From Seed to Flower
In thinking about this month’s theme of planting seeds, I thought about the process of how Forged in Fire: Writing Fiction to Heal came to be. And I realized that the seed of the book happened long before the writing ever took place. In fact, this book has been in the works longer than most people even know. It’s been in the works even longer than I knew until I sat down to actually write it out (7 years it turns out!). And I want to share it with you because I think it’s important that we see how these creations actually happen.
Because books don’t always get written overnight.
Art doesn’t always get made in a week.
Courses and workshops aren’t always built in a weekend.
Creations are often planted years before they’re actually harvested and I’m going to give you a peek behind the curtain of mine.
Planting The Seed
Writing Until They Burn (End of 2017)
Trying to revise/rework Until They Burn (2018)
Realizing I used a method when writing Until They Burn (2019)
Trying to put into words/process the method I used to write Until They Burn (2019)
As I’ve mentioned many times before and in Forged in Fire, the first seed planted for that book was ultimately the court appearance for my abuser and writing my novel, Until They Burn. That was toward the end of 2017 and I spent most of 2018 trying to revise and edit it not realizing that I couldn’t revise/edit a book that ultimately I didn’t want to change. I hadn’t written it for that reason. And in 2019, really realized that I had written it to heal and that I’d used a solid method for it, tried to find a way to get that method down on paper.
Watering/Nurturing the Seed
Beta-testing the method with clients/students (2019-2020)
Launching the pilot program of WF2H workshop (2020)
Continue testing the method with clients/students (2020-2021)
Writing a chapter for a textbook on WF2H (2021)
Once I felt like I had the method down on paper, I started testing it out with clients and students. So much of this was trial and error and finding the right combinations of exercises and prompts and trying to repurpose what I had done intuitively and naturally to actually be helpful to others. Once I felt like I’d tested it enough with clients/students, I turned it into a workshop and piloted the workshop. I learned a lot from that first workshop! I was asked to contribute to a textbook on coaching clients using the method and that was also a lot of fun (that book should be coming out soon!) This phase was really about doing a lot of fieldwork/testing. It was the “down and dirty” work of actually being “in” it. So not a lot of work was done on the workshop or book side of things.
Putting down fertilizer and plant food for the Seedling that’s growing
Deciding to write the non-fiction book (End of 2021)
Writing the book proposal and query (End of 2021)
Revamping the entire workshop and relaunching (2021-2022)
Writing 20+ articles about WF2H (2022)
Drafting the non-fiction book in the Spring cohort of Creator’s Institute (2022)
Sending out to beta editors and editing after feedback (End of 2022)
At the end of 2021, I felt like I’d done so much testing, so much trial and error, and so much learning that it was time to revamp the workshop and finally put the method out to the world. So I decided it was time to write the book! I waffled between self-publishing and traditional publishing and at the time, one of my mentors, Danielle Dulsky asked me to consider doing a book proposal and sending it out to agents first before making a permanent decision. So that’s what I did. I spent the last half of 2021 furiously working on my book proposal and query (which sounds easy but it is not… it is A LOT of work!). While doing that work, I was also writing articles about the Writing Fiction to Heal method to keep people in the loop about it and what I was doing. I was also simultaneously working on revamping the workshop to launch in early 2022.
The beautiful thing about nonfiction and workshops is that the structure is symbiotic so I could co-create the two together, saving me lots of creation time.
After completing the book proposal and query, I sent it out to around 25 agents, most of whom passed but all who loved the “idea” of it. It was then that my other mentor, Alisha Wielfaert suggested I join the Spring cohort of a program she used to write her first book, Little Failures, The Creator’s Institute. I was curious, I also liked the idea of getting editorial feedback at the developmental stages. And since I had a pretty strong outline already, I felt pretty confident I could move through the program with ease. Which I did.
So in April of 2022, I launched my Writing Fiction to Heal along with the drafting of Forged in Fire — again learning a lot along the way.
I continued drafting throughout the summer and then I had a full draft of the book.
After revising it based on my editor's suggestions, I gave it to my beta editors for review and once I got it back from them, I was ready to send it to my copyeditor.
Watering, Nurturing, Singing to, and Giving Love to the Growing Seedling
Hiring and getting the book to my copyeditor (End of 2022)
Copyediting the book after getting it back from copyedits (Early 2023)
Working on marketing and launch plans (2023)
Formatting ebook and print manuscript (2023)
Putting the book up for pre-order and release (2023)
Publishing the book (2023)
I sent my copyeditor the book and got it back from her in early 2023 and started editing based on her suggestions.
Then began the production tasks! Marketing and launch plans. Cover design. Formatting. Uploading to vendors. Pricing decisions. Sending to early readers. Getting early review quotes.
Making plans for release day. Making plans for post-release.
•••
When I parse it out like that, it seems wild to think that I’ve spent the last seven years dedicated to this one project. All the time, energy, sweat, and tears that have gone into it. The passion, the love, the belief in it… it astounds me that it’s taken me until now to fully grasp how much this book and this method have rooted into my soul and my life. Time passes so quickly that we forget how much of it we’ve spent on things like this until we really look at where that time went.
And it also reminds me of something that shows up in a lot of trauma survivors — our ability to downplay our achievements and accomplishments.
Especially for this book, it’s easy to do that because it’s felt like such a… necessity. This book hasn’t just been a “thing I want out in the world.” It’s been an open loop that I knew I couldn’t close until the book was out. It’s been a thought resting at the base of my skull that wouldn’t go away until I knew things were in motion. It was a compulsion that pulled me through every obstacle, every wrong turn, and every disappointment.
This hasn’t been some flight of fancy or some “dream” for me. This book is part of my legacy.
So to think of it as some big achievement has felt silly because it has always just felt necessary. Like, “this is just something that you need to do, Jade.”
And yet — I can hear my business coach saying, “But it is an achievement. You did accomplish something big.”
I suppose she’s right. And I suppose this is something that I need to work on. This celebration of accomplishment and goals. This harvesting of my seedlings as they flower.
So today, I will actually go buy a flower to represent this accomplishment of Forged in Fire. I will watch it bloom, come alive, and add its floral fragrance to my office letting me know its presence has arrived. I’ll acknowledge it. I’ll speak words of gratitude. I’ll remember that it was once a tiny seed packed inside the earth, nothing more than just an idea.
And I will remember that in time, it grew into exactly what it needed to. Just as I have. Just as Forged in Fire has.
