How to Write a Book

Perfection is overrated.

One of the reasons people put off writing a book is because they think it needs to be perfect. If it's not perfect, they reason, they shouldn't write it. And since they can't achieve perfection, they don't even try.

Here's an excerpt from Art and Fear, by David Bayles and Ted Orland, about our unachievable desire to create the perfect work of art:

"The ceramics teacher announced on opening day that he was dividing the class into two groups. All those on the left side of the studio, he said, would be graded solely on the 'quantity' of work they produced, all those on the right, solely on the 'quality' of the work.

"His procedure was simple: fifty pounds of pots rated an 'A,' forty pounds a 'B,' and so on. Those being graded on 'quality,' however, needed to produce only one pot--albeit a perfect one--to get an 'A.'

Which group do you think got the higher grade?

I figured it was the group being graded on quality. After all, they had to produce only one pot, and had all the time in the world to do it.

But read what happened:

Came grading time and a curious fact emerged. The works of the highest quality were all produced by the group being graded for 'quantity.' It seemed that the 'quality' group had sat theorizing about perfection, and in the end had little more to show for their efforts than grandiose theories and a pile of dead clay.

To require perfection is to invite paralysis. The pattern is predictable: as you see error in what you have done, you steer your work toward what you imagine you can do perfectly.

You cling ever more tightly to what you already know you can do--away from risk and exploration, and possibly further from the work of your heart. You find reasons to procrastinate, since to not work is to not make mistakes.

Believing that artwork should be perfect, you gradually become convinced that you cannot do what you are trying to do; so you quit. And in one of the perverse little ironies of life, only the pattern itself achieves perfection -- a perfect death spiral; you misdirect your work; you stall; you quit.

If you've been waiting until you can write the perfect book, you'll have to wait a long time.

More important than writing the perfect book is writing the first word. Like making pottery, it's a very messy process. You can't help it. If you want to produce, you have to get your hands dirty. You have to make mistakes. You will make mistakes. But you will also make pots.

If I can help you write your book -- including the first word -- just let me know.

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It's 11 o'clock. Do you know where your book is?

Wow, am I dating myself! Who remembers those late-night public service announcements: "It's 11 o'clock. Do you know where your children are?"

I could do a whole blog post on that, but I'll stick to book writing and will instead ask you this question: "The summer is half over; do you know where your book is?"

If writing a book was on your to-do list for 2012, you have 5 months to get started. Here's a tip I use whenever I'm writing a book--my own or (like the one I'm finishing now) someone else's that I'm ghostwriting:

I visualize a copy of the published book sitting on my bookshelf.

In fact there's a large bookcase right across from my desk as I'm typing this and one entire shelf is devoted to books I've written, ghost-written, or edited. While I'm working on my next book, I visualize the finished product sitting on the shelf with all the others.

Right now I'm in the final stages of ghostwriting a book for a client and I've pictured the finished product sitting on my shelf along with the two previous books I've written for this author.

When I was working on my ebook, Born to Fly, I pictured kids and adults reading it on their Kindles and iPads.

I use other visualization tools, too. While I was writing the Adventures With PawPaw series, for example, I pictured myself at book signings with lines of kids waiting to meet the author (and PawPaw, who is of course a bigger draw than moi).

So here I am, with PawPaw, signing the finished books in Zimbabwe:

 

Run the race

Visualizing is a powerful tool and athletes use it all the time. "There is so much research in the positive power of mental rehearsal, whether you call it that or visualization or guided meditation.," says Charlotte Reznick, a child educational psychologist, associate clinical professor at UCLA, and author of The Power of Your Child's Imagination.

"Engage all of your senses," she explains. "What does it sound like whenever everyone is cheering for you? What do your teammates say? What does the grass smell like when you ace that shot in tennis? Engaging more of the senses makes the brain interpret it as real because the same synapses are being engaged."

Hey, even God does this. "God...gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did" (Romans 4:17).

Need help?

If you need help finding that book inside you and getting it on paper, I've extended my sale on personalized writer's coaching.

This is the same sale I held last year and so many writers took advantage of it that I decided to repeat it to give you a chance, too.

In your personalized coaching session, everything we cover is focused on you and the book you want to write. Fiction or non-fiction...adult or children's books. We can meet just 1 time, once a month, or whatever works for you. By phone or by Skype. I even pay for the call. :-)

Two of my coaching students just published their books with major national publishers. You can read one of their testimonials along with many others here.

You can be on your way to writing the book you've always dreamed of writing, too. Make an investment in yourself and your dream. Click here to reserve your coaching session today!

And meanwhile, visualize that finished book sitting on the bookshelf in front of you. If you start now, it will be right there someday.