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See the Trees in the Forest; Where to Start Writing Your Book

Guest post by: Melinda Copp

Article Overview: When you want to write a book, figuring out where to start is one of the most problematic obstacles. When I talk to aspiring authors, this is one of the most common challenges that comes up. And it can hold back even the most motivated people.

See the Trees in the Forest; Where to Start Writing Your Book

When you want to write a book, figuring out where to start is one of the most problematic obstacles. When I talk to aspiring authors, this is one of the most common challenges that comes up. And it can hold back even the most motivated people. You know writing your book will be good for you--it will attract more ideal clients to you, it will make your business more visible, it will allow you to make more money, and it will get your message out to much bigger audiences. You want to write the book and you have lots of ideas, but when you sit down to do it, you just can't seem to get anything done.

Why is it such a struggle when the desire is there? Because writing a book is such a big project that if you sit down thinking, "I'm going to write my book," you'll end up overwhelmed. You won't see an easy entry point. It's like trying to see individual trees in a vast and dense forest--the task seems so big that it's hard to see it for its smaller pieces. But forests aren't just one big thing; they're a collection of many smaller things all working together.

Books are the same way. They're not just a big idea written out; they're many smaller ideas compiled and arranged so they communicate something larger. Books are created sentence by sentence, paragraph by paragraph, page by page, and chapter by chapter. When you understand this, the idea of writing a book is more manageable. Just like you'd have to plant a forest one tree at a time, you can't write a book by sitting down to write a book-you have to break it down into smaller pieces and write them one at a time.

So where do you start? Once you understand that a book is several smaller pieces put together, you just need to figure out what your smaller pieces are. What stories are you going to use? What strategies are you going to teach? What examples are you going to give? Then when you sit down to write, you work on one of those small assignments.

You're not writing an entire book; you're writing an example of how your readers can apply your first strategy, or you're writing about the importance of the third step in your system, or whatever your assignment is for that day. Only after you break the bigger task down can you truly grasp where to start and what it will take to get it done.

When you approach writing a book as many small pieces, the task is no longer overwhelming. You can sit down to write with a sense of purpose and a manageable task to complete. Then you can come back and do the same thing the next day. And before you know it, you're no longer thinking about writing your book-it's actually done.

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Article Tags: book coaching, nonfiction book coach, where to start writing a book, write business book, write memoir, write nonfiction book, write self help book, writing coach



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My reading log - Hi OmnivoreInk, Before starting my business, I read the following books as research: -"The Art of the Start" by Guy Kawasaki -"The AdSense Code" by Joel Comm -"Don't Think Pink" and "Mind Your X's and Y's" by Lisa Johnson And since then I've continued my "research" by reading (in this order): -"Technical Tennis" by Rod Cross -"For One More Day" by Mitch Albom -"The Twits" by Roald Dahl -"Little Black Book of Connections" by Jeffrey Gitomer -"The Secret" by Rhonda Byrne -"The Profitable Retailer" by Doug Fleener -"Blink" by Malcolm Gladwell -"Little Gold Book of YES! Attitude" by Jeffrey Gitomer -"The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian" by C.S. Lewis -"Little Green Book of Getting Your Way" by Jeffrey Gitomer -"Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" by J.K. Rowling And I'm currently reading and am in the process of finishing the following: -"There's No Such Thing as Public Speaking" by Jeanette and Roy Henderson -"The Tipping Point" by Malcolm Gladwell -"The Book of Tells" by Peter Collett -"Little Red Book of Sales Answers" by Jeffrey Gitomer -"Chocolates on the Pillow Aren't Enough: Reinventing The Customer Experience" by Jonathan M. Tisch -"The Artist's Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity" by Julia Cameron -"The Inner Game of Tennis" by Timothy Gallwey
Connecting with Influential People - Thanks Martin! In "The Little Black Book of Connections", Jeffrey Gitomer suggests the following ways to connect with influential people (page 106): -Third-party introductions (best method). -Writing and publishing content. -Giving seminars/speeches so you can be perceived as an expert in your field and leader. -Attend social and business events. -Say or ask something powerful by doing research ahead of time. -Engage them by offering something of value first. Gitomer also stresses the importance of making more friends as well.
Need a book recommendation for writing better - I'm always looking for ways to improve my writing skills, so I was just wondering if anyone could recommend a good copywriting or copyediting book? I was actually thinking of reading "The Copywriter's Handbook : A Step-by-Step Guide to Writing Copy That Sells" by Robert W Bly [u:w3cg00nn]OR[/u:w3cg00nn] "The Copyeditor's Handbook: A Guide for Book Publishing and Corporate Communications" by Amy Einsohn. Would anyone know if these books are any good? Thanks
Re: What Do You Outsource Mostly? - Writing, Article Spinning, Backlinking.
My entry - 1. The Best Business Books Ever: The 100 Most Influential Business Books You'll Never Have Time to Read - this is a fascinating book about the history of Business theory, and I'd recommend it to anybody. 2. The Big Book of Small Business: You Don't Have to Run Your Business by the Seat of Your Pants, by Tom Gegax. Ditto. 3. PADI: The Business of Diving Book Okay, so this book won't be of use to anyone who doesn't want to start a scuba store, but I did, and this book was of course invaluable to me in reaching that goal.


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