I’m writing two different books right now and I find myself reading voraciously around the topics of my work.

I am flying through books, just devouring them, and finding lessons and inspiration and things to quote and teach from everywhere. It feels inspiring and generative and I love being in this creative space.

But I am also mindful that I have not always felt this way during a project, and many of my clients don’t feel that way, either.

Sometimes I am afraid of reading anything that too closely aligns with what I am writing. I don’t want any input. I just want to do my work.

The times I have felt this, I have been afraid that I would lose energy by reading so much. I have been afraid that I would lose focus if I got sucked into other books.

I have been afraid that someone else’s ideas would bleed into my own idea and hijack it, or overtake it somehow – that my idea would become less mine.

I have been afraid that I would encounter a book that was better than the book I am trying to write.

I once had a client who discovered a competitive title that was so like her own book, she freaked out and didn’t want to touch it; she wanted to preserve her innocence of not knowing what was actually in this other book.

But she also really wanted to know what was in it and to be reassured that her book was going to be unique and additive and worthwhile compared to this other one. So I read the book for her. And I was able to tell her that although the ideas seemed similar on the surface, they were very different in spirit and intent.

Ideas almost always are different in spirit and intent, because we are each so unique in the way we see the world and look at ideas.

This writer needed reassurance, as have I at different times in my career. But when you know you are working in your Zone of Genius, and you are prepared to do the work, and you are taking action towards bringing the right book to life at the right time, all of that need seems to disappear.

The Fear Is About Feeling Unsure

From where I sit now—in a place of not feeling that fear—I can see so clearly what that fear was about.

So much of the work of writing is figuring out how to own your idea and write with authority—and how to hold onto that as you move your book from idea to finished product.

It’s so easy to say, “Jodi Picoult already wrote that plotline so I can’t use it.” 

Or “That’s basically The Devil Wears Prada, so I can’t write it.” 

Or “Why would anyone want to hear from me when they can read a book on this topic by Brené Brown?” 

Or “It was all already said in The Tipping Point, so I might as well not bother.”

Not reading books while you are working on your own is a way of putting blinders on so you don’t have to feel those difficult feelings.

It’s a smart tactic if you need to do it.

Not needing to do it, however, feels a whole lot better.

I feel free.

I feel accomplished.

I feel awesome.

I wish I could bottle this up and sell you some.