Is it time to write your book yet?
I get asked a lot about writing my book.
Sometimes because people want to grab a copy (which I’m grateful for) and sometimes because deep down, they want to write their own. They don’t always say that, I can tell from their line of questioning. After all, I’ve spent the last 15 years asking questions - so I can spot a buried lead a mile away.
If that’s you, here are some tips to help you get started.
Decide why. Knowing why you’re writing will keep you going when you lose motivation or it gets hard (which it will). Is it to build your business or become an authority? To capture your knowledge or history for your loved ones? To make money? The answer doesn’t matter, but you need to be crystal clear on what the objective is. Side note: ‘Just for fun’ is also an option.
Set a deadline. When will the first draft be finished? Make it realistic and achievable but also a tiny bit ambitious. If you have too much room to breathe, you’ll procrastinate.
Just start. Carve out 10 minutes a day to cultivate a writing practice. Set your timer and aim to bash out even 100 words, one paragraph, a sentence. The trick is to show up every day and get something down. If you get stuck, write anything - ‘I love cats’, will do.
Embrace the ‘vomit edit’. The vomit edit is way funner than it sounds. As the name suggests, it’s where you get everything out. You don’t double back and edit or perfect, that’s for later. For now, the objective is just to have a bash at getting all of those glorious ideas out of your noggin and onto paper.
Don’t let your set up set you back. Inspiration often strikes when I’m far from my laptop or even pen and paper. Voice memos and ‘notes’ on my phone ensure so I don’t lose my ideas when I’m on the go. Voice memos are particularly ace - speaking and recording puts my brain under pressure to work more quickly than I can type or write - removing the buffer where doubt creeps in. You can also use your ‘dictate’ function in Word so you can speak and the typing fairies do the hard yakka for you. Try it!
Don’t beat yourself up if you lose your way. You will get off track - you’ll go from ‘this is awesome’ to ‘WTF am I doing’ more quickly than the procrastination kettle can boil. Just keep going and learn to love the practice.
I put all these tips into practice (and then some) in The ‘Bad’ Girl’s Guide To Better. It feels like lunch with your finest friends crossed with a therapy session - a work of which I couldn’t be prouder.
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