What is your writing style? How do you get through your
manuscript? I've heard testimony from many who write full length manuscripts
and the methods are different. Some swear to working 18 hour days at the
computer with a compelling need to get the novel or non-fiction book finished.
I've heard it said that Stephen King felt as if a lady were waiting outside his
room to do him harm should he slow progress on his finishing his books.
For me, there's less of a sense of urgency. I'm a little
more practical. Though I sell lot's of books, I still can't quit my day job, very few do. So for me, I've got the meet more pressing demands of my
life while hacking out an existence as an author publisher. After putting in an
honest day's work at the paying job, taking kids to their events, being a good
husband and faithful church goer, I have very little time to write. Sometimes
only one hour per day.
Many times, I have to share that time with marketing,
cover design, editing and all the other fun stuff that goes with providing good
information to my customers. So, how do you do it? Well, let's take an example
from our surroundings. You may have heard the expression: everything in it's
own time. There's a season for everything, each season builds upon itself to
produce either growth or preparation for growth. Here are four ways to
incrementally complete most writing projects.
1. Have a writing season where you plan 1,000 to
2,000 words per day five days per week to finish the book. Some days you might
only get 500 words, so be gentle on yourself. Be sure everyone understands that
you'll be committing time to the task. But be faithful and meet your other
responsibilities while not engaged in writing as others respect you and your
time while you are writing. This all hinges on an outline. For my professional
books, I begin with a piece of paper where I write a topic and brainstorm
important features of the topic. I'll grab 10-15 relevant features and create
chapter titles. I'll write 5 or 6 main bullet points and use them as sub
chapter topics. I'll combine this into a 5 or 6 page outline and march to the
computer to begin my work 500 - 2000 words at a time.
2. Have an editing season. After you write your
manuscript, plan a few months of re-write, again giving yourself a goal by
word, page or chapter volume. I'll take the outline and compare it with the
final manuscript. Does it reflect ground truth? Does the book meet the intended
need? Will the reader be able to understand and implements principals at the
basic level? If so, then I begin to reduce the manuscript and focus on
tightening up the message. So out go hundreds of words. I do this
over and over again until the manuscript is ready for some good grammar and
spelling checks. Then, I'm done.
After 6 months of writing and 6 months of re-write, it's
possible to have a publishing ready book at the end of a year.
3. Have a re-writing or updating season. If you have
non-fiction books out, consider updating them with new information or just
better writing. In my niche, laws and regulations change as do best practices
that require manuscript updating. You may find that your experiences mature and
you can update your books to reflect your growth.
For example, you may have
written a great book on how to clean your house when expecting guests with pet
allergies. In the book you've demonstrated how to vacuum, filter out dander and
reach secret places your pets have burrowed in. However, after a year or two of
the books' publishing date, you've blogged more, spoken at more conferences and
received feedback from thoughtful readers. You've discovered secrets and
solutions that you didn't know about during the writing and editing seasons.
Now you are armed with new information. Add that information in and spend the
time rewriting to make it better than it ever was. I like to use this time to
update the cover and announce a new publication date. It's a way to keep the
topic and book fresh. Of course that doesn't work for novels. However, you can
use the same concept for sequels and prequels.
4. Have a marketing season that runs simultaneously with the other tasks. My primary marketing tool is my blogs. I
have a blog for each of my books, hobbies and publishing company. Sometimes the
material I am writing or editing is great fodder for the blogs. Twice the
impact with half the work. Where it might be too time consuming to write a new
book while editing an older manuscript, you can market simultaneously.
Sprinkle
bits of marketing during each of the other seasons so that it is a concurrent
task. If you are rewriting said book about pet allergies, you can post updates
to the actual project, specific writings on the topic, or notifications of
changes to come in your blogs. Be sure to include links to your book and build
excitement for the upcoming release. Turn your blogs into newsletters for
faithful readers and keep them updated.
The above books are all published by Red Bike Publishing using techniques
discussed in this article
Jeffrey W. Bennett, ISP is the owner of Red Bike Publishing. Jeff is an accomplished writer of non-fiction books, novels and periodicals. He also owns Red bike Publishing. Published books include: "Get Rich in a Niche-Insider's Guide to Self Publishing in a Specialized Industry" and "Commitment-A Novel". Jeff is an expert in security and has written many security books including: "Insider's Guide to Security Clearances" and "DoD Security Clearances and Contracts Guidebook". See Red Bike Publishing for print copies of: Army Leadership The Ranger Handbook The Army Physical Readiness Manual Drill and Ceremonies The ITAR The NISPOM
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