How to get started in writing a book

'A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step’.

This is, of course, true.

But somehow, the timeless wisdom of Laozi falls flat when you’re staring at a blank screen for the hundredth time as you try (in vain) to get started in writing a book.

It’s even how I felt when I began this article. I stared at the page, walked away, made a cup of tea, checked my bank account, came back to stare at the page, and . . . finally . . . put my fingers to the keyboard to type a few words.

Surely it should be easier than this?

As the veteran of writing over 25 books as a ghostwriter and author, I can confirm that not only should it, but it can. Because starting your book with relative ease comes down to taking three steps:

#1: Get clear on your book

In my experience of talking to countless would-be authors, the primary cause of finding it hard to get started in writing a book is lack of clarity.

If you’re not 100% sure about various fundamental aspects of your book, you’ll forever be going round in circles. Making a start, deleting what you’ve written, sighing, then starting again only to repeat the cycle. You don’t even know why you’re doing it because being unclear is a kind of blindness in itself.

So first, get clear on three things:

What you want to achieve with your book. If you could fast forward into the future to a year or two after your book is published, what difference would you like it to have made? Should it have helped people do a particular thing? Built your profile in your industry? Boosted your business sales?

All the decisions you’ll make about your book as you write, publish, and market it will hang off this discovery, so getting it right now will help you to move forward.

You can find more advice on unearthing your book’s purpose in Chapter 3 of my how-to guide about writing a business book: Your Business Your Book.

What your book is about. Of course, you know what your book is about. That’s basic stuff, isn’t it?

But you need to be really specific with this. Because your book should be based on one big idea – the thing that turns around people’s thinking and makes an impact. You should also be able to summarise the topic in a single sentence.

When you’ve honed in your subject and can recite it in summary without hesitation, your ideas will flow more easily. As will your writing.

You can learn some helpful ways of thinking clearly about your book’s core topic here and here.

Who your book is for. Picture your ideal reader. Who are they? What do they look like? What’s important to them?

When you know the exact audience for your book, it makes it a lot easier to write for them. Not only is it motivating to envisage people appreciating and acting on your words, but it also helps with that ever-important clarity I’ve been banging on about.

Fuzziness about your readers leads to fuzziness with your thinking, and that’s part of what causes a block with your writing.

You can delve into your target readers with the help of this post.

#2: Get inspired with your book

Being clear with your goals, topic, and audience will go a long way towards helping you get started in writing a book. But sometimes you need an extra spark to light the flame of your progress.

That’s when taking inspiration from other books can help.

Cast your eyes over your bookshelf (and by that I mean, the books you’ve read). What books got you excited about the topic they were on? Which ones grabbed you and made you want to read to the end? It doesn’t matter whether they were relevant to your subject.

Next, think about what it was that made them special. Was it the take they had on their subject matter? The writing style? The structure? When you have a feel for that, narrow it down and see if you can describe it. Pinning it down helps you to understand whether you might want to use it as a springboard for writing your own book.

This should help to get your creative juices flowing, as well as your enthusiasm. Simply acknowledging that other people have done what you want to do can be enough to get your fingers typing.

#3. Get started with your book

What many people do is to begin the process of writing their books by typing the actual words they want in it. But although it sounds counter intuitive to say it, this is the wrong approach.

The reason is based on how our brains work.?We find it tiring to be thinking about what we want to say at the same time as how. One is a logical activity and the other a creative one. If you constantly switch between the two, you’ll run out of steam.

Instead, plot the points you want to make for the first chapter, then (and only then) do the writing. After that, plot and then write the next chapter, and so on. This is how to keep the flow.

While you’re about it, please don’t edit as you go along. Just keep on keeping on with your first draft until you reach the end, and then go back to edit it. There will be a lot more to do at that stage, but you’ll have given yourself the benefit of reaching the first milestone! This is hugely motivating in its own right.

You can see my fail proof guide to editing your book here.

So, there we have it: three steps to getting started in writing a book: being clear, getting inspired, and then plotting separately to writing. You’re now a fully productive author.

As a bonus, I’ll give you a fourth tip: hire a ghostwriter or a book coach. These are two proven ways to remove the stress and frustration of writing a book. You can message me here in LinkedIn if you’d like to talk this through.

This article was originally published on Ginny Carter's blog.