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Want To Write A Book | Where To Start

want to write a book | where to start
want to write a book | where to start
Want to Write a Book | Where to Start (Click to Watch the video)

I’m going to kick things off by surmising that you have a book idea in the oven, but before you preheat to 350 degrees and start baking that literary cake, you’ll want to figure out who’s coming to the party. Establishing who your audience is isn’t just a box-ticking exercise; it’s central to the success of your book.

You’re probably asking, ‘Why does this matter?’ Simply put, knowing your audience shapes everything from the tone and vocabulary of your book to the marketing strategies you’ll employ upon release. It’s about setting the stage for a conversation between you and your readers where the topic is your book.

Now, how exactly do you zoom in on your audience? Start with demographic parameters like age, gender, and interests, sure. But don’t stop there. Dig into the psychographic aspects too, like values, aspirations, and challenges. This isn’t just about compiling data; it’s about getting to the heart of your readers’ desires and fears.

Once you have a rough sketch of who your audience is, it’s time to test and adjust. Beta readers, surveys, and social media can all be instruments in your symphony of audience understanding. Through them, you can observe firsthand what resonates and what falls flat.

Right about now, you might be realizing that identifying your audience is also a process of self-discovery. Choose something that resonates with you as much as with them. After all, the best books emerge from the intersection of the author’s passion and the audience’s interests.

Uncover the Challenge: Pinpointing the Problem Your Audience Faces

I’m here to help you with a crucial step that’s going to include putting yourself in your audience’s shoes. Understanding the challenge your readers are up against isn’t just a matter of intuition; it’s an art of empathy. When you know what bothers or confuses them, or what obstacles they can’t seem to overcome, you’re on the right track to providing a solution that resonates with them.

In my opinion, the core of a compelling book is one that targets a clear, relatable problem. This isn’t just an issue to be solved; it’s a way to connect with your readers on a deeper level. If you want to make your book indispensable, you’ll need to pin down a problem that’s both significant and specific to your audience.

Now, identifying the problem isn’t something you take a wild guess at. Conduct thorough research; talk to people in your target group, engage with them on social media, and immerse yourself in the environments where they express their concerns. Surveys and interviews can also yield goldmines of insight.

Once you’ve gathered this information, distill it into a clearly defined problem statement. Choose something that resonates with you, too. Remember, the sharper the identification of the problem, the more precise your solution will be. And a precise solution is what makes your readers’ lives easier.

Now, what if you’re worried about not getting it quite right? Don’t. Your first attempt at a problem statement doesn’t need to be the last. Refinement is your friend here. Get feedback, adjust, and move forward. It’s this cycle that ensures you’re developing a book that’s truly tailored to your audience’s needs.

In the next section, I’m going to take you through how to turn these problems into opportunities. That means creating actionable steps that directly combat the issues at hand. We’re going to build a stellar roadmap for your readers that’s both practical and implementable. Stay tuned.

Crafting the Solution: Steps to Solve Your Audience’s Problem

This isn’t just about writing any book; it’s about creating a resource that genuinely helps your readers. Now what? After identifying and empathizing with your audience’s challenge, it’s time to outline actionable steps to solve their problem. You can always adjust your approach down the road, but having a solid starting point is critical.

Begin with brainstorming 5 to 7 clear, practical steps based on your expertise and the needs of your readers. These steps aren’t arbitrary; each one should serve as a milestone towards a tangible solution. Don’t worry too much about the details at this stage. The goal is to create a scaffold for your content.

Strive for a balance between depth and simplicity. Yes, your steps should be comprehensive, but also accessible. If your first step seems too complex, break it down. Each step must be actionable and specific enough that your reader can see progress as they go along.

Confirm that each step relates directly to the problem you’ve identified. If a step seems off-topic, it’s not helpful. Clear relevance is what will make your book resonate with your audience. In my opinion, relevance is what differentiates a good book from a great one.

With your steps as the foundation, you’re going to find out about building upon them in the next section, where the focus will be on transitioning from a basic outline to a full-fledged book. Choose something that resonates with you as a structure to expand upon, ensuring it can withstand the addition of complex ideas and research.

Expanding the Framework: Building a Comprehensive Book Structure

You’ve pinpointed the problem, and you have your golden steps ready to guide your readers towards a solution. But hold on, you’re not just going to hand over a list of steps and call it a day. You’re crafting a book, a resource that your readers will cling to, refer back to, and maybe even pass on to friends. And that’s where structuring your thoughts into a comprehensive guide comes into play.

Think of your initial outline as the skeleton of your book. Each bone—or step—in that skeleton is fundamental, but it’s the flesh and muscles—or chapters and sections—that make it walk and talk. Your job now is to expand those solid steps into engaging, informative chapters that provide depth and context. This isn’t about padding your book with fluff; it’s about adding value, enriching the narrative, and honing in on the practical application.

How do you make that leap? Start with research. Delve into what’s out there already. Take a good look at the tables of contents of books addressing similar topics. This isn’t about mirroring what’s already done but about understanding what resonates with your audience. Identify gaps in the existing literature that your book can fill. Maybe there’s a perspective that’s underrepresented, or perhaps there’s an area that’s been overlooked.

Then, it’s time to draw out your chapters. Flesh out the outline with relevant anecdotes, case studies, and your unique insights. Develop each step into a chapter that’s robust with actionable advice, clear descriptions, and illustrative examples. If you’re tackling complex concepts, break them down into digestible pieces. Your reader should be able to put down the book at the end of each chapter with a clearer understanding and tangible takeaways.

Remember, there’s a lot happening in the publishing world, and you want your book to stand out for all the right reasons. Emphasize clarity, practicality, and a narrative that captures and keeps interest. Bounce your drafts off trusted readers; get feedback and refine as you go along. Your first draft is just that—a draft. It’s your springboard to something greater.

Choose something that resonates with you and your readers—something you’re passionate about but also offers them real, substantial help. I really hope that you find this journey of turning your problem-solving steps into a comprehensive book as rewarding as it is challenging. As you venture through this process, remember that your first attempt doesn’t need to be your last. You can always adjust and refine. Good luck with your book-writing journey—I’m cheering for you!

Check out my book on Amazon if you would like more writing tips.

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Writing A Book

First Time Writing a Book

First time writing a book.: nine steps that will help. It’s been a while but I’m back.

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Today I’m talking about writing a book for the first time and giving you nine steps that will help.

What Kind of Writer Are You?

The first step is to figure out what kind of writer you are. Decide if you’re someone who writes from the seat of your pants or if you’re someone who requires a detailed outline, Find out what works for you.

One is not better than the other, as long as it matches your personality.

Figure out what type of writer you are
Figure out what type of writer you are

Personally, I prefer a combination of the two. I come up with large ideas or topics and break the writing down into those sections. I use that as a heading and then just let the writing flow.

So start off using a very simple outline in your writing if you’re a “pantser.” (someone who prefers to write with no set structure or outline)

Now if you are a pantser then you do probably want to improve your structure a little bit. You need to know where you’re going and how you’re going to end up.

If you are someone who prefers very detailed writing, that’s fine. Come up with that type of outline, and write from it.

Even so, you might benefit from taking some of those sub-points and setting a timer, and making yourself write quickly until the timer goes off.

That might feel a little odd to you, but I think if you do the two together. you will find some benefits in doing that.

If you’re a pantser or an outliner, after you get through with your book, you will come back in the editing process and be more analytical.

But first of all, figure out what kind of writer you are, and don’t try to force yourself into the other. This is an important step in your first time writing a book.

The Big Idea

The second step is to get a big idea of what you are talking about. This will work for either fiction or nonfiction.

Your title might not reveal that big idea, it may be more of a curiosity-type title, but you still need to know what the big idea of your book is.

Some writers come up with their characters and start their book. Then once they get about halfway through they figure out what the big idea is and go from there.

Get the big idea.

Develop A Writing Plan

The next step is to either outline (if you are a detailed outline person) or, if you are a free-flow writing person, then come up with some type of writing plan.

This is especially important if you are writing nonfiction. You need to come up with some ideas about some of the things that you’re going to cover in your writing

Develop a writing plan for your first time writing a book
Develop a writing plan for your first time writing a book.

In the past, I’ve talked about some types of writing plans that go from just an outline to turning the main points into a series of questions. You can even do that with sub-points. When you do that, then all you have to do is answer the questions.

Come up with a writing plan for your first time writing a book.

Research

Then after that, you need to research. As you conduct the research, be excited about what you’re doing.

The next thing you need to do is figure out how much time you’re going to spend researching your particular writing project.

When deciding how many days you’ll need, be sure to tame your research. If you don’t, you will research and research and research until that’s all you’ll ever do.

Once you’ve done that, you’ll have the plan and you will know what the big idea is.

Have a Routine for Your First Time Writing A Book

Set up a routine for writing. Find a special place where it is quiet. Maybe you’d prefer going to different places like restaurants, coffee shops, or libraries

Find out where you’re going to write and then set up a routine.

I have a desk at home where I especially like to write.

So the next nice thing is to set up a routine.

Now my routine has been interrupted quite a bit this summer because of some of the things that have been going on in my various enterprises. One of those things is I accepted the call to be the pastor of a new church, so getting settled in has kind of messed with my daily routine of what I was doing at home.

Now I’m back and beginning to reestablish that and I’m able to work from home.

You need to set up your routine, and I think there are two good ways to do this.

The first is to set a daily writing goal of so many words. You might want to set a goal of 500 or 1000 words a day.

Create a routine for your first time writing a book
Create a routine for your first time writing a book.

Another way is to decide on a certain length of time that you will write. You might write 25 minutes a day, 15 minutes a day, or 75 minutes a day.

With some writing plans, you can break your writing down to where you are doing anywhere from 10 to 15 five-minute writing sessions a day, which comes out to 50 to 75 minutes a day. That’s pretty good; especially if you have another job and you need to do your writing either early in the morning or late at night or at some other time outside of your job.

So set up a routine and have a daily goal.

I often find it helpful to set a timer for the timed writing.

If you find yourself going over the same sentence three times before you’re finished, it’s good to just set a timer and force yourself to write as fast as you can until the timer goes off.

That one works well for me.

Set up your routine where you’re either going to write a certain number of words per day or for a certain amount of time each day.

Having this set structure will be a big help for your first time writing a book.

Now the next thing is very important.

Keep Going!

Once you get that routine established, stay with it. Stay with it on the days when you feel inspired and on the days when you don’t feel inspired. Just keep going, and as you meet those daily goals, you will get that rough draft finished.

If this is your first time writing a book, it can feel daunting and overwhelming. Keep going.

Finish the Rough Draft and Edit

The seventh step is to finish the rough draft. The eighth step is to add it to your second draft or close to your final draft.

There may be a second and a third in there but just go back and edit what you’ve written.

The importance of getting that rough draft done is that it is much easier to edit something if you have something to edit.

Edit, refine, and perfect.
Edit, refine, and perfect.

So get the rough draft done and then start the editing.

One writer said someone gave a writing project back to him and it was marked up and he thanked the editor who said, “All I did was get rid of the unnecessary words.”

When you’re editing that’s a good little tip. You will be trimming a lot when you edit and add it to your second draft.

Once you have that done, you have your second draft, third draft, and your final draft.

Publish It

The next step is to publish your book.

Now you can publish it as an ebook and you can publish it as a hard copy. I recommend that you do both.

Several years ago, the number of sales of ebooks surpassed those of print books. That went on for a couple of years and then I think it’s gone back and forth since then, but I would just recommend that you publish both.

Now, I have no stock in any particular company, but if you’re wanting to find out how to publish, there are some options.

If you want to self-publish for the first time, Kindle Direct Publishing is a good platform to do that.

Other ones that are good are Lightning Source and Lulu. I don’t have as much information on either of those or experience with them, but I know those are good platforms.

Time to publish!
Time to publish!

If you’re interested in self-publishing, you could also pitch your book to a traditional publisher.

You would need to write a query letter and present some sample chapters to be able to do that.

In this modern world, there are a number of hybrid publishers where you sort of get the best of both worlds of self-publishing and traditional publishing.

A hybrid publisher will charge you for certain things that they do for you, so you need to figure out how much you’re willing to pay for the services that you get.

Now, these are not vanity publishers; these are legitimate publishers who do need to be compensated for the time they’re going to put into helping you to get your project finished.

So, first time writing a book: those are nine steps that I hope will help you.

Available on Amazon and Kindle.
Available on Amazon and Kindle.

Incidentally, if you’re interested in having someone come and speak to you on the topic of writing, I happen to be the author of the book, How to Write a Book in 28 Days or Less Without Stressing Yourself to Death and I would be glad to come and speak to your group on the topic of writing.

To get your own copy of the book, just click the link above. To submit a request for me to speak at your event, click here, fill out the form, and I will gladly get in contact with you. If you’d like to read more blog posts on the topic of writing, click here and you’ll find many helpful posts.

Well, I hope you have a great day. If you need me for anything, let me know.

For now, remember, YOU CAN WRITE A BOOK

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How to Write a Book Now!

How to Write a Book Now!

How to write a book now. Hello everyone. Welcome to another blog based on my video series “Walking with Randy” where I talk about writing, speaking coaching marketing, and marriage. Today I’m talking again about writing.

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Susan’s Story

Susan wanted to write a book. She had wanted to for some time, but she had not been able to get it off the ground.

She had not only put it off for a couple of months, it actually had been three years since she had the idea for the book, but she just could not start.

Susan's writing career wasn't going well
Susan’s writing career wasn’t going well

She had some times when she was writing on paper, and she wound up with crumpled papers in her wastebasket.

Then she had spent some time using a typewriter, but again, wound up with piles of wadded-up paper in her wastebasket.

Then she moved on to word processing programs on the computer, but it was just a hodgepodge of materials here and there.

She had been throwing away all of her attempts.

Then she read about some time management techniques.

Schedule Time to Write

What I’m talking about today is, if you want to write a book now, you must schedule writing your book. If you don’t do that if you don’t plan you are almost guaranteed to have days, weeks, months, or maybe even years of uncompleted projects toward that book. Time can slip by without you having a book to your credit.

Pick a Topic

Well, how can you write a book now? As I said, you must schedule but first of all, you have to start so you have to pick a topic.

You can do this, just in a day’s time or you may already have a topic in mind. Either way, if you don’t pick a topic, you can’t start.

Define a Problem

Once you’ve decided on a topic, you’ll need to define a problem.

Now here’s where perfectionism will come in and it will get you aren’t careful.

Your stated problem does not have to be a perfect statement, just define a problem and have a working statement to use as you start working on this book.

Brainstorm

Your next step will be to brainstorm some steps to the solution for this problem. Try to come up with seven to nine steps. If you come up with more than nine you might want to try to combine some somewhat. If you have more than 20, you’ll definitely want to combine some of them.

Brainstorm to start your book now!
Brainstorm to start your book now!

A nonfiction book is a good book to start with, and I would suggest that you try to have five to nine steps toward the solution.

Once you have done that, you can consider each of those steps as a chapter for your book.

You’re off to a good start.

Do Your Research

Now the next thing is to research.

Once you have the five to nine chapters picked out, do some more research on your topic. Look at other books on the topic, look at their tables of contents. Have you left out something that should be in your book? If so, just go ahead and add it in.

By now you may have trimmed some of your ideas by trying to combine some ideas in order to narrow down the number of steps, but you also may be adding in some more information that you need.

The Key To Writing a Book Now

Here is the key to how you can write a book now.

You’ve done all the preliminary planning and you’ve done some brainstorming. This could be done in a day.

Then you have done some research and have tamed the information that you found while doing your research. If you don’t tame your research you will be researching for years.

Pick a date and start writing.
Pick a date and start writing.

Now, here is the secret. Take a calendar and mark a certain date to start.

When that day comes, you will write every day. You will write using one of two different methods.

Timed Writing

With the first method, you will decide on the amount of time that you have to write each day. It might be 25 minutes, it might be 50 minutes, it might be 75 minutes or it could be as much as 90 minutes.

Whatever amount of time you choose, you need to commit to writing for that period of time, every day.

Then before long, you will have come to the end of the rough draft of your book!

Word Count Method

The other method is to not write for a particular period of time but to write a certain number of words a day.

You may have committed to writing 500 words a day, 1000 words a day, or 1500 words a day.

Word count is one way to reach your daily writing goals.
Word count is one way to reach your daily writing goals.

If you want to get the rough draft of the book done in a month’s time, you will probably need to write 3000 words a day.

The key is that you have written the word “start” on your calendar, and you start that day and you write every day.

You can decide what your business days are. I take Sundays off myself or many times I take Saturday off too and just have my business days or writing days be Monday through Friday.

You can determine what days work best for you and then you write every day.

How to Tame Your Research

At first, you’ll have to stop researching and start writing but you will probably come to places where you’ll find that you do need more research.

But don’t stop right then to go find the answer. Just put some x’s or some asterisks or, I’m told that if you put “TK”, a word processing program will find those. Make sure you don’t have a space between the letters. That should work well with a word processing program. When you see the “TK” marked, you’ll know that’s an area where more research is needed.

Rein in your research.
Rein in your research.

The difference with this research is this time it will be very focused. You’ll just be trying to find the answer to the question regarding what you need to add to that section of your book.

Be sure that before you do the extra research you do your daily goal first. Don’t stop writing to do the research. Put in those codes and then later you can do more research and put it in where you put your codes.

That’s how you tame your research.

Next Steps

You can write and publish your book now.

So once you have your research, pick a day to start writing. Write every day until you come to the end of your rough draft. Then you will be over the hump and you will be able to figure out how to finish your book.

You can hire someone else to edit or you can do it on your own. Then it’s time to get your book ready for publishing.

You can pitch to a traditional publisher if you wish, or you can self-publish. More and more people are self-publishing nowadays, and it’s certainly something that you can do and you can learn to do well.

Or you might do what some people would call getting a relationship with a traditional publisher.

Whatever route you choose, you can get your book not only written but published as well. You will have the basic book.

The key is to start scheduling now. Take your calendar and write the word start. on whatever day you want to start and then do it.

That’s how you write a book now.

If you’d like more writing tips like these, just click here to be taken to my blog posts about writing.

The ultimate writing guide!
The ultimate writing guide!

Within a very short period of time I will also have a special gift for you on that page. it will be a free one-page roadmap to writing success,

For the ultimate guide to writing, consider purchasing my book “How to Write a Book in 28 Days or Less Without Stressing Yourself to Death.” It’s available on Amazon in both paperback and Kindle versions.

If you’d be interested in having me speak to your group about one of the several topics I cover, like marriage, speaking, or coaching, click here to be taken to the page where you can request that

It’s been good to share with you today. I hope you have a wonderful day. Until next time, I’m Randy Carney reminding you that YOU CAN WRITE A BOOK!

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Simple Solutions to Stress-Free Writing

Stress-free writing

Simple solutions to stress-free writing.

Hello everyone, and welcome!

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I haven’t been quite as active with these posts lately as I’ve taken a break and done a little writing myself. But I’m getting back into this where I talk about writing, speaking, marketing, and marriage.

Today I’m again talking about writing. Specifically, some bold solutions for stress free writing.

Lily Needed a Stress-Free Writing Experience

Lily was frustrated. She had been writing on her novel for a month.

Then her friend Alex called and asked her how her writing was going.

Lily expressed her frustration at not making as much progress as she had hoped.

Alex said, “Well, why don’t you take a break?”
Like many of us would, she replied, “I don’t have time to take a break.”
Alex answered, “I don’t mean take a break for a week, maybe just an hour or so. Just take a little break. Clear your mind, relax, and come back and start writing again.”

Lily Needed a Stress-Free Writing Experience
Lily Needed a Stress-Free Writing Experience

Lily was doubtful if that would work, but after they hung up, she took his advice and she went out to a nearby park.

She started walking around and looking at nature and enjoying the sights and sounds.

After that much needed break she went back to her house feeling very rejuvenated, and she started writing. Then she wrote more and more, and it was hours before she finished.

Lily’s story reminds us of the need for solutions to stress-free writing. So here are six simple solutions for stress-free writing.

Writing is A Process

First of all, understand that writing is a process. It’s not just something where the perfect product comes out right away.

When you do this, you will be editing, and you will be perfecting the process.

Some of us are what we call a frustrated perfectionist. This is something that I have to deal with, but I have been able to learn how to do it. In other videos, I’ve talked about how sometimes I will just set a timer and start typing away. The timer forces me to get my thoughts down and move on instead of writing the same sentence over three times.

Just keep going. Later, as I look at what I wrote, I find out that many times that first sentence wasn’t so bad.

Writing is a process.
Writing is a process.

I might find things to shorten and tighten and things to eliminate and reword but perfectionism can keep you from getting anything done and will take a long time.

You need to realize that it is a process, and you will be able to edit after you write.

My favorite quote is “You can’t edit unless you have something to edit.”

Realize that writing is a process that there is improvement with practice. The more you write, the better you get. Then once you produce one book, you will be able to produce another one.

The second book will be easier than the first provided you do quickly enough that you don’t have to learn everything all over again. But you improve with practice.

Start With A Plan

The second tip for stress-free writing is to start with a plan.

Jot down ideas of what you want to write about. Then you can create an outline or you can create a mind map.

If you’re not familiar with a mind map, that’s where you start with a blank sheet of paper and in the very center of it, you write down your main topic or your working title and you draw a circle around it. Then radiating out from that circle. take other ideas that come to mind and place them in little cartoon speech balloons.

A mind map can help with stress-free writing.
A mind map can help with stress-free writing.

So you can write your first point into your balloon, and then you’ll have related ideas that will be subject points.

It’s just the main idea in the center and then you have some of the main ideas related to the main ideas coming out from the center.

Each one of those will be within a circle and then you will have related circles that come off of each of those main ideas. That will be your mind map, and then you can turn that into an outline.

Then when you get ready to write, you can use whichever one you prefer.

Eliminate Distractions

The third tip for stress-free writing is to eliminate distractions.

Get rid of distractions.
Get rid of distractions.

Get in a room by yourself.
Turn off your social media access.
Turn off the ringer to your phone and anything else that might distract you.

Then go ahead with your writing.

Take Breaks

The fourth tip for stress-free writing is to take breaks

I like writing in five-minute to twenty-minute writing segments. Sometimes I can go 50 minutes at a time, but I don’t recommend going much more than that at one time without taking a break.

Be sure to take writing breaks.
Be sure to take writing breaks.

Many people find that writing for 20 or 25 minutes and then taking a five-minute break turns out to be good for them. But be sure to take breaks just like Lily did in our story at the beginning.

Write in Small Chunks

Another helpful tip for stress-free writing is to write in small chunks. Don’t think about the overwhelming totality of your project, just figure out the little parts.

Take it a small amount at a time.
Take it a small amount at a time.

Just think about small chunks and write that.

Also. you do not have to write in order of your outline. You can jump around. That’s one of the great things about composing.

When you are writing, find what interests you at the moment and focus on that part of your project.

That will “prime the pump” for you and then you can go to other sections that are necessary, but maybe not as interesting to you.

But write in small chunks.

Use Software

The sixth tip for six simple solutions for stress-free writing is to use software.

You can use dictation software if you are comfortable with that. That’s one idea for using software.

Using speech to text software can help with stress-free writing.
Using speech to text software can help with stress-free writing.

Another one is to speak your book or do it in a video like the one above. Then you can take the audio and put it into transcription software where it will transcribe many of the words that you spoke. (Speech to text) Of course you will have to clean that up and you will have to edit it to turn spoken speech into written speech but doing that can be very helpful.

In fact, many of the blog posts that you see on my site at Randy’s blogs.com are first composed orally in videos just like the one in this post. After that, my team and I come together and produce the written blog posts.

Then there is editing software like Grammarly, which will help you with your grammar, your sentence structure and things like that.

There’s another one I am not as familiar with, but I’ve heard of it. It’s called Hemingway editor. You might want to check that out.

At the very least, use the spellcheck, check and grammar check that is on your word processing programs. Most of those word processing programs today do have that capability.

So, there you are: six simple solutions for stress-free writing.

I hope that this has been helpful to you.

Writing tool
Writing tool

If you would like more writing tips like the go to www.randysblogs.com.

For the ultimate guide to writing, consider purchasing my book “How to Write a Book in 28 Days or Less Without Stressing Yourself to Death.” It’s available in both e-reader and hard copy formats.

If you’d like to have me speak at your event, fill out the form here and I will be in contact with you.

That’s all for today. Until next time, I’m Randy Carney reminding you, YOU CAN WRITE A BOOK!

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Tips on Writing a Book for the First Time

Writing your first book

Hello. I hope you are doing well. Today I will give you some tips on writing a book for the first time.

Welcome to another blog post. My posts discuss writing, marketing, marriage, and coaching.

Are you interested in venturing into the world of book writing? Look no further! As a published author, I will give you several tips to help you if you’re an aspiring author.

Tips on Writing a Book for the First Time

Choose a Topic for Your First Book

Of course, a topic is the basic building block of any book. Eventually, you’ll need to come up with a title, but for now, all you need is the topic you want to write about.

Tips on writing a book for the first time include choosing chapter ideas.
Tips on writing a book for the first time include choosing chapter ideas.

Chapter Ideas

Next, you’ll want to come up with a list of chapter ideas for your first book. Using the process of brainstorming, ideally, you will come up with 12-20 possible chapters.

What do you do if you happen to get stuck?

If you’re having problems coming up with a list of ideas, think about some steps to get from one place to another.

If you’re writing a nonfiction book, you may have some steps to get from a problem to a solution. Each of those steps could be a chapter.

Another way of looking at it is you can get from pain to pleasure and your chapters would be the steps for doing that.

Decide what steps will get your readers to the solution.
Decide what steps will get your readers to the solution.

Some people would picture that as being on one side of a stream with a series of stepping stones to get across. The stepping stones would be the steps to the solution.

This may not formulate your entire book, but these steps are usually anywhere from 7 to 12 steps to get from a problem to a solution or from pain to pleasure.

If you’re writing fiction, you want steps to get from a conflict to a resolution.

Review Your Notes

After you have the steps figured out, go back and look at your first brainstorming notes and see if there are some things that don’t fit in with a particular step. Then just add them in wherever you want.

Research Your Topic

Once you have that done, you have a good start, especially if you’re writing a nonfiction book.

To have a good nonfiction book, you need to survey other books on your topic.

Research the topic of your first book.
Research the topic of your first book.

Go to Amazon and search for books on your topic. Look at the table of contents. You may find some things that you have left out of your original list. Be sure to look at several different books to be sure that you have a broad view of the topic in question.

If so, add them in. You want to cover the topic thoroughly.

The next step in tips on writing a book for the first time will show you how everything starts to fall into place.

Make a Plan

Once you have your list of chapter titles, it’s time to come up with a plan.

You should schedule one to three days per chapter. I like doing a chapter a day. If you do a chapter a day, working Monday through Friday, you can have the rough draft of your book completed in 4 weeks.

You’ll need to invest 75-90 minutes a day while working on that rough draft.

If you choose to only work 20-25 minutes a day, each chapter will probably take you 3 days.

The standard chapter length is between 6 and 10 pages.

What do you think is one of the most important tips for writing a book for the first time?

Time Management

Time management is one of the most important tips for writing a book for the first time.

There are 2 different ways of handling time management.

The one I prefer is writing fast and furious for a specified amount of time. I like to do it in 5-minute bursts. Sometimes I do 6 minutes and sometimes I do 10.

With this method you write furiously, not stopping to edit.

When you do this, time becomes the constant, and the word count is the variable.

You will have a good book length by doing it this way.

Other people can not bear to write that way and save the editing for later. If you want to write and edit at the same time, (which bogs me down too much) you’ll have to set your daily goal as a word count goal.

Choose a method that works best for you.
Choose a method that works best for you.

In that case, the number of words will be the constant and the time will be the variable.

Either way will work. It just depends on what fits you best.

Put that into your plan.

If you write for 75-90 minutes a day or write 1,000 to 3.000 words a day, you can have the rough draft of your 200-page first book done in 20 days.

If you’re not writing that amount daily, it will take you 3 times as long to get your rough draft done. That’s still a good amount of time, though.

I hope that this has been helpful to you.

My book can help you with your first book.
My book can help you with your first book.

For more writing tips, click here. The link will take you to the writing portion of my blog, where there are many posts on the topic.

For the ultimate resource for tips on writing a book for the first time, consider purchasing my book, “How to Write a Book in 28 Days or Less Without Stressing Yourself to Death.” It’s available in both an e-book and a hard copy.

If you’ve already read the book I would appreciate a review on Amazon.

If you’d like to have me speak at one of your events, click here and fill out the contact form and I will get back to you.

Thank you for reading. Until next time, this is Randy Carney reminding you YOU CAN WRITE A BOOK!

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How to Get Through Writer’s Block: Seven Actions to Overcome this Malady

How to overcome writer's block

How to Get through writer’s block: seven actions to overcome this malady.

Welcome to another blog post, where I talk about writing, speaking, coaching, marketing, and marriage. Today I’m speaking about writing again – specifically, how to get through writer’s block.

Well, if you want to get through writer’s block, just keep reading. I’ll give you some tips for some ways to overcome that.

Overview of Overcoming Writer’s Block

Look at your plan.
Then, I will talk about writing a different section.
Write two pages of a list of reasons.
Ask yourself some questions.
Set a timer.
Do some free writing or fast writing on an unrelated topic. Take a break. (Just make sure your break is not days long.)

Look at Your Plan

So first of all, look at your plan. Is it just a word or two?

I actually am making an outline for myself. I don’t like to go beyond just the second level. In that case, you’d have your Roman numerals that would be your main points and then you would have just one below that which some people outline with letters others do Arabic numbers.

Reviewing your book plan can sometimes help you overcome writer's block.
Reviewing your book plan can sometimes help you overcome writer’s block.

I do Arabic numbers because it’s easier to think of a list of numbers than it is a list of letters.

But anyway, some people go then beyond that with various points below the Roman numeral part and then the first part after that, and then a list of sub-points down below that, and then sub-points below the sub-points for you use whatever works for you what is best for you.

If you have writer’s block, you might not have gone down far enough. If you’re like me and you just like to go down maybe one level, this may be the time when you would want to go in and include some more sub-points.

I’ll give you some ways of doing that.

Go to a Different Part

Another idea for overcoming dreaded writer’s block is to just go to a different section of your book.

Now if you’re writing fiction, you might not have it planned out that far, but there are ways to do that with fiction, where you can derive any section that you want to write.

Sometimes that will help you if you’re not as excited about a certain chapter but you might be more excited about a later chapter.

Try going to a different part of your book.
Try going to a different part of your book.

Now if you’re doing nonfiction, if you plan your book out correctly, you should be able to go to a different chapter or a different section within a chapter, and sometimes that will help you.

You get the momentum going and then go back to the part that you had been dreading.

List Reasons Why is Your Project Important

The third one works especially well if you’re doing nonfiction. Get two pieces of scratch paper and just as quickly as you can, start listing a bunch of reasons why what you’re writing about is important.

Try to come up with two pages of reasons. Once you have come up with two pages of reasons, then you can go back through and pick out some of those and you’ll think, “Oh, I should have had those in my chapter anyway.”

Then go back through your chapters and put some of those ideas in.

Now you have also “primed the pump” by doing this.

Ask Yourself Questions

Here’s another very valuable one: simply ask yourself some questions.

In my book “How to Write a Book in 28 Days or Less Without Stressing Yourself to Death,” I show you a way that you can plan out your whole book around just a list of questions.

Push through writer's block by asking yourself questions.
Push through writer’s block by asking yourself questions.

If you have done it that way, then all you have to do is look at the question and answer the question. Then I talk about some ways that you can have some things that help you even get started with that.

If you are at a little bit of an impasse, then ask yourself a question. If you have written an outline or even if you just. phrases, go to those and turn them around and make them questions, and then just answer the questions.

Oftentimes this will get you going where you can get on through writer’s block.

Write Quickly

Now some of us have different personalities. You may be someone who is fine with going through and writing something and doing your editing later.

Maybe you are more comfortable with perfecting your paragraphs as you go along. That’s okay if that’s your personality unless it hinders you from getting your book done.

If that’s you, and that’s what’s causing your writer’s block, then consider just forcing yourself to go through it in a non-perfectionist way and just force yourself to write something.

Try fast writing.
Try fast writing.

You may say, “Well, it’s not any good.” Force yourself to go ahead and write anyway.

Then you can go back and edit it later.

Set a Timer

Something that can help you to force yourself to write is to set a timer. It can be just a simple kitchen timer.

Set your timer and then write just as quickly as you can. Just force yourself to write as quickly as you can. Then when the timer goes off you can go back and edit and polish what you wrote and get it just how you want it to be.

This technique, where you go write as quickly as you can for a certain amount of time, is called free writing.

Craftspeople like carpenters and plumbers do their tasks very, quickly, and very well because they have such experience doing it.

Write on A Different Topic

Another technique, which also involves fast writing, is to write about a topic that is unrelated to your main project. Just think of something to write about.

Think about using a timer to help get past writer's block.
Think about using a timer to help get past writer’s block.

If you’re using the timer, I would recommend setting it for five minutes. Then sit and write for five minutes on an unrelated topic.

When you get through you may find that you have overcome writer’s block because now you have been able to write something.

Then you can go back to the original topic of your book or chapter. Then just go ahead and write some of that.

Take a Break

Or maybe it’s time to take a break. Oftentimes when you come back after the break, you’ll be ready to write.

I just want to caution you to make sure that break is not one or two days long.

But sometimes it’s good to take a break and then come back to your writing.

A short break can't hurt
A short break can’t hurt.

I hope these tips have been helpful to you. If you’d like more tips, please go to www.randysblogs.com.

If you’re interested in having me speak at an event, go to www.randycarney.com. You’ll find some information there, along with a contact form for you to complete.

There is also the book I mentioned earlier “How to Write a Book in 28 Days or Less Without Stressing Yourself to Death.”

I hope you have a great day and a wonderful week.

I’ll talk to you again. This is Randy Carney reminding you, YOU CAN WRITE A BOOK!

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The Benefits of Free-Flow Writing

Benefits of free-flow writing.

Benefits of free-flow writing. Welcome to another blog, where I talk about writing, marriage, marketing, and coaching. Today I’m going to tell you about free-flow writing.

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What is Free-Flow Writing?

What is free-flow writing? Sometimes I talk about writing in the flow through free-flow writing.

You can get into free-flow writing which is to just start writing.

It’s sometimes said that during this process, you’re not thinking. Of course, that’s not really true. Your subconscious mind is always active and it’s guiding you as you do.

Free-flow writing will help with creativity.
Free-flow writing will help with creativity.

Free-flow writing is writing without stressing or worrying about it. Then you do your editing later.

Sometimes this is accomplished by writing as quickly as you can.

Benefits of Free-Flow Writing

Meet Deadlines

If you do free writing in a certain way, it helps you to meet your deadlines. I recommend free-flow writing in conjunction with setting a timer. I

Ideal times are five minutes, six minutes, or 10 minutes. Just start writing and go with the flow.

Utilize a timer.
Utilize a timer.

Of course, it’s best if you have a topic or a word that you use to prompt your writing. Then just go with the flow.

When you’re using a timer and doing, for example, a 5-minute snippet, the time will be your constant and the word count will be the variable.

So start your timer and begin with whatever word you have chosen for your idea and write as quickly as you can. Keep going until the timer goes off.

Then you can either put ellipses (…) there and straighten that out later or you can quickly tie the end together and get ready for the next timed session.

When you do this, you will meet your deadline of getting your rough draft done quickly and easily.

Sparks Creativity

Another benefit of free writing is that it sparks creativity. When you’re doing this free-flow writing, after a while, it’s kind of like you’re priming the pump and things begin to flow easily.

New ideas come and your creativity is sparked.

It’s Your Own Voice

A third benefit of free writing is that your writing is done in your own voice.

Now if you’re writing fiction, of course, a lot of that is going to be done in your own voice.

Free-flow writing allows you to use your own voice.
Free-flow writing allows you to use your own voice.

But when it comes to nonfiction writing, you often will have done a lot of research and you have gotten ideas and steps from other sources.

The free-flow writing will help you to express those ideas in your own voice which is a tremFreeendous benefit to you and to your readers once they’ve gotten to know you.

Helps to Overcome Writer’s Block

The fourth benefit of this free-flow writing is that helps you to overcome writer’s block.

When you have an idea or word that you’re going to start with and a timer you’re getting ready to start, you just take the word and you hit the start button on the timer, and start writing as quickly as you can about that word or that topic.

This can help overcome writer's block.
This can help overcome writer’s block.

Now, sometimes you might wind up writing fluff and it will be things that you will remove during the editing process.

But most of the time, you’ll surprise yourself with how well you are able to express something that you had put off.

Perfectionism

Dealing with perfectionism is a large problem that many, many writers have. We certainly want to have excellent writing, but we can perform that best through the editing process.

If you try to write and edit and make each little paragraph and sentence perfect the first time around, then there will be a lot of stress and you will likely not get through and probably have long days of writing.

It’s Fast!

But if you will do free-flow writing then you will have a rough draft done in just a short amount of time.

Depending on the writing project that you have set up if you are wanting to do a 10-page chapter for a 200-page book that has 20 chapters, then you’ll have 15 five-minute writing projects, which means 75 minutes of writing during a day. Done that way, you will get a chapter a day finished.

You can get your project done quickly.
You can get your project done quickly.

That means that within 20 days, you will have the rough draft of your book!

Then you can go back and edit after that. If you’re a full-time writer, then you may do your free-flow writing first thing in the morning and then you’ll have the rest of the day to go back to your previous free-flow writing projects and polish them for as long and as much as you want.

If you’re like many of us who maybe have full-time jobs or other responsibilities, you may only have a half hour or an hour or an hour and a half a day to write.

In that case, it’s best to get the rough draft done and then have time slots in the days following to perfect the book.

For writing a nonfiction book, it’s a really good idea to write your basic book and after that, turn it into a fabulous book. B

Wrapup

Those are some of the benefits of free-flow writing.

The process helps you meet your deadlines, sparks your creativity, it’s in your own voice, and it helps avoid writer’s block to make writing fun and easy.

I recommend this process to you.

Find it on Amazon.

If you would like more writing tips like these, just click here to find my writing blog.

You can also get my book, “How to Write a Book in 28 Days or Less Without Stressing Yourself to Death” over on Amazon.

If you would like to inquire about my speaking at some event, you can go right here and complete the form and I will get back to you.

I hope you’re having a great day, and until next time, I’m Randy Carney reminding you that YOU CAN WRITE A BOOK!

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5 Steps for Stress-Free Writing

Stress-free writing

Five steps for stress-free writing. Welcome to my blog, where I talk about writing, speaking coaching, marketing and marriage. Today I’m talking about writing once again: Particularly, five steps for stress-free writing.

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Ralph thought he wanted to write a book, but he got really stressed when he started trying to actually do it.

He went about starting the first page but didn’t get very far. He didn’t do very well for a while. He was starting out with fiction. He thought he would try writing nonfiction, but he still had some problems getting started.

Ralph got stressed when he first started writing.
Ralph got stressed when he first started writing.

Then it came to him, “Why get stressed out?” So he figured out some ways to come up with stress-free writing.

Get Something Out There

I once had a job that required that I write a certain number of words a day. I started trying to do those number of words every day, but my problem was, I was trying to make them the perfect words, and it became very difficult.

Then something came back to me that I had learned before, “Just get something out there.”

So I started off each day with the idea of just getting something out there and I would just start writing. I already had a plan in mind: sort of an outline or at least a topic, but I would just take off and I will just write as quickly as I could.

Just write
Just write.

After about an hour and a half or so, I had my word count done for the day and it was wonderful.

Then I could go back and take out words, put in words, do some more research, and add in some more ideas. I was able to do some research for upcoming projects and go back and do some further editing on what I had done in the past.

That was the secret that, for me, became stress-free writing instead of stressful writing.

The Big Picture

First of all, get the big picture in mind.

What is it you’re wanting to write about? What is the big picture? What is the overall, overarching idea of what you want to write about?

Start your writing project with a big picture in mind.
Start your writing project with a big picture in mind.

Try to get the idea of what you’re going to write about down to one sentence. Don’t stress over that though. Just get a sentence or maybe a paragraph down for the general idea. Get the big picture.

Basic Plan

The second thing is to come up with a basic plan.

Once you have the big picture, try to divide that up into parts.

If it is a sequential thing, figure out the steps. Step one, step two, step three, and so on. Then you can hang your ideas on that.

How do you get your basic plan?

Sample mind map.
Sample mind map.

I have talked about mind mapping in the past. You can do a mind map or maybe come up with an outline.

An outline can just be a major point outline, or you might have a couple of sub-points.

Now if you’re really, really detailed and you are a person who writes off of really detailed outlines, go for it if it doesn’t stress you.

If you’re sort of a pantser: somebody who just likes to take off writing as the creative juices flow, the outline or plan doesn’t need to be as detailed.

Either way, just have the overall idea of what you’re writing about and have some major parts of what you’re writing about.

You can use your outline or your mind map for this.

Outline and/or Mind Map

I often find it helpful to do a mind map and then after that do an outline but try not to get too deep into the outline.

Sometimes both a mind map and an outline can be helpful.
Sometimes both a mind map and an outline can be helpful.

Once you’ve done that, you have a basic plan.

Next, you need to write and you want that writing to be stress-free. There are two ways to make the actual writing part stress-free.

Free-Flow Writing

The first one I mentioned earlier-fast writing. I started doing that every day in the job I had as a staff writer.

The idea is to do free-flow writing.

Find your topic, and when you come to the part in your plan where you’re going to write about something in that part, instead of stressing about that, just take off and write. If you don’t know how to start, ask yourself a question about it and then start answering the question.

Free-flow writing can open up your mind.
Free-flow writing can open up your mind.

Another way is to just pick a word and take that word and start writing with that.

Now granted, you may go back and change that first two or three sentences later, but just write.

Some people say don’t think. Of course, your mind actually will think, just don’t think to the point of stressing yourself. Remember you can always come back and change what you’re doing.

That’s one plan.

Talk Your Book

The other way is to record yourself. Talk your project out. You can do an audio or video recording on your phone.

After that, you can go back and you can transcribe the audio yourself or you can use a free transcription service on the internet.

You can speak your book.
You can speak your book.

The internet-based services usually have about 90% accuracy. You won’t be completely done if you do that but you can take it late and turn it into written words from your spoken speech.

You will want to revise it anyway when you’re going through the process.

So those are two ideas.

One is to just write as fast as you can. Just start and don’t worry about it. Just keep on going and know that you can add or subtract later. Just write. Get it down or speak it out. Later, you’ll be able to edit that.

So get the big picture and the basic plan. When you’re doing the actual writing, just do free writing or free speaking.

Scheduled Writing Time

When you have the basic plan, you need to set a schedule. There are two ways of handling your schedule.

You can decide on a time goal for the day.

In the case of writing a big project like a book, you’re going to write a certain amount every day; usually anywhere from 30 to 90 minutes during the day.

Try writing for specific amounts of time.
Try writing for specific amounts of time.

During that time, you can use free-flow writing or speaking.

Even within this method, there are even two ways of doing it. One way makes the time the variable and the number of words the goal. The other way of doing it is to make the number of words the goal and the time will be the variable.

Depending on your personality, one of these should work for you.

Time vs Word Count

If you’re going to utilize the word count method, you will just keep going until you get to the number of words that you have set as your goal. The time it takes you to reach that goal will probably vary from day to day.

I prefer the time constant with the word count being the variable. I have little projects, and many times I will just write for five minutes using free-flow writing. Then I’ll go to the next word or phrase or idea that I want to write about and again just write for five minutes.

If I’m through early I force myself to keep writing, although sometimes those are the things that will be thrown out later. If I don’t get through on time sometimes I just put an ellipsis (…) there so I know I have to finish that section later.

Now that will drive some of you crazy if you want to go with the word count method, but I found this to work very well for me.

So let’s go over the steps:

The first one is to get the big picture.
The second one is to have a basic plan: What are the parts of what you’re talking about?
The third one is to think about free-flow writing or speaking your words.
The fourth one is to write on a schedule. Decide whether you’re going to write three times a week or daily. Most writers like to write daily and then either write for a specified period of time or toward a certain number of words.

Draft of Your Writing

Keep polishing as you go through.
Keep polishing as you go through.

The fifth step after you’ve done all of the above, come up with a draft of your writing. Keep making passes through your writing and change it as you go through.

If you go through it three times, you’ll find that you have gotten it into much better shape and closer to how you want it. Then just keep going over until it is how you want it or until your time deadline arrives.

Those are five steps to stress-free writing.

Well, I hope these tips have been helpful to you.

If you’d like more tips on writing, go to www.randysblogs.com.

If you’re interested in having me come and speak at one of your events, click here and fill out the form and I will gladly reach out to you.

I also have a book that’s called “How to Write a Book in 28 Days or Less Without Stressing Yourself to Death.”

Available on Amazon
Available on Amazon

I hope you’re having a wonderful day. This is Randy Carney reminding you that YOU CAN WRITE A BOOK!

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How to Write A Book for Kindle

Writing for Kindle

Welcome to another blog post! How to write a book for Kindle is the subject of today. This is where I talk about writing, speaking, coaching, marketing, and marriage. This post another one about writing.

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My Suggestion

If you are a beginning author, you might want to consider writing a book for Kindle e-readers. Even if people don’t have a Kindle device, they can get a free Kindle reader for their phones.

So I suggest writing a book for Kindle when you’re getting your feet wet in the writing process.

Even if you’ve written other books like paperbacks and so forth and you still might want to get into e-books.

Write as Usual

My suggestion for writing a book for Kindle is to write it the way that you would a normal book, except you don’t need to worry about things like different kinds of fonts and formatting when you are initially producing the book.

Write as you normally do.
Write as you normally do.

Without those concerns, you can focus on the content and get the book written the way that you want it to be written. So write it like you usually would.

Word Processing

I often use Microsoft Word, but lately, I have been using a program called Libre Office, It is a free open-source platform for word processing and is very similar to Microsoft Word.

You may be proficient in WordPerfect, and that’s fine, If you’re using a Mac computer you may be familiar with Pages.

Regardless, just use your regular word processing program as you write your book.

Get all your content and get it the way you want it. Get the content edited the way you want it.

How-To

First of all, go to Amazon and set up an account. After you’ve done that, go to Kindle Direct Publishing and set up an account there.

Now you’re ready to begin to write your book for Kindle.

As I said, you write it in a regular way, except you don’t worry as much about fancy fonts or certain types of formatting. When you have your account set up for Kindle, you will have the option to go into their platform and just copy and paste from your word processing document. right into certain sections of the Kindle form

Use whatever word processing program with which you are comfortable.
Use whatever word processing program with which you are comfortable.

I would suggest that before you paste your book into the Kindle platform search online for a template for a Kindle book.

TCK Publishing

In the past, I have used a template for Kindle from TCK Publishing. Just follow his suggestions as to how to paste your document into his template.

He has some other suggestions as to how you can go about doing the different formatting, some fonts that you can use, and what size fonts you can use for headings and footers.

Table of Contents

In your Kindle book, you do not want page numbers. It just flows as one long document.

Research how to add a clickable table of contents to your Kindle book.
Research how to add a clickable table of contents to your Kindle book.

There are ways that you can have a clickable table of contents: you can do some research on that. Basically, you just have the name of the chapter, and you have a link that goes to the chapter. You can do some online research as to how to provide those types of links.

I think that in Microsoft or PCs, you might be able to make those types of table of contents and they may just come up as clickable.

For an Apple device, you might have to do some research to find out more about making your table of contents clickable.

Either way, I highly recommend you do that because many people really find that to be appealing in e-books.

Kindle Direct Publishing

Once you have the template filled out, then you can move over to Kindle Direct Publishing, and you can begin copying and pasting from your template into the respective places in Kindle. I think it is pretty self-explanatory as you go through the process.

So there you go. There’s how to write a book for Kindle.

Writing a book for Kindle is easy!
Writing a book for Kindle is easy!

I hope you’ve enjoyed this and have found it helpful. If you’d like more tips like these, click here to find the rest of my writing blogs.

If you would like me to come and speak on one of several topics, click here and complete the contact form. I will be glad to discuss speaking at your event.

Finally, for the ultimate guide to writing, get my book “How to Write a Book in 28 Days or Less Without Stressing Yourself to Death.”

Available on Amazon.
Available on Amazon.

I hope you’re having a wonderful day and I hope you have a wonderful week.

This is Randy Carney reminding you: YOU CAN WRITE A BOOK!

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Writing a Book for the First Time – My Story

The story of my first book

Hello everyone. This is Randy Carney again with another session of walking with Randy, where I talk about writing, speaking coaching marketing, and marriage. Today, I am talking about writing. I want to talk to you about writing a book for the first time – my story.

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In 2009, I decided that I wanted to write a book. I was encouraged by my wife to write something on the topic of marriage that would encourage husbands.

That was a compliment coming from my wife, and I was quite excited that she encouraged me to do that.

I’m not sure that she thought I would write a complete book but I got excited about the idea of doing it.

Now never having written a book like that before. I had to research a little bit and think about how I was going to go about doing it.

I did some research before I began writing my book.
I did some research before I began writing my book.

I did have some previous writing experience that I’ve detailed in other videos and posts

Past Experience

One of those experiences was when I was in seminary. We had a major writing project. Some people call those things, dissertations or theses. My seminary was encouraging us to write them on a popular level, rather than on an academic level. Now that I think about it, that was a great thing, because it prepared the way for me to be able to write more popular books rather than just textbooks.

The project had to be 100 pages long. It was a little bit difficult for me to do. I kept writing on different slips of paper and things like that, but I finally got through it.

Then later, I had a job with Accelerated Christian Education, which was a major Christian textbook publishing company. Now their curriculum had courses that were divided into 12 units, and each of those would comprise a 325-page book, and then there were activities that were involved.

I was able to meet my goals by simply forcing myself to write 700 words first thing every morning. Then later in the day, I had time to research and then go back and change and revise what I had written that morning.

It ended up being great but it was a little bit difficult.

Helpful Tips from Others

When it came to writing a book on the topic of marriage I was reading about how some people wrote their books. There was an author named Rob Parnell who advised writing in the flow, and I enjoyed his materials very much. I’ve actually taken some of his writing courses.

For my first book, I got tips from other authors.
For my first book, I got tips from other authors.

There was also a book by a man named Steve Manning that told you how to write using the technique of fast writing

Putting together what I learned while doing my major writing project, writing in the flow from Rob Parnell, and writing quickly, as advised by Steve Manning. I came up with a plan for a book and made the decision to go for it.

Much of the planning I did for the book I had learned from Steve Manning, as well as what I had done in my textbook writing.

The Plan

The plan for writing the whole book was 20 chapters, and each one of those chapters had a plan for five-minute writing projects. Each one of those chapters was planned in such a way that there would be 15 5-minute writing projects.

My plan was to write 15 minutes at a time.
My plan was to write 15 minutes at a time.

So those 15 5-minute writing projects involved finding a total of 75 minutes every day to write. Using my technique of just getting the material done and using Steve Manning’s encouragement about fast writing I was able to write for those 75 minutes during the day.

They weren’t always consecutive. Sometimes they were, but sometimes they were snatches here or there. I could be sitting in a waiting room and get five minutes done.

That’s how I got started. I was determined to write for 75 minutes every day.

Now, like many of you, the best-laid plans of mice and men often go astray, so I didn’t always get that done every day. I do remember doing something with the book every day.

Most days I did write for 75 minutes in total.

No Matter What, Work on the Book!

During that time, I agreed to go on a mission trip to Mexico, so I was quite busy.

I was able to complete my book during a mission trip to Mexico.
I was able to complete my book during a mission trip to Mexico.

We went into Mexico during the day and always crossed the border and spent the night in Texas. Late at night. I was able to write. The guys that I was with made sure that I had time by myself during that time which I was very grateful for. I finished the book while I was on that mission trip.

My Books

If you’re interested in my books, you can search Amazon for Randy Carney.

If you would like to know how to write a book, my book “How to Write a Book in 28 Days or Less Without Stressing Yourself to Death” is also on Amazon.

For more tips like these on writing, go to randysblogs.com and subscribe.

There are several ways to stay informed.
There are several ways to stay informed.

You can follow me on Facebook, and I also have a channel on YouTube and Rumble. Subscribe to one of those and you’ll never miss a thing!

If you’re interested in having me come to speak on the topics of some of my books or to speak on a topic of writing go to www.randycarney.com and fill out the form. I’ll be glad to come to speak at your event.

I hope you have a great day. I hope this has been helpful to you.

I want you to remember YOU CAN WRITE A BOOK!