Ever wondered how to inspire your own book by making a vision board? The vision boards I made while writing Awaken Your Intuitive Vision were essential to the creative process.
When I made the vision boards however, writing a book was not on my radar. In my usual intuitive way, both vision boards created around that time were made not by deciding in advance what should be on them but allowing this to come to me in the moment.
The motivation for writing the book came hurtling out of the first board, spontaneously, reminding me of my ‘why?’ for writing it. While the second vision board contained solid ideas for the design of the book – ideas I’d been given even before I knew I would be writing it. Yet when I needed to brief the book designer, there they were waiting for me.
How to inspire your own book
It had never occurred to me to write a book until one morning I woke up with the intuitive voice in my head saying: “Mary, it’s time to write a book”. It didn’t cross my mind that my current vision boards would contain the inspiration as to what I would write about and how to do it.
I’d been running my Intuitive Vision Board workshops for three years already alongside a part-time job. I’d created a website then discovered I needed to write blogs for it, even though I had little idea what a blog was at the time.
Shortly after a book mentor who specialised in business-building books crossed my path and we hit it off. We spent the day together to lay out the book plan and name the chapters. All that remained was for me to sit down and write it.
Perhaps the inspiration for your own book is on your vision board already without you even realising it. Or perhaps it’s time for you to to create one.
Writer’s block
I quickly hit a problem however. Every time I sat down to write according to the book plan, nothing happened. A few unproductive weeks scuttled by like this until I felt compelled to attend an Author’s support group and found a friend to accompany me.
The highlight of the evening was hearing peoples’ book ideas and the fascinating backstories that went with them. However, the book I had in mind now seemed boring in comparison and I left feeling utterly deflated.
On the long drive home my friend Linda turned on me and said. “Mary, what has your Intuitive Vision Board ever done for you?” My jaw dropped. It was a bit like the Monty Python line: “What have the Romans ever done for us?” except I didn’t find it at all funny this time. Tired, deflated and furious I didn’t have a retort on the tip of my tongue. Thankfully I stopped short of putting Linda down by the roadside and driving off.
Unhinged by the question
Linda posed the ‘right question’ at the wrong time and it unhinged me. And, it unblocked my writing too. When I came to write my ‘morning pages’ the next day, 10 pages of A4 long-hand poured out of me. I recalled to myself in detail the painful crisis I’d been through three years earlier where I’d lost everything. With my identity eradicated overnight, I was left picking up the pieces with a disgruntled 16-year old and a lively Labrador in tow.
Broken-hearted, in a state of shock, and with no money whatsoever, I recalled sitting among the rubble not knowing where to begin. My family left me to it and I was reluctant to talk to friends about it at first because I felt ashamed to find myself in this position.
Drifting through the days in a haze, it was all I could do to write my morning pages, walk the dog, and prepare a hot meal. But in this darkest hour I was also ready to create a new Intuitive Vision Board. Curiously the board I made at that time showed no trace of the angst or crisis I was going through at the time.
The new possibilities, fresh opportunities which emerged turned out to be the life-line I needed. Without that intuitive guidance from my vision board, Awaken Your Intuitive Vision would not have been written.
Synchronicity
After completing the board, little appeared to change at first on the surface of things but much repair work took place beneath. You may need to be patient with yourself too and not force the issue.
Feeling better about myself and life, I attended a tango workshop where I was paired with a stranger. Only the day before I’d felt ready to start looking for part-time work and found myself asking this man if he knew of anyone who might have some work for me. It just so happened he had his own company and offered me a trial. I loved the work and subsequently worked for him for several years.
It didn’t dawn on me immediately that I had grasped the golden thread that was to lead me to higher ground yet I’d constellated these images on the Intuitive Vision Board I’d made months earlier. My intuition was several steps ahead of me.
From intuition to inspiration
Here’s how some of the images transpired for me:
Floating woman surrounded by pictures of the ocean. My new boss had an international floatation company called “Ocean Float Rooms”. My job was to sell the bliss of floating to well-being centres around the world. The same image had four pictures of the ocean alongside.
Daniel Craig and the seahorse. My boss had the muscular torso and craggy looks of Craig although he only once appeared in the office in his shorts. He was Australian, handled all aspects of the business, and was versatile like the male seahorse.
Live, love, teach women – and the gardens of flowers. By now I was running the Intuitive Vision Board workshop again regularly and attracting mostly women to the table. My garden was beginning to bloom again as I helped other peoples’ lives flourish.
Yoga teacher in the centre. One of the oldest yoga teachers (reached 101). She was a posture that opened up her heart (left-side) to reach for her spirituality (right-side, while grounded on the earth, her right-hand touching. What a suitable metaphor for the Intuitive Vision Board journey.
The vision board had acted as my mirror
The images on my Intuitive Vision Board had transmuted the heartache I’d experienced into constructive, unexpected action. It also came to pass that my backstory became the inspiration I needed to unlock my writer’s block by providing me with my much needed ‘why?’.
It then dawned on me, if the vision board had help to steer me through the most challenging period in my life in a way I hadn’t expected, then surely it could do the same for others in less of a predicament.
Months later I wrote to Linda and told her what had happened that night – and thanked her for asking the ‘right’ question. We laughed about it.
Awaken Your Intuitive Vision book
Awaken Your Intuitive Vision looks and feels lovely – and I’m really proud of it. It is an over-size paperback with original watercolour drawings at the start of each chapter, accompanied by a quote which sets the tone for the chapter ahead.
The book describes how making an Intuitive Vision Board enables you to reach deep within yourself for the clarity and confidence to follow your heart in shaping your one wild and wonderful life.
Included in the book is the psychology and philosophy behind the intuitive visioning process. Tales from my clients’ entwine with those of my own to demonstrate how direction and purpose can be found in the most astonishing ways.
It takes you through step-by-step how to make an Intuitive Vision Board and how to prepare yourself to be in an intuitive frame of mind, which is so essential for the success of this method.
How did I publish?
I signed up for a partnership publishing package. This arrangement sits between the traditional publisher and self-publishing as the route to market. It worked for me because
- I was left alone to write the book as I needed the book to be.
- I reported in monthly to my book mentor I didn’t need any help with the content but her regular reassurance was comforting as was being accountable to her.
- Once the first draft was complete, I became part of a publishing team I didn’t have to recruit. A designer, editor, proof reader and a printer were assigned to me – and it felt good to have them all working together on my project.
- Publishing requirements like the ISBN, placing it on Amazon, creating an ebook, registering with other online book shops, and getting onto the UK book shop ordering systems (Bertrams & Gartner), was all taken care of and this was such a relief.
This partnership publishing package set me back £5,000 including printing and taking stock of the book myself. I had no option at the time but to take out a bank loan for this.
Benefits of writing
My book was never written to be a money-spinner in and of itself. As a business-building book it was created to behave more like a glorified business card, opening doors that might otherwise have stayed closed. At the time I also lacked the money and marketing wherewithal to do more publicity, which was entirely up to me. I knew this would be the case from the outset and it wouldn’t have stopped me publishing because the other payoffs were greater:
- The boost to my self-esteem and self-confidence was immeasurable. Putting my expertise down on paper, getting the book written and published under challenging circumstances, gave me the strength to emerge from the dark ages.
- It raised my game as a writer. The discipline, commitment and tenacity required improved my writing ability and increased my confidence, as did seeing my own creation through from start to finish.
- The book helped me to become an authority in my field of intuitive vision, synchronicity and precognition. It gave me a massive injection of self-belief to realise how much I knew about my specialist area as I came to write about it.
- I received many 5-star reviews on Amazon and plenty of others besides. It’s quite a moment to pass your finished manuscript to someone else to read for the first time. I had 10 readers lined up and as s their positive comments came streaming in, I began to relax and believe it was a job well done.
How long did it take?
This book took me three years and went through three distinct stages.
In the first year I received inspiration to write in big chucks at times, rather like taking dictation. It was evident that my ideas were not going to come out in a neat, sequential fashion according to the book plan. Some of my best writing came when I least expected it. I didn’t know where these passages (often 2,500 word bursts at a time) would go in the book but I knew eventually they would need to be stitched together.
The second year became a sabbatical when I ran out of money and needed to take a part-time job. Plus I had to move house twice, which took my energy. Even so, I gave myself a hard time for not finding the discipline to write as well and I was worried my book mentor would think I was bailing out.
Curiously, the challenges of the second year increased my resilience and determination to finish the book. It not only sharpened my focus, it also ripened the content of the book. When I resumed in the third year, my writing had stepped up a notch. The writing came together far better than how I’d left off. The task then was more tactical than inspirational – sifting, collating, organising, editing and referencing – rather than flowing.
During that third year I also needed to take a full-time job and worked on the book during long weekends and holidays. It was a hot summer and I sacrificed a lot of barbecues to the creative process!
Inspiration for the design on my vision board
With the first draft complete, it passed to my book mentor where she came into her own. With her helicopter view, she made a couple of significant recommendations at that point for me to implement. They shaped the book beautifully and it was all the better for it. Then the manuscript was ready to go to the editor and eventually the proof reader. Meanwhile I got underway with the book design.
When asked for design ideas, I had no idea where to start. I knew I couldn’t afford colour while a series of black and white vision boards would be boring. Then I remembered the animals on my current vision board and thought about what their symbolism meant. I visualised these animals accompanying a famous quotation at the start of each chapter, setting the theme for what was to follow. Colour combinations came from my vision board too to brief the designer. I found an illustrator to produce watercolours of the animals, which we sold as T shirts. NB Eight number tags appeared on the vision board for the eight chapters in the book !
Celebration
Wisely I‘d anticipated a good, long celebratory holiday would be needed after all this effort. And I owed my daughter a belated 18th birthday treat. At the eleventh hour I booked a trip to Cuba over Christmas and New Year’s and snapped up the last flights with Virgin Atlantic. As it happened both Cuba and Virgin Atlantic were featured top left on the very same vision board. It never occured to me that we would go there or have the money for it. That was until an unexpected tax rebate materialised – and there was no stopping us !
Tears of joy
I signed the book off to print in the departure lounge at Gatwick airport. For three wonderful weeks touring Cuba, I switched off completely and didn’t give the book a second thought. When I arrived home there was a jiffy bag leaning against my door. I remember thinking: ‘ I didn’t order a book.’ When I tore it open and discovered an advance copy of my own Awaken Your Intuitive Vision tears of joy welled up in me.
Making a vision board to inspire your own book
Making a vision board can inspire you to write your own book too. Even if you had not considered doing so before. By revisiting your existing vision board – or making a vision board for the first time – can help you discover the book in waiting to be written by you.
As you’ve seen, I was not thinking about writing a book when I made those two vision boards. It wasn’t until I revisited the vision boards retrospectively that I realised I had been pointed in that direction all along by my intuitive vision.
Do you have a book in you? Making a vision board with me might help you discover what it is. Have a look at the options HERE. Or, message me at mary@marynonde.com and let’s explore what will serve you best in moving forward.