It has been a very exciting journey to go from a random thought in my mind to actually pursuing writing an ebook called His Story, Our Story I am on a very steep learning curve and still am learning about marketing and all the business/technical aspects of writing. In the process of going from idea to reality and writing my first draft I have learned many lessons here are five of them:
All it takes is a page a day
Writing a book of any size can be daunting. I have always put it off because I was afraid I wouldn’t finish or I would end up writing until I was an AARP member. I intentionally started with a small ebook because of this challenge but I learned a secret. You can do a lot if you just write a page a day. If you write a page a day you can at least have 30 pages in a month, 90 pages in 3 months, and 180 pages in six months. On and on it goes until…Voila you have something to publish. Just start with one page a day and usually you actually write more than that. There’s something about that bare minimum that leave no room for failure and unlimited potential to write your heart out.
Write and then revise
Not only is one page a day doable but one crappy page a day is doable. I think these words should be posted on every author’s walls: Write and then revise. I got so much momentum going by just sitting in front of the computer and typing away. Some of it was horrible. Well guess what? Now in the editing stages what was considered horrible has now been revised into something readable.
Make this your life
You have to focus. This is where the rubber hits the road and separates the men from the boys and the dreamers from the doers. Throughout the time writing my first draft I was distracted by numerous things. Some of them good. Some of them not so good. All of them keeping me from my best. So here’s how I eliminated the distractions. I woke up not to go to work or to take care of all the other things that I had to do. I woke up to do what I wanted to do: write. I had my laptop set up so before I left the house I wrote. I made it my life.
Involve others in the early stages
The one thing that changed the game for me was letting people know what I was doing. Good old fashioned pride took care of the rest. It started with my wife. Then a couple of close friends. Then I let social media do its thing and then I had an obligation. Not only to myself but to the people who wanted to see me succeed. That’s some powerful motivation
Save your work
Here is the big lesson that I am learning now as I am putting the finishing touches on everything. While revising chapters I realized that some pages and paragraphs were missing. I was sure that I wrote them. What happened? I forgot to press save. Save your work is my next most important mantra. If I would have saved my work I wouldn’t have to go and remember what I actually wrote or come up with something new. Wasted time.
So those are my five lessons. What are some lessons you have learned in the writing process? Do you have any mantras or guidelines that keep you focused and creatively pursuing your art?
