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.
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 ofreaders, who—through your work—become more intimate with themselves,and feel like loved ones and friends.
* 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
When Rahima Warren, MFT (ret.) first came to me, she had a book idea for a trilogy about the healing journey. A lifelong fantasy-reader, she sensed that depicting the range of the healing journey, rather than addressing it only conceptually, could have a deeper impact on the reader — and be more engaging to write. The trilogy that resulted, The Star-Seer's Prophecy, has garnered remarkable reviews* and been used by therapists as bibliotherapy for its capacity to hold a reader's attention and chart the healing journey from abuse to freedom.
“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.”
* "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; Love Letters from the Creative Heart
Read the full story of Rahima’s book-writing journey here
That Book Inside You
Your knowing. My listening. Your book.
There's something you know that no one else knows quite the way you do.
You've probably lived with it for years—in your work, your observations, your particular way of moving through the world. It may never have needed words before. It just was.
But somewhere along the way, a book began to stir.
As my client Jenaii Gold described when she first reached out: "There was a deep knowing that there was so much I needed to express, and that urgency was called a book. It went from inchoate to 'This is absolutely possible. I'm going to do it!'" And she did. After working with me, she wrote her healing and evocative book, The Moon, the Hare, and the Pearl, which has been happily in print for several years.
If you've never written a book before, that isn't a problem. What you need most, you already have: a desire that's genuinely yours, and something true to say.
The craft? That can be learned. And I've spent a good part of my life learning how to help you learn it—as an editor, a writer, a visual artist, a singer, and an ordained Healing Conductor in the Sufi tradition. All of this, in one way or another, is listening. Listening for what's beautiful, what's true, what's almost-but-not-quite-said yet.
That's what I do with you. I hear what you're reaching for before it makes it into words. And then we find the words together.
What comes back to you isn't only a book. It's a deeper knowing of yourself—one that will permeate your writing and quietly spill over into the rest of your life.
"Wow, did I do that? There must be more to me than I have known."
Yes. There is.
Writing a book this way is a healing journey in its own right—whether your subject is healing, or something else entirely.
At the heart of it is this: you will be listened to. Not just your words, but what's beneath them—what you're reaching for and haven't quite said yet, what wants to emerge before it even has a name.
That quality of attention changes things. Ideas clarify. The book that felt impossible begins to feel inevitable. And somewhere along the way, you realize you've come to know yourself more deeply—not as a side effect, but as part of the work itself.
When it's done, your book will have a life of its own in the world. But it willbear the imprint of everything that went into its making—the care, the listening, the love.
The following poem by Rilke has been with me for years. It says something about listening that I treasure completely:
A tree rising. What a pure growing!
Orpheusis 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,
withan entrance gate whose poles were wobbly,
you created a temple for them deep inside their ears.
—Rilke, Sonnets to Orpheus, trans. Robert Bly
Who This 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.”
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
