‘Seize the moments of happiness, love and be loved. That is the only reality in the world. All else is folly.’

Leo Tolstoy was almost completely right when he said this. What a shame, though, that he didn’t add ‘love and be loved…and write your book’. Perhaps he didn’t think of this at the time because he had already written many of the books that have made him immortal, so he wasn’t feeling the misery of knowing you have a book in you that is still waiting to be written.

For so many others, though, the book is still topping the bucket list, still something to mull over, dream about and plan for when the right moment arises.

How often do we ghostwriters hear, ‘I’ve always wanted to write a book,’ or ‘Everyone tells me I should write a book’? These statements are always delivered with great eagerness and passion. No-one ever sounds half-hearted when they confess that they would love to write a book.

We never mind how many times we hear this. Because we know, for absolute certain, that if the people who tell us of their hopes and dreams actually do write their books, it will bring them a great deal of happiness and they will never, ever regret it. No-one says, ‘I wish I’d never written my book.’ The only possible source of true regret is not writing your book.

Yet sadly all too often writing a book is something people plan to get around to – until time runs out and they realise they never did get around to it and now no-one will ever know how the story went, or what it was that inspired them to achievement or how they managed to found a business or what Great Aunt Maud said that made the whole family fall off their chairs laughing.

Writing a book is far more worthwhile than almost anything else you can do. Carl Sagan called books ‘proof that humans can work magic’. Books, he said, ‘break the shackles of time’. They outlast us in a way that nothing else ever can.

Have you ever heard of Harold Thorpe?

No?

That’s because he didn’t write a book.

His friend Elwyn White did though. He wrote a short book in 1952 about a spider saving the life of a pig. Almost 70 years later, children and adults are still loving it.

While Harold died wishing he had written the book he knew he had inside him, Elwyn left the world Charlotte’s Web, and so we think of him still, and smile our thanks for the gift he gave us.

Books beg to be written. Books bring creativity, fulfilment and joy. Books are our legacy, our gift to those we love – and to ourselves. Think of the tales not told, the dramas unremembered, the wisdom unshared, the memories forgotten when, for want of a pen (and a bit of time) the book is lost.

So, if lack of time is stopping you from writing your book, seize the moment and come to us, at United Ghostwriters. We will make the time so that you can save it and still see your book where it deserves to be – out in the world.