Book Development

Writing from the Deeper Self

Naomi Rose, Book Developer & Creative Midwife

Encouraging Your Flowering

"DEVELOPING" YOUR BOOK

is like light revealing the image on an opaque photographic negative in a darkroom.

Gradually, the whole picture appears.

Together, we unveil that light.

Soft-focus photograph of pink and mauve tulips against deep green, their forms barely discernible — evoking something beautiful not yet fully revealed.

What It Means to Develop a Book

To write a book (or any complete work) from beginning to end. (However, you may begin in the middle, as well.)
To allow what wants to be written to arise, encouraging it to develop the way alight-touched negative develops in a darkroom: gradually, organically, into what it has in it to be.
To bring your real dreams of writing out of the closet of despair, self-criticism,and doubt, and let them lead you through the landscape of your heart's desire.
And in time, to bring what you have written into the world to a widening circle of readers, who — through your writing — become more intimate with themselves, and feel like loved ones and friends.

Bright sunlight streaming through a canopy of trees against a blue sky.

At first, the photographic negative looks dark, blank, featureless. Then gradually, as it interacts with the (al)chemical solution it sits in, an image — barely discernible, at first — begins to suggest itself. Bit by bit, the full image comes clearly into view, its shapes and features now obvious. "Oh, it's a cypress tree," or "Oh, it's that meadow near the water," or "Oh, it's a picture of my aunt Sally when she was young...."

It's obvious, once you can see it. But it took time and the sanctuary of the darkroom (the undisturbed hush of deep attention to what wants to be known) to develop.

This is what I mean by "book development." We listen to you well and deeply enough that what is not yet inform and wants to be known through you can become known. We let it develop in the alchemical solution (your own unique creative nature), and see what it wants to be. And along the way, you become more known to yourself.

“I was a Hidden Treasure, and I longed to be known....” — God

A small luminous moon glowing against a deep night sky, seen through softly blurred tree branches — a single point of light in the darkness, quietly present and waiting to be found.

A Confession

This next part is more of an essay than traditional website copy. But for anyone considering writing a book, reading more slowly and deeply is an important capacity to cultivate, because Writing from the Deeper Self is a slower, deeper process. (That is: if you want to write deeply, it helps to read slowly.)

So as you read what's here, you might make note of your own response. That's important information about yourself, along with whether my way might be right for you.

NOTE: You might prefer to listen to this essay, instead of (or in addition to) reading it. You'll find an audio recording, in my own voice, at the end.

If You Are Considering Writing a Book

Perhaps you are new to writing a complete book but not to writing. Perhaps you have spent time, sweat, tears, dashed hopes getting your “butt in the chair” and producing pages that even looked good . . . but didn’t represent the truth of who you are. That is, you couldn’t recognize yourself in them when you read them back. This is not a small thing. It actually matters profoundly.

If something is calling you to give it words, give it form, bring it to life, then this is not a generic call. It’s not “Oh well, if I don’t write it, somebody else might.” Nobody else can write it like you can. Even if others address the identical subject, the writing would still come out quite different, unique — because you are you.

This is of the utmost importance.

“I was a Hidden Treasure and I longed to be known” is not a one-size-fits-all longing. It means that the “hidden treasure” of the Unlimited, the Divine, in you wants to be known through you, as you. So to allow this inner knowing to make its way to the surface, you need to hold yourself as having within you not only everything you need in order to bring this treasure forth, but also that you yourself are the treasure — and that it’s this relationship to yourself that allows the treasure to be known.

Pen and ink drawing by Naomi Rose showing a tender moment between a mother and baby, with detailed line work and cross-hatching technique

If you are anything like me, you have been exposed to (even had superimposed on you) all sorts of “shoulds” about writing that have, over time, trickled down into your belief system such that you think these “shoulds” and “musts” are the only way to write. Such as: “Know what you’re going to say before you even start writing.” “Make an outline and stick to it.” “Keep yourself out of your writing and just present the material.” And so on.

Much of this may have been learned in school, fulfilling writing assignments that were not born of your own desire.

And if you wrote a PhD thesis, that would have been even more true.

But you cannot know the whole of it before you start. You may not even be able to see that far down the road. As the novelist E.L. Doctorow put it: “Writing is like driving at night in the fog. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.”

Line drawing of a person bent over a page, absorbed in writing by hand.

Writing from the Deeper Self is really all about what’s in you: what gives itself to you, how it whispers possibilities and hints, where in you feels that seed settle in, “impregnate” you so that you cannot not give attention, space, and willingness to give it a good home, a good womb in which to grow.

Yes, there is a womb of writing a book. It grows in you, and so partakes of the very nature of you. You leave yourself out of your writing at great cost. Then you end up with a book that others may admire, but you did not birth it from yourself, so you don’t love it. You don’t love the process of having written it.

I’ve heard people say that Dorothy Parker quote, “I hate writing, I love having written.” You don’t have to be in that position. You can like the experience of writing, even love it, even bow to it—when your connection to where the writing comes from is known to you. When the “hidden treasure” in you, nowhere else, becomes known to you through your giving it room and expression.

Every person has their own intrinsic way of creating, of bringing forth that which asks to be known. If you are aware of what your own creative pathways are, then every bit of you will say yes to writing a book. If you are not aware of your own creative ways, then you either succumb to the “shoulds” you’ve been given and write at a distance from yourself, or you tell yourself you have no talent and shouldn’t be writing a book in the first place.

But what if it isn’t about talent? What if it’s about being true? What if being true to yourself brings out the gifts of expression you didn’t even know you had?

This is why I call myself a “Book Developer & Creative Midwife,” rather than a “writing coach.” I don’t “coach” you. I don’t give you assignments. I don’t start with a preconceived idea of what your book will be, or how it will come about, or how long it will take, etc. I start with the conviction that if you are called to write a book, you do have it in you. And my responsibility is to listen and notice what shows itself as your true desires, and how the creative life moves in you. As I reflect this to you, whatever you recognize as true helps clear away what’s blocking your way, and inspiration begins to come to you all on its own. As you follow this inner guidance, this whispered voice of the “hidden treasure,” you gain confidence, a deepened relationship to your inner self’s call in you, and . . . written pages.

Line drawing of a woman writing in an open book, with rays of light radiating outward all around her.

If this speaks to you, I hope you will act on it. Writing from the Deeper Self is about so much more than only writing a book. It’s also about touching into who you are underneath all the conditioned assignments and shoulds, and finding that what you always secretly dreamed of is truly available for you, and waiting for you to say yes to it.

And here, as promised, is the essay in my own voice:

A Client Who Said “YES”

Illustrated portrait of author Rahima Warren displaying her book “The Star-Seer's Prophecy” with author credentials and book description

When a person comes to me with a book in their heart, the very act of coming is a way of saying "yes." It means: I may not know exactly how to birth this book yet, but I know it is growing inside me.

This is how one client, Rahima Warren, MFT (ret.), came to me. She never aspired to be a fiction writer — she began writing solely for self-expression and personal enrichment. She never imagined she would become the author of The Star-Seer's Prophecy, an epic fantasy trilogy about the healing journey.

But the Writing from the Deeper Self process turned out to be just right for her. Also a painter, she described it this way: "If I set out with the intention of painting a landscape, I will get in a tangle and freeze up. But if I trust a process of listening and allowing from the unconscious, my painting just flows and becomes what it wants to be. I needed someone who understood that.”

So Rahima came to me with an idea for a fantasy book about the healing journey. A lifelong reader of fantasy, she sensed that a novelistic rather than nonfiction treatment of the healing journey could have a deeper impact on the reader — and also be more engaging to write.

The book grew into a trilogy, The Star-Seer's Prophecy. (Book 1 — “Dark Innocence,” Book 2 — “Fierce Blessings,” and Book 3 — “Perilous Bliss.” The trilogy has attracted some remarkable reviews,* and even been used as bibliotherapy by therapists for its capacity to evoke the healing journey from abuse to freedom, so its readers would feel encouraged to make a similar healing journey.

Three-book fantasy trilogy covers for “The Star-Seer's Prophecy” by Rahima Warren, with book development and editing by Naomi Rose

* A FEW OF THE BOOK’S RAVE REVIEWS

“GRIPPING” ... “INSPIRING” ... “FEARLESS” ... “SOULFUL” … “SPELLBINDING” ... “REDEMPTIVE” ... “INTENSE” ... “LUCID” ... “HEALING”

“A page-turner of the highest order. But more than that, it is a powerful spiritual teaching. A step-by step guide on how to keep our hearts open in the face of unimaginable suffering, how to forgive the unforgivable, and what it means to allow the sweet mercy and compassion of the Divine Feminine to be an ongoing healing presence in our lives.” — Chris Zydel, author, Conversations with the Brush and Love Letters from the Creative Heart

“This novel can take its place amongst Tolkien and the best of science fiction writers such as Ursula LeGuin. It is a well-sustained, exciting and suspenseful narrative written in a lucid and powerful style.”— Harris Smart, Author, Producer, & Director

And of her work with me, Rahima said:

Supportive, kind, and wise, Naomi is an excellent guide and editor for developing your book and bringing it forth in beautiful shape. Highly recommended! She is so kind and supportive and gentle and appreciative, yet perceptive of the places where my book needed improvement, from commas to emotional nuances.

“I worked with her over many years to revise, edit, and polish my trilogy — and always felt gracefully received and held through this 'book birthing' process. Her faith in my book has been and is still very important to me in keeping my inner critic at bay. She has inspired me to honor what I have written by doing the work necessary to bring it into the coherent and beautiful form it deserves.”

You can read the full story of Rahima’s book-writing journey here.

If you have been led to believe that writing is mainly about producing, I have good news for you: the writing does not have to be “produced” at all if it comes out of listening.

The Link Between Writing and Listening

Listening to yourself will give you thresholds and doors into your real writing that assignments and prompts can rarely do — listening for what matters to you, and for how it wants to be known for you and through you. And when this listening is amplified by the two of us listening to you together, your “hidden treasure” can sense this invitation and start to tell itself to you.

Below is a beautiful depiction of how the poet Rilke saw listening. (I've recorded it for you as well — you'll find the audio just below the poem.)

A tree rising. What a pure growing!
Orpheus is singing! A tree inside the ear!
Silence, silence. Yet new buddings,
signals, and changes went on in the silence.

Animals created by silence came forward from the clear
and relaxed forest where their lairs were,
and it turned out the reason they were so full of silence
was not cunning, and not terror,

it was listening. Growling, yelping, grunting now
seemed all nonsense to them. And where before
there was hardly a shed where this listening could go,

a rough shelter put up out of brushy longings,
with an entrance gate whose poles were wobbly,
you created a temple for them deep inside their ears.

—Rilke, Sonnets to Orpheus, trans. Robert Bly

When I emphasize “listening,” it’s because the kind of self-trust you may be secretly wanting for yourself as a writer (and for yourself, in general) so often comes from listening. That confluence of listenings — mine of you and yours of you — can work near-miracles in bringing about a written work that expresses your true heart. All that “noise” from the “shoulds” and self-doubts fades into the background, and your “brushy longings” get to have not a “rough shelter” but a “temple” — a place within you that has always been there, but now you are knowing and creating from it.

who this work is for

“I owe the present edition of my book to Naomi Rose, to whom I am indebted. She was moved by [its] content and not only was grateful for the opportunity to read it but also expressed the wish that she might be of further help in its becoming known to the English-speaking public. I like the idea of having my book produced with such maternal care and deep appreciation.” — Claudio Naranjo, MD, author, Healing Civilization. Foreword by Dr. Jean Houston

Are you wanting to write from a deep inner place?

Are you less interested in instructing your readers than in communing with them—being true to yourself, your subject, your soul?

Have you tried to write this book alone and found that something essential was missing—not self-discipline or desire, but someone to think along side you, hold the contours of the larger vision when you're too close to see it, and say: “This is real, you are on a good path, keep going”?

If you find yourself nodding, you may be exactly the kind of person I work with. And this is what that experience has felt like for some of my clients, from the inside:

"Naomi provided the warm and inviting space that I needed to speak about my work and listen to the words as they emerged from within. She listened to my words before they were even shaped. She was fascinated with my ideas as I shared them with her, and this receptivity validated what I was wanting to write. She showed me how to write from my deeper Self. Naomi, thank you for listening to the heart of this book. It was inside me, and you welcomed it into being. Giving birth to books that heal is certainly your calling." — Doreen Hamilton, PhD, author, The 7 Secrets to Essential Speaking: Find Your Voice, Change Your Life

And sometimes, the book that emerges finds a life in the world beyond anything its author imagined possible.

Cover of “The Moon and You” by Barbara Hannelore, displaying moon phase circles on a warm gradient background focusing on women's wellness and self-care

“Naomi Rose was an invaluable partner on the journey. She shared my vision, and was genuinely excited about getting this book out into the world. She offered the support I needed to create the book that I dared to dream was possible! The book is now changing lives, and finding its way into homes and hearts around the world.” — Barbara Hanneloré, author, The Moon and You. Finalist, Indie Excellence Book Awards; Silver Award, Living Now Book Awards

For more from authors who have made this journey, visit the Author Testimonials & Success Stories page.

how we would work together

You may know exactly what your book is about.

Or you may have only a feeling — persistent, unnamed — that something wants to be written.

Or you may have already begun: some pages, a chapter or two, perhaps even a full draft that needs to be shaped and deepened into what it truly wants to be.

Any of these is a perfect place to begin working with me.

1. Your first step might be a free 30-minute Discovery Call — a chance for us to meet, for you to get a sense of me, and for me to get a sense of you and what your book needs.

2. Or you might begin with a one-time Deep Listening Session — a full hour (paid) where we look together at where your book currently stands and what it wants in order to move forward in a pleasing way. You will likely leave that hour feeling: she gets me, and we can do this together.

If that feeling is there — whether through a Discovery Call or a Deep Listening Session —

3. Your next step is making the commitment to yourself and your book with 1:1 ongoing Book Development sessions. We meet every two weeks on Zoom, each session holding the promise of your book's unfolding. I listen for what is alive in your writing, and soon you can hear, trust, and follow its call.

We move at the pace you and your book need. When something is ready to come forward, we welcome it. When something needs more time in the dark, we honor that. And when the light we shine together has done its work, your book will emerge fully formed and ready to greet the world.

your book in the world

And down the road,
when your book has been completed,
your presence will live on the page
because of how you've listened to yourself during the developmental writing process.
And it will resonate with your readers in a kindred way.

That's how you change the world for the better through a book

And when it reaches your readers—truly reaches them—something wonderful happens for them and for you.

For example, here’s what one reader wrote me after closely reading my book, Starting Your Book: A Guide to Navigating the Blank Page by Attending to What's Inside You:

"I felt that you were speaking from the heart, seeking to be of service from the sincere desire to assist, not to indoctrinate or impress. And I felt that you and I were having a conversation. Thank you for sharing your ideas and caring with the world through a book.I learned things, I felt understood, and I grew increasingly inspired as I turned the pages."—Sarah Beaber

It’s a profound, scarcely expressible joy to realize that the Hidden Treasure you unearthed in yourself has helped reveal an equivalent treasure in another person through reading your book. This is what can happen when you write a book from the deeper Self.