Every book you have ever loved started the same way. As a quiet idea inside somebody who was not sure they could pull it off. What you see on the shelf is the finished thing. What you don't see is everything that happened on the way there. The self-doubt, the identity shifts, the moments of waiting to quit. Welcome to Healthy Mind Healthy Life, where we have honest conversations about what it takes to live well. Not just on the outside, but from the inside out. I'm Yusuf, your host, and this is part of Healthy Mind by Awake Podcast Network. My guest today has walked this route more times than most people can imagine. Lana Makara is an award-winning international best-selling author and writing coach with over 40 published titles and a million books sold. She also hosts her own podcast, the Fiction Writers Podcast. And she brings something great to this conversation. She does not just teach writing craft, she understands the inner journey that makes finishing possible. It's genuinely great to have you here.

Thank you so much. I'm delighted to be with you today.

Perfect. So before we get into the deeper stuff, I'm curious about something. With over 40 books behind you, does the start of a new project still feel the same as it did the very first time, or something has changed?

Well, that's such a good question. Yeah. Um, I always say that writing books is like having children. It doesn't matter how many you have, you're still excited for the next one. And that is how I feel about it. When I I've got three book ideas right now that I've got outlined and I've been thinking over, and um I'm just waiting for the chance to sit down and start working them out. So yeah, it's almost like an addiction after a while. I mean, um, you just get so much um fulfillment from not only publishing the book, but the process of writing where you're learning things and you're putting your thoughts together and this whole mental process that goes into putting your thoughts together, like in an orderly, logical way, and looking for the the gems, you know, the nuggets of truth that you want to share. And and all of that is just so exciting to me because I'm always looking for fresh ideas and something different, and and when I find it, you know, it is like hidden gold.

Yeah. And I love that even after all the all of that experience, there's still something that has to be worked through, and that is actually really reassuring to hear. There's this image that circulates about writers, especially successful ones, that uh they are creatively confident, self-assured, that the words just flow for them. But from what I understand about the work you do, that's really the actual story. I want to know what is the biggest myth people believe about what it takes to finish a book?

Wow, I I think one of the biggest myths is that once you've done one, once you've done one book, then it suddenly becomes easy after that. Um, nothing could be further from the truth. Now we do learn, we do learn some things about how to organize your material. And if you're writing a story, a fiction story, then you learn how to do the dialogue and all that. But when it comes to your idea, your concept, you still have to work that out. There, there's no way to skip that. If you wanted to try to shortcut, you know, you could try that, but it the work is gonna suffer. The work is definitely gonna suffer. You you really have to put in the blood, sweat, and tears into the manuscript. And and I believe, in my experience, the energy of the writer goes into the work. So if you're excited, the book is gonna feel exciting. If you're bored or you're frustrated or you're angry, then the book is gonna feel frustrated, angry, all those things. So it's important that we capture our um inspiration. And so when I get up in the morning, I don't always write. And people are shocked, they think I write all the time. I don't. Yeah, I get up in the morning and I ask myself, I literally ask myself, am I gonna be able to write well today? And I will actually get a sense that yes, I'm ready. Let's go. Or I get a sense of uh not so, I'm just not feeling it today. And if I'm not feeling it, I'm not writing because I want my energy in the manuscript to be strong, positive, and exciting to the reader. So, yes, I do write a lot, but I don't write like on a schedule, I don't write on a calendar. I follow my inspiration, and really, I can get so much more done when I'm inspired than I could do if I'm feeling bored or I'm upset about something. I get so much more done when I'm inspired. And by the way, my inspiration sometimes hits me at three o'clock in the morning.

You know, there's this famous quote of uh William Wordsworth. I I'm not sure, um I just forgot. And uh it is that the poetry, or I extend it to other levels of art as well, is just an overwhelming thoughts, overwhelming expression of ideas collected in tranquility. And uh that is what precisely you you just mentioned, so I thought I mention it.

Yes, yes, and I cry and I laugh and I feel the emotions of whatever it is I'm I'm writing because I want it to feel real to the reader, and the reader knows. It's um it's amazing how much we embed ourselves into the work.

And Lara, Lana, you just described this as resilience and identity work. And I think that phrasing is really interesting because most of most people would expect a writing coach to talk about structure or craft. What made you realize that the inner work was where the real blocks lived?

Oh, such a great question. I wrote my first book for 14 years. 14 years, yes, one four. And I pulled it apart and did it again and pulled it apart and did it again. And about, I guess about 12 years in, I went through a personal transformation. I went through a major shift in my life, and my identity actually shifted a little bit. And you know, when uh that happened to me, all of a sudden, I got this beautiful idea of how to bring the book together and what to add. And I did that, and within two years, my book was published and I had it in my hands. And so after that, I always say, if you're stuck in your book, you might want to look inside because there may be something in your heart or in your mind or subconscious mind that is holding you back. And what I know now is that I was so shut down emotionally. I was very abused as a child, and I had shut down my emotions. And when I got relieved from that and I was able to express myself more, all of a sudden my characters started to express themselves more, and they came to life because I came to life. So there's really some genuine material there to look at yourself and where am I in my life right now? To see if maybe that isn't part of what you're experiencing with um, you know, with a with this being stuck or blocked.

And that is striking because it connects to something so much broader than books. The question of whether I am really allowed to call myself this thing, you know, a writer, a creator, a person with something worth saying. And that's not a craft question. I would say that's a very deeply human question.

Yes. Yes, it all goes back to us because we project what's inside of us, we project that to the outside world and into our home and into you know whatever interactions or relationships we have. And it's just to me logical that it would go into whatever material you're creating. It could be painting, music, writing, it could be anything. But our essence is what we are delivering to people, and then on the other side of it, the people who resonate with that energy, they also resonate with the work. They look at the painting and go, oh, isn't that amazing? They read the book and they say, Oh, that touched me. Because we're on the same vibration, the same wavelength, and we're communicating at a deeper level. I love it. I love it, because we are we are communicating with words in the book, but we're also communicating with the energy, the receiving and the give the the giving and receiving of it. It feels like magic. Yeah, yeah.

Sometimes being working on a book for a year, maybe two. The people they sit down to write and something just stops them. They say it's time or the kids or life. But in your experience, what is actually happening in that moment?

I found a couple of things for me. First, uh, one thing is that there's a question you don't want to answer. You came to a point in the book where there's something there that you need to deal with it. You need to, and if it's a story, there's a problem that needs more input, something to happen, and you're not ready to really go there. Uh, sometimes I have actually killed off a character because I get to this point and I know the story needs some push, it needs some energy, it needs some interest here. And I go through my list and you know, think, well, I could do this, I could do this, but none of them have the emotional charge to do what I want. And then I come to the point where I say, This, we got to kill somebody because that's emotional. People are gonna get upset and they need to be a little, you know, upset. So um I will make a big change like that. Other times I realize that, you know, if it's not fiction, if it's nonfiction, I realize that the um the question is more along the lines of I have my ideas rolling here and I've got my outline, and here is a spot where there's a hole or something's not working, not matching. And I've got to sit down and figure that out. And something inside of us goes, uh, I don't want to do that. I don't want to do that right now. Um, there's a couple things you could do. First of all, you could just skip it. I do that. If I come to a spot and whether fiction or nonfiction, I come to a spot and something is holding me back. I just skip it. I go to a later thing in the book and work on that. And while I'm working on something later, then my mind is mulling over this the problem that I need to solve. And I will come back. I'll come back to it in a week, in a month, whenever I come back to it. By that point, I'll be prepared for going on.

Yeah. And for someone listening who does have a book inside them, a story, a memoir, an idea they have been carrying for years. And they want to start building that resilience and that identity as a writer. Where do you actually suggest they begin?

To build resilience as a writer, yeah. Yes. Um, resilience it comes from inside of you. You what you need to do is is go into meditation or or contemplation. Ask yourself seriously, why am I doing this? Am I doing it because I want to make a lot of money? I want to be famous. Am I doing this because I have something burning inside me that needs to be expressed? I have a message or an insight that I need to get out. That right there, where you have that message or something inside of you, that's what's going to keep you going. If you're looking for external motivation, money, fame, impressing somebody, those things do not keep you going. You run out of steam. Eventually, you're going to get tired and go to something else. And so it's when you pull it from inside. And then, believe me, in that 14 years, I wanted to quit so many times. I would take my manuscript and it was in paper form, and I would put it in a drawer, close the drawer, and say, I'm done. I'm so tired of this. And within a couple of months, all of a sudden, somehow, that manuscript would end up out on the table. I'm looking at it again. And it was almost like I was watching myself, going, What are you doing? You pulled it out again. But I just had to. I just had to. Yeah.

And I think what strikes me is that you are really treating the whole person, not just the manuscript. The story on the page is connected to the story the writer believes about themselves. And you can't separ you can't fully separate those two things.

Oh, yeah, absolutely. And and that's the difference between being someone who just wants to write one book and being a career author. A career author is always looking at other ideas, bigger ideas, more things that that you could express. And the ideas are constantly flowing. And I have a notebook that I write down my ideas. I write them on paper in a notebook because a notebook can't have coffee spilled on it, or it can't get a virus. I know it's safe. And I store them up. I just keep packing in ideas. And I know I have more in there already than I can ever do in my lifetime, but I'm not stopping. I'm gonna keep adding ideas because they're like they're like diamonds, they're so precious. And so seeing yourself as someone who has something to tell, something to share beyond just the book, I think we all have brilliance and genius inside of us. Yeah, we just need to let it out.

Lana, for people who want to connect with you or just want to learn more about your work, where can they find you?

My website, lana makira.com, l-a-n-a, amazonmary, c A R A.com, and look me up on LinkedIn or Facebook. I'm there.

Perfect. And to everyone listening, all these links are in the show notes. So just go and check those out. Lana, is there any last message that you want to leave us with?

If you have in your heart that you have something to share, whether it's painting, writing, music, whatever it may be, you're not making it up. It's not just a fantasy. That's something that's inside of you. That's reality, that's your identity. So let it shine. Let it shine. Don't let anyone discourage you from being who you truly are.

Lana, thank you so much for this. It was honest and grounding in all the right ways. To everyone listening, whatever you are carrying, a half-started chapter, an idea that's been waiting, a version of yourself you haven't stepped into yet. I hope today's conversation gave you a little more room to believe it is still possible. Because it is. This is Healthy Mind, Healthy Life, part of Healthy Mind by Avek Podcast at work. Take this one forward. Share it with someone who might need this reminder today. And we'll see you the next time.