Charms compares fear of writing to a tourist afraid to leave the hotel without a map. You don't need perfect instructions to start. Even a rough outline puts you ahead of most people who never begin.
The next, the tourists without a map. This is the type of person who says, no, it's not that I want to write a charms book, but I don't know what the next step is, so I'd better not move. It's like if you went to Paris on a trip and you didn't leave the hotel. I mean, there's the Eiffel Tower. You can get lost, explore, find your way, meet people, but you don't leave the hotel because they didn't give you a map. And you say, I won't leave the hotel without a map because I want to know exactly where I'm going. Seriously, it's good to have a map. It's good to have a guidebook. But what happens if you're exploring and along the way of that exploration, someone gives you a map? Moving around without a map sometimes makes you discover things that you were very close to seeing. Sometimes you fall in love with a single way of creating a single way of seeing your book. And you say, I'm not starting until someone tells me how to do it. No, but I'm telling you right now that as long as you're writing, it's fine. As long as you're writing, as long as you've already decided on an idea, that's fine. As long as you've made a sort of outline, you're already further ahead than 90% of the people in the world who want to write a book and never even get to that step. That's why I also like to be your guide, your cheerleader, and your little guy. Because I know that sometimes you need that person by your side who tells you, don't worry, we're doing well here. No, it doesn't have to be perfect. As long as you take this step, you're doing great.
