The 4 Steps to Write That 1 Book You Always Wanted to Get Out There
Learnings & Best Practices from a #FirstTimeAuthor
“Verena, your English is a disaster” remarked Ms Bell as she flung that red-lined English test back onto my desk. Ms Bell was an energetic & unforgiving English teacher in my 9th grade of high school. Dubious back then, I am understanding today. She was right. Growing up with two primary languages — German & French — I stumbled over my 4th language English after three years of figuring out how to also read & understand Latin. To complicate things further, I wasn’t on good terms with the written word altogether back then. Loving science, arts & sports, and spending my time in nature, with friends & animals, was what made up my hobbies in my teen years. Writing was definitely not top of that list. Later on when I started my Medical School to become a doctor, I would slowly discover my inclination to reading and enjoying the fantasy worlds of novels, history books or biographies. So, back in that 9th grade, what neither Ms Bell nor myself could have predicted, is that more than 3 decades later I would become a writer. Authoring my very first book — in English! And what is most flabbergasting to me at this point is that I actually started liking it — Writing.
How did that happen? Well, I started to understand that writing is a skill and that you can learn it even if it’s not one of your core talents. So, here’s what my secret sauce of 4 steps is to help you turn into a successful #FirstTimeAuthor.
#1 WHY
What’s your passion? What motivates you to write THAT book? What change do you want to drive?
These are critically important questions you need to seek clarity on as a 1st step. Your WHY is the most essential one of them all. During roller coaster emotional downs & highs that are paving the journey of every author, your WHY is what will anchor you to keep going. Did you know that most attempts, manuscripts & book outlines never make it to the finish line? Because writing is really hard work. It doesn’t just flow off your pen onto your paper; from your head down into your hand; from your fingers onto that keyboard. It is a stiff process: a handicraft art of switching words, paragraphs & whole pages back & forth into that trash bin & recycling them back again. Words are like bricks that construct a house. Mark Twain said “Writing is easy. You just need to delete the wrong words.” So, if you don’t have your acts together on what motivates you in the first place, you may fail along the way. Wouldn’t that be a shame? I am sure you have a real good & impactful story to tell that in turn will motivate, inspire & help others on their own journeys.
#2 TO WHOM
Who’s your reader? Who’s that ONE person you have in mind who will enjoy reading your story?
You can open up any ‘How to write a book’ guide or ask a book coach* to help you get it done — they all will tell you that as a 2nd step you need to be crystal clear on who you are writing to. So, who’s that one person for you? Picture someone you know. Be specific. Don’t say: ‘a friend’ — or — ‘a colleague.’ Get down to the persona instead: is it your friend Susan or your friend Peter? Why? Once you get that cleared and out of the way, stick with it. Don’t switch it & don’t forget. Always write to that one reader. What it does, it helps you become more personable as you are starting a dialogue with your reader. It engages your audience and it helps you build that rapport that will make you successful at the end. As a matter of fact, as I am writing this article, I am thinking of that one friend who yesterday asked me what she should do to start writing that one book. (*For anyone considering working with a coach — make sure to check out the wonderful Kelly Irving.)
#3 WHAT
What will be in your book? What’s the story line and the red thread? What will be the structure of your book: what comes first, what comes second?
As I mentioned earlier, crafting a book is like building a house. Or like building any strategy and plan. I’m sure you are used to doing plenty of it in your day job. No different for writing and planning your book. This has been probably the most eye-opening experience of my #FirstTimeAuthor journey: the realization that writing a book feels actually like a technical procedure or process. You are using building blocks. You are using sticky notes all over the place. You are applying Design Thinking Principles of prototyping, reviewing, changing, editing & rebuilding it in the next round. Knowing now that your first draft will never look anything close to what your final draft will be gives me comfort today. It should give you comfort. Don’t be afraid of your delete button. It doesn’t matter. Keep on writing. Your text will only become better with each time around. Make a plan, take your calendar, stick to deadlines and don’t belabor. Keep moving. Done is better than perfect; there are editors to help you get to perfection later. Get your structure clear, keep it simple and start with two parts of your book that host a maximum of two chapters each. If once you’d written down all your content, you figured out that splitting one chapter into two would be more conducive to reading it. Then, fine. You can end up with 5 chapters instead of 4. That’s exactly what happened in my #TangoForFive. (A book, in which I am telling stories from my over 25 years experience as a doctor in the hospital & the pharmaceutical industry.)
#4 GET FEEDBACK
Are you getting your story across? Is it easy to read and is the story easy to follow? If any — are the facts right? Does it have an arc of suspense?
“Verena, you asked me to read that chapter 2. Sorry, it took me a few days longer. You know, I had to read the whole thing. Past that chapter 2, I couldn’t put it away until I had read it all!” More than once have I heard this from my beta-readers. Even at the stage of the most clumsy first drafts. This warmed my heart and was the most amazing & gratifying feedback I could get. But make no mistake — feedback isn’t equal liking. You want to hear whether that one paragraph really doesn’t make sense or else should go into a different section of your book. You want to hear whether in turn you are making a good point in another chapter, which would be worthwhile expanding on. You want to hear that that section of 2000 words over there has great content, but would be better of in a separate book or article altogether. The one thing I chose to do was sharing different chapters with different readers depending on their own sets of interests, time available and objective for the feedback I was seeking to obtain. I would only send it to people I knew and whom I trusted. It worked out beautifully and made my book so much stronger!
If you liked this article and are curious to know more, I’d be more than happy to engage in a conversation.
Drop me a line at my blog TangoForFive.com and follow me at 5PHCS on Twitter.
Good luck with your writing!
Verena Voelter, MD
