What Do Hiking 900 Miles and Writing Book 2 Have in Common?

Three to Five More Years, One Trail at a Time

Have you ever heard of “mapping” a national or state park? I am working on my first map of the Smokies, which means I am slowly hiking every trail, end to end, in the Great Smoky Mountains. I started in 2023. When I finish, I’ll be considered a 900-Miler. 

The task could take a year or a decade, depending on many factors. I was on a roll, hiking about 2-3 trails per month before my husband Jeff was diagnosed with cancer. Still, thanks to his good attitude and intermittent respites from treatments, I’ve been able to stack up mileage. I think I’m at 180 miles, with only about 820 to go! 

There are stretches when I can hike many miles in a single month, and then stretches when months go by with zero miles gained. The good news is that mapping the Smokies doesn’t require consistency. When I finish, I get a medal, no matter when that finish date is. 

What matters most is persistence over time, long after the initial excitement of the idea has worn off.

I Am Relentless

In the book Unf*ck Yourself, Gary John Bishop's sixth assertion names exactly what a project like hiking 900 miles requires. I must be relentless. Relentless does not mean never resting or never struggling (or never pausing to take care of life). Bishop is describing the practice of returning to the work again and again, especially on the weeks when returning to it is the last thing you feel like doing. I’ve lost my trail legs many, many times.

Book 2 Is a Different Kind of Endurance Test

Writers who plan a single book usually have some version of relentlessness available to them by instinct. Writers who plan a book series, and I talk to a growing number of them, discover a different kind of endurance test entirely. Book 2does not carry the same adrenaline as book one. The readers who loved your first book are now watching to see if you can do it again, and the blank page for Book 2 can feel heavier than the blank page for book one ever did, precisely because you know exactly how much work is buried waiting in that vast space.

Relentless authors are the ones who write Book 2 anyway, on the weeks when it does not feel exciting and the weeks when their confidence dips lower than it did during book one. They are the ones who return to a stalled manuscript after a six-month gap when their business revenue takes priority, a family member needs help, or a surprising opportunity demands attention. Instead of quietly letting the dream die in a folder on their laptops, the relentless and successful Book 2 authors return to the work. This has very little to do with motivation, because motivation comes and goes the way Tennessee weather does. 

Relentlessness has everything to do with deciding in advance that you will keep showing up regardless of what the motivation is doing that particular week.

I hike, at best, at around 2 miles per hour. Many of the 900-Milers I know won’t even hike with me because I can’t keep up, and that’s okay. As my writing buddy Stanford loves to say, “Hike your own hike.” He’s right. We all get something different out of the experiences of climbing 8-mile trails or writing our stories.

Being slow is not wrong. Being interrupted is a fact of life. Being ON THE TRAIL, though, still lacing up our boots or sitting down to the keyboard, means we are in the game and serious.  

A book, a series, or a legacy body of work gets built exactly the same way, not in one triumphant weekend, but in the accumulated weight of every time we show back up.

Remember your big 900-Miler goal. What is it? Say it aloud. Do you have a map? Where are you now, between the start and summit? Could you use some help, encouragement, or gummy bears to keep you going? (Hikers love gummy bears.)

Your Next Step

If you are in the middle of a long project and the relentlessness has worn thin, a Publishing Pathway Call with one of our Publishing Advisors can help you figure out what showing back up looks like from wherever you currently stand.

You can schedule that call here, and my team will take the next step with you: https://calendly.com/d/cwzb-ggb-pmx/publishing-pathway-call 

Books live forever!

Jody

P.S. Often, my hiker hurdle is finding someone to go with me, but now that Scotty is home schooled, I may add “Hiking 101” to his curriculum. Wish me luck!