How Self-Integrity Increases Your Chance of Finishing a Blogged Book

Choosing to blog a book is a commitment made to yourself. You promise yourself that you will write your book manuscript in post-sized bits that you publish on your blog until you’ve completed at least 50 percent of your first draft. You also commit to continue blogging until you finish the manuscript (on or off the blog) and release your published book…and for a long time after that, too. Even if you told your blog readers, friends, or writing buddies of your plans, and see them as accountability partners, it’s your self-integrity that increases your chances of finishing your blogged book.

You only need to report your progress to yourself—no one else. And by keeping your promise to yourself, you demonstrate self-integrity.

Self-integrity matters…a lot. Yet, many writers and bloggers who blog books don’t have integrity—at least not with themselves. And that’s why they quit before they finish.

How do I know this? Numerous bloggers and writers have told me they gave up.

Consider the participants in NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), who promise themselves they will write a book in a month. The NaNoWriMo organization reported one year  it had 287,327 participants but only 35,387 “winners.” That means that only 29% of the writers who began novels during the event actually finished them.

In the same way, writers take a blogged book project with high hopes. They promise themselves they will start and finish their blogged book. And the majority start…but don’t finish.

They lack self-integrity. So, these writers fail to keep their word to themselves.

Do You Keep Your Promises?

Let’s say you committed to blogging a book. But how serious are you about that commitment? How likely are you to keep your word to yourself?

Not sure?

Look back at how many times you’ve promised yourself you would do something, like write daily, stick to a diet, exercise regularly, or stay in contact with your friends. And how many of those times did you…or didn’t you…keep the promise? Or how many times have you tried to write a book in a month or blog a book—or even consistently publish to your blog—and never finished the project at all…let alone in that time frame?

Most people don’t take their promises to themselves seriously, so you aren’t alone. Like them, I bet you keep your commitments to others, though.

Think about the promises you made to family, friends, coworkers, or others. Did you keep your word? Did you do so more often than you kept your word to yourself? I bet you did, and that’s integrity.

The Damage Created by Lack of Self-Integrity

Lack of self-integrity has serious repercussions. In fact, not keeping your commitments to yourself lowers your levels of self-esteem and confidence. Therefore, each time you lack self-integrity, you make it harder to keep your word to yourself the next time.

You will have good intentions of following through on your commitment, but you won’t believe you can do it deep down inside. And eventually, you’ll let yourself off the hook. In other words, you’ll find an excuse, like “I couldn’t finish blogging my book because the dog got sick, (I had a work deadline, we were on vacation, etc.)…”.

So, if you promise yourself that you will blog your book, keep that promise. Be self-integral, and write and publish posts consistently until you achieve your goal. Do that, and you increase your levels of self-confidence and self-esteem.

Then, you’ll find it easier to complete your blogged book project. Additionally, you can keep your blog updated consistently. Finally, your increased level of self-integrity will help you write consistently all year long.

Your Identity Determines Your Results

One of the best ways to become self-integral involves choosing an identity. (Yes…you can do that!) Then, be congruent with the identity you have chosen.

For instance, if you want to be a writer—a person who writes—writing daily is an action that aligns with that identity. But, if you have historically been an inconsistent writer, as long as you choose to maintain that identity, you will write sporadically. Writing now and then will be congruent with your identity.

Decide who you want to be. Then do the things that person would do, and you will create the results you desire.

Be someone who finishes what they start. If you then decide to blog a book, you’ll do exactly that.

Or choose to be self-integral. With that identity, you will keep your promises to yourself. And, as a result, you will do what you say you are going to do. In this case, blog your book or blog consistently.

7 Strategies for Finishing a Blogged Book Project

Beyond self-integrity and identity, other strategies can help you complete your blogged book project.

1. Don’t bite off more than you can chew. Make the project doable, so you don’t bail on your promise to yourself. Don’t promise yourself that you will publish five posts per week if you know you don’t have the time each week to write enough of the manuscript to make that possible. Choose a schedule that sets you up for success. Choose a  manageable commitment—one you can keep.
2. Make it a stretch.  If you commit to blogging your book but doing so in a time frame that feels too easy, you won’t challenge yourself. A stretch goal asks you to move out of your comfort zone but still feels doable. And when you accomplish that goal, your confidence level increases. Why? Because you did what you said you would do!
3. Be realistic. I’m all for optimism, which leans toward being unrealistic, but not when deciding on a book-blogging goal. When you choose to blog a book, you must feel confident that you have the bandwidth to do so. So, determine how much time you really have to write each week. Then, evaluate how many hours you need to publish one post based on your book manuscript. Create a schedule based on that calculation.
4. Keep your promise to yourself. Once you commit to blogging your book, don’t give yourself an out! Be self-integral. Period. Do what you said you would do—even when life threatens to get in the way. Complete your book project in the amount of time you chose. Then you’ll have the confidence and the competence to stick to other deadlines.
5. Find an accountability partner. If you believe you don’t have the self-integrity to start and finish your blogged book project, increase your level of accountability—to someone else. To prevent yourself from backing out at some point, hook up with another blogger or writer who is blogging a book, too. (You can also be accountable to a non-writer.) Both of you can report on your progress daily or weekly and keep each other on track. Your accountability partner needs to be firm with you! They should not let you off the hook.) You can use your blog readers as accountability partners, but they won’t typically reach out and ask where your next blogged-book installment is…unless you’ve got readers who eagerly await every single post.
6. Be a person who finishes what they start. Choose this as your identity. Then do what that person would do…write and publish posts consistently from manuscript start to finish. That’s how you will achieve the results you desire—a finished blogged book project.
7. Celebrate completion. A great way to impress on your brain that you can and do keep your promises to yourself is to acknowledge them. Do something to celebrate your new level of self-integrity as well as your writing accomplishment. Then turn around and keep writing and blogging!

No one takes on a blogged book project with the intention of quitting partway through. But you can increase your chances of completing it if you intend to be a self-integral person. Then, if you say you will start and finish your blogged book project, you will.

Do you have the self-integrity to blog your book…and continue blogging afterward? Tell me in a comment below. And please share this post with another writer or on social media. Also, if you need some support blogging your book, reach out or join the Nonfiction Writers’ University for group Author Coaching.

Photo courtesy of evgenyatamanenko.