Did
your book writing come to a halt somewhere along the way? No
worries. Like many of us, you may be making some simple mistakes
that block your book's progress and completion. Correct the
following mistakes; complete your book and prosper:
Mistake
1: Failure to plan your book realistically.
Inexperienced
book writers aim too high. Don't try to fit everything you know
or researched into a one big book. Plan too big and you may
end up with a monster book that turns your potential readers
off. Remember many people in the new millennium are busy and
impatient. They look for short, quick easy reads.
Solution:
Plan a short book first. If you have loads of interesting information,
consider breaking your book into parts. Even a series of books
is better than one large volume in the non-fiction genre.
Mistake
2: Failure to write your book’s vision.
Newbie
book writers lose focus and determination because their vision
is not clear. When it’s not written down distractions
easily creep into pull you away your goal of a completed book.
You may quickly forget why you are even writing a book.
Solution:
Write your book's vision statement. Write it down and
make it plain. Write when you'll complete it. Name specific
outcomes you get after completing your book. For instance, envision
yourself watching your bank balance grow from book sales. Write,
"I see myself with increased income and more clients."
Anyway you get the idea; create your vision statement including
see, hear and feel.
Mistake
3: Failure to envision what your completed book will do for
you.
This mistake
is similar to writing your book’s vision but different
because it focuses on the rewards. Many novice book writers
fail to dream about the rewards of a completed book. Is your
goal to become an expert and gain visibility in your field?
Do you want to launch a new career or go to the next level in
your current career?
Solution:
Fuel the flame of your book dream again. This time
dream a bigger dream. Dream after writing your book, you receive
life long income that grows each month. You become a highly
visible expert in your field. You gain added respect of your
colleagues and peers because of your book. You receive increased
income leveraged from higher fees charged. Your clients gladly
pay them with book author as one of your titles.
Mistake
4: Failure to conquer procrastination.
The way
to conquer procrastination is to act. No, you don't have to
sell your soul anymore to write a saleable book. Use the cumulative
effect of doing a little bit at a time. Even so, unless you
want it to take years to write, you must schedule a considerable
writing time each week. For example, you could write 2 pages
a day and have a short book in weeks. Or you could write 10-15
hours a week to complete your book.
Solution:
Do it now! Now is better than later. Remember you become a successful
author the minute you start moving toward your worthwhile book
goal. I don't know anyone that regrets they wrote a book. But
I know plenty of people that regret they didn't do it sooner.
Mistake
5: Failure to count your book as significant.
Tons of
book writers stall at this one. They don't realize the significance
of their work. Too easily they think who cares anyway. Why should
I add one more book to the 100s of thousands of book already
in the world?
Solution:
Realize your message is significant and deserves your
attention, love and time. Consider what your readers need and
want. If your book shares something unique, encouraging, useful,
entertaining, it is important enough to be written. Think about
your gift? God gave you your gift to share with others. Our
gift back to God is what we do with it. The loving care you
put into your gift (book) the more rewards await you.
Mistake
6 Failure to keep writing in the midst of everyday life.
Many writers
believe you have to get away from everything to write a successful
book. No you don’t. I know several novelist and non-fiction
book writers who had to write during a long commute to get their
best book written and out to the world. They accomplished it
because they systematically worked on their book until it was
done.
Solution:
Avoid marathon writing. In the midst of your busy life,
designate your time to write (work on your book) with a goal
to completion.
Mistake
7 Failure to keep going after life interrupts.
It is
a common challenge to find your place after being interrupted
by family, work and daily life. After all that’s why many
think you must get away to get it done effectively. Yet, there’s
hope for those who can’t get away or choose not to. Successful
writers all over the world use the tracking approach. They succeed
because they commit to doing a little each day.
Solution:
Set yourself up for success; use the tracking approach. The
most popular method to use for tracking is time. Time is the
method where you commit to a writing a certain amount of time
each day. With the cumulative factor involved your commitment
doesn’t have to be that much. For example, to accomplish
my book writing goals I commit to writing one hour a day in
a.m. (my most productive time.) With this method don’t
be overly concerned about how much you write, just keep the
time commitment.
Mistake
8 Failure to find writing rhythm.
You don’t
have to write each chapter one after the other. If you get stuck
on chapter two, you could be stuck a very long time. This type
of thinking comes from grade school where we are ritually taught
to do everything in order. If you have been thinking that way
stop right now, no need to raise your hand. You have my permission
to work on whatever chapter moves you or you feel passion bubbling
for at the moment. Feeling stuck on a chapter, try another.
There you have it now go with the flow.
Solution:
Don’t become chained to writing in order. Jump
around and fill in the blanks. Review your chapters and whatever
subject or topic you most drawn to, begin there.
You may
not be making all of these mistakes. Yet one or two will stop
the successful completion of your book. Your audience is waiting.
Implement the above solutions, get your book finished, release
it to the world and prosper.
| About The Author
© Earma Brown, 12 year author, business owner, web
developer
helps service business owners, professionals and writers
who want to write their best book now! Earma mentors other
writers and business professionals through her bi-monthly
ezine iScribe Send any email to iscribe@bookwritinghelp.com
for free 7 lesson mini-course Jumpstart Writing Your Best
Book Now or visit her at http://www.bookwritinghelp.com
or http://www.writetowin.org
for more book writing tips.
|
This article was posted on November 15, 2007 |