There is a book inside everyone. Yet, unleashing that book has never been easy for most of us. Even when we are capable of writing well, it is still a a major effort to organize our thoughts, develop an outline, gather all the right information and then find the time to do all that writing.
Ask yourself these questions.
Can I speak into a voice recorder?
Yes? Then writing your own book may begin with recording your ‘ramblings’ and turning the recordings into transcriptions. That may be your first step.
Am I willing to be candid and open?
Yes. Then you have the foundation for a fascinating read. Readers sense genuineness and are attracted to it.
No. Then you may not be ready for writing your book yet. Readers sense when you are hiding.
If you don’t believe that, check out Heart of Superman. The element that makes Jose’s story work is the complete honesty with which he approaches his story. That element was present from the first glimpse of his manuscript. It hooked me despite the need for major work on the writing style.
I took a writing style that was dull and narrative and shook it up without losing Jose’s voice. He’d buried really good dialog by telling readers about what people said and did. I showed him the power of dialog. It’s also amazing what changing the verb tense can do!
When he added some content after he received the first CreateSpace proof, his writing was great! I barely had to edit it. He’d caught the vision of what good writing looks like.
Do I know my subject? Do I have insights that no one else has?
Yes. Then you are the right person to write your book. The truth is no one knows your stuff better than you do. No one can share your story more vividly than you can.
Hiring a ghost writer can lead to bitter disappointment. Participating actively in the writing of your own book leads to better results far more often.
I’ve had clients who needed significant help with their writing style – even clients who will never be able to write in an engaging style without major editing. Yet those same clients knew exactly when my substantive editing had hit the sweet spot.
What made it work? The thoughts remained theirs. The book remained theirs. I just helped set their words free.
Am I willing to commit time?
It doesn’t have to be as much time as you think, yet some commitment is required. There are ways to get a book out of your head and into publication faster than you’d ever think possible.
That’s one reason I specialize in helping my clients break their book into workable bytes. Even if it takes months to reach their goal, I help them get there.
I built the content for my book Freelance Writing for the 21st Century by first committing to blogging about writing for 100 days straight. Several projects for clients took priority over organizing the content. When I came back to it, I developed the topic outline based on what I’d already written. That revealed gaps and two completely different types of content.
One type of content focused on business management. The other focused on the writing opportunities available. Over the space of a month, I spent an hour a day writing or doing my research to fill the gaps. When I was through, I had covered both the business side of being a freelance writer and how to write for the opportunities available in the 21st century.
You don’t have to be techy.
While it helps to have a computer, I have worked with clients who are barely email literate. They prefer to write everything out by hand and have someone type it up. The typist emails me the files. We do all of our consulting over the phone. Then I send my revisions back by mail.
I have other clients who embrace just enough technology to get by. They use voice recognition or peck their stories into Word. We use a combination of email and phone consultation.
Each writing coaching experience is different.
I recognize that you might be one of those people who learn very well on their own. That’s why I have a membership level just for DIYs – Learn for Myself.
Others need guidance at different junctures in the process, yet don’t need intense assistance. There’s a membership for you – Personalized Instruction.
If you need intense help, I have a membership for you as well. With the Intensive Personalization level, you get one-on-one coaching that helps you develop your skills as a writer. My goal is to help you tap into your undiscovered wells of writing talent.
Set that book inside you free!
Become a Writing My Own Book member today.
