How to get started writing your book

It’s time to get started writing our book. Have you ever thought about writing a book? Is your imagination riddled with plot twists or maybe you’ve overcome challenges you want to share and you want to show other people what is possible?

And maybe all you know for right now is that you want to write a book because you feel called to do it, or it excites you to call yourself an author.

I know what this is like until 2009 I merely dreamed about writing a book – it’s all I ever talked about. And while I knew that sitting down and writing out the words swirling in my head would eventually get there, I didn’t do anything about it. Since then I have written 5 books, collaborated on a few others and have a few more I am planning on writing – one of which I will tackle during the mastermind!

And you may be experiencing similar challenges in finally writing your book.

Either way, you’ve been procrastinating because

  • you don’t know how to begin
  • you worry anyone will read your book
  • you don’t know how to get it published

We make excuses for doing the thing we are called to do for so many reasons but all of them lead to being procrastination and it all comes from fear. Fear gets more in our way and helps us reason with ourselves on why we are not taking action.

Today I want you to commit to your goal of writing a book no matter what fears and doubts come it. Just decide that this is was you are going to do – do not worry about the publishing part just yet. Just starting writing your story.

Whether you are writing a fiction and non-fiction book, start mapping out your story. Brainstorming the general idea can help you. You are not writing the final piece, your first challenge is to write the draft – which means you’re not looking for perfection but to get everything out on paper.

Commit to writing

Now that you have a story to tell and know what you will be writing about, the commitment will be key. How many words or pages a day can you write with your current schedule? Is there some adjustments you can make so that you can include time to write? The answer is yes!

I often create a word count goal for the final book, give myself a deadline and divide the word count by the number of days. Then I add the writing time to my schedule in a way that doesn’t overwhelm me but still helps me keep on track for my book goal.

Start writing

Whatever you committed to, you need to start taking action. Plan and schedule, it into your week and stick with it. This, not the time to worry about perfection, grammar, and spelling. This is the time to allow the book to flow from you.

Edit and proof-read your work

Don’t edit or proof-read until you think you’re finished. This is the time to refine the story, maybe get some support and help. There are amazing tools available to help you with the grammar.

What I found helpful is to print it out, and read it aloud to myself – this has been a brilliant way to discover errors or things that need a bit more refining. Or you can ask a friend to help you or maybe even hire someone to do this part.

Get it published

The world has changed and we no longer need to wait for rejection letters to our manuscript. Instead, we can self-publish our books through kindle direct publishing or lulu.com and many other places that I don’t know about. The two I mentioned are the ones I use.

If you want some accountability and support around writing your book then come join me in the 3-Months Mastermind!

About the author

Petra Monaco is an artist, author, and professional problem solver for creatives, rebels, and multi-passionates.

She is here to help you remove frustration from your life and achieve your creative dreams with more ease and confidence.

Leave a Reply