Starting Your Book
A Guide to Navigating the Blank Page by Attending to What’s Inside You
By Naomi Rose
Book Developer & Creative Midwife / Creator, Writing from the Deeper Self
Starting a Book
Is an organic growth
that can only come from you.
Discover how to write your book
based on your own natural creative process
(which will tell itself to you when you listen. . . .)
you are the secret ingredient
Unlike most writing guides that focus solely on craft, Starting Your Book illuminates what truly enables inspired writing: the connection with your inner being. An organic book-writing guide, it shows you how to overcome the fear of the blank page by connecting with the presence inside you.
How? This intimate companion highlights the person doing the writing, rather than just the product. It doesn't teach you how to become a good writer — it shows you how to look inward and invite out the treasure that's already there.
When you align with your authentic creative nature, beautiful, true, and fulfilling writing naturally flows. Writing your book isn't an assignment. It's a living relationship that will bless you in ways extending far beyond completing a manuscript.
If you've longed to write a book but haven't fully believed you had it in you, this is your guide to accessing your Inner Guide.
Starting Your Book offers a path to navigate the blank page by attending to what's inside you — where all trustworthy writing begins.
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from Kirkus Reviews:
“A thoroughly illuminating and instructive take on the craft of writing."
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do you long to write a book,
yet haven’t fully believed you have it in you?
Read this book if you:
Are writing a book or even considering writing one
Need inspiration, connection, insight, and encouragement
Struggle with writing resistance and need to find your authentic writing voice
Want to recognize that you — exactly who you are, with your unique creative constellation — have what it takes to write the book that's calling from within
"Reading your book was like receiving a comforting hug of encouragement. The connection of writing and the heart — of the practice of writing as a way to get in touch with our divinity —how could this elude us, ever? Once you have this treasure in your being, you realize how clear it all is — why we write, why it matters."
— Jane Majkiewicz, writer, editor, literary agency associate emeritus
here’s a taste:
a brief text excerpt from chapter 1, "Answering the Call":
"It's one thing to begin writing your book, and another to know how. And that, of course, is why you are reading this book—because you don't currently know how. (Or perhaps you do know how, and you don't know that you know.)
"At this point, you might be expecting to read, here, a list of "how-to's," or given a template to follow. But as common a practice as this often is, it really only works if your intent is merely to set out factual information... As soon as you want to engage the heart, soul, and deep mind of your readers—to bring them inside the experience with you—something else is called for. Something that lies not so much in the material you are putting forth as in you.
"And isn't that what we secretly are wanting? A way to see what is true and precious in ourselves, sluiced through the vein of our writing but not limited to the written product? A way to bring out our best gift, with the underlying realization that nothing that comes out of us can fully define the goldmine in us? To look into the mirror of our true being and know who resides within?
"...The Writing from the Deeper Self approach says that you are every bit as important as what comes out of you. Indeed, the two are inextricably interwoven. And so, in order to write the book of your heart, it's essential to give attention—loving attention—to who you are and what's inside you.
"Therefore, the first question isn't so much how to start writing your book. It's when. . . ."
and here is an audio excerpt from chapter 9:
“Engaging the Linear and Artistic Brain,”
read by the author (with a dulcimer introduction):
what you’ll discover in starting your book:
How to recognize and trust the inner call to write your book
Ways to transform fear and resistance into creative fuel
Simple practices for listening to your authentic voice and wisdom
How to identify your unique creative pathways (are you "top down" or "bottom up"?)
Techniques for creating sacred time and space that invite inspiration
How to embrace uncertainty and "not knowing" as creative doorways
Ways to integrate both your logical and artistic intelligence
How to tell when you're writing from your true self versus trying too hard
The magic of desire as your book's growth hormone
How to ease into your heart and access what's already there
Plus: An intimate look at how this very book was written, showing the creative process in action.
about the author
NAOMI ROSE is a Book Developer & Creative Midwife, the creator of the Writing from the Deeper Self approach. With over 30 years in the book publishing as an editor, writer, and consultant, being born into a family of writers, and a lifelong passion for healing (she’s a Healing Conductor in the Inayatiyya Sufi tradition of Hazrat Inayat Khan), she knows first-hand both the traps that many writers fall into and gentle, healing, self-affirming ways out. She wrote Starting Your Book to help anyone with a book in their heart bring it out in a way that heals both them and their readers.
about Starting Your Book
In this deeply compassionate guide to book writing, Naomi Rose offers an alternative to conventional writing approaches that often leave aspiring authors paralyzed by blank pages and rigid outlines. Drawing from her "Writing from the Deeper Self" approach developed over more than two decades as a Book Developer & Creative Midwife, Rose presents writing as a sacred, transformative process rather than as the cranking out of a product.
The book is structured in four progressive parts:
Part I, "Answering the Call," explores the spiritual dimension of the writing impulse
Part II, "Preparing the Ground," teaches essential practices through chapters such as "Slowing Down and Listening Inside," "Why We Fear the Book-Writing Process," and "Making Sacred Time and Space for Writing"
Part III, "Knowing Your Equipment," helps writers understand their unique creative pathways in chapters such as "Engaging the Linear and Artistic Brains" and "The Magic of Desire, the Growth Hormone of Attention"
Part IV, "Writing It Down," provides practical guidance for "Easing into Your Heart" and "Accessing What Your Heart Holds in Store"
Writing with the same lyrical, heart-centered voice she advocates for her readers, Rose’s prose seamlessly weaves together practical guidance with poetic insight, creating passages that are both instructive and deeply moving. She demonstrates a masterful ability to articulate the often ineffable aspects of the creative process, using evocative metaphors, gentle wisdom, and invitations to contemplate your own unique creative process so you can discover it, name it, and work seamlessly with it.
She emphasizes that who you are (as a person, not only as a writer) is essential to your book, not incidental to the process. Addressing common writing fears rooted in early conditioning, she offers gentle practices for reconnecting with your authentic voice. Rather than handing down prescriptive formulas, this book encourages you to trust your inner guidance, work with your natural creative rhythms, and write from a place of connection rather than of forcing.
Throughout, Rose includes “practices” and “lenses” to look through that help you discover whether you're a "top-down" or "bottom-up" writer, learn to listen with all your senses, and access the deeper Self that knows what wants to be written — and who you are that’s capable of writing it. The book concludes with an intimate account of how the author wrote this very book, demonstrating the organic, non-linear process she advocates.
This is not a typical how-to writing manual. It’s a soulful invitation to approach book writing as a path of self-discovery and healing (both for yourself and your readers). The author’s warm, encouraging voice and practical wisdom make this an invaluable resource for anyone seeking to write from the heart rather than the head, and to create books that transform both writer and reader.
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THE KIRKUS REVIEW IN FULL
“Rose introduces aspiring writers to their deeper selves in order to unlock the stories residing within.
“The author, a veteran book editor, knows what it’s like to stare into the abyss of a blank page and feel totally lost and overwhelmed. She has compassion, she has empathy, and she has a plan. But unlike other writing gurus, who urge developing writers to forge ahead, blow through, and just get something down on the page, Rose’s approach urges all those answering the call to write to stop, become still, and connect to the heart. After all, the head is where all those nasty self-doubts and recriminations run merrily amok; best to bypass the head altogether and connect directly to the soul—or, as the author puts it, “if you try to ‘just get the words out,’ irrespective of the immensely rich inner realm inside you—then something essential will be missing: the interaction between you and that which is calling you to write.”
“The author stresses, in a consistently nurturing manner, that viewing the book that you desire to write as a “product” to be marketed and sold to some imagined audience isn’t going to get you there. Within Rose’s soft voice and gentle guidance are some concrete truths that are as hard as they come. “What rings true for you?” she asks in full-on earth mother mode. “If you find yourself pushing, ease up. Center back in your heart. Trust that it’s there to lead you, guide you, help you. If you don’t relate to what you’ve written, others won’t either.”
“Readers who carelessly dismiss little gems like that as esoteric woo-woo wrongfully applied to the two-fisted task of writing are doing themselves—and their potential readers—a real disservice. There are plenty of writing ‘boot camps’ out there that burgeoning authors can throw themselves into headlong; Rose urges her readers to instead breathe in, lead with the heart, and come to the empowering realization that there is nothing that must be forced onto those stark white pages.
“A thoroughly illuminating and instructive take on the craft of writing.”
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WHAT READER-WRITERS ARE SAYING:
“Reading your book was like receiving a comforting hug of encouragement. I love everything about it: the way you’ve organized it; the crisp, succinct words of advice that don’t hit you over the head; and the gentle, thought-provoking exercises. The connection of writing and the heart ~ of the practice of writing as a way to get in touch with the divinity in ourselves ~ how true! How could this elude us, ever? Once you have this treasure in your being, you realize how clear it all is ~ why we write, why it matters.” — Jane Majkiewicz, writer, editor, literary agency emeritus
“I just loved your book. It made me cry. I felt like, ‘She wrote this book just for me, personally.’ I took it a little at a time, so I could chew on it. This book just stays at my bedside. It’s like a bible you have on a table beside you. For me to be so captured….” — Karen Pearson
“This book was very helpful to get over myself and find the confidence to just start writing. Rose gets it right about what freezes up the imagination and passion, and she offers good insights to help one get over the challenge of the blank page. Her book is the nurturing teacher you always dreamed of that would coax and praise you to reveal your heart.” — Amadeus
“I have been very comforted by your words. I feel a blessed permission to regroup and connect within again.” —Shelley Klammer, author, Collage for Self-Discovery
“The Deeper Self approach absolutely works! It's an artistic way of writing.” — Erik Carlberg
“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.” —Sarah Beaber (This “conversation” appears at the end of the book)
THE JOURNEY AWAITS YOU
Starting Your Book offers a unique path to writing a book, inviting you into a relationship with your deepest creative self so the blank page becomes a doorway to discovery.
If you've been feeling the call to write but find yourself hesitating at the threshold, this guide will help bring forth your Inner Guide.
begin your book-writing journey today:
STARTING YOUR BOOK:
navigating the blank page by attending to what’s inside you
PRINT: $17.95 USD / E-BOOK: $10.99 USD
COME HOME TO THE WRITER WITHIN
STARTING YOUR BOOK is part of the “Creative Process” series, which also includes
Browse the complete
"Books to Bring You Home to Yourself" collection
You’ll also find helpful writing resources, writing meditations, and curated healing resources (think flower essences for writers) to support your creative journey. See the “Hidden Treasures” just below.
