5 Lessons I Learned Writing a Book
Do you dream of writing a book? Do you have a book started but you can’t seem to finish it?
Here are 5 lessons I learned while writing my book "The Unexpected Entrepreneur: Now You're Here, Make a Difference While Making a Living".
My hope is that these 5 lessons will help you with your book writing journey.
Your dream of writing a book and making it a reality is more than possible.
Understand your motivation for writing a book.
The beginning always starts with the end. If you don't know where you're going, it's pretty hard to know when you get there!
Creating a compelling why before you start writing is critical.
When you plug into your deepest purpose to understand "why" you want to write a book, this will give you a clear understanding of your motivation.
If you don't understand your motivation or know why you want to write a book, it’s difficult to get excited about it. We all know what happens if we're not excited to do something. Nothing.
Your vision for your book will spur your action and it will be your anchor when things get hard. And writing a book is hard.
Don't make the book or the writing process about you.
Unless you're writing a memoir, try not to make your book all about you. I know this sounds counter-intuitive, but trust me on this one.
Most writers are writing books to help, inspire or educate people and what do people love to focus on? Themselves!
If your book is primarily focused on you, your reader will lose interest and stop reading your book. This is not good and it defeats the point of a book.
You will have put a lot of time and energy into writing and you want your reader to get the most out of your book by reading it.
So remember that writing a book is about blazing a trail for others to follow. And they will follow if it's about them, not you.
The key is what you're putting out into the world and to leave it better than how you found it.
Have support and accountability people around you when writing a book.
Remember when I said writing a book is hard?
This is why as a writer, you will need support and accountability from the people around you during the writing process.
Ask someone you trust and has your best interest at heart to hold you accountable. Share with them your timeline and plans. Give them permission to hold you to it.
Support is crucial. You will need inspiration and a push from time-to-time to keep you going when you don't feel like it. And trust me, there will be many days you won't feel like it.
Your support people should also be there to help you with "life things" while you focus on writing.
Together, accountability and support are the magic formula to get it done.
If you can find someone who's also writing a book, that's a huge bonus because you can be accountable to each other for the same goal - to write and publish your books!
The support piece can be challenging as you both will be focusing hard on your individual writing goals, but the commiseration with someone who knows exactly what you're going through is invaluable.
Take your tribe with you on the book writing journey.
People are interested and fascinated with the mystery of the behind the scenes of writing a book. Give your tribe regular and real sneak peaks into the life of a writer.
Show them the good stuff, the hard stuff and be honest when you feel like quitting.
The outpouring of encouragement and support you will get will amaze you. People want to get involved (especially when you make it all about them!).
You being open about the book writing process will spark excitement and inspiration in people in ways you won't even realize.
And then when it comes time to launch your book, your tribe will have so much "skin in the game" they will be compelled to show up and help birth your book baby into the world!
Set your work and life up well before you start writing a book.
You must have good organizational and time management skills to write a book.
It takes commitment. It takes boundaries. It takes focus. It takes dedication.
You will have to sacrifice while writing so think in advance about all of the ways you can prepare and set up your work and life before you start.
How do you need to set up your calendar?
Are there tasks you can delegate or automate?
What should you stop doing or eliminate to make extra time capacity?
Are your finances in good shape?
You can do hard things!
There are thousands of books that have been written by aspiring authors just like you.
Is it hard? Yes.
Is it impossible? No.
Use the lessons I learnt while writing my book to help you get your book out into the world.
You can absolutely do this!
The Unexpected Entrepreneur: Now You're Here, Make a Difference While Making a Living
This book will give you the productivity skills and resources to help you make a difference while making a living. What if you could ditch your distractions and break free from overwhelm to create focus and achieve more than you ever thought possible? What would your life look like if you used doubt and fear as steppingstones to live with greater confidence? Perfectionism will no longer poison your mind or keep you from reaching your goals as you embrace the "perfectly imperfect" mindset.
When you've finished reading this book, you will have laid a strong foundation to transform your physical, digital, and mental spaces so that you can enjoy greater freedom and success in your entrepreneurial journey.
Find your freedom.
Live your life.
Noreen