to other people. Writing a book forces you to be articulate—not only about what you do, but about how you communicate it to people effectively. 4. Therapeutic Effect: A book can also help you grow in a therapeu- tic way. Books often force authors to confront difficult emotional issues while writing. Writing a book can bring up complex emotions or things you haven’t thought about for years. It can also force you to confront your fears. Fear of failure, fear of success, fear of being judged, etc. For many of our authors, this is life changing. Mary Hagerman went through this exact transformation with her book, and it helped her get over many of her fears. 5. Creative Accomplishment: A book, by its very definition, is a creative accomplishment. Writing a book will not only help improve your creativity, but it’s also a signal of creativity and an expression of self. If you want to be more creative and express yourself more authen- tically, a book is one of the best ways to do that. Janet Newman’s book got her all of these things, and more. She now sees herself in a new way, has unlocked her creativity, and has helped her readers improve their health and their lives. HELP PEOPLE Many authors mention this, saying something like, “I just want my book to help people.” The only problem is that, when pressed, they often haven’t thought about how their book will help. It’s not that it can’t, they just don’t know specifically how. 402 · ThE SCriBE METhOD