My father, Don Sanders, is Vietnam veteran. For years, we have talked about putting together a book about his experiences in Vietnam. Last year, we decided this was a great time to get started.

After all, he’s 75, and I’m no spring chicken, either!

Father’s Day of last year, I gave him a nice leather journal and asked him to start writing down some stories from Vietnam. I figured that he would write ten or twenty pages of notes for us to discuss, then he would verbally tell me the stories. This is how I approach most ghostwriting projects.

A couple of months later, when Dad came to my house, he handed me the leather journal. I said, “What’s this?” I was confused and didn’t understand why he was giving it back to me.

Then, he explained that he’d been working almost every day to write down all his memories from Vietnam. When I opened the journal, I saw that he had filled nearly every page, top to bottom. Then, later on, he gave me even more pages he wrote in a notebook.

In just a couple of months, Dad had hand-written the first draft of the book—over 200 pages! And this is from a man who has struggled with multiple health problems from agent orange exposure, as well as arthritis in his hands.

I’m still in awe of this accomplishment.

So, the next time you think you can’t write one more word, or you’re feeling a little tired… remember Don Sanders, the Vietnam Veteran, who hand-wrote a book in two months.

Today’s Challenge: Think about the biggest writing challenge in front of you. How do you think my Dad would handle it?

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Edward Gibbon was one of the most famous historians of all time. As the author of the six-volume set, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, he showed the world that history could be informative and entertaining, all while making the ancient world accessible to the contemporary reader.

Gibbon was born in the county of Surrey, England, in 1737. While he was on a trip to Rome in October 1764, he was so enraptured by the history of the city that he decided to write a book about it. He later expanded the idea to include the entire Roman Empire.

At this point, Gibbon was in his late twenties. It took him twelve years to publish the first volume of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. To say it was well-received would be an understatement. The public loved it, as well as subsequent volumes, and it cemented his legacy as one of the world’s eminent and insightful historians.

When he started work on the books, he did not necessarily have this end goal in mind. In fact, he once said, “Unprovided with original learning, unformed in the habits of thinking, unskilled in the arts of composition, I resolved to write a book.”

This is the key element needed to become a writer of influence. It’s not formal education, it’s not a title, and it’s certainly not someone else’s approval. It’s simply the desire and dedication (dare we say, stubbornness?) to start a project and see it through to completion.

Do you feel unqualified? Do you feel less than ready? Do you wonder if you have what it takes? If so, don’t stress about it. Almost every single writer feels that way at the beginning of a project. Just dive in and do it anyway. The more you work at it, the more confident and motivated you will feel. And when you finish, you’ll be so glad you not only started, but you saw it through to the end.

So keep going, keep moving, and just do it anyway.

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