12 Easy Tips To Get Started On Your Book

Do you feel there is a book inside of you “wanting” to come out? Do you want to share what you have learnt with others? Have you found yourself thinking, “I would love to write a book one day”, but just never get around to it?

Jasbindar Singh, an author, says she is frequently asked what helped her write “Get your groove back.”

Therefore who better to provide some tips that might help you if you are thinking about getting started on your book or e-book.

Easy Tips To Started On Your Book

• Passion helps! Write what you have passion for, what you are excited about and what gives you a buzz and sense of meaning and purpose. Write what you feel is inside of you that needs to come out.
• Commit your thoughts to writing. If you feel you have a story or message to share, don’t leave it in an amorphous thought phase only. Translate it into written words – whether you commit it to paper, word document, whatever.
• Have a draft working structure. Start your book along the lines of this draft structure, knowing that this will change as your thoughts, story, and message evolves.
• Download first, perfectionism later. Don’t be too concerned about getting it perfect from day one. The key thing is to write and write regularly. If you do this, you will be pleasantly surprised at how things evolve.
  Work out what facilitates your writing best. Everyone is different, and people have their own methods.
  For example, authors who have a regular writing time commit to and stick to was at the end of the day.
  For Jasbindar, she grabbed ‘writing’ time whenever she could – some days – yes – it was when she woke up at 5am when there were peace and quiet, other days it would be the end of the day, and sometimes, it was more organised where she would just block a whole morning or day and call it her “writing time” fueled by endless cups of great coffee from local cafes!
• Capture your thoughts. Ideas don’t just come to you when you are writing…..they can come anytime….when you are in the shower, driving a car, walking, waking up in the middle of the night or talking to someone who stimulates your thinking. What you have to do is grab these ideas as they come.
• Deadlines help. Whether self-imposed or contractually bound with a publisher, having a deadline definitely ensures that the production factory (you!) keeps rolling over. On the other hand, don’t be too hard on yourself if you have a fallow period as your ideas could just be gestating.
• Make writing fun. After a writing period, Jasbindar would reward herself by going to meet a friend for a coffee or lunch, go for a nice walk or movies or take loved ones for dinner.
• Celebrate milestones. Have mini-pauses along the way and celebrate the journey as you achieve milestones along the way
• Doubt, confusion, questioning are all part of the landscape. Yes – you will have times when you will wonder if it is worth the time, energy and effort you are putting into the writing and whether your offering has much value at all. This is all part of the process, and just about every writer goes through this. Do what you need to get beyond this – talk to “respected” others, do some reflection on what may be bugging you and if you can make your work even better. But you just have to keep going.
• Stay inspired. Have regular meetings and connect with other writers, speakers, people you can bounce ideas off with and those who inspire you. They become the significant others who joyfully track you through your journey as they act as your sounding board and give you moral support.
• Get feedback. Share your work at various phases along the writing journey. The questions and feedback you get will help make your work only better. Your work will benefit from this rigour.
• Don’t do it for making buckets of money. Okay – you could be the next JK Rowling or Dan Brown, but most authors don’t get rich writing books. Find another purpose. If you make money – that is an extra bonus.

Summary

With these twelve tips from a writer, now you know how to get started on your book and stay in the zone and focused until the end.

Maybe our next article will have your tips for writing success!  Do you want to read more on this topic – how about starting your own publishing label?