3 Tips For Writing A Book. Have you ever wanted to write a book, but you realize you have more barriers than writer’s block to overcome, to writing your book? Well, that was me when I wrote my first book.
I will share the strategies I used to write my book when I went on medical leave from my job due to Lupus and Rheumatoid Arthritis resulting in a surgery I had. I was on bed rest for 10 weeks. Along with the medical barriers, I am a wife and mother of six children.
I am going to share with you how I overcame the medical barriers to still write my book while showing up for my children with the support of my husband.
Table of Contents
Here Are 3 Tips For Writing A Book:
1. Create A Timeline For Writing
The first step I took was creating a timeline to write my book. I am an entrepreneur and I have my own business, but at the time of writing my book, I was still in corporate America. So, I scheduled my medical leave of absence around the time I was having surgery.
I’m not sure what gave me the “brilliant” idea of writing a book during medical leave. I had no experience, therefore, did not know if it would work but I was willing to try.
I created a timeline of 10 weeks since that was the timeframe of my medical leave.
In this 10-week timeframe, I outlined 4 areas that needed consideration:
- Setting Aside Time To Write
- How Can I Keep This Consistent Writing Time?
- Writing A Book While Looking After My Health
- Using Your Support System
Setting Aside Time To Write
When thinking about the timeline for my book, I thought about how many hours a day I could spend writing. Because of being on several medications, I had to write when I was alert enough and strong enough.
There were days that I took medication in the evening so that I could sleep at night and be awake in the day time while my children were at school. This was my particular situation. But for you, what do you need to consider when outlining a time that works best for you to write.
I thought about writing 2-3 hours a day to be consistent.
Think about how long you want to write your book. Do you want to commit to the next 3 months, 6 months, or however long it takes?
How Can I Keep This Consistent Writing Time?
When thinking about the timeline for my life, I had several things to consider: my husband’s works schedule, my children’s school schedule, my doctor’s appointments and follow-up care and my regular self-care. With a large family, there’s no doubt I had a busy life to consider.
Creating a consistent writing schedule was very important for me because if I did not get a chance to write at that allotted time, I may not get to write again until the next day or even two days later.
As I stated before, I would often rest in the evening and take required medications at the same time so that I could be alert in the daytime. Since the medication was so strong that it would make me fall asleep no matter when it was taken.
For you to write a book, there are things to consider:
- What time do you have available?
- When do you feel most busy or relaxed?
- Are you handling a mental or physical disability that you need to work with?
- What do you need to do to be present to write your book?
By knowing your obstacles, you are able to find the time to most effectively write.
Writing A Book While Looking After My Health
When thinking about my health, of course, I had a set of unique circumstances.
With Lupus and Rheumatoid Arthritis, it is highly recommended by my doctors to move as much as possible for the efficiency of the fluid movement of my joints. Being on bed rest for 10 weeks went against the regular protocol of moving since I was supposed to stay in bed.
Due to this, I had to take breaks often just to stretch and stand up even though I could not go very far to actually take a walk.
These circumstances I was working with meant I had to figure out what worked best for me.
In Microsoft Word (and other software) you can implement Dictate or Speech-to-text for writing your book. In my word document, I was able to click a button and talk into my laptop while the screen was translating my speech to text, then I would go back and edit.
I did this on days when it was hard to formulate thoughts by typing so I talked instead. Since talking comes so natural for me, it was a great fit.
Using Your Support System
Due to my current health condition, I needed several layers of support.
Firstly, I let my husband know that when I have days that I feel better, I am going to use that time to write my book, especially while the children were at school.
Secondly, since cooking dinner each night was a lot for my husband, I reach out to my church community to bring food to the house that would help us during this time. I couldn’t cook dinner as I normally would, therefore, having meals was a huge help for my family.
Now, I know what you’re saying, Leona, people are not going to bring me food so I can write my book. I understand, I am just sharing an example of what I did in my situation.
What support system do you have that will aid you in writing your story?
There are many creative ways to solicit support on your book writing journey. From friends or family being there in the process of writing or simply giving you space for you to concentrate.
2. Create A Story Outline
The second step I took was scheduling a free consultation call with my publisher to understand how to write my book.
They gave me steps to create an outline for my book. They also shared the perspective I needed to have when writing my book so that I am writing directly to my ideal audience.
Even more specifically I was told to imagine sitting down at the dinner table and talking to my reader across the table. That is how I need to “talk” in my book. I need to write directly to the mother across the table, since mothers were my ideal reader.
I need to be effective with my time I felt able to write this book, so getting to the core of what elements my book would need was so helpful!
Here is a story outline you can use:
1 Setting
Create the setting of your story so the readers have a snapshot of when and where your story took place. For example, if you are a retired professor and you wrote, “After graduating high school I didn’t know what college I wanted to attend”. It lets the reader know that they should travel back in their mind a few years because you gave the readers a timeline to imagine.
2 Scenario
In the scenario, this is where you describe the main scene we are reading about in your book. Take your time on each section, especially here as you unpack the situation that is happening. Describe the problem, circumstances, or situation thoroughly.
3 Sizzle
I call this part of your story outline the sizzle because this is where things get even hotter. This is the part of the story that you might say, “and then something else happened”.
When telling the scenario, you outline what took place but when telling the sizzle you share how the situation that you describe in the scenario got worse.
For example: If you are telling a story about how you lost your wedding ring and when you called your jeweller to inquire about your warranty on the ring, the customer service representative advises you that your warranty expired 2 days ago. You have a bad situation that just got worse, that just got hotter. That is the sizzle of your story.
4 Solution
With the solution, you want to clearly outline how you solved the problem.
Describe to your readers how you solve the problems in the scenario and the sizzle part of your story. As you describe how the problems were solved be sure to also talk about the mindset shifts that had to take place.
In some stories, the mindset shift was the only solution. Either way, make it clear because in the next part you are going to elaborate.
5 Salvation
This is like the, “Come to Jesus moment.” In the salvation part of your story, the part where you tell the reader what the whole point of this book is. This is where you share what the moral of the story is. What is the whole point of you telling me about ___.
It’s very similar to attending a church service and after the service is over there is an invitation to “come to Jesus.” The whole point of the choir singing, the preacher preaching and the ushers serving is so that you can make this big decision at the end. That’s how your book should end. What are you inviting your readers to do, or think about at the end of your story?
So, my salvation in outlining these tips for you is to relay the importance of how you can write your book despite the barriers you have faced.
3. Create Sub-objectives
When I think about writing a book, there are so many objectives you have to think about for the bigger picture, such as writing your story. After that then you need to create several sub-objectives.
There will enviably be days where you will struggle to write due to many different reasons. By cutting these monstrous tasks into small chunks, there will always be some tiny tasks you can accomplish.
Here are a few sub-objectives to think about:
1. Title
Think about what you want readers to feel when they hear your title with no accompanying information:
- Do you want your reader to know exactly what your book is about from the title alone?
- Do you want your title to spark curiosity? Do you want your title to be intriguing?
These are a few things to think about when creating a title for your book.
2. Cover
The cover is a visual appeal, therefore, what do you want your readers to:
- Feel when they see your book on the shelf?
- What do you want your readers to be reminded of when they see your book cover?
- Will their heart jump because you have a scary image on your cover?
- Will they feel peace because of the oceanfront on the cover?
Whether you’re creating the cover or having a graphic designer create it, you need to understand and communicate how you want your readers to feel when looking at your book cover. Your cover needs to speak directly to your ideal reader.
3. Subtitle
I am honestly shocked when I see a book without a subtitle. Especially when the title is not clear alone.
In marketing, it’s the subtitle that sells the books. If I have a title called ‘Transitions’ you may be able to guess what you think it means but now let’s add the subtitle. Transitions – Empowering women with the tools and strategy to start a new life as a widow.
Now, does it paint a clearer picture of what transitions this book is talking about? Absolutely because of the subtitle. The subtitle draws your specific reader in to let them know they are holding the right book in their hand. The subtitle is so powerful you can use it as a title for your speech or talk. I have spoken on stages all over the world because of my subtitle.
4. Why
When we think of the, WHY, we are talking about why are you writing this book to this audience. Understand the purpose of writing this book. Whether you outline your why is the preface of your book or you outline it in your heart be clear about your why. When the writing journey gets tough remember your audience that is waiting for you to show up.
5. Audience
Last but certain not least is your audience. Who is your audience? If you said women, it’s too broad. If you said moms, it’s still too broad. You need to imagine (as stated before) you are looking at your audience across the table. Your audience should be so clear that when I read your subtitle, I can think of 4 or 5 people for who I need to get the book.
About The Author
Hi there, my name is Leona Carter, and I’m the founder of Carter Strategies! I’m an intimacy coach for married women. I empower women to build intimacy with their husband through the power of dating again. I’m passionate about changing what marriage culture looks like and be the mentor I longed for, for other married women. You can stay updated on all of my events and masterclasses and get inspired at www.LeonaCarter.club, or connect via intimacy_with_her_husband Instagram!
Hi! I'm Shannon, a blogger and author. I help people earn doing what they love as writers.
You'll find tips and tutorial on how to become an author, write books people want to read and marketing your story!
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