Build Your Author Engine Challenge Day 4 - Build ONE Fix

You're not building the entire business. You're just fixing one door.

Here’s what we’ve worked on so far in our Build Your Author Engine Challenge

Day 1 was figuring out what your archetype is.

Day 2 is figuring out how to make your brand fit to you.

Day 3 is finding your energy leak.

Day 4 is building a fix.

You Found the Leak. Now What?

Yesterday, some of you named your energy leak for the first time. And I watched a few of you do it in the comments and I just want to say — that takes guts. Naming the thing that’s eating your fuel is hard because a lot of times, the thing eating your fuel is something you love. Your kids. Your partner. Your sense of responsibility. Your desire to be perfect. Your next great idea.

I know a lot of people—authors, too— who refuse to let go of whatever this leak is because it’s a part of their identity. Without this, they’re less of a person. Or they’re less of the person that makes them special.

So, I have to ask… is that thing that makes you special keeping you in the rut you’re currently in? If so, how comfortable is this rut and why do you want to get out of it?

That’s a legitimate question. Some people and authors discover that they don’t actually need nor want to get out of the rut. They like it there. They just need to not get stuck in it.

Here’s the thing about ruts that most people don’t understand: ruts are still pathways in a direction. The only viable path isn’t always up. Sometimes, it’s just further down the road or on to the next horizon.

That’s important to note because not everyone has the same goals. And not everyone is going to reach their goals by doing the same things. So, when you’re looking at the thing that’s holding you back, take a look at how it shapes you and how you identify with it. Is it something you’re married to and how badly do you want to keep it?

Example because this is a big one.

I lost my daughters when I divorced my mother. I’m a Heartweaving Mythmaker who was going full redemption, re-construction, re-defining hero arc on herself. My art and books all took on that “gotta get my kids back” route and my focus was in finding a way to get my kids back.

It wasn’t just my brand or the stories I wrote. It was my identity. I didn’t do a great job of branding that because I had no freakin’ clue what I was doing, but it was my identity.

Twenty years later, I didn’t get my kids, they’re grown, I’ve got step-kids who I got to help raise, and now? I don’t want that identity anymore. I want a new one.

The thing that held me back was my attachment to my parenting arc. I failed several times and but gained valuable life-lessons that I’ve shared with others and they’ve succeeded. And that’s great. With that parenting arc came limiting beliefs I couldn’t shake, mindsets that kept me small, and a ton of other things I just couldn’t overcome.

Because I had to live through them. I wasn’t overcoming them. I was living, learning, processing, and growing.

Are you doing the same?

So, when you’re looking at the things that are holding you back—and some of them are personal as hell. I’m a mother who failed her children. That’s like saying I burned Jesus. Which I didn’t. Okay. But when you’re a mother who failed her children, it’s… OMG. The stigma is real. So… again, when you’re looking at the things that are holding you back, don’t say to yourself, “I need to get over this,” or “I need to be more than this.”

That’s… eyeroll false. Stories are about people who transform throughout the tale you’re spinning. You are a character in your own story and you deserve a transformation arc as well.

Okay! So! We’re looking at the things that are holding you back and we’re looking for one fix. What I’m saying is here that sometimes you are not the thing you have to fix. We’re looking for something smaller today, something that will move the needle and keep you moving. Or get you moving if you stalled.

The Breakdown

Heartweavers, your fix is a boundary. One boundary. And I need you to hear me: it will feel selfish. It’s not. It’s survival.

Look at what you wrote yesterday about your energy leak. Who or what was draining you before you sit down to write? Now build one wall. Just one. “I don’t check my phone for 30 minutes before writing time.” “I close the bedroom door and no one interrupts unless someone is bleeding.” “I stop processing my partner’s day until after my writing session.” Pick the one that would protect the most fuel and say it out loud. Today. To someone. Not just in your head. Your Heartweaver brain will negotiate you out of any boundary that only lives in your head.

Wildscribes, your fix is a re-entry point. You identified the moment trust broke and you left. Today, I don’t want you to fix that. I want you to build a way back in that doesn’t require you to face the thing that broke you.

Find one scene in your manuscript that you’re still excited about. Not the one that stalled you. A different one. Maybe it’s a scene you haven’t written yet. Maybe it’s a chapter you love and want to polish. That scene is your trust anchor. Next time you sit down, start there. Not at the broken place. At the alive place. Build momentum before you face the hard part. Wildscribes don’t do well starting from resistance. You start from attraction. Find the thing that attracts you back to the story and tape a note to your laptop: “Start here.”

Mythmakers, your fix is a deletion. I know. I KNOW. You just felt your entire body resist that word. But hear me out.

Look at your last week. Count the hours you spent on your manuscript versus the hours you spent on everything else author-related. Testing tools. Redesigning your website. Building a spreadsheet. Researching a new marketing strategy. Optimizing your process.

Now delete one. Not all of them. One. Close one tab you’ve had open for two weeks. Cancel one project you keep telling yourself you’ll get to. Unsubscribe from one newsletter that keeps giving you new ideas you don’t have time to implement. Reclaim those hours. Give them back to the manuscript. Your book doesn’t need a better system, fellow Mythmaker. Your book needs you in the chair with the document open and your fingers on the keys.

LoreKeepers, your fix is a question. Look at your current process — your schedule, your word count target, your marketing routine, your release plan. Find the one piece that feels heaviest right now. The one that used to feel like discipline and now feels like dragging.

Ask yourself: does this still serve me, or am I serving it?

If you’re serving it — if you’re grinding through it because “that’s the plan” and not because it’s actually working — change it. One variable. Not the whole system. Adjust your word count target. Shift your marketing day. Push your release date by a month. You earned the right to question the system. Use it. The system serves you. Not the other way around.

How the Fuck Do I Get This into My Author Engine?

Your engine needs maintenance, not an overhaul. Maintenance. Like changing the oil or rotating the tires. You don’t rebuild the entire engine because one thing is leaking. You find the leak, you patch it, and you keep driving.

That’s what today’s fix is. A patch. A doorstop. One small change that protects your fuel so you have enough to actually write.

Here’s how to make it stick:

Write it down. Not in your head. On paper. On a sticky note. On your bathroom mirror. On the back of your hand. Somewhere you will see it every single day.

Tell someone. Your writing partner. Your spouse. Your critique group. Post it in the comments below. Put it on your wall. You should see mine. I’ll post a picture of it tomorrow. When a fix lives only in your head, your brain will negotiate you out of it within 48 hours. When you say it out loud, it becomes real.

Implement it tomorrow. Not next week. Not when things calm down. Tomorrow. One day. Try it for one day and see what happens. If it works, do it again the next day. If it doesn’t, come back and we’ll find a different fix.

Where To Start

Write down:

1. Your energy leak from yesterday — the specific one.

2. The ONE fix you’re going to implement tomorrow. Keep it small. Embarrassingly small. “I will close my door for 20 minutes” is better than “I will restructure my entire morning routine.”

3. Who you’re going to tell about this fix today.

Post your one fix in the comments. Say it out loud. Make it real. I’ll reply to every one and tell you if I think it’ll hold or if you need to dig deeper.

Tomorrow is the last day. And tomorrow, we talk about what comes next.

Burn the bookmill. Build your author engine.