you through a step-by-step guide to the process. It starts with thinking about your book and structuring it before diving into the actual writing.
If you need more help, check out How to Write Non-Fiction: Turn Your Knowledge Into Words, available in ebook, print, audiobook, workbook and Large Print editions.
The more work you do upfront, the easier the book will be to produce.
I’m currently writing my eighth non-fiction book with more planned, and my process is quite defined these days. I find writing non-fiction books a ‘palate cleanser’ between novels. It’s a very different form of writing, more structured and more aimed at helping others.
This article is relevant for most non-fiction, but excludes memoir or narrative non-fiction, as they are quite specific forms.
(1) Decide on your definition of successBefore you jump into actually writing, it’s worth deciding on your own definition of success as this can be critical to whether the process is satisfying for you.
Some authors ‘just want to help people’ with their non-fiction books, others want to win literary prizes, others want to make money. It’s very unlikely that the same book will satisfy all of these desires, so you have to decide which is most important to you.
These are the main reasons why authors want to write non-fiction books in particular and some of the possible definitions of success:
(2) Decide on the specific topic for your bookYou’ll most likely have some idea of the broader aspects/topic of your book. Some examples might be:
I take reading very seriously!
Firstly, put yourself in the mind of the reader. Why do people READ non-fiction? And how does that relate to your idea?
Next, research your niche on the bookstores.You should know of 5-10 books that are similar to the book you want to write, or at least are targeted to the same audience.
Search for those books on Amazon and then look at the sub-categories on the left-hand side of the page. These are where the book sits in the virtual store. You can then click into those sub-categories and find other books that are in the same niche.
These questions should help you narrow down the specific topic you want to tackle in the book as well as your target market. Expanding on my earlier examples, the more specific topics might be:
Now you have your specific topic, you can brainstorm what areas you will explore in detail in the book. At this point, you want to go wild, and just put everything down. You’ll likely cut a lot of it out and some of your ideas might even end up in another book.
For example, when I wrote Business for Authors: How to be an Author Entrepreneur, I had a whole section on mindset. But it turned into a monster topic so I carved that part off and am currently writing a separate book on the psychology of writing.
This part of the process is where I start to use Scrivener. I create a project for the book and a document per idea. Many of those will be concatenated or discarded later but I will just write down anything that comes to mind at this stage. You can use a Word document or Evernote or physical index cards, but you do need to capture everything at this stage, even just a few words per idea.
This is also the time to focus on research and expanding your knowledge on whatever topic you’re writing on. I usually read a number of other books on the topic to get more ideas and because I’m a research junkie, I can definitely spend a lot of time on this part of the process!
Am I writing … or researching … or posing for an arty photo?!
Some authors can get stuck in this phase for way too long, so set some deadlines and make sure you keep focused on the final result. Click here for more productivity tips.
(4) Decide on your book titleI always like to know my book title upfront, but of course, you can decide on it later.
Non-fiction book titles have an advantage over fiction because they can be keyword rich and specific enough to be found through search as well as still making sense to the reader, whereas fiction is pretty much impossible to title with related keywords.
For example, my thriller, Gates of Hell, is more likely to be found by those shopping in the sub-categories of action adventure and supernatural thriller, rather than by people specifically searching for ‘gates of hell.’
Readers of non-fiction often shop by sub-category or by keyword search e.g. my book, How to Market a Book, is titled specifically for keyword search reasons and comes up at the #1 spot on Amazon for that search term.
But how do you know what readers are searching for?
Just go to Amazon and do some research using the search bar within the Kindle sub-category. Start typing and there will be a text drop-down as above that includes the most popular search terms people are looking for.
This will give you some ideas as to what people want and you may find it surprising!
I spend a good amount of time thinking about different words and checking them out this way before I decide on a title. Longer keywords (keyword phrases) are sometimes even more useful, so I will just add a letter on the end of the search e.g. gluten free a, gluten free b, gluten free c, in order to see what else is there.
Write down as many relevant keywords as you can find, even if you don’t use them in the title, as these will be useful later if you self-publish.
Choosing the right sub-categories and keywords is one of the most important aspects of self-publishing. I’ve recently used a couple of reasonably-priced reports from K-lytics to determine the data to use for new
Savebooks and also repositioning older ones. I hate fiddling around with data so it’s great to find someone who loves it and makes it easier for us all! Click here to read more about K-lytics reports.
You can also use KDP Rocket which helps you mine Amazon for keyword options.
(5) Create your first draftThe scary blank page …
You may already have a lot of material for the book in some form. If you’re a speaker on a topic, you might have a PowerPoint deck or handouts. You might have piles of notes for your research or lists of recipes. Or it might just all be in your head.
Now you have to turn that into a first draft … and this can be harder than it sounds! Most people who want to write a book never finish one and completing a first draft is usually where they fall down.
My definition of a first draft is a version of your book that can be read end to end and stands as a coherent whole. It doesn’t have “fill this in later,” or “write other section here,” in it.
Yes, it will be rough, and it will need editing, but to get to a finished book, you need a first draft to work on. Your finished book can be equated to Michelangelo’s David, a perfect statue that emerged from the rough block of marble. But first you have to create that block of marble, and for authors, that’s the first draft.
Here are some tips for getting it done:
Dictate your book.This is particularly good if you’re a speaker already and you have a lot of material in powerpoint slides or even recordings of your talks or even just rough notes. Speak into a digital recorder, create an mp3 file and then use a service like speechpad.com to get that transcribed into text, which you can then take into the editing phase.
This is what J. Thorn and I did recently to create the first draft of Co-writing a Book: Collaboration and Co-creation for Authors. We recorded a discussion around specific chapter topics (which is available as a podcast here) and then paid for transcription, which we then wrangled into book form. You can also use Dragon Dictate or other real-time dictation tools, as discussed in this podcast interview with Monica Leonelle or check out her book, Dictate Your Book.
Use timed writing sessions.This method changed my own writing life as if you allocate a specific time to write when you’re not allowed to do anything else, you WILL produce something!
I generally write first draft material away from the desk I use for other things – like blogging, podcasting, email, social media and other business stuff. I find it easier to create elsewhere so I go to a library or a coffee shop. I set my timer, plug in my earphones and turn on rain and thunderstorms and write.
For non-fiction, it can help to focus on a chapter at a time during these timed writing sessions. If you write 2000 words per session and you’re aiming for 60,000 words, it will take 30 writing sessions. Do the math and schedule the sessions. No excuses!
Monitor your progress.Early stages of the mindset book
I use Scrivener flags to indicate my progress through the draft, as per the example shown left. When I brainstorm topics and just dump words into the chapter, I leave the document as a default white. When I have ‘processed’ the chapter and written it into a first draft state, I add a yellow flag. I use blue and green flags for different parts of the editing process.
Once the whole project has yellow flags, my first draft is done and I can move into editing (covered further below).
Scrivener Project Targets
You can use Scrivener to set word count goals for the whole book and also for each writing session to keep you accountable. I’m pretty much obsessive about checking these per session as I love watching the status bar turn green!
Once you have a first draft, you can start to think seriously about the next steps.
Publishing and marketing are completely separate topics – if you want to know more on those aspects, sign up for the free Author 2.0 Blueprint which includes a mini-course and free video training.
For non-fiction authors, you will want to consider how the book fits into your existing business, or how you can use it to build one.
(6) Design and incorporate your funnel and back-end productsA ‘funnel’ is a way to direct your readers through a journey with you, preferably through your books, services and other products, so that they are a happy customer and you make a decent return.
For fiction authors, the funnel usually involves a series or books in a similar genre as well as getting people onto your email list.
For example, if you check out Stone of Fire for free on any of the online bookstores, you will then be prompted to get Day of the Vikings for free if you sign up to my email list. Stone of Fire is also the first in the 7 book ARKANE series, so you might go on and read the others if you enjoyed the first. That’s about the extent of it, and fiction authors rarely have more premium products to offer.
But non-fiction authors can design a much more lucrative funnel to back-end products, which are separate to the book.For example, our communication consultant author has a lot of potential for up-sell as she is aiming at the corporate market. She could have the following:
This is a pretty typical funnel for a non-fiction author aimed at the corporate market, but many authors aren’t selling at this level. So let’s take our gluten free cook. She could have:
If these types of business models interest you, check out How to Make a Living with Your Writing, which goes into more detail on how you can build this type of business yourself.
(7) Get a professional book cover designedYou could do this step as soon as you decide on your book title, and it’s definitely worth doing early so you can use it as marketing collateral on your website.
For non-fiction book covers:
(8) Go through the editing processMy own self-editing
A first draft is just that. You now have to go through the process of turning that draft into a professional finished product.
Here’s an overview of my own editing process:
Congratulations! You’ve now finished a non-fiction book!Need more help?If you'd like some more help on your author journey, check out:
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Establish your writing space.To write your book, you don’t need a sanctuary. In fact, I started my career on my couch facing a typewriter perched on a plank of wood suspended by two kitchen chairs.
What were you saying about your setup again? We do what we have to do.
And those early days on that sagging couch were among the most productive of my career.
Naturally, the nicer and more comfortable and private you can make your writing lair (I call mine my cave), the better.
Real writers can write anywhere.
Some authors write their books in restaurants and coffee shops. My first full time job was at a newspaper where 40 of us clacked away on manual typewriters in one big room—no cubicles, no partitions, conversations hollered over the din, most of my colleagues smoking, teletype machines clattering.
Cut your writing teeth in an environment like that, and anywhere else seems glorious.
2Assemble your writing tools.In the newspaper business, there was no time to hand write our stuff and then type it for the layout guys. So I have always written at a keyboard and still write my books that way.
Most authors do, though some hand write their first drafts and then keyboard them onto a computer or pay someone to do that.
No publisher I know would even consider a typewritten manuscript, let alone one submitted in handwriting.
The publishing industry runs on Microsoft Word, so you’ll need to submit Word document files. Whether you prefer a Mac or a PC, both will produce the kinds of files you need.
And if you’re looking for a musclebound electronic organizing system, you can’t do better than Scrivener. It works well on both PCs and Macs, and it nicely interacts with Word files.
Just remember, Scrivener has a steep learning curve, so familiarize yourself with it before you start writing.
Scrivener users know that taking the time to learn the basics is well worth it.
Tons of other book writing tools exist to help you. I’ve included some of the most well known in my blog post on book writing software and my writing tools page for your reference.
So, what else do you need?
If you are one who handwrites your first drafts, don’t scrimp on paper, pencils, or erasers.
Don’t shortchange yourself on a computer either. Even if someone else is keyboarding for you, you’ll need a computer for research and for communicating with potential agents, editors, publishers.
Get the best computer you can afford, the latest, the one with the most capacity and speed.
Try to imagine everything you’re going to need in addition to your desk or table, so you can equip yourself in advance and don’t have to keep interrupting your work to find things like:
If I were to start my career again with that typewriter on a plank, I would not sit on that couch. I’d grab another straight-backed kitchen chair or something similar and be proactive about my posture and maintaining a healthy spine.
There’s nothing worse than trying to be creative and immerse yourself in writing while you’re in agony. The chair I work in today cost more than my first car!
If you’ve never used some of the items I listed above and can’t imagine needing them, fine. But make a list of everything you know you’ll need so when the actual writing begins, you’re already equipped.
As you grow as a writer and actually start making money at it, you can keep upgrading your writing space.
Where I work now is light years from where I started. But the point is, I didn’t wait to start writing until I could have a great spot in which to do it.
PART 2How to Start Writing a Book1Break your book into small pieces.
Writing a book feels like a colossal project, because it is! But your manuscript will be made up of many small parts.
An old adage says that the way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time.
Try to get your mind off your book as a 400-or-so-page monstrosity.
It can’t be written all at once any more than that proverbial elephant could be eaten in a single sitting.
See your book for what it is: a manuscript made up of sentences, paragraphs, pages. Those pages will begin to add up, and though after a week you may have barely accumulated double digits, a few months down the road you’ll be into your second hundred pages.
So keep it simple.
Start by distilling your big book idea from a page or so to a single sentence—your premise. The more specific that one-sentence premise, the more it will keep you focused while you’re writing.
But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Before you can turn your big idea into one sentence, which can then be expanded to an outline, you have to settle on exactly what that big idea is.
2Settle on your BIG idea.To be book-worthy, your idea has to be killer.
You need to write something about which you’re passionate, something that gets you up in the morning, draws you to the keyboard, and keeps you there. It should excite not only you, but also anyone you tell about it.
I can’t overstate the importance of this.
If you’ve tried and failed to finish your book before—maybe more than once—it could be that the basic premise was flawed. Maybe it was worth a blog post or an article but couldn’t carry an entire book.
Think The Hunger Games, Harry Potter, or How to Win Friends and Influence People. The market is crowded, the competition fierce. There’s no more room for run-of-the-mill ideas. Your premise alone should make readers salivate.
Go for the big concept book.
How do you know you’ve got a winner? Does it have legs? In other words, does it stay in your mind, growing and developing every time you think of it?
Run it past loved ones and others you trust.
Does it raise eyebrows? Elicit Wows? Or does it result in awkward silences?
The right concept simply works, and you’ll know it when you land on it. Most importantly, your idea must capture you in such a way that you’re compelled to write it. Otherwise you’ll lose interest halfway through and never finish.
Click here to download a PDF version of this post.3Construct your outline.Writing your book without a clear vision of where you’re going usually ends in disaster.
Even if you’re writing a fiction book and consider yourself a Pantser* as opposed to an Outliner, you need at least a basic structure.
[*Those of us who write by the seat of our pants and, as Stephen King advises, put interesting characters in difficult situations and write to find out what happens]
You don’t have to call it an outline if that offends your sensibilities. But fashion some sort of a directional document that provides structure for your book and also serves as a safety net.
If you get out on that Pantser highwire and lose your balance, you’ll thank me for advising you to have this in place.
Now if you’re writing a nonfiction book, there’s no substitute for an outline.
Potential agents or publishers require this in your proposal. They want to know where you’re going, and they want to know that you know. What do you want your reader to learn from your book, and how will you ensure they learn it?
Fiction or nonfiction, if you commonly lose interest in your book somewhere in what I call the Marathon of the Middle, you likely didn’t start with enough exciting ideas.
That’s why and outline (or a basic framework) is essential. Don’t even start writing until you’re confident your structure will hold up through the end.
You may recognize this novel structure illustration.
Did you know it holds up—with only slight adaptations—for nonfiction books too? It’s self-explanatory for novelists; they list their plot twists and developments and arrange them in an order that best serves to increase tension.
What separates great nonfiction from mediocre? The same structure!
Arrange your points and evidence in the same way so you’re setting your reader up for a huge payoff, and then make sure you deliver.
If your nonfiction book is a memoir, an autobiography, or a biography, structure it like a novel and you can’t go wrong.
But even if it’s a straightforward how-to book, stay as close to this structure as possible, and you’ll see your manuscript come alive.
Make promises early, triggering your reader to anticipate fresh ideas, secrets, inside information, something major that will make him thrilled with the finished product.
While a nonfiction book may not have as much action or dialogue or character development as a novel, you can inject tension by showing where people have failed before and how your reader can succeed.
You can even make the how-to project look impossible until you pay off that setup with your unique solution.
Keep your outline to a single page for now. But make sure every major point is represented, so you’ll always know where you’re going.
And don’t worry if you’ve forgotten the basics of classic outlining or have never felt comfortable with the concept.
Your outline must serve you. If that means Roman numerals and capital and lowercase letters and then Arabic numerals, you can certainly fashion it that way. But if you just want a list of sentences that synopsize your idea, that’s fine too.
Simply start with your working title, then your premise, then—for fiction, list all the major scenes that fit into the rough structure above.
For nonfiction, try to come up with chapter titles and a sentence or two of what each chapter will cover.
Once you have your one-page outline, remember it is a fluid document meant to serve you and your book. Expand it, change it, play with it as you see fit—even during the writing process.
4Set a firm writing schedule.
Ideally, you want to schedule at least six hours per week to write your book.
That may consist of three sessions of two hours each, two sessions of three hours, or six one-hour sessions—whatever works for you.
I recommend a regular pattern (same times, same days) that can most easily become a habit. But if that’s impossible, just make sure you carve out at least six hours so you can see real progress.
Having trouble finding the time to write a book? News flash—you won’t find the time. You have to make it.
I used the phrase carve out above for a reason. That’s what it takes.
Something in your calendar will likely have to be sacrificed in the interest of writing time.
Make sure it’s not your family—they should always be your top priority. Never sacrifice your family on the altar of your writing career.
But beyond that, the truth is that we all find time for what we really want to do.
Many writers insist they have no time to write, but they always seem to catch the latest Netflix original series, or go to the next big Hollywood feature. They enjoy concerts, parties, ball games, whatever.
How important is it to you to finally write your book? What will you cut from your calendar each week to ensure you give it the time it deserves?
Successful writers make time to write.
When writing becomes a habit, you’ll be on your way.
5Establish a sacred deadline.Without deadlines, I rarely get anything done. I need that motivation.
Admittedly, my deadlines are now established in my contracts from publishers.
If you’re writing your first book, you probably don’t have a contract yet. To ensure you finish your book, set your own deadline—then consider it sacred.
Tell your spouse or loved one or trusted friend. Ask that they hold you accountable.
Now determine—and enter in your calendar—the number of pages you need to produce per writing session to meet your deadline. If it proves unrealistic, change the deadline now.
If you have no idea how many pages or words you typically produce per session, you may have to experiment before you finalize those figures.
Say you want to finish a 400-page manuscript by this time next year.
Divide 400 by 50 weeks (accounting for two off-weeks), and you get eight pages per week.
Divide that by your typical number of writing sessions per week and you’ll know how many pages you should finish per session.
Now is the time to adjust these numbers, while setting your deadline and determining your pages per session.
Maybe you’d rather schedule four off weeks over the next year. Or you know your book will be unusually long.
Change the numbers to make it realistic and doable, and then lock it in. Remember, your deadline is sacred.
6Embrace procrastination (really!).You read that right. Don’t fight it; embrace it.
You wouldn’t guess it from my 195+ published books, but I’m the king of procrastinators.
Surprised?
Don’t be. So many authors are procrastinators that I’ve come to wonder if it’s a prerequisite.
The secret is to accept it and, in fact, schedule it.
I quit fretting and losing sleep over procrastinating when I realized it was inevitable and predictable, and also that it was productive.
Sound like rationalization?
Maybe it was at first. But I learned that while I’m putting off the writing, my subconscious is working on my book. It’s a part of the process. When you do start writing again, you’ll enjoy the surprises your subconscious reveals to you.
So, knowing procrastination is coming, book it on your calendar.
Take it into account when you’re determining your page quotas. If you have to go back in and increase the number of pages you need to produce per session, do that (I still do it all the time).
But—and here’s the key—you must never let things get to where that number of pages per day exceeds your capacity.
It’s one thing to ratchet up your output from two pages per session to three. But if you let it get out of hand, you’ve violated the sacredness of your deadline.
How can I procrastinate and still meet more than 190 deadlines?
Because I keep the deadlines sacred.
7Eliminate distractions to stay focused.Are you as easily distracted as I am?
Have you found yourself writing a sentence and then checking your email? Writing another and checking Facebook? Getting caught up in the pictures of 10 Sea Monsters You Wouldn’t Believe Actually Exist?
Then you just have to check out that precious video from a talk show where the dad surprises the family by returning from the war.
That leads to more and more of the same. Once I’m in, my writing is forgotten, and all of a sudden the day has gotten away from me.
The answer to these insidious timewasters?
Look into these apps that allow you to block your email, social media, browsers, game apps, whatever you wish during the hours you want to write. Some carry a modest fee, others are free.
8Conduct your research.Yes, research is a vital part of the process, whether you’re writing fiction or nonfiction.
Fiction means more than just making up a story.
Your details and logic and technical and historical details must be right for your novel to be believable.
And for nonfiction, even if you’re writing about a subject in which you’re an expert—as I’m doing here—getting all the facts right will polish your finished product.
In fact, you’d be surprised at how many times I’ve researched a fact or two while writing this blog post alone.
The last thing you want is even a small mistake due to your lack of proper research.
Regardless the detail, trust me, you’ll hear from readers about it.
Your credibility as an author and an expert hinges on creating trust with your reader. That dissolves in a hurry if you commit an error.
My favorite research resources:
That may be why you’ve stalled at writing your book in the past.
But if you’re working at writing, studying writing, practicing writing, that makes you a writer. Don’t wait till you reach some artificial level of accomplishment before calling yourself a writer.
A cop in uniform and on duty is a cop whether he’s actively enforced the law yet or not. A carpenter is a carpenter whether he’s ever built a house.
Self-identify as a writer now and you’ll silence that inner critic—who, of course, is really you.
Talk back to yourself if you must. It may sound silly, but acknowledging yourself as a writer can give you the confidence to keep going and finish your book.
Are you a writer? Say so.
Click here to download a PDF version of this post.
PART 3The Book-Writing Itself1Think reader-first.This is so important that that you should write it on a sticky note and affix it to your monitor so you’re reminded of it every time you write.
Every decision you make about your manuscript must be run through this filter.
Not you-first, not book-first, not editor-, agent-, or publisher-first. Certainly not your inner circle- or critics-first.
Reader-first, last, and always.
If every decision is based on the idea of reader-first, all those others benefit anyway.
When fans tell me they were moved by one of my books, I think back to this adage and am grateful I maintained that posture during the writing.
Does a scene bore you? If you’re thinking reader-first, it gets overhauled or deleted.
Where to go, what to say, what to write next? Decide based on the reader as your priority.
Whatever your gut tells you your reader would prefer, that’s your answer.
Whatever will intrigue him, move him, keep him reading, those are your marching orders.
So, naturally, you need to know your reader. Rough age? General interests? Loves? Hates? Attention span?
When in doubt, look in the mirror.
The surest way to please your reader is to please yourself. Write what you would want to read and trust there is a broad readership out there that agrees.
2Find your writing voice.Discovering your voice is nowhere near as complicated as some make it out to be.
You can find yours by answering these quick questions:
That’s all there is to it.
If you write fiction and the narrator of your book isn’t you, go through the three-question exercise on the narrator’s behalf—and you’ll quickly master the voice.
Here’s a blog I posted that’ll walk you through the process.
3Write a compelling opener.If you’re stuck because of the pressure of crafting the perfect opening line for your book, you’re not alone.
And neither is your angst misplaced.
This is not something you should put off and come back to once you’ve started on the rest of the first chapter.
Oh, it can still change if the story dictates that. But settling on a good one will really get you off and running.
It’s unlikely you’ll write a more important sentence than your first one, whether you’re writing fiction or nonfiction. Make sure you’re thrilled with it and then watch how your confidence—and momentum—soars.
Most great first lines fall into one of these categories:
1. Surprising
Fiction: “It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.” —George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four
Nonfiction: “By the time Eustace Conway was seven years old, he could throw a knife accurately enough to nail a chipmunk to a tree.” —Elizabeth Gilbert, The Last American Man
2. Dramatic Statement
Fiction: “They shoot the white girl first.” —Toni Morrison, Paradise
Nonfiction: “I was five years old the first time I ever set foot in prison.” —Jimmy Santiago Baca, A Place to Stand
3. Philosophical
Fiction: “Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” —Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina
Nonfiction: “It’s not about you.” —Rick Warren, The Purpose Driven Life
4. Poetic
Fiction: “When I finally caught up with Abraham Trahearne, he was drinking beer with an alcoholic bulldog named Fireball Roberts in a ramshackle joint just outside of Sonoma, California, drinking the heart right out of a fine spring afternoon. —James Crumley, The Last Good Kiss
Nonfiction: “The village of Holcomb stands on the high wheat plains of western Kansas, a lonesome area that other Kansans call ‘out there.’” —Truman Capote, In Cold Blood
Great opening lines from other classics may give you ideas for yours. Here’s a list of famous openers.
4Fill your story with conflict and tension.Your reader craves conflict, and yes, this applies to nonfiction readers as well.
In a novel, if everything is going well and everyone is agreeing, your reader will soon lose interest and find something else to do.
Are two of your characters talking at the dinner table? Have one say something that makes the other storm out.
Some deep-seeded rift in their relationship has surfaced—just a misunderstanding, or an injustice?
Thrust people into conflict with each other.
That’ll keep your reader’s attention.
Certain nonfiction genres won’t lend themselves to that kind of conflict, of course, but you can still inject tension by setting up your reader for a payoff in later chapters. Check out some of the current bestselling nonfiction works to see how writers accomplish this.
Somehow they keep you turning those pages, even in a simple how-to title.
Tension is the secret sauce that will propel your reader through to the end.
And sometimes that’s as simple as implying something to come.
5Turn off your internal editor while writing the first draft.Many of us perfectionists find it hard to write a first draft—fiction or nonfiction—without feeling compelled to make every sentence exactly the way we want it.
That voice in your head that questions every word, every phrase, every sentence, and makes you worry you’re being redundant or have allowed cliches to creep in—well, that’s just your editor alter ego.
He or she needs to be told to shut up.
This is not easy.
Deep as I am into a long career, I still have to remind myself of this every writing day. I cannot be both creator and editor at the same time. That slows me to a crawl, and my first draft of even one brief chapter could take days.
Our job when writing that first draft is to get down the story or the message or the teaching—depending on your genre.
It helps me to view that rough draft as a slab of meat I will carve tomorrow.
I can’t both produce that hunk and trim it at the same time.
A cliche, a redundancy, a hackneyed phrase comes tumbling out of my keyboard, and I start wondering whether I’ve forgotten to engage the reader’s senses or aimed for his emotions.
That’s when I have to chastise myself and say, “No! Don’t worry about that now! First thing tomorrow you get to tear this thing up and put it back together again to your heart’s content!”
Imagine yourself wearing different hats for different tasks, if that helps—whatever works to keep you rolling on that rough draft. You don’t need to show it to your worst enemy or even your dearest love. This chore is about creating. Don’t let anything slow you down.
Some like to write their entire first draft before attacking the revision. As I say, whatever works.
Doing it that way would make me worry I’ve missed something major early that will cause a complete rewrite when I discover it months later. I alternate creating and revising.
The first thing I do every morning is a heavy edit and rewrite of whatever I wrote the day before. If that’s ten pages, so be it. I put my perfectionist hat on and grab my paring knife and trim that slab of meat until I’m happy with every word.
Then I switch hats, tell Perfectionist Me to take the rest of the day off, and I start producing rough pages again.
So, for me, when I’ve finished the entire first draft, it’s actually a second draft because I have already revised and polished it in chunks every day.
THEN I go back through the entire manuscript one more time, scouring it for anything I missed or omitted, being sure to engage the reader’s senses and heart, and making sure the whole thing holds together.
I do not submit anything I’m not entirely thrilled with.
I know there’s still an editing process it will go through at the publisher, but my goal is to make my manuscript the absolute best I can before they see it.
Compartmentalize your writing vs. your revising and you’ll find that frees you to create much more quickly.
6Persevere through The Marathon of the Middle.Most who fail at writing a book tell me they give up somewhere in what I like to call The Marathon of the Middle.
That’s a particularly rough stretch for novelists who have a great concept, a stunning opener, and they can’t wait to get to the dramatic ending. But they bail when they realize they don’t have enough cool stuff to fill the middle.
They start padding, trying to add scenes just for the sake of bulk, but they’re soon bored and know readers will be too.
This actually happens to nonfiction writers too.
The solution there is in the outlining stage, being sure your middle points and chapters are every bit as valuable and magnetic as the first and last.
If you strategize the progression of your points or steps in a process—depending on nonfiction genre—you should be able to eliminate the strain in the middle chapters.
For novelists, know that every book becomes a challenge a few chapters in. The shine wears off, keeping the pace and tension gets harder, and it’s easy to run out of steam.
But that’s not the time to quit. Force yourself back to your structure, come up with a subplot if necessary, but do whatever you need to so your reader stays engaged.
Fiction writer or nonfiction author, The Marathon of the Middle is when you must remember why you started this journey in the first place.
It isn’t just that you want to be an author. You have something to say. You want to reach the masses with your message.
Yes, it’s hard. It still is for me—every time. But don’t panic or do anything rash, like surrendering. Embrace the challenge of the middle as part of the process. If it were easy, anyone could do it.
7Write a resounding ending.This is just as important for your nonfiction book as your novel. It may not be as dramatic or emotional, but it could be—especially if you’re writing a memoir.
But even a how-to or self-help book needs to close with a resounding thud, the way a Broadway theater curtain meets the floor.
How do you ensure your ending doesn’t fizzle?
Click here to download a PDF version of this post.
PART 4Rewriting Your Book1Become a ferocious self-editor.Agents and editors can tell within the first two pages whether your manuscript is worthy of consideration. That sounds unfair, and maybe it is. But it’s also reality, so we writers need to face it.
How can they often decide that quickly on something you’ve devoted months, maybe years, to?
Because they can almost immediately envision how much editing would be required to make those first couple of pages publishable. If they decide the investment wouldn’t make economic sense for a 300-400-page manuscript, end of story.
Your best bet to keep an agent or editor reading your manuscript?
You must become a ferocious self-editor. That means:
For my full list and how to use them, click here. (It’s free.)
When do you know you’re finished revising? When you’ve gone from making your writing better to merely making it different. That’s not always easy to determine, but it’s what makes you an author.
2Find a mentor.Get help from someone who’s been where you want to be.
Imagine engaging a mentor who can help you sidestep all the amateur pitfalls and shave years of painful trial-and-error off your learning curve.
Just make sure it’s someone who really knows the writing and publishing world. Many masquerade as mentors and coaches but have never really succeeded themselves.
Look for someone widely-published who knows how to work with agents, editors, and publishers.
There are many helpful mentors online. I teach writers through this free site, as well as in my members-only Writers Guild.
PART 5Publishing Your Book1Decide on your publishing avenue.In simple terms, you have two options when it comes to publishing your book:
1. Traditional publishing
Traditional publishers take all the risks. They pay for everything from editing, proofreading, typesetting, printing, binding, cover art and design, promotion, advertising, warehousing, shipping, billing, and paying author royalties.
2. Self-publishing
Everything is on you. You are the publisher, the financier, the decision-maker. Everything listed above falls to you. You decide who does it, you approve or reject it, and you pay for it. The term self-publishing is a bit of a misnomer, however, because what you’re paying for is not publishing, but printing.
Both avenues are great options under certain circumstances.
Not sure which direction you want to take? Click here to read my in-depth guide to publishing a book. It’ll show you the pros and cons of each, what each involves, and my ultimate recommendation.
2Properly format your manuscript.Regardless whether you traditionally or self-publish your book, proper formatting is critical.
Why?
Because poor formatting makes you look like an amateur.
Readers and agents expect a certain format for book manuscripts, and if you don’t follow their guidelines, you set yourself up for failure.
Best practices when formatting your book:
If you need help implementing these formatting guidelines, click here to read my in-depth post on formatting your manuscript.
3Set up your author website and grow your platform.All serious authors need a website. Period.
Because here’s the reality of publishing today…
You need an audience to succeed.
If you want to traditionally publish, agents and publishers will Google your name to see if you have a website and a following.
If you want to self-publish, you need a fan base.
the Cookie policy here. I hope you find the site useful! Thanks - Joanna
How to really write a bookIn this post, I’ll teach you the fundamental steps you need to write a book. I’ve worked hard to make this easy to digest and super practical, so you can start making progress.
And just a heads up: if you dream of authoring a bestselling book like I have and you’re looking for a structured plan to guide you through the writing process, I have a special opportunity for you at the end of this post where I break the process down.
But first, let’s look at the big picture. What does it take to write a book? It happens in three phases:
BONUS: Click here to download all 20 steps in a complete guide for writing a book.
Phase 1: Getting startedWe all have to start somewhere. With writing a book, the first phase is made up of four parts:
1. Decide what the book is aboutGood writing is always about something. Write the argument of your book in a sentence, then stretch that out to a paragraph, and then to a one-page outline. After that, write a table of contents to help guide you as you write, then break each chapter into a few sections. Think of your book in terms of beginning, middle, and end. Anything more complicated will get you lost.
2. Set a daily word count goalJohn Grisham began his writing career as a lawyer and new dad — in other words, he was really busy. Nonetheless, he got up an hour or two early every morning and wrote a page a day. After a couple of years, he had a novel. A page a day is only about 300 words. You don’t need to write a lot. You just need to write often. Setting a daily goal will give you something to aim for. Make it small and attainable so that you can hit your goal each day and start building momentum.
3. Set a time to work on your book every dayConsistency makes creativity easier. You need a daily deadline to do your work — that’s how you’ll finish writing a book. Feel free to take a day off, if you want, but schedule that ahead of time. Never let a deadline pass; don’t let yourself off the hook so easily. Setting a daily deadline and regular writing time will ensure that you don’t have to think about when you will write. When it’s time to write, it’s time to write.
4. Write in the same place every timeIt doesn’t matter if it’s a desk or a restaurant or the kitchen table. It just needs to be different from where you do other activities. Make your writing location a special space, so that when you enter it, you’re ready to work. It should remind you of your commitment to finish this book. Again, the goal here is to not think and just start writing.
Phase 2: Doing the workNow, it’s time to get down to business. Here, we are going to focus on the next three tips to help you get the book done:
5. Set a total word countBegin with the end in mind. Once you’ve started writing, you need a total word count for your book. Think in terms of 10-thousand work increments and break each chapter into roughly equal lengths. Here are some general guiding principles:
7. Get early feedbackNothing stings worse than writing a book and then having to rewrite it, because you didn’t let anyone look at it. Have a few trusted advisers to help you discern what’s worth writing. These can be friends, editors, family. Just try to find someone who will give you honest feedback early on to make sure you’re headed in the right direction.
Phase 3: FinishingHow do you know when you’re done? Short answer: you don’t. Not really. So here’s what you do to end this book-writing process well:
8. Commit to shippingNo matter what, finish the book. Set a deadline or have one set for you. Then release it to the world. Send it to the publisher, release it on Amazon, do whatever you need to do to get it in front of people. Just don’t put it in your drawer. The worst thing would be for you to quit once this thing is written. That won’t make you do your best work and it won’t allow you to share your ideas with the world.
9. Embrace failureAs you approach the end of this project, know that this will be hard and you will most certainly mess up. Just be okay with failing, and give yourself grace. That’s what will sustain you — the determination to continue, not your elusive standards of perfection.
10. Write another bookMost authors are embarrassed by their first book. I certainly was. But without that first book, you will never learn the lessons you might otherwise miss out on. So, put your work out there, fail early, and try again. This is the only way you get better. You have to practice, which means you have to keep writing.
Every writer started somewhere, and most of them started by squeezing their writing into the cracks of their daily lives. That’s how I began, and it may be where you begin, as well. The ones who make it are the ones who show up day after day. You can do the same.
The reason most people never finish their booksEvery year, millions of books go unfinished. Books that could have helped people, brought beauty or wisdom into the world. But they never came to be. And in one way or another, the reason is always the same: the author quit.
Maybe you’ve dealt with this. You started writing a book but never completed it. You got stuck and didn’t know how to finish. Or you completed your manuscript but didn’t know what to do after. Worse yet, you wrote a book, but nobody cared about it. Nobody bought or read it.
I’ve been there before.
In fact, the first couple books I wrote didn’t do that well at all — even with a traditional publisher. It took me years to learn this, but here’s what nobody ever told me:
Before you can launch a bestseller, first you have to write one.
Before you can launch a bestseller, you have to write a bestseller.
Jeff Goins
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What I mean by that is so many writers sit down to write their masterpiece, assuming that’s all there is to it. Just sit down and write. But as I’ve studied the world’s most gifted and successful authors, I’ve noticed this is not what the masters do. They are far more intentional than simply sitting and letting the words flow.
Every great writer needs a system they can trust. You and I are no different. But an author’s system for how they produce bestselling book after bestselling book is not always the easiest thing to access. So, as a matter of survival, I’ve had to figure it out for myself and create a clear book-writing framework that works. This is what I call the “Write a Bestseller Method” which helps me get a book written and ready to launch.
This is the part that I never learned in any English class. Producing work that sells is not just about writing what you think is good. It’s about finding an idea that will both excite you and excite an audience. It’s about being intentional and thinking through the whole process while having proper accountability to keep you going.
In other words, the writing process matters. It matters a lot. You have to not only finish your book but write one worthy of being sold. And if you want to maximize your chances of finishing your book, you need a proven plan.
Writing books has changed my life. It helped me clarify my thinking, find my calling as an author, and has provided endless opportunities to make an impact on the world and a living for my family.
If you’re serious about doing the same, click here to get my free guide on how to write a book.
Bonus: 10 more writing tips!If you need some help staying motivated, here are another 10 tips to help you keep going in the process:
11. Only write one chapter at a timeWrite and publish a novel, one chapter at a time, using Amazon Kindle Singles, Wattpad, or sharing with your email list subscribers.
12. Write a shorter bookThe idea of writing a 500-page masterpiece can be paralyzing. Instead, write a short book of poems or stories. Long projects are daunting. Start small.
13. Start a blog to get feedback earlyGetting feedback early and often helps break up the overwhelm. Start a website on WordPress or Tumblr and use it to write your book a chapter or scene at a time. Then eventually publish all the posts in a hardcopy book. This is a little different than tradition blogging, but the same concepts apply. We created a free tool to help you know when your blog posts are ready to publish. Check out Don’t Hit Publish.
14. Keep an inspiration listYou need it in order to keep fresh ideas flowing. Read constantly, and use a system to capture, organize and find the content you’ve curated. I use Evernote, but use a system that works for you.
15. Keep a journalThen, rewrite the entries in a much more polished book format, but use some photocopies or scans of the journal pages as illustrations in the book. You could even sell “deluxe” editions that come with photocopied versions of the journal.
16. Deliver consistentlySome days, it’s easy to write. Some days, it’s incredibly hard. The truth is: inspiration is merely a byproduct of your hard work. You can’t wait for inspiration. The Muse is really an out-of-work bum who won’t move until you do. Show her who’s boss and that you mean business.
17. Take frequent breaksNiel Fiore, the author of The Now Habit, says, “There is one main reason why we procrastinate: It rewards us with temporary relief from stress.” If you’re constantly stressed about your unfinished book, you’ll end up breaking your schedule. Instead, plan for breaks ahead of time so you stay fresh: minute breaks, hour breaks, or even multiple day breaks.
18. Remove distractionsTry tools like Bear or Scrivener to let you write in a totally distraction-free environment. That way, email, Facebook, and Twitter won’t interrupt your flow.
19. Write where others are writing (or working)If you’re having trouble writing consistently by yourself, write where other people are also working. A coffee shop or library where people are actually working and not just socializing can help. If you’re in a place where other people are getting things done, then you’ll have no choice but to join them.
20. Don’t edit as you goInstead, write without judgment first, then go back and edit later. You’ll keep a better flow and won’t be interrupted by constant criticism of your own work. And you’ll have a lot more writing to edit when it’s time to do so.
Click here to download a complete reference guide of all these writing tips.
What do you want to write a book about? What is your best writing advice? Share in the 1616 Comments.
How to Overcome Writer’s Block: 14 Tricks That WorkBY JEFF GOINS WRITINGWriting about a writer’s block is better than not writing at all.
–Charles Bukowski
It happens to every writer. It’s inevitable. Your prose has turned to mush, you don’t have a creative bone left in your body, and you want to throw in the towel.
Writer’s block. Every writer struggles with it. But what you do with it is what really matters. Before we talk about solutions, though, let’s talk about the problem.
Common causes of writer’s blockThe reasons for your block may vary, but some common ones include:
That’s the thing about writing: it’s an art, not a science. And you’ll have to approach it as such. There is no formulaic fix, no “7 Steps to Becoming a Better Writer Now.”
Except one. But you already know what it is: Start hacking away. Begin trying stuff. Sometimes, the quirkier, the better. The trick is find something that works for you.
Creative solutions to writer’s blockHere are a few ideas to help you work through your creative constipation:
Once you start heading in a direction, it’s easier to pick up speed. And before you know it, your block will be a distant memory and you’ll be doing what you once thought impossible. You’ll be writing.
How to not overcome writer’s blockAnd just for fun, here are some anti-solutions to this problem:
You overcome writer’s block by writing. (Tweet)
Start somewhere, anywhere. Write a few lines. Say anything. And see what happens. Don’t think about it too much or make any fancy announcements. Just write. It doesn’t need to be eloquent or presentable; it just needs to be written..
Write for the joy of writing. Because you can’t not do it. Don’t try to say or produce anything; just get some words on paper, now. No excuses or justifications.
You can write. Don’t make it harder than it has to be. Just type a few words. They don’t have to be good (all first drafts suck). It just has to be written. Then you have something to work it. You can tweak from there.
If you do this, you’ll get past the hump. I promise. The difference between professional writers and amateurs is this: Both encounter blocks, but one pushes through while the other gets paralyzed.
You can do this. Just write.
(One caveat: This technique only works if you’re truly blocked and not “empty,” which is an entirely different matter altogether.)
If you need some help getting started with a daily writing habit, I encourage you to join my 31-day writing challenge. It’s free! Click here to get started.
So… you want to be a writer?This all begins with believing you already are a writer. So let’s start there. My own journey of becoming a writer was an awakening of sorts — to who I already was. Maybe yours will be similar.
A writer is a writer when he says he is.
—Steven Pressfield
Anyone who writes is a writer, but that doesn’t mean they’re a very good one. So let’s talk about how to become a better writer. We’ll begin with the basics — here are seven key lessons (with links to important articles about each):
Tips for when you beginI’ve coached and trained other writers for years. I’ve built a powerful personal brand and platform and used it to publish my work. I’ve experimented and seen as much failure as success. Through all of it, I want to use what I’ve learned to help other people.
So my hope this blog serves you in your writing journey in some way. I’ve written hundreds of articles here, which is a lot to sort through. Here is a list of 10 essential tips on writing:
Look. This isn’t just something that happens accidentally. You have to work at it. So how do you create work that earns you the attention of publishers, exactly? You build a platform.
These days, a lot of writers use blogs and the power of the Internet to get their writing discovered. There’s no reason you can’t do the same. Here are 10 basic tips on blogging and building an audience that will help you get published:
Need help with your writing?Check out the archives of this blog for more articles and resources. And be sure sign up for free updates to this blog; you don’t miss anything.
Now, get on that mailing list while you’re still thinking about it (I never SPAM, promise). You’ll get a free eBook when you confirm your email:
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If you need more help, check out How to Write Non-Fiction: Turn Your Knowledge Into Words, available in ebook, print, audiobook, workbook and Large Print editions.
The more work you do upfront, the easier the book will be to produce.
I’m currently writing my eighth non-fiction book with more planned, and my process is quite defined these days. I find writing non-fiction books a ‘palate cleanser’ between novels. It’s a very different form of writing, more structured and more aimed at helping others.
This article is relevant for most non-fiction, but excludes memoir or narrative non-fiction, as they are quite specific forms.
(1) Decide on your definition of successBefore you jump into actually writing, it’s worth deciding on your own definition of success as this can be critical to whether the process is satisfying for you.
Some authors ‘just want to help people’ with their non-fiction books, others want to win literary prizes, others want to make money. It’s very unlikely that the same book will satisfy all of these desires, so you have to decide which is most important to you.
These are the main reasons why authors want to write non-fiction books in particular and some of the possible definitions of success:
- You want to help people around a specific topic and usually you will have been through an experience yourself that drives the writing of the book. This was my experience with Career Change, a book I wrote to change my own life and now helps others discover what they really want to do. It sells small numbers consistently every month but it’s not a book I spend time marketing. It was my first book and it’s successful because I finished it, published it and it continues to help people.
- You have a business already and want a book to demonstrate authority, augment your business and open doors to speaking and other business opportunities. The point of the book is not necessarily to make money in itself but to drive people to the rest of your business. This is the ‘book as business card’ model. For example, my book, How to Make a Living with your Writing, drives people to my other books and courses. The aim of the book is to provide an introduction to that extended material. The definition of success is based on how many people sign up to a specific email list, and we’ll explore these possible business models a little further on in the article.
- You are deeply fascinated with a topic and want to produce a seminal work on it. These are the type of non-fiction books that go on to win literary prizes, books that may be commissioned and that consume the author for a long time. One example would be The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer by Siddhartha Mukherjee, which won the Pulitzer Prize.
- You have an audience and write to fulfill their needs, which often coincide with your own interests. I started out writing non-fiction to learn what I needed to know myself about self-publishing and book marketing. I discover what I think by writing a book about it these days. I wrote How to Market a Book when I was learning about marketing, and Business for Authors: How to be an Author Entrepreneur, as my own writing career transitioned into a global business.
- You want to use non-fiction book sales as the basis of your income, so you want to write multiple books in a niche and dominate that market. Some authors do make a full-time living writing these kinds of books. One example is S.J.Scott, as we discuss in this podcast episode.
(2) Decide on the specific topic for your bookYou’ll most likely have some idea of the broader aspects/topic of your book. Some examples might be:
- You’re a speaker on corporate communication
- You’ve discovered a diet that works for you
- You’re an expert on the history of the USA
I take reading very seriously!
Firstly, put yourself in the mind of the reader. Why do people READ non-fiction? And how does that relate to your idea?
- They want an answer to a specific problem. This explains the popularity of weight loss and self-help books every January. What specific problem will your book solve?
- They are interested in a specific topic and buy lots of books on that area. I have a ton of books on writing, and most likely, so do you! What sub-categories does your book fit into on the online bookstore and is this a niche that people are buying lots of books in?
- They like the writer. This is why anyone with a large platform will likely get a book deal. Just check out those YouTubers, celebs and anyone with a big enough blog or podcast or TED talk. If you have an audience, you can get a book deal because people will buy and read it anyway. Do you have an audience already? What do they want from you?
Next, research your niche on the bookstores.You should know of 5-10 books that are similar to the book you want to write, or at least are targeted to the same audience.
Search for those books on Amazon and then look at the sub-categories on the left-hand side of the page. These are where the book sits in the virtual store. You can then click into those sub-categories and find other books that are in the same niche.
These questions should help you narrow down the specific topic you want to tackle in the book as well as your target market. Expanding on my earlier examples, the more specific topics might be:
- Employee engagement: how to communicate to employees in order to drive your business to success. Aimed at CEOs and corporate managers.
- Easy gluten-free and vegan dieting for weight loss and health. Aimed at busy women who have struggled with other diets and can’t spend a long time in the kitchen preparing food.
- Military history of the USA in the 20th century, and how that has shaped the current situation. Aimed at men who buy in the Military history category and intended to be the first in a series on US military history.
Now you have your specific topic, you can brainstorm what areas you will explore in detail in the book. At this point, you want to go wild, and just put everything down. You’ll likely cut a lot of it out and some of your ideas might even end up in another book.
For example, when I wrote Business for Authors: How to be an Author Entrepreneur, I had a whole section on mindset. But it turned into a monster topic so I carved that part off and am currently writing a separate book on the psychology of writing.
This part of the process is where I start to use Scrivener. I create a project for the book and a document per idea. Many of those will be concatenated or discarded later but I will just write down anything that comes to mind at this stage. You can use a Word document or Evernote or physical index cards, but you do need to capture everything at this stage, even just a few words per idea.
This is also the time to focus on research and expanding your knowledge on whatever topic you’re writing on. I usually read a number of other books on the topic to get more ideas and because I’m a research junkie, I can definitely spend a lot of time on this part of the process!
Am I writing … or researching … or posing for an arty photo?!
Some authors can get stuck in this phase for way too long, so set some deadlines and make sure you keep focused on the final result. Click here for more productivity tips.
(4) Decide on your book titleI always like to know my book title upfront, but of course, you can decide on it later.
Non-fiction book titles have an advantage over fiction because they can be keyword rich and specific enough to be found through search as well as still making sense to the reader, whereas fiction is pretty much impossible to title with related keywords.
For example, my thriller, Gates of Hell, is more likely to be found by those shopping in the sub-categories of action adventure and supernatural thriller, rather than by people specifically searching for ‘gates of hell.’
Readers of non-fiction often shop by sub-category or by keyword search e.g. my book, How to Market a Book, is titled specifically for keyword search reasons and comes up at the #1 spot on Amazon for that search term.
But how do you know what readers are searching for?
Just go to Amazon and do some research using the search bar within the Kindle sub-category. Start typing and there will be a text drop-down as above that includes the most popular search terms people are looking for.
This will give you some ideas as to what people want and you may find it surprising!
I spend a good amount of time thinking about different words and checking them out this way before I decide on a title. Longer keywords (keyword phrases) are sometimes even more useful, so I will just add a letter on the end of the search e.g. gluten free a, gluten free b, gluten free c, in order to see what else is there.
Write down as many relevant keywords as you can find, even if you don’t use them in the title, as these will be useful later if you self-publish.
Choosing the right sub-categories and keywords is one of the most important aspects of self-publishing. I’ve recently used a couple of reasonably-priced reports from K-lytics to determine the data to use for new
Savebooks and also repositioning older ones. I hate fiddling around with data so it’s great to find someone who loves it and makes it easier for us all! Click here to read more about K-lytics reports.
You can also use KDP Rocket which helps you mine Amazon for keyword options.
(5) Create your first draftThe scary blank page …
You may already have a lot of material for the book in some form. If you’re a speaker on a topic, you might have a PowerPoint deck or handouts. You might have piles of notes for your research or lists of recipes. Or it might just all be in your head.
Now you have to turn that into a first draft … and this can be harder than it sounds! Most people who want to write a book never finish one and completing a first draft is usually where they fall down.
My definition of a first draft is a version of your book that can be read end to end and stands as a coherent whole. It doesn’t have “fill this in later,” or “write other section here,” in it.
Yes, it will be rough, and it will need editing, but to get to a finished book, you need a first draft to work on. Your finished book can be equated to Michelangelo’s David, a perfect statue that emerged from the rough block of marble. But first you have to create that block of marble, and for authors, that’s the first draft.
Here are some tips for getting it done:
Dictate your book.This is particularly good if you’re a speaker already and you have a lot of material in powerpoint slides or even recordings of your talks or even just rough notes. Speak into a digital recorder, create an mp3 file and then use a service like speechpad.com to get that transcribed into text, which you can then take into the editing phase.
This is what J. Thorn and I did recently to create the first draft of Co-writing a Book: Collaboration and Co-creation for Authors. We recorded a discussion around specific chapter topics (which is available as a podcast here) and then paid for transcription, which we then wrangled into book form. You can also use Dragon Dictate or other real-time dictation tools, as discussed in this podcast interview with Monica Leonelle or check out her book, Dictate Your Book.
Use timed writing sessions.This method changed my own writing life as if you allocate a specific time to write when you’re not allowed to do anything else, you WILL produce something!
I generally write first draft material away from the desk I use for other things – like blogging, podcasting, email, social media and other business stuff. I find it easier to create elsewhere so I go to a library or a coffee shop. I set my timer, plug in my earphones and turn on rain and thunderstorms and write.
For non-fiction, it can help to focus on a chapter at a time during these timed writing sessions. If you write 2000 words per session and you’re aiming for 60,000 words, it will take 30 writing sessions. Do the math and schedule the sessions. No excuses!
Monitor your progress.Early stages of the mindset book
I use Scrivener flags to indicate my progress through the draft, as per the example shown left. When I brainstorm topics and just dump words into the chapter, I leave the document as a default white. When I have ‘processed’ the chapter and written it into a first draft state, I add a yellow flag. I use blue and green flags for different parts of the editing process.
Once the whole project has yellow flags, my first draft is done and I can move into editing (covered further below).
Scrivener Project Targets
You can use Scrivener to set word count goals for the whole book and also for each writing session to keep you accountable. I’m pretty much obsessive about checking these per session as I love watching the status bar turn green!
Once you have a first draft, you can start to think seriously about the next steps.
Publishing and marketing are completely separate topics – if you want to know more on those aspects, sign up for the free Author 2.0 Blueprint which includes a mini-course and free video training.
For non-fiction authors, you will want to consider how the book fits into your existing business, or how you can use it to build one.
(6) Design and incorporate your funnel and back-end productsA ‘funnel’ is a way to direct your readers through a journey with you, preferably through your books, services and other products, so that they are a happy customer and you make a decent return.
For fiction authors, the funnel usually involves a series or books in a similar genre as well as getting people onto your email list.
For example, if you check out Stone of Fire for free on any of the online bookstores, you will then be prompted to get Day of the Vikings for free if you sign up to my email list. Stone of Fire is also the first in the 7 book ARKANE series, so you might go on and read the others if you enjoyed the first. That’s about the extent of it, and fiction authors rarely have more premium products to offer.
But non-fiction authors can design a much more lucrative funnel to back-end products, which are separate to the book.For example, our communication consultant author has a lot of potential for up-sell as she is aiming at the corporate market. She could have the following:
- Non-fiction book – priced $6.99 – $9.99 as a way for people to discover her work and build her credibility (this is a niche where people expect to pay more for books)
- The book offers people a specific audio and video download if they sign up on her email list
- This email list then offers a series of video tutorials that lead into a premium course, which she sells for $499
- She offers 1:1 corporate consulting at $1000 per session based on the expertise in her book
- She offers one day seminars on site to corporates at $20,000 per day
This is a pretty typical funnel for a non-fiction author aimed at the corporate market, but many authors aren’t selling at this level. So let’s take our gluten free cook. She could have:
- Non-fiction book – 101 delicious gluten free, vegan, easy and fast recipes for the busy woman who wants to lose weight – priced $2.99 – $6.99
- The book offers extra recipes and a shopping list with favorite brands and maybe a video download if they sign up on her email list for free
- This email list then offers a series of video tutorials that lead into a premium cookery course, which she sells for $99. The email list also contains recipes that utilize kitchen equipment that she can link affiliate codes to and make commission on.
- Or perhaps she offers a membership site, where the customer pays $9.99 a month for access to new recipes and tips and a community where she can get support around this type of life change. Communities with support are really popular and can be lucrative, but they do take a lot of work to manage
If these types of business models interest you, check out How to Make a Living with Your Writing, which goes into more detail on how you can build this type of business yourself.
(7) Get a professional book cover designedYou could do this step as soon as you decide on your book title, and it’s definitely worth doing early so you can use it as marketing collateral on your website.
For non-fiction book covers:
- Look at the top 100 books in your sub-category and take screen prints of the ones that you like and resonate with. The trend right now for non-fiction, certainly in the business niche, is to have very clear text and one dominant image. You can give these screen prints to your designer as a guide for the type of cover you’re looking for.
- Remember that many readers shop on devices and see the cover at thumbnail size, so there is little point putting quotes in small text on ebook covers. You can always add it onto your print version at the publishing stage, but remember to optimize for browsing at a small image size.
- Research book cover designers and check out their portfolios to see if they work in your genre. Here’s my own curated list of designers, although of course, there are many more.
- Get feedback from your target market. I go back and forth on this as sometimes the feedback can just be confusing! But if you use a design service like 99Designs, then you will get multiple designs and can do a poll to your email list and social media followers. You can also use a service like Pickfu, where you can get opinions from people outside of your network.
- Finally, don’t design your cover yourself unless you are a designer already. A pro book cover will make a HUGE difference to the way your book is perceived. The example right is from author Val Andrews, who designed her own cover for Art for Happiness initially (on the left in the image) and then had a redesign done (on the right). I think you’ll agree how powerful the change has been! The new cover is amazing and changes the way a reader considers the book, even though the content is still the same.
(8) Go through the editing processMy own self-editing
A first draft is just that. You now have to go through the process of turning that draft into a professional finished product.
Here’s an overview of my own editing process:
- Self-editing. I work in Scrivener and once my whole project has yellow flags, my first draft is done and I print the whole book. I do my first self-editing pass on paper, old-school style! I scribble all over it and make notes where I need to write more and restructure the book, often rearranging chapters. Scrivener makes this very easy as you just drag and drop to rearrange chapters. [If you need help with learning how to use Scrivener effectively, check out the Learn Scrivener Fast course, which is excellent.]
- Rewrites and more self-editing. Once I’ve been through the whole book on paper, I make all the changes back into Scrivener and often print and go through the same process again until I am happy with the book.
- Beta readers. These are readers in your target market who read the book and offer comments on the content. For my book, Career Change, I gave an early copy to people working in my department in the day job who I knew were dissatisfied with what they were doing. They came back with questions and suggestions for what to include as additional material. After feedback from beta readers, you may do further rewrites to incorporate any changes you agree with.
- Professional editor. There are different types of editors and it will depend on your confidence with your draft as to which you use. You can engage a structural editor to help you with the overall arc of the book. A line edit is the classic red pen approach to the detail of the book, and you can also get technical editors to help with terminology. After feedback from the editor/s, you will likely do another rewrite to incorporate any changes you agree with. If it’s your first book, the editing process will be hard on your ego, but remember, the editor’s job is to make your book better and help you learn the craft. Every dollar I have spent on editing has been worth it and I continue to use editors for every book. The more eyes on your book before publication, the better it will be on launch.
- After I have made all the changes, I send the book to a proofreader who does the final read before publication. This is to avoid the inevitable typos that occur in rewriting. Of course, some will always slip through but I like having this final check in the process.
Congratulations! You’ve now finished a non-fiction book!Need more help?If you'd like some more help on your author journey, check out:
- My Books for Authors, including How to Write Non-Fiction
- My Courses for Authors, including How to Write Non-Fiction, and How to Write a Novel
- The Creative Penn Podcast, interviews, inspiration and information on writing, publishing, book marketing and creative entrepreneurship every Monday
- My videos at YouTube.com/thecreativepenn
CONNECT WITH ME ON SOCIAL MEDIA
Establish your writing space.To write your book, you don’t need a sanctuary. In fact, I started my career on my couch facing a typewriter perched on a plank of wood suspended by two kitchen chairs.
What were you saying about your setup again? We do what we have to do.
And those early days on that sagging couch were among the most productive of my career.
Naturally, the nicer and more comfortable and private you can make your writing lair (I call mine my cave), the better.
Real writers can write anywhere.
Some authors write their books in restaurants and coffee shops. My first full time job was at a newspaper where 40 of us clacked away on manual typewriters in one big room—no cubicles, no partitions, conversations hollered over the din, most of my colleagues smoking, teletype machines clattering.
Cut your writing teeth in an environment like that, and anywhere else seems glorious.
2Assemble your writing tools.In the newspaper business, there was no time to hand write our stuff and then type it for the layout guys. So I have always written at a keyboard and still write my books that way.
Most authors do, though some hand write their first drafts and then keyboard them onto a computer or pay someone to do that.
No publisher I know would even consider a typewritten manuscript, let alone one submitted in handwriting.
The publishing industry runs on Microsoft Word, so you’ll need to submit Word document files. Whether you prefer a Mac or a PC, both will produce the kinds of files you need.
And if you’re looking for a musclebound electronic organizing system, you can’t do better than Scrivener. It works well on both PCs and Macs, and it nicely interacts with Word files.
Just remember, Scrivener has a steep learning curve, so familiarize yourself with it before you start writing.
Scrivener users know that taking the time to learn the basics is well worth it.
Tons of other book writing tools exist to help you. I’ve included some of the most well known in my blog post on book writing software and my writing tools page for your reference.
So, what else do you need?
If you are one who handwrites your first drafts, don’t scrimp on paper, pencils, or erasers.
Don’t shortchange yourself on a computer either. Even if someone else is keyboarding for you, you’ll need a computer for research and for communicating with potential agents, editors, publishers.
Get the best computer you can afford, the latest, the one with the most capacity and speed.
Try to imagine everything you’re going to need in addition to your desk or table, so you can equip yourself in advance and don’t have to keep interrupting your work to find things like:
- Staplers
- Paper clips
- Rulers
- Pencil holders
- Pencil sharpeners
- Note pads
- Printing paper
- Paperweight
- Tape dispensers
- Cork or bulletin boards
- Clocks
- Bookends
- Reference works
- Space heaters
- Fans
- Lamps
- Beverage mugs
- Napkins
- Tissues
- You name it
- Last, but most crucial, get the best, most ergonomic chair you can afford.
If I were to start my career again with that typewriter on a plank, I would not sit on that couch. I’d grab another straight-backed kitchen chair or something similar and be proactive about my posture and maintaining a healthy spine.
There’s nothing worse than trying to be creative and immerse yourself in writing while you’re in agony. The chair I work in today cost more than my first car!
If you’ve never used some of the items I listed above and can’t imagine needing them, fine. But make a list of everything you know you’ll need so when the actual writing begins, you’re already equipped.
As you grow as a writer and actually start making money at it, you can keep upgrading your writing space.
Where I work now is light years from where I started. But the point is, I didn’t wait to start writing until I could have a great spot in which to do it.
PART 2How to Start Writing a Book1Break your book into small pieces.
Writing a book feels like a colossal project, because it is! But your manuscript will be made up of many small parts.
An old adage says that the way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time.
Try to get your mind off your book as a 400-or-so-page monstrosity.
It can’t be written all at once any more than that proverbial elephant could be eaten in a single sitting.
See your book for what it is: a manuscript made up of sentences, paragraphs, pages. Those pages will begin to add up, and though after a week you may have barely accumulated double digits, a few months down the road you’ll be into your second hundred pages.
So keep it simple.
Start by distilling your big book idea from a page or so to a single sentence—your premise. The more specific that one-sentence premise, the more it will keep you focused while you’re writing.
But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Before you can turn your big idea into one sentence, which can then be expanded to an outline, you have to settle on exactly what that big idea is.
2Settle on your BIG idea.To be book-worthy, your idea has to be killer.
You need to write something about which you’re passionate, something that gets you up in the morning, draws you to the keyboard, and keeps you there. It should excite not only you, but also anyone you tell about it.
I can’t overstate the importance of this.
If you’ve tried and failed to finish your book before—maybe more than once—it could be that the basic premise was flawed. Maybe it was worth a blog post or an article but couldn’t carry an entire book.
Think The Hunger Games, Harry Potter, or How to Win Friends and Influence People. The market is crowded, the competition fierce. There’s no more room for run-of-the-mill ideas. Your premise alone should make readers salivate.
Go for the big concept book.
How do you know you’ve got a winner? Does it have legs? In other words, does it stay in your mind, growing and developing every time you think of it?
Run it past loved ones and others you trust.
Does it raise eyebrows? Elicit Wows? Or does it result in awkward silences?
The right concept simply works, and you’ll know it when you land on it. Most importantly, your idea must capture you in such a way that you’re compelled to write it. Otherwise you’ll lose interest halfway through and never finish.
Click here to download a PDF version of this post.3Construct your outline.Writing your book without a clear vision of where you’re going usually ends in disaster.
Even if you’re writing a fiction book and consider yourself a Pantser* as opposed to an Outliner, you need at least a basic structure.
[*Those of us who write by the seat of our pants and, as Stephen King advises, put interesting characters in difficult situations and write to find out what happens]
You don’t have to call it an outline if that offends your sensibilities. But fashion some sort of a directional document that provides structure for your book and also serves as a safety net.
If you get out on that Pantser highwire and lose your balance, you’ll thank me for advising you to have this in place.
Now if you’re writing a nonfiction book, there’s no substitute for an outline.
Potential agents or publishers require this in your proposal. They want to know where you’re going, and they want to know that you know. What do you want your reader to learn from your book, and how will you ensure they learn it?
Fiction or nonfiction, if you commonly lose interest in your book somewhere in what I call the Marathon of the Middle, you likely didn’t start with enough exciting ideas.
That’s why and outline (or a basic framework) is essential. Don’t even start writing until you’re confident your structure will hold up through the end.
You may recognize this novel structure illustration.
Did you know it holds up—with only slight adaptations—for nonfiction books too? It’s self-explanatory for novelists; they list their plot twists and developments and arrange them in an order that best serves to increase tension.
What separates great nonfiction from mediocre? The same structure!
Arrange your points and evidence in the same way so you’re setting your reader up for a huge payoff, and then make sure you deliver.
If your nonfiction book is a memoir, an autobiography, or a biography, structure it like a novel and you can’t go wrong.
But even if it’s a straightforward how-to book, stay as close to this structure as possible, and you’ll see your manuscript come alive.
Make promises early, triggering your reader to anticipate fresh ideas, secrets, inside information, something major that will make him thrilled with the finished product.
While a nonfiction book may not have as much action or dialogue or character development as a novel, you can inject tension by showing where people have failed before and how your reader can succeed.
You can even make the how-to project look impossible until you pay off that setup with your unique solution.
Keep your outline to a single page for now. But make sure every major point is represented, so you’ll always know where you’re going.
And don’t worry if you’ve forgotten the basics of classic outlining or have never felt comfortable with the concept.
Your outline must serve you. If that means Roman numerals and capital and lowercase letters and then Arabic numerals, you can certainly fashion it that way. But if you just want a list of sentences that synopsize your idea, that’s fine too.
Simply start with your working title, then your premise, then—for fiction, list all the major scenes that fit into the rough structure above.
For nonfiction, try to come up with chapter titles and a sentence or two of what each chapter will cover.
Once you have your one-page outline, remember it is a fluid document meant to serve you and your book. Expand it, change it, play with it as you see fit—even during the writing process.
4Set a firm writing schedule.
Ideally, you want to schedule at least six hours per week to write your book.
That may consist of three sessions of two hours each, two sessions of three hours, or six one-hour sessions—whatever works for you.
I recommend a regular pattern (same times, same days) that can most easily become a habit. But if that’s impossible, just make sure you carve out at least six hours so you can see real progress.
Having trouble finding the time to write a book? News flash—you won’t find the time. You have to make it.
I used the phrase carve out above for a reason. That’s what it takes.
Something in your calendar will likely have to be sacrificed in the interest of writing time.
Make sure it’s not your family—they should always be your top priority. Never sacrifice your family on the altar of your writing career.
But beyond that, the truth is that we all find time for what we really want to do.
Many writers insist they have no time to write, but they always seem to catch the latest Netflix original series, or go to the next big Hollywood feature. They enjoy concerts, parties, ball games, whatever.
How important is it to you to finally write your book? What will you cut from your calendar each week to ensure you give it the time it deserves?
- A favorite TV show?
- An hour of sleep per night? (Be careful with this one; rest is crucial to a writer.)
- A movie?
- A concert?
- A party?
Successful writers make time to write.
When writing becomes a habit, you’ll be on your way.
5Establish a sacred deadline.Without deadlines, I rarely get anything done. I need that motivation.
Admittedly, my deadlines are now established in my contracts from publishers.
If you’re writing your first book, you probably don’t have a contract yet. To ensure you finish your book, set your own deadline—then consider it sacred.
Tell your spouse or loved one or trusted friend. Ask that they hold you accountable.
Now determine—and enter in your calendar—the number of pages you need to produce per writing session to meet your deadline. If it proves unrealistic, change the deadline now.
If you have no idea how many pages or words you typically produce per session, you may have to experiment before you finalize those figures.
Say you want to finish a 400-page manuscript by this time next year.
Divide 400 by 50 weeks (accounting for two off-weeks), and you get eight pages per week.
Divide that by your typical number of writing sessions per week and you’ll know how many pages you should finish per session.
Now is the time to adjust these numbers, while setting your deadline and determining your pages per session.
Maybe you’d rather schedule four off weeks over the next year. Or you know your book will be unusually long.
Change the numbers to make it realistic and doable, and then lock it in. Remember, your deadline is sacred.
6Embrace procrastination (really!).You read that right. Don’t fight it; embrace it.
You wouldn’t guess it from my 195+ published books, but I’m the king of procrastinators.
Surprised?
Don’t be. So many authors are procrastinators that I’ve come to wonder if it’s a prerequisite.
The secret is to accept it and, in fact, schedule it.
I quit fretting and losing sleep over procrastinating when I realized it was inevitable and predictable, and also that it was productive.
Sound like rationalization?
Maybe it was at first. But I learned that while I’m putting off the writing, my subconscious is working on my book. It’s a part of the process. When you do start writing again, you’ll enjoy the surprises your subconscious reveals to you.
So, knowing procrastination is coming, book it on your calendar.
Take it into account when you’re determining your page quotas. If you have to go back in and increase the number of pages you need to produce per session, do that (I still do it all the time).
But—and here’s the key—you must never let things get to where that number of pages per day exceeds your capacity.
It’s one thing to ratchet up your output from two pages per session to three. But if you let it get out of hand, you’ve violated the sacredness of your deadline.
How can I procrastinate and still meet more than 190 deadlines?
Because I keep the deadlines sacred.
7Eliminate distractions to stay focused.Are you as easily distracted as I am?
Have you found yourself writing a sentence and then checking your email? Writing another and checking Facebook? Getting caught up in the pictures of 10 Sea Monsters You Wouldn’t Believe Actually Exist?
Then you just have to check out that precious video from a talk show where the dad surprises the family by returning from the war.
That leads to more and more of the same. Once I’m in, my writing is forgotten, and all of a sudden the day has gotten away from me.
The answer to these insidious timewasters?
Look into these apps that allow you to block your email, social media, browsers, game apps, whatever you wish during the hours you want to write. Some carry a modest fee, others are free.
8Conduct your research.Yes, research is a vital part of the process, whether you’re writing fiction or nonfiction.
Fiction means more than just making up a story.
Your details and logic and technical and historical details must be right for your novel to be believable.
And for nonfiction, even if you’re writing about a subject in which you’re an expert—as I’m doing here—getting all the facts right will polish your finished product.
In fact, you’d be surprised at how many times I’ve researched a fact or two while writing this blog post alone.
The last thing you want is even a small mistake due to your lack of proper research.
Regardless the detail, trust me, you’ll hear from readers about it.
Your credibility as an author and an expert hinges on creating trust with your reader. That dissolves in a hurry if you commit an error.
My favorite research resources:
- World Almanacs: These alone list almost everything you need for accurate prose: facts, data, government information, and more. For my novels, I often use these to come up with ethnically accurate character names.
- The Merriam-Webster Thesaurus: The online version is great, because it’s lightning fast. You couldn’t turn the pages of a hard copy as quickly as you can get where you want to onscreen. One caution: Never let it be obvious you’ve consulted a thesaurus. You’re not looking for the exotic word that jumps off the page. You’re looking for that common word that’s on the tip of your tongue.
- WorldAtlas.com: Here you’ll find nearly limitless information about any continent, country, region, city, town, or village. Names, monetary units, weather patterns, tourism info, and even facts you wouldn’t have thought to search for. I get ideas when I’m digging here, for both my novels and my nonfiction books.
That may be why you’ve stalled at writing your book in the past.
But if you’re working at writing, studying writing, practicing writing, that makes you a writer. Don’t wait till you reach some artificial level of accomplishment before calling yourself a writer.
A cop in uniform and on duty is a cop whether he’s actively enforced the law yet or not. A carpenter is a carpenter whether he’s ever built a house.
Self-identify as a writer now and you’ll silence that inner critic—who, of course, is really you.
Talk back to yourself if you must. It may sound silly, but acknowledging yourself as a writer can give you the confidence to keep going and finish your book.
Are you a writer? Say so.
Click here to download a PDF version of this post.
PART 3The Book-Writing Itself1Think reader-first.This is so important that that you should write it on a sticky note and affix it to your monitor so you’re reminded of it every time you write.
Every decision you make about your manuscript must be run through this filter.
Not you-first, not book-first, not editor-, agent-, or publisher-first. Certainly not your inner circle- or critics-first.
Reader-first, last, and always.
If every decision is based on the idea of reader-first, all those others benefit anyway.
When fans tell me they were moved by one of my books, I think back to this adage and am grateful I maintained that posture during the writing.
Does a scene bore you? If you’re thinking reader-first, it gets overhauled or deleted.
Where to go, what to say, what to write next? Decide based on the reader as your priority.
Whatever your gut tells you your reader would prefer, that’s your answer.
Whatever will intrigue him, move him, keep him reading, those are your marching orders.
So, naturally, you need to know your reader. Rough age? General interests? Loves? Hates? Attention span?
When in doubt, look in the mirror.
The surest way to please your reader is to please yourself. Write what you would want to read and trust there is a broad readership out there that agrees.
2Find your writing voice.Discovering your voice is nowhere near as complicated as some make it out to be.
You can find yours by answering these quick questions:
- What’s the coolest thing that ever happened to you?
- Who’s the most important person you told about it?
- What did you sound like when you did?
- That’s your writing voice. It should read the way you sound at your most engaged.
That’s all there is to it.
If you write fiction and the narrator of your book isn’t you, go through the three-question exercise on the narrator’s behalf—and you’ll quickly master the voice.
Here’s a blog I posted that’ll walk you through the process.
3Write a compelling opener.If you’re stuck because of the pressure of crafting the perfect opening line for your book, you’re not alone.
And neither is your angst misplaced.
This is not something you should put off and come back to once you’ve started on the rest of the first chapter.
Oh, it can still change if the story dictates that. But settling on a good one will really get you off and running.
It’s unlikely you’ll write a more important sentence than your first one, whether you’re writing fiction or nonfiction. Make sure you’re thrilled with it and then watch how your confidence—and momentum—soars.
Most great first lines fall into one of these categories:
1. Surprising
Fiction: “It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.” —George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four
Nonfiction: “By the time Eustace Conway was seven years old, he could throw a knife accurately enough to nail a chipmunk to a tree.” —Elizabeth Gilbert, The Last American Man
2. Dramatic Statement
Fiction: “They shoot the white girl first.” —Toni Morrison, Paradise
Nonfiction: “I was five years old the first time I ever set foot in prison.” —Jimmy Santiago Baca, A Place to Stand
3. Philosophical
Fiction: “Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” —Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina
Nonfiction: “It’s not about you.” —Rick Warren, The Purpose Driven Life
4. Poetic
Fiction: “When I finally caught up with Abraham Trahearne, he was drinking beer with an alcoholic bulldog named Fireball Roberts in a ramshackle joint just outside of Sonoma, California, drinking the heart right out of a fine spring afternoon. —James Crumley, The Last Good Kiss
Nonfiction: “The village of Holcomb stands on the high wheat plains of western Kansas, a lonesome area that other Kansans call ‘out there.’” —Truman Capote, In Cold Blood
Great opening lines from other classics may give you ideas for yours. Here’s a list of famous openers.
4Fill your story with conflict and tension.Your reader craves conflict, and yes, this applies to nonfiction readers as well.
In a novel, if everything is going well and everyone is agreeing, your reader will soon lose interest and find something else to do.
Are two of your characters talking at the dinner table? Have one say something that makes the other storm out.
Some deep-seeded rift in their relationship has surfaced—just a misunderstanding, or an injustice?
Thrust people into conflict with each other.
That’ll keep your reader’s attention.
Certain nonfiction genres won’t lend themselves to that kind of conflict, of course, but you can still inject tension by setting up your reader for a payoff in later chapters. Check out some of the current bestselling nonfiction works to see how writers accomplish this.
Somehow they keep you turning those pages, even in a simple how-to title.
Tension is the secret sauce that will propel your reader through to the end.
And sometimes that’s as simple as implying something to come.
5Turn off your internal editor while writing the first draft.Many of us perfectionists find it hard to write a first draft—fiction or nonfiction—without feeling compelled to make every sentence exactly the way we want it.
That voice in your head that questions every word, every phrase, every sentence, and makes you worry you’re being redundant or have allowed cliches to creep in—well, that’s just your editor alter ego.
He or she needs to be told to shut up.
This is not easy.
Deep as I am into a long career, I still have to remind myself of this every writing day. I cannot be both creator and editor at the same time. That slows me to a crawl, and my first draft of even one brief chapter could take days.
Our job when writing that first draft is to get down the story or the message or the teaching—depending on your genre.
It helps me to view that rough draft as a slab of meat I will carve tomorrow.
I can’t both produce that hunk and trim it at the same time.
A cliche, a redundancy, a hackneyed phrase comes tumbling out of my keyboard, and I start wondering whether I’ve forgotten to engage the reader’s senses or aimed for his emotions.
That’s when I have to chastise myself and say, “No! Don’t worry about that now! First thing tomorrow you get to tear this thing up and put it back together again to your heart’s content!”
Imagine yourself wearing different hats for different tasks, if that helps—whatever works to keep you rolling on that rough draft. You don’t need to show it to your worst enemy or even your dearest love. This chore is about creating. Don’t let anything slow you down.
Some like to write their entire first draft before attacking the revision. As I say, whatever works.
Doing it that way would make me worry I’ve missed something major early that will cause a complete rewrite when I discover it months later. I alternate creating and revising.
The first thing I do every morning is a heavy edit and rewrite of whatever I wrote the day before. If that’s ten pages, so be it. I put my perfectionist hat on and grab my paring knife and trim that slab of meat until I’m happy with every word.
Then I switch hats, tell Perfectionist Me to take the rest of the day off, and I start producing rough pages again.
So, for me, when I’ve finished the entire first draft, it’s actually a second draft because I have already revised and polished it in chunks every day.
THEN I go back through the entire manuscript one more time, scouring it for anything I missed or omitted, being sure to engage the reader’s senses and heart, and making sure the whole thing holds together.
I do not submit anything I’m not entirely thrilled with.
I know there’s still an editing process it will go through at the publisher, but my goal is to make my manuscript the absolute best I can before they see it.
Compartmentalize your writing vs. your revising and you’ll find that frees you to create much more quickly.
6Persevere through The Marathon of the Middle.Most who fail at writing a book tell me they give up somewhere in what I like to call The Marathon of the Middle.
That’s a particularly rough stretch for novelists who have a great concept, a stunning opener, and they can’t wait to get to the dramatic ending. But they bail when they realize they don’t have enough cool stuff to fill the middle.
They start padding, trying to add scenes just for the sake of bulk, but they’re soon bored and know readers will be too.
This actually happens to nonfiction writers too.
The solution there is in the outlining stage, being sure your middle points and chapters are every bit as valuable and magnetic as the first and last.
If you strategize the progression of your points or steps in a process—depending on nonfiction genre—you should be able to eliminate the strain in the middle chapters.
For novelists, know that every book becomes a challenge a few chapters in. The shine wears off, keeping the pace and tension gets harder, and it’s easy to run out of steam.
But that’s not the time to quit. Force yourself back to your structure, come up with a subplot if necessary, but do whatever you need to so your reader stays engaged.
Fiction writer or nonfiction author, The Marathon of the Middle is when you must remember why you started this journey in the first place.
It isn’t just that you want to be an author. You have something to say. You want to reach the masses with your message.
Yes, it’s hard. It still is for me—every time. But don’t panic or do anything rash, like surrendering. Embrace the challenge of the middle as part of the process. If it were easy, anyone could do it.
7Write a resounding ending.This is just as important for your nonfiction book as your novel. It may not be as dramatic or emotional, but it could be—especially if you’re writing a memoir.
But even a how-to or self-help book needs to close with a resounding thud, the way a Broadway theater curtain meets the floor.
How do you ensure your ending doesn’t fizzle?
- Don’t rush it. Give readers the payoff they’ve been promised. They’ve invested in you and your book the whole way. Take the time to make it satisfying.
- Never settle for close enough just because you’re eager to be finished. Wait till you’re thrilled with every word, and keep revising until you are.
- If it’s unpredictable, it had better be fair and logical so your reader doesn’t feel cheated. You want him to be delighted with the surprise, not tricked.
- If you have multiple ideas for how your book should end, go for the heart rather than the head, even in nonfiction. Readers most remember what moves them.
Click here to download a PDF version of this post.
PART 4Rewriting Your Book1Become a ferocious self-editor.Agents and editors can tell within the first two pages whether your manuscript is worthy of consideration. That sounds unfair, and maybe it is. But it’s also reality, so we writers need to face it.
How can they often decide that quickly on something you’ve devoted months, maybe years, to?
Because they can almost immediately envision how much editing would be required to make those first couple of pages publishable. If they decide the investment wouldn’t make economic sense for a 300-400-page manuscript, end of story.
Your best bet to keep an agent or editor reading your manuscript?
You must become a ferocious self-editor. That means:
- Omit needless words
- Choose the simple word over one that requires a dictionary
- Avoid subtle redundancies, like “He thought in his mind…” (Where else would someone think?)
- Avoid hedging verbs like almost frowned, sort of jumped, etc.
- Generally remove the word that—use it only when absolutely necessary for clarity
- Give the reader credit and resist the urge to explain, as in, “She walked through the open door.” (Did we need to be told it was open?)
- Avoid too much stage direction (what every character is doing with every limb and digit)
- Avoid excessive adjectives
- Show, don’t tell
- And many more
For my full list and how to use them, click here. (It’s free.)
When do you know you’re finished revising? When you’ve gone from making your writing better to merely making it different. That’s not always easy to determine, but it’s what makes you an author.
2Find a mentor.Get help from someone who’s been where you want to be.
Imagine engaging a mentor who can help you sidestep all the amateur pitfalls and shave years of painful trial-and-error off your learning curve.
Just make sure it’s someone who really knows the writing and publishing world. Many masquerade as mentors and coaches but have never really succeeded themselves.
Look for someone widely-published who knows how to work with agents, editors, and publishers.
There are many helpful mentors online. I teach writers through this free site, as well as in my members-only Writers Guild.
PART 5Publishing Your Book1Decide on your publishing avenue.In simple terms, you have two options when it comes to publishing your book:
1. Traditional publishing
Traditional publishers take all the risks. They pay for everything from editing, proofreading, typesetting, printing, binding, cover art and design, promotion, advertising, warehousing, shipping, billing, and paying author royalties.
2. Self-publishing
Everything is on you. You are the publisher, the financier, the decision-maker. Everything listed above falls to you. You decide who does it, you approve or reject it, and you pay for it. The term self-publishing is a bit of a misnomer, however, because what you’re paying for is not publishing, but printing.
Both avenues are great options under certain circumstances.
Not sure which direction you want to take? Click here to read my in-depth guide to publishing a book. It’ll show you the pros and cons of each, what each involves, and my ultimate recommendation.
2Properly format your manuscript.Regardless whether you traditionally or self-publish your book, proper formatting is critical.
Why?
Because poor formatting makes you look like an amateur.
Readers and agents expect a certain format for book manuscripts, and if you don’t follow their guidelines, you set yourself up for failure.
Best practices when formatting your book:
- Use 12-point type
- Use a serif font; the most common is Times Roman
- Double space your manuscript
- No extra space between paragraphs
- Only one space between sentences
- Indent each paragraph half an inch (setting a tab, not using several spaces)
- Text should be flush left and ragged right, not justified
- If you choose to add a line between paragraphs to indicate a change of location or passage of time, center a typographical dingbat (like ***) on the line
- Black text on a white background only
- One-inch margins on the top, bottom, and sides (the default in Word)
- Create a header with the title followed by your last name and the page number. The header should appear on each page other than the title page.
If you need help implementing these formatting guidelines, click here to read my in-depth post on formatting your manuscript.
3Set up your author website and grow your platform.All serious authors need a website. Period.
Because here’s the reality of publishing today…
You need an audience to succeed.
If you want to traditionally publish, agents and publishers will Google your name to see if you have a website and a following.
If you want to self-publish, you need a fan base.
the Cookie policy here. I hope you find the site useful! Thanks - Joanna
How to really write a bookIn this post, I’ll teach you the fundamental steps you need to write a book. I’ve worked hard to make this easy to digest and super practical, so you can start making progress.
And just a heads up: if you dream of authoring a bestselling book like I have and you’re looking for a structured plan to guide you through the writing process, I have a special opportunity for you at the end of this post where I break the process down.
But first, let’s look at the big picture. What does it take to write a book? It happens in three phases:
- Beginning: You have to start writing. This sounds obvious, but it may be the most overlooked step in the process. You write a book by deciding first what you’re going to write and how you’re going to write it.
- Staying motivated: Once you start writing, you will face self-doubt and overwhelm and a hundred other adversaries. Planning ahead for those obstacles ensures you won’t quit when they come.
- Finishing: Nobody cares about the book that you almost wrote. We want to read the one you actually finished, which means no matter what, the thing that makes you a writer is your ability not to start a project, but to complete one.
BONUS: Click here to download all 20 steps in a complete guide for writing a book.
Phase 1: Getting startedWe all have to start somewhere. With writing a book, the first phase is made up of four parts:
1. Decide what the book is aboutGood writing is always about something. Write the argument of your book in a sentence, then stretch that out to a paragraph, and then to a one-page outline. After that, write a table of contents to help guide you as you write, then break each chapter into a few sections. Think of your book in terms of beginning, middle, and end. Anything more complicated will get you lost.
2. Set a daily word count goalJohn Grisham began his writing career as a lawyer and new dad — in other words, he was really busy. Nonetheless, he got up an hour or two early every morning and wrote a page a day. After a couple of years, he had a novel. A page a day is only about 300 words. You don’t need to write a lot. You just need to write often. Setting a daily goal will give you something to aim for. Make it small and attainable so that you can hit your goal each day and start building momentum.
3. Set a time to work on your book every dayConsistency makes creativity easier. You need a daily deadline to do your work — that’s how you’ll finish writing a book. Feel free to take a day off, if you want, but schedule that ahead of time. Never let a deadline pass; don’t let yourself off the hook so easily. Setting a daily deadline and regular writing time will ensure that you don’t have to think about when you will write. When it’s time to write, it’s time to write.
4. Write in the same place every timeIt doesn’t matter if it’s a desk or a restaurant or the kitchen table. It just needs to be different from where you do other activities. Make your writing location a special space, so that when you enter it, you’re ready to work. It should remind you of your commitment to finish this book. Again, the goal here is to not think and just start writing.
Phase 2: Doing the workNow, it’s time to get down to business. Here, we are going to focus on the next three tips to help you get the book done:
5. Set a total word countBegin with the end in mind. Once you’ve started writing, you need a total word count for your book. Think in terms of 10-thousand work increments and break each chapter into roughly equal lengths. Here are some general guiding principles:
- 10,000 words = a pamphlet or business white paper. Read time = 30-60 minutes.
- 20,000 words = short eBook or manifesto. The Communist Manifesto is an example of this, at about 18,000 words. Read time = 1-2 hours.
- 40,000–60,000 words = standard nonfiction book / novella. The Great Gatsby is an example of this. Read time = three to four hours.
- 60,000–80,000 words = long nonfiction book / standard-length novel. Most Malcolm Gladwell books fit in this range. Read time = four to six hours.
- 80,000 words–100,000 words = very long nonfiction book / long novel. The Four-Hour Work Week falls in this range.
- 100,000+ words = epic-length novel / academic book / biography. Read time = six to eight hours. The Steve Jobs biography would fit this category.
7. Get early feedbackNothing stings worse than writing a book and then having to rewrite it, because you didn’t let anyone look at it. Have a few trusted advisers to help you discern what’s worth writing. These can be friends, editors, family. Just try to find someone who will give you honest feedback early on to make sure you’re headed in the right direction.
Phase 3: FinishingHow do you know when you’re done? Short answer: you don’t. Not really. So here’s what you do to end this book-writing process well:
8. Commit to shippingNo matter what, finish the book. Set a deadline or have one set for you. Then release it to the world. Send it to the publisher, release it on Amazon, do whatever you need to do to get it in front of people. Just don’t put it in your drawer. The worst thing would be for you to quit once this thing is written. That won’t make you do your best work and it won’t allow you to share your ideas with the world.
9. Embrace failureAs you approach the end of this project, know that this will be hard and you will most certainly mess up. Just be okay with failing, and give yourself grace. That’s what will sustain you — the determination to continue, not your elusive standards of perfection.
10. Write another bookMost authors are embarrassed by their first book. I certainly was. But without that first book, you will never learn the lessons you might otherwise miss out on. So, put your work out there, fail early, and try again. This is the only way you get better. You have to practice, which means you have to keep writing.
Every writer started somewhere, and most of them started by squeezing their writing into the cracks of their daily lives. That’s how I began, and it may be where you begin, as well. The ones who make it are the ones who show up day after day. You can do the same.
The reason most people never finish their booksEvery year, millions of books go unfinished. Books that could have helped people, brought beauty or wisdom into the world. But they never came to be. And in one way or another, the reason is always the same: the author quit.
Maybe you’ve dealt with this. You started writing a book but never completed it. You got stuck and didn’t know how to finish. Or you completed your manuscript but didn’t know what to do after. Worse yet, you wrote a book, but nobody cared about it. Nobody bought or read it.
I’ve been there before.
In fact, the first couple books I wrote didn’t do that well at all — even with a traditional publisher. It took me years to learn this, but here’s what nobody ever told me:
Before you can launch a bestseller, first you have to write one.
Before you can launch a bestseller, you have to write a bestseller.
Jeff Goins
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What I mean by that is so many writers sit down to write their masterpiece, assuming that’s all there is to it. Just sit down and write. But as I’ve studied the world’s most gifted and successful authors, I’ve noticed this is not what the masters do. They are far more intentional than simply sitting and letting the words flow.
Every great writer needs a system they can trust. You and I are no different. But an author’s system for how they produce bestselling book after bestselling book is not always the easiest thing to access. So, as a matter of survival, I’ve had to figure it out for myself and create a clear book-writing framework that works. This is what I call the “Write a Bestseller Method” which helps me get a book written and ready to launch.
This is the part that I never learned in any English class. Producing work that sells is not just about writing what you think is good. It’s about finding an idea that will both excite you and excite an audience. It’s about being intentional and thinking through the whole process while having proper accountability to keep you going.
In other words, the writing process matters. It matters a lot. You have to not only finish your book but write one worthy of being sold. And if you want to maximize your chances of finishing your book, you need a proven plan.
Writing books has changed my life. It helped me clarify my thinking, find my calling as an author, and has provided endless opportunities to make an impact on the world and a living for my family.
If you’re serious about doing the same, click here to get my free guide on how to write a book.
Bonus: 10 more writing tips!If you need some help staying motivated, here are another 10 tips to help you keep going in the process:
11. Only write one chapter at a timeWrite and publish a novel, one chapter at a time, using Amazon Kindle Singles, Wattpad, or sharing with your email list subscribers.
12. Write a shorter bookThe idea of writing a 500-page masterpiece can be paralyzing. Instead, write a short book of poems or stories. Long projects are daunting. Start small.
13. Start a blog to get feedback earlyGetting feedback early and often helps break up the overwhelm. Start a website on WordPress or Tumblr and use it to write your book a chapter or scene at a time. Then eventually publish all the posts in a hardcopy book. This is a little different than tradition blogging, but the same concepts apply. We created a free tool to help you know when your blog posts are ready to publish. Check out Don’t Hit Publish.
14. Keep an inspiration listYou need it in order to keep fresh ideas flowing. Read constantly, and use a system to capture, organize and find the content you’ve curated. I use Evernote, but use a system that works for you.
15. Keep a journalThen, rewrite the entries in a much more polished book format, but use some photocopies or scans of the journal pages as illustrations in the book. You could even sell “deluxe” editions that come with photocopied versions of the journal.
16. Deliver consistentlySome days, it’s easy to write. Some days, it’s incredibly hard. The truth is: inspiration is merely a byproduct of your hard work. You can’t wait for inspiration. The Muse is really an out-of-work bum who won’t move until you do. Show her who’s boss and that you mean business.
17. Take frequent breaksNiel Fiore, the author of The Now Habit, says, “There is one main reason why we procrastinate: It rewards us with temporary relief from stress.” If you’re constantly stressed about your unfinished book, you’ll end up breaking your schedule. Instead, plan for breaks ahead of time so you stay fresh: minute breaks, hour breaks, or even multiple day breaks.
18. Remove distractionsTry tools like Bear or Scrivener to let you write in a totally distraction-free environment. That way, email, Facebook, and Twitter won’t interrupt your flow.
19. Write where others are writing (or working)If you’re having trouble writing consistently by yourself, write where other people are also working. A coffee shop or library where people are actually working and not just socializing can help. If you’re in a place where other people are getting things done, then you’ll have no choice but to join them.
20. Don’t edit as you goInstead, write without judgment first, then go back and edit later. You’ll keep a better flow and won’t be interrupted by constant criticism of your own work. And you’ll have a lot more writing to edit when it’s time to do so.
Click here to download a complete reference guide of all these writing tips.
What do you want to write a book about? What is your best writing advice? Share in the 1616 Comments.
How to Overcome Writer’s Block: 14 Tricks That WorkBY JEFF GOINS WRITINGWriting about a writer’s block is better than not writing at all.
–Charles Bukowski
It happens to every writer. It’s inevitable. Your prose has turned to mush, you don’t have a creative bone left in your body, and you want to throw in the towel.
Writer’s block. Every writer struggles with it. But what you do with it is what really matters. Before we talk about solutions, though, let’s talk about the problem.
Common causes of writer’s blockThe reasons for your block may vary, but some common ones include:
- Timing: It’s simply not the right time to write. Your ideas may need to stew a little longer before writing them down.
- Fear: Many writers struggle with being afraid, with putting their ideas (and themselves) out there for everyone to see and critique. Fear is a major reason some writers never become writers.
- Perfectionism: You want everything to be just right before you ever put pen to paper or touch a keyboard. You try to get it perfect in your head and never do, so you never begin. To help you through this, we created Don’t Hit Publish. It’s a free tool that tells you if your blog post is good enough to publish and also give you tips on how to improve it.
That’s the thing about writing: it’s an art, not a science. And you’ll have to approach it as such. There is no formulaic fix, no “7 Steps to Becoming a Better Writer Now.”
Except one. But you already know what it is: Start hacking away. Begin trying stuff. Sometimes, the quirkier, the better. The trick is find something that works for you.
Creative solutions to writer’s blockHere are a few ideas to help you work through your creative constipation:
- Go for a walk.
- Eliminate distractions (I use Ommwriter to focus on just writing).
- Do something to get your blood flowing. (I like running.)
- Play. (My personal preference is LEGOS.)
- Change your environment.
- Read a book.
- Freewrite.
- Listen to music (try classical or jazz to mix it up).
- Brew some coffee (my personal favorite).
- Create a routine. Many famous writers have daily routines to summon the Muse.
- Spend time with someone who makes you feel good.
- Call an old friend.
- Brainstorm ideas in bullet points.
- Read some inspiring quotes to get you started.
Once you start heading in a direction, it’s easier to pick up speed. And before you know it, your block will be a distant memory and you’ll be doing what you once thought impossible. You’ll be writing.
How to not overcome writer’s blockAnd just for fun, here are some anti-solutions to this problem:
- You do not overcome writer’s block by refusing to write until you feel “inspired.”
- You do not overcome writer’s block by wallowing in self-pity.
- You do not overcome writer’s block by procrastinating or making excuses.
- You do not overcome writer’s block by watching TV.
- You do not overcome writer’s block by reading articles on how to overcome writer’s block. (Kinda shot myself in the foot there, huh?)
You overcome writer’s block by writing. (Tweet)
Start somewhere, anywhere. Write a few lines. Say anything. And see what happens. Don’t think about it too much or make any fancy announcements. Just write. It doesn’t need to be eloquent or presentable; it just needs to be written..
Write for the joy of writing. Because you can’t not do it. Don’t try to say or produce anything; just get some words on paper, now. No excuses or justifications.
You can write. Don’t make it harder than it has to be. Just type a few words. They don’t have to be good (all first drafts suck). It just has to be written. Then you have something to work it. You can tweak from there.
If you do this, you’ll get past the hump. I promise. The difference between professional writers and amateurs is this: Both encounter blocks, but one pushes through while the other gets paralyzed.
You can do this. Just write.
(One caveat: This technique only works if you’re truly blocked and not “empty,” which is an entirely different matter altogether.)
If you need some help getting started with a daily writing habit, I encourage you to join my 31-day writing challenge. It’s free! Click here to get started.
So… you want to be a writer?This all begins with believing you already are a writer. So let’s start there. My own journey of becoming a writer was an awakening of sorts — to who I already was. Maybe yours will be similar.
A writer is a writer when he says he is.
—Steven Pressfield
Anyone who writes is a writer, but that doesn’t mean they’re a very good one. So let’s talk about how to become a better writer. We’ll begin with the basics — here are seven key lessons (with links to important articles about each):
- Writing is simple, but not easy.
- Before you get a larger audience, you have to get better.
- Practice makes you better; it’s the repetitions that make it effortless.
- Until you put your work out there, you’re only screwing around. Write for real.
- You can’t practice without discipline. Keep showing up and persevering.
- There will always be resistance; type through it, anyway.
- Get over your excuses and do the work.
- Why do I want to write?
- Who am I writing for?
- What’s my message?
- Have I found my voice yet?
- What am I willing to sacrifice for my craft?
- What won’t I give up?
Tips for when you beginI’ve coached and trained other writers for years. I’ve built a powerful personal brand and platform and used it to publish my work. I’ve experimented and seen as much failure as success. Through all of it, I want to use what I’ve learned to help other people.
So my hope this blog serves you in your writing journey in some way. I’ve written hundreds of articles here, which is a lot to sort through. Here is a list of 10 essential tips on writing:
- Write every day.
- Make sure your writing is effective.
- Don’t be lazy; do your best to avoid sounding stupid.
- Stay focused! Distraction is the enemy of all great art.
- Stop worrying about being a good writer; just write.
- Forget about fame; write what’s worth writing.
- Get over your perfectionist tendencies.
- Don’t write to get published.
- Write with conviction.
- Read.
Look. This isn’t just something that happens accidentally. You have to work at it. So how do you create work that earns you the attention of publishers, exactly? You build a platform.
These days, a lot of writers use blogs and the power of the Internet to get their writing discovered. There’s no reason you can’t do the same. Here are 10 basic tips on blogging and building an audience that will help you get published:
- In order to get noticed, you’ve got to be intentional.
- Narrow your focus to broaden your audience.
- Learn from copywriters, and write for scanners.
- Engage with readers (get more comments on your blog).
- Be intentional about growing your blog traffic.
- Build an email list (like, yesterday).
- Use guest posting to tap into new audiences.
- Write great content, but don’t stop there; build relationships, too.
- Expect haters.
- Help people.
Need help with your writing?Check out the archives of this blog for more articles and resources. And be sure sign up for free updates to this blog; you don’t miss anything.
Now, get on that mailing list while you’re still thinking about it (I never SPAM, promise). You’ll get a free eBook when you confirm your email:
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