How to get ready to Write

There’s a myth that writers wait to get inspiration while they’re lazing in a cafe (usually in Paris or some other exotic location) and then have an out-pouring of words over an intense period.

Business writing involves a lot of research, interviewing and exploring, reading, taking notes, listening and asking questions. Quite frankly, there’s not a lot of writing that goes on in the initial stage of writing a business book. Even if you’ve been working in your field for years and have significant knowledge,, writing your business book will require commitment and organisation.

There are four things you need to be ready to write.

Commit. Writing is like anything other job/project/goal. You have to make a commitment to it, otherwise it won’t happen. Words, stories, ideas, thoughts and feelings stay in your head unless you commit to write them down/type them.

Create a time plan. Whatever reason you are writing, set a deadline for the completion of your first draft and focus on this. Unless you make writing one of your priorities something else, or someone else, will always get in the way or be more important. 

Establishing a routine for writing is critical. It doesn’t matter when you write so long as it’s the same time every day or week.

You might have to wake up an hour earlier, reconfigure some part of your day and commitments a bit to ‘find’ the time . . . the key thing is to take action and do this.

Ideally, set aside 2-3 hours for each session, this way you’ll actually write a reasonable amount of words in each session, and you’ll get faster as you go along.

Create your writing space. While some people can write anywhere MOST of us need a dedicated space where we can, literally, shut out the world. And, you’ll need to have access to all your research, documents and files.

Make sure you’ve got a good chair, the computer screen is at the right height and there’s good lighting, otherwise you’ll get aches and pains and stop.

Try to find a desk/table that’s not the dining room table that you’ll have to clear away at the end of each session.

And, if you’re going to write at your work desk, make sure you’re not disturbed. Getting distracted is the number one cause of lack of progress.

Develop a writing discipline. Writing discipline is all about removing distractions and focusing on your writing in the timeframe you have allocated. Some simple tips will make a big difference to how productive you are during your allocated writing time. Turn your phone off, email alerts off, have all your documents and files organised and ready, grab your cup of tea or coffee.

Now you’re all set up to go, get started!

And, remember what Margaret Atwood said. ‘If I waited for perfection I would never write.’