How to Get Your Book Done

It's time to make it happen.

Here’s how it usually starts.

You have a genius idea for a book. You might not have all the details fleshed out, but you know this is something you have to write and you know it is something people will want to read.

You make some notes, maybe an outline. You write a chapter. You write a few other pieces but aren’t quite sure where they fit yet. Then you’re stalled. It feels overwhelming. You start to doubt yourself. You’re scared to commit a lot of time to something that might not turn out to be anything.

You come back to it, reread what you wrote, and work on editing and changing it. It’s not perfect, and that’s upsetting. You stop. Maybe you can’t do this, you think.

You come back to it again. You fiddle some more and maybe write some more pieces, but this is all starting to feel like a black hole that just sucks your time but never outputs what you’re hoping for. You feel like a loser.

You stop. You come back to it after a couple of weeks or maybe a few months. You throw out a lot of what you’ve written and start over. The next day you edit that again. It’s still not what you want.

A lot of people just stop here, or they continue picking at what they have and rewriting and re-editing, just spinning their tires in the snow (I’m from Buffalo) and not getting the car out of the driveway.

STOP THE MADNESS!

I’ve written over 40 of my own books, co-authored a bunch, and helped countless authors bring their own books to fruition. I’ve seen this cycle over and over. I know the frustration you’re feeling. And I have the antidote.

Golden Rules of Book Writing

Here are my golden rules of writing which will get you out of this crazy cycle.

1. You need a roadmap. For most people, that’s an outline. And an outline can be formal with numbers and letters and bullet points or it can just be some ideas scratched out in a list. You cannot write any book (fiction or nonfiction) unless you have some idea of what’s in it: what you’re showing, telling, teaching, or exploring. Write some kind of notes about what’s going to be in the book before you do anything else. I know that some famous writers (mostly fiction writers) say they do not make an outline and the story just spills out of them. They’ve been doing this for 40 years and I guarantee you they have a mental outline or plan for the book.

2. Do not be an outline perfectionist. An outline is necessary, but it’s not a work of art. No one else is going to see this. Do not go crazy with formatting and bolding and font size and punctuation and complete sentences. This is just something to start the motor. You’re not submitting this to the Pulitzer committee.

3. Write what you’re excited about first. For most people, the muse is calling and wants them to write something. It might be a scene or a chapter or a few paragraphs. Lots of times, it’s the first chapter. Listen to that call and spit that out onto the page. Do not be alarmed when you are no longer excited about the book after you do this. You’re right on schedule. This is normal.

4. DO NOT EDIT. Immediately editing what you wrote is how you get sucked into the unfinished book cycle (spinning your tires in the snow). Don’t do it. DO NOT. Instead, write something else. Look at your outline and pick another piece. Get something onto the page.

5. Trust Anne Lamott. I often reference two pieces of Anne’s advice to writers. The first is to write shitty first drafts. EVERYONE writes shitty first drafts. Even those big-name authors. You cannot produce a book if you are constantly evaluating and editing every word that comes out. Stop judging and start dumping material on the page. Once you have something there, you can fix it later. “I’m not going to worry about it. I’ll fix it later,” is what I tell myself. The second Lamott piece of advice is to go “bird by bird.” There’s a long story behind that phrase but what it means is to just write about one tiny thing at a time. Do not attempt to resolve every last item and issue in the book right now. Pick one thing, focus only on that, and work on that.

6. Schedule your writing. I am a big believer in the muse, but she’s kind of a lazy bitch who thinks she can just show up for work when SHE feels like it. You can’t rely on divine inspiration to write your book. You have to show up regularly and work on it even when you feel stupid and stuck. A lot of my writers have day jobs, so it can be hard to find the time to work consistently, but it is the only way this book is ever going to make it on the page. Commit at least one time slot (at least two hours) a week to your book without distractions. Try to do it when you are most productive. For me, that’s mornings. I get more done on a Monday morning than I seem to the rest of the week. Put this on your calendar. Write something. DO NOT EDIT. Write. Put stuff on the page. Maybe it’s good, maybe it’s bad. It doesn’t matter. You just have to write something. Some writers set a word count requirement for themselves, say 2,000 words per session. That’s one way to do it. What works for me is to just sit there and whatever I get, I get.

7. Capture the muse when she comes. If you’re lucky, you’ll have some moments of shocking clarity or compelling creativity where you come up with new things for the book, like new characters, plot changes, new approaches, new exercises, new details, new concepts, or even new organization. You might also have a flash of brilliance where you realize you’ve done something completely wrong and you see the right path. When it comes, capture it. Make a voice note on your phone. Send yourself an email. Scribble something on the back of your grocery list. If you’re able to sit down and bang it out on your computer, do that. But remember that this is not how writing a book usually goes. These moments are rare and infrequent. When they come, make the most of them, but do not sit around waiting for them.

8. Work through your outline. You don’t have to write it in order, but use this as your checklist of stuff that needs to be in the book. Pick a piece and write it. Pick another piece and write that. Keep writing. Keep at it. Squeeze all your ideas onto the page like orange juice. Be relentless. Stick to the schedule. If you get a feeling of urgency (that you have to get this book done), make more time. You will likely have moments where you are convinced nothing you have written makes any sense, and this is right on schedule (congrats!). But don’t stop. Your end product is what you will view as a total piece of garbage. You will feel so disappointed in yourself. You will think you should quit. You should not.

9. Read and edit. Your end product is what you will view as a total piece of garbage. You will feel so disappointed in yourself. You will think you should quit. You should not. Sit down with this amazingly horrific draft and read it. Start picking at it. Change things. Reword things. See the potential. Do not give up.

10. Panic. This is where you get that sick feeling that this will never be anything worthwhile. But the truth is there isn’t that much work needed to get it to be worthwhile. You have already done the heavy lifting. You pulled words out of your brain and filled all those pages. That was hard. Now you have a lump of clay you can mold. Inside that lump is a beautiful bowl. You just have to move the clay around to find it. I tell my writers that they’ve written the book and they just have to polish it. After everything you’ve gone through to get here, you can do that.

11. Rework the book as a whole. There are likely things in the book that aren’t working. Cut them and paste them in another document so that you have them if you decide you need them back. But get them out of the book. You probably have realized some pieces don’t make sense or aren’t flowing or just aren’t doing it. Fix them. Cut and chop with wild abandon. You’re in an overgrown forest. Chop down the dead stuff and clean it out so the good stuff can get the sunlight. Rewrite, move things around, revise, and keep going. Give yourself permission to slash and burn as needed. It is scary when you start but once you get going, it’s freeing. Make the changes needed to bring this manuscript closer to what the book should be.

12. Pick at things. Now that you’ve reworked the concept, it’s time to just pick at things. And this is how I think about. “I’ll just sit down and pick at a couple of things.” I don’t build it up as some huge editing task. It’s just picking at a few things that need some work - different words, small restructuring, changes in tone or voice, more details, grammar, punctuation, etc. And what’s nice about picking is you can do a little at a time. Ten minutes here, half an hour there.

13. Read it all again. This is hard to do because you’re likely sick of this stupid book. But this is when you fall in love with the book or at least you make up with it. Read it from start to finish. It’s ok to pick at a few things along the way, but don’t make any major changes. Now, think about it. Does it need more changes? Does it work? Are you in love with it (as much as you can be in love with a flawed and imperfect creation)? Make changes if needed.

14. Get help. Someone else has to read this book and give you feedback which I know is scary, but before you hand it over to the world, have someone you trust read it and tell you what they think. If you’ve been working with an editor or book coach, you’ve had eyes on this all along, but even so this is when you need someone new to be your reader. They’re going to see things you didn’t see and also tell you some things that don’t make sense [I’ll have an upcoming post about author blindness that gets into this.]

15. Set a deadline. I recently dragged a client, kicking and screaming, to completion of his project. He would have continued to revise, rethink, reword, redo, and re-edit the book until the end of time. He asked me, “How do I know when it’s done?” The answer is it will never be perfect, so you just have to give yourself a deadline, and that’s it. Set a deadline for when you’re going to stop. And be done.

Those are my rules. If you follow them, I promise you that you will finish your book. I am not promising that it will be easy, but you will get it done. Every first-time author I work with tells me they had NO idea how much work writing a book actually is. A client told me yesterday she thinks that the prices of books ought to be much higher, considering how much work goes into them.

FUN STUFF

Now that you’ve realized that writing a book is hard, how about a palate cleanser?

In My World

One of my clients just released her very first children’s book, Perfectly Sunny by Tricia Easter. It’s a true story about her daughter’s three-legged hedgehog.

Engrossed by…

Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari. It’s been on my list for a while and I finally dove in. I have a friend who started the Hard Book Book Club where members challenge themselves to read books that are not just fun and entertaining, but actually teach them something. I’m trying to make sure I read some hard books once in a while too.

Muslim Matchmaker on Hulu. This is in stark contrast to my serious reading pick, but I can’t get enough. I love learning about cultural norms and seeing people try to find their person.

Good Goods

I’m obsessed with The Peanut Shop Handcooked Virginia Peanuts. They are super crunchy not mushy like most cocktail peanuts. They are totally divine on ice cream but I also find myself grabbing a handful in the afternoon. And you know that little nub that is at the top where the two peanut halves meet? That little piece is super super super crunchy, and I would honestly just buy that if I could.