My 1st Published Novel - The Process

"Have you ever thought of writing a book or starting a major project that you know is going to take a huge amount of time and commitment to make happen?"

...and then not done it?

I thought the achievement of one of my latest objectives might inspire you to do something new or finish something that is in progress.

In June, I published my 1st novel....Yes, around 60,000 words later, I managed to complete it, edit it, add a cover and get published on Amazon.

So, how did this come to pass?

Well, it will come as no surprise to you, that having a clear and SMART objective (yes, we all know about SMART objectives) is essential, combined with some clear actions and the commitment to drive it through.

Let's take the example of a novel. Now, most people are busy. It is really challenging sometimes to find the time to do large projects amongst everything else, yes?

So, as always, I suggest making it easy for yourself. This was my objective:

"Write a Fiction novel and get it published by June 20th."

My Key Results being:

• The completed novel should be 60,000 words
• The novel must be available for public purchase on 1 online website

Check: Specific, measurable, achievable/actionable, realistic, timed. (June 20th because it is Midsummer in Finland - an easy to remember deadline). OK. Good to go!

So, quite a simple objective but not that easy either. Then, I sat down and thought about how I was going to do it. What actions would result in the achievement of my Key Results and therefore, my ambitious Objective?

I decided that I could set aside an hour per day to write 1,000 words. Then I decided that I needed to do this daily in order to make sufficient progress. I also thought that there may be an occasional day where this just wasn't possible...you need to be realistic, right? So I allowed myself two days off per week, at anytime of the week. Therefore, 5,000 words per week would be written. I also decided that after the 3 months or so of writing, I would need another month to read it, edit it and do everything required to be happy with it and get it published.

Of course, the organisation is one thing, the commitment to get it done is quite another. The only way I do this personally, is to imagine the end result.

"How happy will I be to hold my book at the end of this?"

And I was!!! Then, I became even more inspired. I enjoyed the process so much that I followed it up with several short stories, published over the following weeks. I am now working on the sequel to my first novel, which will be published in September and also a collaboration on another book, which came about because of the chosen location of my books, which is Rauma in Finland.

Then, I set up and author page on amazon at: My Author Page

I also started a blog to showcase my writing and progress at: Rauma Stories

If you need some help and encouragement, you can also check out my other blog posts on My Coach John.

Now, onto the next project...I hope that this story may inspire you to achieve more and do something exceptional this year!