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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

April 23, 2023April 23, 2023

Simple Solutions to 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 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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

March 14, 2023March 15, 2023

Tips on Writing a Book for the First Time

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!