.

And hey, I’m just a random lady with a total of about 100 followers/subs across three different socials. I am not trying to dish out advice on growth or even book sales. (I have a whopping 6 pre-orders for my military fantasy ebook. And they may be friends and family lol, I’m not sure.) What I am going to say with my whole chest, is that you can’t actually learn something without getting started.

I ran in circles for a few days trying to research how to make short form videos for IG and FB until I just downloaded Capcut and Edits and started making them. I sucked at first. One 30-90 sec video took me all day to make. But now, I can make 10 in about an hour to hour and a half depending on what type they are (monologues vs acting out a conversation with myself vs lip syncing to a funny audio) and they are significantly less cringy. In the near future I am going to work on adding effects. When I am doomscrolling on my personal account, I try to figure out how a creator has made a video I liked. I also save or at least note, what videos get my attention or get my follows, especially if it’s an author in my genre. Just make the videos.

Various writing advice channels were very helpful for me, at first. The real problem with them is everything is geared at beginners. People who want to write but know next to nothing about it. And when I reworked my opening chapters, I was able to catch quite a few things that made them…just terrible honestly. But I learned the most about writing, when I paid for a developmental and line edit. I just wrote the book, revised/rewrote it, then got personalized feedback, then revised again.

I’m currently using Canva to teach myself graphic design for marketing. It’s pretty painful right now and the graphics aren’t great, but each one is getting better and easier. I will not be going back to reread my early Substack articles but if you care to, you can laugh at how rambley and roundabout I was. (I’m a 3rd generation yapper, reeling it in and staying on point, not the 7 tangents my mind creates as I go is still a struggle.) Just start designing/blogging.

Mandi Lynn’s videos helped me chose which publishing tools and platforms I wanted to select and calmed some anxiety about how to use them. But I probably could have just figured out how to upload my manuscript to the copyright office. It’s not the most user-friendly platform but it’s figure-out-able. Research just enough to pick a tool and then just start using it.

Book learning (or audio or video, you know what I mean) will never be enough to prepare you for whatever you are trying to accomplish. Unfortunately, you just have to go out and suck at it for a while. This type of learning is really exemplified in medicine. If you don’t know, I was a flight medic in the Army and then worked in a family health clinic after separation from the military. These days I am a stay-at-home mother who writes books part-time. In medical training, it is standard to do some book work and maybe a test, then you start practicing. First on manikins and classmates, but then—it always feels way too soon—you go out for clinicals. Meaning you go practice on real people with real health issues—under experienced supervision of course. I think this is absolutely the best way to learn any skill.

So, whatever you’re working on right now. Whatever you’re researching or stressing about. Put a limit on what you think you need to know before you start, then go out and do it. I believe you can figure it out as you go. It doesn’t have to be perfect—actually I can promise you it won’t be. But I can also promise that one more YT video, or that 39.99$ course won’t make it perfect either. This is your insistence permission to just go suck try and then get better.

Thanks for reading! Tell me what you have or are procrastinating in the comments.

Just list the book for pre-order and start telling people about it.