Get Your Book Done - Fast
Many people dream of writing a book – but freak out and never do it, precisely because it is a book.
The investment of time seems vast, the readership is unfamiliar, and the writing itself requires mastery of new skills.
I know how overwhelming it can be.
For a start, there’s the problem of self-belief. “Who do you think you are?”, kind of thing.
Well, every writer starts with imposter syndrome. Even Shakespeare. Here he is, feeling like a fraud for attempting to write from the point of view of a woman:
I made that up, obviously, but you get the idea. The point is that if you want to write, you should write.
The key thing is to get started, and get lots of ideas down before you start finding fault with them.
What other people might think about your writing is a matter for another day. But not now.
How to start
As with any kind of communication, the first thing to consider is not What To Write but what you want to achieve by it.
You needn’t tell anyone else exactly what your motive is, but try to be clear about it yourself. And keep thinking about it, because it will probably change.
When I look back at my own motive for writing books, I can see several changes. At first, I was just desperate to publish a book.
Any book!
I wanted to be a writer!
I looked for a subject that might give me the best chance of that – something about which, despite my youth, I had expertise. Something nobody else could have written in exactly the same way.
Looking back, I remember that I came up with motives that sounded a bit nobler, to share with people who might ask. I had less noble motives too (“I’ll show them! This will set the record straight!”) but didn’t share those.
What about you?
What makes you so keen to write a book? Why should YOU write it? How will readers be changed (even slightly) by reading it?