5 Steps to Getting Started On Your New Book

If you took my previous article to heart, you have now decided to write a book. Awesome! Now you need to decide what to write about, and how to get started.

First, acknowledge that bad thoughts will soon creep into your mind. I have worked with lots of smart and accomplished people as a ghostwriter and co-author, and have seen how easily people convince themselves not to start. Here is a list of the dozen best excuses:

1.      It will take too long to research

2.      It will take too long to write

3.      I’m not entirely sure what to write about

4.      Every topic has been done before

5.      It’s too complicated to put together a book

6.      I have no real writing experience

7.      There are too many steps – the whole process is overwhelming

8.      I don’t know where to start

9.      I’ll probably start and then change my mind

10.  My (take your pick) grammar, spelling, syntax is not the best

11.  I’m not a good writer so people will criticize me

12.  What if I put my book on Amazon and sell zero copies?

Soon, if it hasn’t already happened, one or more of these excuses will pop into your mind. 

That’s normal. 

You can think those thoughts if you want, but I suggest you don’t focus on them. Instead, use the following five steps to put yourself on the right track to a successful book:

Step One: Find Your ‘Why’

The only thing you need to focus on at the start is: Why?

Why is a book important to you?

To paraphrase both Friedrich Nietzsche and Victor Frankl, “Those who have a ‘why’ (to write), can bear with almost any ‘how’.”

A why will create a burning desire to overcome all obstacles. 

A why looks past the self-doubts and negative self-talk that will certainly come along. 

A why will get you out of bed in the morning.

You absolutely need a why to start.

Step Two: Give Value

The single best reason why you should write a book is to give value. 

You have unique life experiences and knowledge, and you want others to gain from what you’ve learned. Or you want to entertain. Or you want people to think. Or you have interesting stories to tell. Or…

Fix in your mind the people who will benefit from the words you write and the value you are providing. Let those people be your ‘why'.  Be as specific as you can. 

Maybe the book is for your family. 

Maybe the book is for your co-workers. 

Maybe the book is for yourself, perhaps your future self. The book may be what you wish you could read yourself, and because no one else has written it you must do so.

Maybe the book is for your younger self. If you had had such a book in your younger days, your life might have been very different. The book may be all the wisdom and information you wish someone had told you.

By giving value first, with no expectation of any return, you will certainly gain from the experience. 

Step Three: Think Story

The easiest way to start writing a book is to think about the stories you want to tell. Stories are the glue that will hold your ideas together, and will also make people remember your words and ideas. 

Why stories? Humans are hard wired to think about the world in a story format, so the process of thinking about stories will help you shape your content. 

I can already hear you saying, ‘But I’m not a storyteller!’ 

OK, then, I’ll phrase it a little differently: Let’s call them examples. In answering the question, “what are some examples,” you will inevitably tell stories. 

What are some of the stories (or examples) you would like to tell or describe?

Make a list of those stories (examples). That list will serve as a rough outline of the book you are about to write.

Step Four: Start By Talking

The easiest way to write a book is to start by talking. Let me give you an example:

My father, a noted and accomplished neurosurgeon, was a truly brilliant man. By the time he died in 2014 at the age of 89, he had been on the staff of the Massachusetts General Hospital for more than 60 years. Despite his genius, he 1) couldn’t type and 2) could not write prose that didn’t sound like a medical textbook. 

In 1990, I convinced him to write a book for laymen with some practical advice about the brain.

Two or three times per week, we sat together with a tape recorder for an hour while I asked him questions. “Don’t write,” I would tell him. “Just talk to me as you would talk to someone who knows nothing about medicine. Don’t worry about structure or format. You just need to tell stories, and when you’re done we’ll put the pieces together.” 

I transcribed those sessions and put information together into logical sequences which became the first rough draft. My dad took those drafts and edited them by hand, usually adding and subtracting text in his illegible handwriting. Back and forth we went until we were both satisfied. In six months, we had a solid first draft of Brain Power: A Neurosurgeon’s Complete Program to Maintain and Enhance Brain Fitness Throughout Your Life.

Was it literature? No. But the book was useful and had many colorful stories from my dad’s illustrious medical career. He believed that there were things people could do for their brains to live healthier and longer lives, and he followed his own advice.

The advantage of talking instead of writing a first rough draft is that you will more quickly find your voice. First time writers often get stuck because they believe that their work must sound impressive or use lots of flourishes.  If it sounds like you, that’s what you should be aiming for.

Fortunately for me, a book I read when I was only 14 convinced me early on that books don’t have to be written by a chosen few great writers who all got A’s in English and Composition. (Indeed, I still dangle participles and split infinitives…) 

Squash Racquets: The Khan Game, by Hashim Khan is a remarkable 160-page book written in less than perfect English as it was spoken to Hashim Khan’s co-authors. Reading the book is like listening to the greatest squash player of all time talking to you directly: “Keep eye on ball, this is most important thing I tell you,” is a line from the book I still remember more than 40 years later. Reading that book improved my game dramatically, but mostly taught me that, in writing, content trumps style or format.

If you have something useful or important to say, don’t get hung up on the details. 

(Of course, if you really do want to improve your writing, you can’t do better than: Elements of Style by Strunk & White.)

Step Five: Be Surprising!

Books can teach, and your readers will want to learn but, as Derek Sivers says, “You only really learn when you’re surprised.”

If you want to make your book great, you will need to think deeply about surprising insights you may have gained – the wisdom you can pass along. 

So surprise yourself. 

Set a daily writing routine and stick to it. Don’t let yourself off the hook. Target 500 to 1000 words per day. 

If you can’t do it all by yourself, hire a ghostwriter or work with a collaborator. 

In only a month or two, guess what? Surprise, surprise – you’ll have yourself a book!