What Writing a Book Really Looks Like (Spoiler: It's Not Under the Tuscan Sun)

The dreamy writer's life—villa, cuppa, rolling hills—isn't how books get made. Here's what writing a book is really like, and why the reality is better.

When you think about being a writer, what's the vision?

For me, it looked like the film Under the Tuscan Sun—based on Frances Mayes' memoir of the same name. The story goes that she was traveling through Italy, found an old stone home, bought it somewhat on a whim, did extensive renovations while leaving behind everyone and everything she knew, and then wrote each day at a table overlooking the rolling Tuscan hills—filling the rest of her time immersing herself in the culture and her new community.

Writing, to me, looked like a gorgeous morning routine with a cuppa and a view, and a day spent living life vibrantly and fully.

Here's my confession: the reality is, I don't even want to write a book. What I wanted was that lifestyle.

But you actually want to write the book.

So as I've been reflecting on what it means to be fully myself—without the visions superimposed by media and society about what that's supposed to look like—I find myself wondering about you.

What does it look like when you envision yourself writing your book?

I ask knowing that the vision often doesn't match the reality. And in that gap, there's so much beauty.

Our authors write around their lives.

They aren't writers and only writers. They're parents. They're business owners. They're spouses and siblings and empty nesters and employees. They're navigating major life changes and transitions, all while writing their book.

They don't tend to get an idealized version of the book-writing journey. And that—that is the magic of it.

It's one of the things I love most about working with authors. There is no set way to go about any of it. The process of conceptualizing, outlining, writing, and editing your book is driven entirely by your needs, your time constraints, your availability, your best working environment.

There's no villa requirement. No perfect morning routine prerequisite. No clause that says the words only count if they were written with a view.

The reality is better than the fantasy.

The Tuscan dream is lovely. Hold onto it if it brings you joy—the cozy mornings, the cuppa, the view. But don't let it become the bar your real writing life has to clear before it's allowed to begin.

Because the book you write at the kitchen table, in the twenty minutes before the school run, in the voice notes you record on your commute, between client calls and bedtime—that book carries your actual life in it. The texture, the constraints, the realness. That's not a lesser version of the dream. That's the thing that makes the book worth reading.

So while holding onto your vision of being a writer is dreamy and lovely and all things cozy, the reality will be even better than you could have imagined.

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At Soul Spark, we don't ask you to rearrange your life to write your book. We help you write it around the life you actually have. If you're ready to begin where you are, let's talk.

This is the kind of thing I write about every week — the real, unglamorous, deeply human business of writing a book around an actual life. My inbox notes go out to authors all over the world, and my list always gets them first. If you'd like them landing with you each week, sign up here. Michelle Ireland, founder of Soul Spark Publishing