Morgan Gist MacDonald - Start Writing Your Book Today: A Step-by-Step Plan to Write Your Nonfiction Book, From First Draft to Finished Manuscript

START WRITING YOUR BOOK TODAY:

A Step-by-Step Plan to Write Your Nonfiction Book,

From First Draft to Finished Manuscript

by Morgan Gist MacDonald

The most pernicious aspect of procrastination is that it can become a habit. We dont just put off our lives today; we put them off until our deathbed.

Never forget: This very moment, we can change our lives. There never was a moment, and never will be, when we are without the power to alter our destiny. This second, we can turn the tables on Resistance.

This second, we can sit down and do our work.

Steven Pressfield, The War of Art

CONTENTS

DEDICATION

To baby Meredith

the happiest morning writing companion.

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INTRODUCTION

You want to write a book. If youre honest, youve wanted to write a book for a long time, but when you sit down to start, the words get stuck. You feel your body tighten and frustration rise. The ideas are in there, floating in your mind, but here you are, unable to put words to those very ideas. So, back you go to thinking, stewing, pondering, or any other euphemism you use for procrastination.

You wonder if maybe theres a trick to writing a book that you dont know. You read books from successful authors about how they writeStephen King, Anne Lamott, Ernest Hemingway, Virginia Woolf, William Zinsser, Steven Pressfield. Surely, the next book on writing you pick up will impart the secret wisdom youve been missing all this time.

And then you pick up this book. Maybe it was the title that caught you, the promise of a roadmap from first draft to finished manuscript. Maybe you resonate with the feeling that you want to start writing your book today , not next week, not next month. Maybe youre tired of putting off that life you wantthe life of being a published author, whose books make a difference in peoples lives. Lets talk about what this book, Start Writing Your Book Today, is and is not. And how it can propel you to start writing your own book.

Youll find Start Writing Your Book Today most useful if:

• You want to write a book, but you arent clear about exactly what the book will be about. Ill provide exercises to give you clarity.
• You are a motivated, excited writer. Youre done procrastinating, and this books step-by-step plan is guaranteed to work, as long as you can bring the energy, from start to finish.
• You want to make a shift in your life and the lives of people around you. This book will show you how to harness the power of your words, so they can change the world.

In my years as a writing coach, Ive come to realize that starting the first draft book often seems like it will be the hardest part, but its not. Convincing yourself that your book is worth all the sacrifice of time, energy, money, and everything else in lifethats the hardest part of writing a book.

But let me promise you this: if you manage to keep in mind that your book is worthwhile, then you absolutely can write a book. Your grammar doesnt have to be perfect; your idea doesnt have to be worthy of a Nobel Prize; your life doesnt have to have room for four hours of writing a day. If you can hold on to the belief that your book will change your life and others, you can write a book.

In this book, I will coach you, just like I do with my author clients. Ill give you all of my best advice and walk you through what it looks like to write a book, how long you should plan to write every day, what writing a first draft feels like, how to go back and revise, how to solicit helpful feedback from editors and beta readers, and how to receive criticism in a way that strengthens your manuscript. Ill let you know where your greatest struggles will lie, and Ill encourage you through the process.

Im going to be completely honest with you throughout this book. I believe, as you finish the last chapter of Start Writing Your Book Today , youll feel competent, even compelled, to start writing your own book. As long as you dont stop there, you will finish it.

Ill be here, cheering you on the whole way. Even better, Id love to get involved as you start your book. Hearing about you and the book youre about to write helps me help you more. I read every single email, and I would love to receive an email from you. Please share with me what youre writing about by sending me an email at morgan@startwritingyourbooktoday.com.

CHAPTER ONE

What it really takes to be a successful author

It takes a lot of guts to call yourself a writer. Even more to mean it. At social gatherings, you dread being asked, What do you do? Maybe you throw in a quick I write a little on the side, and hope the conversation changes quickly. That first time you work up the nerve to say, Im a writer, you feel a bit like a fraud. Why is that? Why do you have that sudden desire to dash away any true claims to the title? Why do you want to add a phrase to soften the boldness of the claim? Im sort of a writer, you know, when I have time, or Id like to be an author one day. I even have some ideas. I just havent actually published anything yet.

There are many misconceptions about what it takes to be a successful author. Im here to bust through those myths, to let you know that all of those assumptions you have about what authors are like or what kind of person you have to be are completely false. Then, well talk about what it really takes.

Myth: Authors have special, God-given, divinely inspired talents that enable them to put words and phrases together effortlessly.

Truth: Successful authors struggle with what words to use, how to describe a concept, and what to write about nextjust as much as the rest of us. What distinguishes authors is perseverance . When authors arent quite sure what words to use, they dont just throw up their hands in despairthey put down some words and keep going, knowing that they can always revise later. When authors arent sure how to describe a concept or idea, they give it their best shot and press on. When authors dont know what to write next, they just write something, anything . Authors do not write effortlessly. Quite the opposite, in fact.

Authors are the ones who just keep typing, day after day, year after year. It gets easier with time, but authors put in their 10,000 hours, We focus so easily on the authors success, but what we dont see is all of the years of writing toil before that success.

Myth: Authors have a lot of free time. They get up, have a leisurely day that involves a lot of walks, sessions of perusing the bookstore, coffee breaks three times a day, and hours to just sit and think.

Truth: Most successful authors began their writing career in the margins of their normal life. John Grisham was a full-time lawyer, so he would be at the office at 5 am in order to get two hours of writing in before starting work.

I havent reached the heights of Grisham or Steel, but Im using them as inspiration in my own writing schedule. Im writing this book while my four-month-old daughter lies next to me on the couch. Shes just had her first 30-minute feed (at 5 am), and now I have 30 minutes before my other two children wake up. Then, we all have school, work, and normal, busy lives through the rest of the day. At 5:30 am, when Im tempted to go back to bed (just for a few minutes!), I remind myself that true authors are willing to make a book happen in small chunks of time and in the margins of life.