Writing a book can be a daunting adventure, but there are strategies that can save you a boatload of angst and help you avoid burnout. Did you know you can create a blueprint that works for you that’s adjustable and tailored to your needs?
Join me in this solo episode as I cut through the mystery of how to write a nonfiction book using tips and strategies I share with my clients. I describe how to evaluate your needs and situation and effectively plan out your writing schedule, while setting realistic expectations and goals. I’ll even explore different options you can choose for accountability, from tailored support through coaching to peer partners providing weekly check-ins.
Get ready to take notes and learn how to customize your experience to your unique situation and goals. Here’s to progress in writing (and finishing) your book!
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Step by step guide to writing a book for entrepreneurs | Replay Episode 266 Transcript
These transcripts were generated by robots, not writers.
Stacy: You are probably watching this or listening to this because you want to write a book. But you haven’t yet completed that goal. And today I’m going to give you some secrets to help you achieve the goal of writing a book. If you’re new here, let me start by giving a little bit of context about my background so you know where I’m coming from. I am Stacy Ennis. I am a long time book person. So I’ve gone through pretty much every phase of the creation side of the publishing industry that you can imagine from editing to ghost writing and today to book coaching. And I have the honor of working with high achieving, mission driven leaders who are writing a book as part of something bigger. It’s a catalyst for something they want to achieve in the world.
Stacy: It might be growing their business, their brand, their social impact mission. But that book is a goal and it’s an important goal, but it’s not the end goal. It’s part of their offering to the world. As you might suspect, and this might be true for you, a lot of people that fit this category or these categories are also really busy and there’s a lot going on and there’s a lot of competing things in their world, in your world. So how do you actually see this goal through? How do you make it happen? Well, I am going to share some secrets with you today that I teach my book coaching clients, whether we’re working together in private coaching or in my group coaching program. Idea to Draft. Welcome to Beyond Better, a podcast that explores a simple but profound idea.
Stacy: We all deserve to lives we love and that includes our work lives too. I’m your host, Stacy Ennis, an author, book coach, speaker and long time location independent entrepreneur living in Portugal with my family of four. Join me as I talk business, location, independence, writing, publishing and so much more. All focused on building a life that is beyond better. And here’s the thing that you should know before we get started. These are not secrets that you’re just going to know and the knowledge is enough. These are secrets that require action. These are action steps that you need to take to be able to write your book, to get it done, to get it out in the world. And I suspect that some of these probably are not going to shock you.
Stacy: You’re not going to hear this and go, oh my gosh, I never have ever heard this when it comes to goal achievement. But what I’m hoping is that while some of this may reiterate some things you know about goal achievement that you’ll be able to look at this through a new lens and go, aha. I already have a lot of the skills and tools and experience that I need that I’ve applied in other areas of my life to be able to write this book that I want to write. So let’s talk through these secrets action steps. And there are three of them. So number one, carve out discretionary time. This is your margin, this is your space where you’re going to be working on your book. If you follow my process.
Stacy: This means that the first couple of months are spent on ideation, on outlining, and then the next 4ish months are spent on writing. And so basically your time rolls over in the beginning. You’re going to be using it for thinking, for some of the work that I would assign you. If you’re working on your own, you’re not working with me. This is really your space to ideate, to clarify, to outline. And then that space that you were using for that, then that rolls over into your writing time. How much do you need? Well, this varies and it also depends on how fast you want to go. So it varies because everybody has different writing capacity. Some of the authors I work with sit down and consistently write somewhere in the 500 to 1000 word range.
Stacy: Some are more in the 1000 to 2000 word range. I’m more in the 1500 to 2000, sometimes a bit more if I’m really going, but it really depends on you. The other thing is how fast you want to get this done, because you can write a book very quickly and still do a good job on it. Now I do not believe in, nor will I support the idea of writing a book in a weekend and for most people even a month. Although I have written a book in three weeks. It was intense. I don’t ever want to do that again. It’s very intense. And I was a skilled writer when I did that, by the way, so it wasn’t like I had never done anything like this before, really. Most authors are going to need about six months to write a really solid book.
Stacy: And this is for first time authors, but actually also established authors. We still need the time to be able to write that draft. So if you need the time, you have to schedule the time. And that could look like anywhere from, let’s say an hour, four to five days a week, to anywhere from two to three hours if you have the margin, three to five days a week, depending on what your schedule looks like. It really depends on you, but you do have to make time to write the book, you gotta get your butt in the chair and do the work. Okay, moving on. Number two is to find accountability. Now, of course, I’m a little biased and think that a coach is one of the greatest forms of accountability. I’m biased because it works and I know that it works.
Stacy: And whether it’s me or it’s another book coach that you work with, really finding that accountability from somebody who is a true thought partner and a collaborator and also understands your specific goals, your genre and book positioning to help you achieve your bigger vision behind the book, all of that is super important. And I recognize that we are all working from different budgets and we’re working on different types of books. So a book that aligns with a marketing goal and gets a marketing investment from a company, that’s going to be a little bit of a different accountability search than a book that maybe is more of a legacy project or you just really want to write it’s really important to you to get it done, but you don’t have big aspirations behind it that maybe finding a peer accountability partner is sufficient.
Stacy: And it’s a weekly check in with them where you have it on the calendar. It’s not an hour, it’s 15 minutes. You check in. How are you doing? Did you get your writing done? No. Okay, why? Let’s talk about it. What are you gonna do to do it next week so you really have consistency, accountability. Maybe you’re texting each other each morning after you finish your writing. Pick somebody who’s gonna follow through. Because if you find an accountability partner and they’re slacking, that can have a negative impact on you. But do find some accountability. Other great places to look, there are online writing communities, library meetups, there’s local community meetups. So find that accountability. Three, create a plan. Are you getting a theme here? I’m not even talking yet about the craft of writing, about the skill of writing a book.
Stacy: These are all the things around actually following through with showing up to do the work. Creating a plan is part of your success recipe for this book. Take the time on the outset. So this is in addition to your thorough book concept, your well planned outline. This is your writing plan, this is the schedule you create that says, I’m going to complete chapter one on this date, chapter two on this date, chapter three on this date. For most of my clients, we use a two week spread per chapter. That’s generally a pretty good range for most authors. So you could start with that, create the plan, and then here’s what you really have to stick with. You have to update it. You have to check it and you have to update it.
Stacy: So that means if you get the flu and then shingles, which I don’t know why you would get those back to back shingles is the worst. So I really hope that never happens to you. But let’s just say this happened. You had these two things happen, and you’re out for two months, unplanned. You go back to that plan and you update it because it really feels bad to behind by your own making. So just update it. Keep on top of that plan. Adjust it. I use asana for project management, which is really great because it. If I need to adjust a plan, it takes 30 seconds to a minute to do. Okay, now we’re. Now I’m caught up. Great. I am tracking with my plan. These are my three secrets. And they’re not so secret, are they?
Stacy: These are probably things that you have done in other areas of your life, strategies that you’ve used. You already have the skills of goal achievement. You just need to apply it to this goal of becoming an author. Thank you, as always, to Rita Dominguez for her production of this podcast. She’s going to be going on maternity leave soon, in just a couple months. So I’m really treasuring the time that I have with her before she leaves. She is truly the reason that so much gets out to you, our viewer, our listener, and I am grateful and I will be back with you before you know it.
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