This fear can turn into motivation if you use it right. If you’re afraid no one will care, then find someone in real life who does care about what you have to say, teach them what you know, and then look at the transformation in their life. If you can see that, see the impact it makes on them, then it should be much easier to finish your book, because it’s no longer about you—it’s about them and other people like them. FEAR: “I’M AFRAID MY BOOK WILL UPSET PEOPLE.” ALTERNATE EXPRESSIONS OF THIS FEAR: • “I’m afraid this book is going to make someone mad.” • “I’m afraid of being judged.” • “I don’t want my book to upset my current clients.” • “I can’t say these things about people.” • “What if my friends read it and hate it?” • “What if I sound bitchy?” HOW THIS FEAR WILL IMPACT YOUR BOOK This fear is a major book killer. The fear of judgment is crippling to many authors, and prevents them from either writing their book, or from writing the book that they really want to write, or telling the stories they want to tell in their book. Here’s the simple fact about books: if no one at all disagrees with what you are saying, then you aren’t saying anything worth putting in a book. If I wrote a book about how the sky is blue, why would anyone care? Everyone already knows that. A book should make new claims, or reframe old information, or take a position that stands in opposi- tion to conventional wisdom, or teach something new or different or contrary. 34 · ThE SCriBE METhOD