Abbie Chatfield has revealed the real reason why she stopped writing her book about feminism four years ago.
The Bachelor star, 29, secured a deal to write a feminism ‘handbook’ called S**T, short for ‘So, let’s unpack that’, in 2020, but later returned the advance and it was never released.
Now, Abbie has revealed why she ‘just couldn’t’ finish writing the book as she finally picks back up on the project again after a four-year hiatus.
Speaking on her It’s A Lot podcast, Abbie admitted she initially gave up on her book because she was worried her ‘basic feminist ideas’ would become ‘irrelevant’.
She explained that she was worried she would view the release as ‘outdated’ in five to ten years’ time and said she was too much of a ‘perfectionist’ with her writing.
‘I ended up giving [my book] advance back because I just couldn’t write it. There was a lot of pressure on me, from myself, to make it perfect in a first draft way,’ she shared.
‘I think my brain is programmed to want perfectionism from the moment I write it down. Previously, it was hard for me to write anything because I’d look at it from a lens of ”is that the most intelligent take?”
‘This is going to be in a book, is that going to be outdating in five or ten years? I think that it probably will be outdated. It’s a book about basic feminist ideas and I think it will be, not outdated, but irrelevant.
Abbie Chatfield has revealed the real reason why she stopped writing her book about feminism four years ago
‘My worries were that I’d say things that in ten years or five years, you’d read it and you go ”yeah, like no s**t”.’
The FBoy Island host compared it to reading articles about feminism from decades earlier, saying that while the ideas were important, they are now ‘outdated’ as gender equality has taken strides forward.
‘But obviously for the moment it’s important and back then, they were important and they were revolutionary. I’m not saying my book is going to be revolutionary but I’m putting less pressure on it,’ she went on.
‘Books become outdated, [my] podcast I’m sure has moments of outdated where I listen back and go ”that was completely wrong, what the f**k was I talking about?”’
While she hasn’t secured another publishing deal for her book yet, Abbie has started writing again after a four-year hiatus and said she is putting less ‘pressure’ on herself this time around.
‘I’m approaching it with less criticism and I’m just word-vomiting and it’s going OK. I still haven’t resold the rights to it, to a publisher because I just don’t want to do the same thing again,’ she added.
Four years ago, Abbie had described her book – which had been slated for release in July 2021 – as ‘an entry level handbook for my baby feminists’.
‘Basically, I’m going to unpack all the sexist bullshit that exist and explain how I deconstruct certain pervasive patriarchal narratives,’ she said at the time.
Her latest venture back into writing comes after Abbie was forced to cancel one of her upcoming live shows due to low ticket sales.
Speaking on her It’s A Lot podcast , Abbie admitted she gave up on her book because she was worried her ‘basic feminist ideas’ would become ‘irrelevant’
The podcaster shared the bad news to her Instagram Stories last week, telling fans that she will no longer be taking her speaking tour to Port Macquarie.
‘I have some really bad news for Port Macquarie and that is that we’ve had to cancel the show,’ she began.
‘We had to make a decision yesterday with the numbers. It would actually cost me more to go to Port Macquarie… it would actually cost me money.
‘I’m really sorry we’ve had to cancel. I’m really upset obviously but you can get tickets for Newcastle even though that’s three hours away so yeah, I’m really sorry.’
The television star went on to tell those who bought tickets they’ll get a refund via email, and she encouraged them to get tickets to her other gigs.
‘If you’d like to please get tickets to other shows that would be amazing but I’m having to decide which ones to cancel as time goes along, so I’m really sorry to everyone who bought tickets,’ she concluded.
Abbie she is set to take to the stage to present her Trauma Dump Tour in regional centres across Australia in October and November.
It is the second time in a year that Abbie has hit the road with the Trauma Dump Tour after a successful series of gigs in 2023.