How to Write a Book

To write your book, you don’t need a sanctuary. In fact, I started my career on my couch facing a typewriter perched on a plank of wood suspended by two kitchen chairs. What were you saying about your setup again? We do what we have to do. And those early days on that sagging couch were among the most productive of my career. Naturally, the nicer and more comfortable and private you can make your writing lair (I call mine my cave), the better. (If you dedicate a room solely to your writing, you can even write off a portion of your home mortgage, taxes, and insurance proportionate to that space.)

Real writers can write anywhere.

Some write in restaurants and coffee shops. My first fulltime job was at a newspaper where 40 of us clacked away on manual typewriters in one big room—no cubicles, no partitions, conversations hollered over the din, most of my colleagues smoking, teletype machines clattering. Cut your writing teeth in an environment like that, and anywhere else seems glorious.

What You Will Learn

Your journey starts here and now, this is what you will be able to learn and practice throughout the process of becoming a writer.

1. Establish your writing space.

2. Assemble your writing tools.

3. Break the project into small pieces.

4. Settle on your BIG idea.

5. Construct your outline.

6. Set a firm writing schedule.

7. Establish a sacred deadline.

8. Embrace procrastination (really!).

9. Eliminate distractions.

10. Conduct your research.

11. Start calling yourself a writer.

12. Think reader-first.

13. Find your writing voice.

14. Write a compelling opener.

15. Fill your story with conflict and tension.

16. Turn off your internal editor while writing the first draft.

17. Persevere through The Marathon of the Middle.

18. Write a resounding ending.

19. Become a ferocious self-editor.

20. Find a mentor.

By Subject Mastery Academy with love