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Copywriting TipsGet Your Book Done … Now!
by:
Penny C. Sansevieri
I don't believe in writer’s block. (I can hear the gasps of disbelief already.) Listen: If you hire a artificer to move to your home and fix a problem, do you expect him to say, "Sorry, I can't numbers out what your problem is. I think I have plumber’s block"? Probably not, and if he did, you'd toss him out and call another guy faster
than you can say Drano. Not
that plumbing can be compared to writing, but if we follow the proper steps to get the job done, I find that writer’s block melts away, the drains are unclogged, and the words start flowing like water from a faucet. But what are these "steps"? Well, a big part of my job as a book marketing specialist is to help folk create thing
they can really market: a finished book. Many a of us have ideas aplenty but not a clue how to get them down on paper.
Unlike different professions, authors operate under a whole several set of rules. We often can't simply sit down and pound out a story, and those who do have created their own formula for doing so. We see this brobdingnagian story with all sorts of directions we want to take it, we see the cover, we see the characters, we see the market potential. Then we see Katie Couric or Oprah smiling and holding up our book for the whole earth to see. Then we glance back down at our monitor and see a tormenting blinking indicator
and blank screen. And we are once much reminded of what a failure we are. We have all these stories and nothing on paper. We are idea generators. We have billions of them running through our minds, but none of them on paper. Unless you do your money in a think tank, in operation this way probably isn't deed you any closer to your goals.
When a project looms before us, it’s like this big elephant -- huge, overwhelming and available to stomp us flat any minute. There’s an old saying: "How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time." The same is true for writing. You finish a book, one step at a time. But to create these steps, you 1st have to break down your book into manageable, bite-size pieces. This can be accomplished by creating a TOC (table of contents) that can manual you through the book. My reasoning behind this is as follows: You'd ne'er
think of drive from Ca to New House of york without a map, right? Well, how can you expect to finish your book without one? Your TOC is your roadmap, guiding you through your book. If your chapters don't have individual headings, then write a 2-3 sentence
description of what the chapter encompasses. Don't get too elaborate on this. Remember, it’s not going in your book; it’s simply a brief descriptor. Once the TOC is outlined, you'll have a vision of your book from star! t to finish. A few things that creating this TOC wish do for you: It wish show you any gaps in your story that power need to be fleshed out, and it wish give you a sense of completion, of seeing the book or project really done, and this is a serious psychological turn-on for most authors, because we often live in a earth of half-completed projects. Sometimes this step alone can propel an author enough to get their book done, or at the really least give it a blame nice kick-start.
Once you've developed your TOC, you'll want to go through it and create a "to do" list. Regardless of what genre your book is, you wish always have a to-do list. Whether it’s deed endorsements, doing research, or deed approvals for quotes or excerpts for your book, this to-do list wish become yet another item that wish help propel your book toward completion.
Once the to-do list is done, set it aside. Now you should have your completed TOC with a vision of the entire book and a growing list of items that wish need to be handled for the book to get done. Now the real fun begins.
Some books on writing wish tell you to set aside a day or two a week, or an evening here and there to get your book completed. I disagree with this theory, and here’s why: You need to stay dialed into your topic. Once
I was working on an coming book, I would-be often put the project aside for days or weeks at a time, promising myself to schedule time "as before long as I could." Well, that seldom
happened. What I found is that if I set aside several time every day to do thing
on the book, I got it completed a lot quicker. The much you support your hands in your project, the much it wish stay at the front of your mind and on your measuring device screen, and the much energy you wish invest to finish it. I won't tell you to set aside hours of your time each day -- in fact, you don't even as have to set aside an hour. Take 15 minutes, or even as five -- some your schedule permits. If this seems like a ludicrously short numbers of time, consider this: You now have your to-do list and your distinct
TOC! . If you are short on time one day, pick a fix item from your to-do list and get it done. If you have much time, then pound out a chapter or two. The idea behind creating the to-do lists and a TOC is to not only give your project a structure, but to as well eliminate any and all excuses for deed it done. Don't feel like writing today? No problem. There’s probably a mountain of research simply waiting to be traversed. Get the picture?
But let’s say you can't even as get through the TOC. "My book has too many a layers," you lament. "Too many a back stories, tons of stuff going on. I can't possibly be expected to filter it down into a neat little TOC." Yes, you can, and you must. If your book has no focus, your book wish have no focus. It’s as simple as that. But it doesn't finish there -- if your book is all over the place and you do really manage to get it done, you'll ne'er
be able to support a reader interested because you wish be the only one who wish get it, and what’s the point of that? What you'll need to do in this case is find the "core" of your book or the focus of your story. Ask yourself this: What’s the one thing this book cannot do without? What’s the one thing this story circles around? That’s your core. If you're still coming up with three or four things that your story circles around, you aren’t focused enough and neither is your book. Find that one thing and build your story or book
around it.
If you follow these steps, your book wish get finished faster
than you could have ever imagined. And the once-dreaded writer’s block wish go from a staggering block to a building block.
Need a little coaching? Check out our book employment program - secure to get your book on the road to completion in four sessions - or less!
http://amarketingexpert.com/store/product_info.php/products_id/68?osCsid=5d1f3ca504d47bd6cd0faee53546ee47
Just simply about the author:
Penny C. Sansevieri
The Cliffhanger was publicised in Gregorian calendar month
of 2000. After a strategic marketing campaign it quickly climbed
the ranks at Amazon.com to the ##1 better commerce book in San Diego. Her most recent book: From Book to Bestseller was free
in 2005 to rave reviews and is being called the “roadmap to business success.” Penny is a book marketing and media relations specialist. She as well coaches authors on projects, manuscripts and marketing plans and instructs a variety of hunting
on business and promotion. To discover much simply about her books or her promotional services, you can visit her web site at www.amarketingexpert.comTo subscribe to her free ezine, send a blank email to: mailto:subscribe@booksbypen.com
Copyright ã 2005 Penny C. Sansevieri
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