What I realized while writing my book

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

There is an opinion, at least in my opinion, that in the USA every more or less intelligent and worthy person has written or plans to write his own book. In our country, books are scribbled either by graphomaniacs with well-known names in Runet, or by representatives of MLM / info-business get-togethers. Books by cool photobloggers, political and historical experts, and culinary gurus have just begun to appear. There are reasons for all this, and I, having been writing my own book "Doubt" for almost a year (with efficiency → 0), came closer to understanding why this is happening.

1. We are afraid of criticism. Even I, taking on the streams of crap with regular portions, resistant to inadequate criticism and just negative, did not show my finished work to anyone except two people - my wife and publisher Artem Stepanov. Now a proofreader and a lot of people from the publishing house "Mann, Ivanov and Ferber" are working on the book, and even their criticism is not easy to accept. Many people are simply not ready to accept criticism of what has been written for so long and what data has been collected for so many years. Don't be afraid, it's not scary:)

2. We are afraid of the end of the process. The worst thing that haunts a novice author is the idea that the book needs to be finished. It seems to me that this is why there is so much water in modern books. Authors write, write, write, supplement, supplement … An endless process. I overcame my fear by simply ignoring the "accepted" number of pages. I think readers will appreciate the brevity and focus.

3. We get too hung up on toolkits. There is such an unrealistically cool "tough author" tool like Ulysses. This is an application that helps you write, collect data, track relationships within a book, and much more. From my own experience, if you are not the author of "Battle of Thrones" with multiple intertwining storylines, then an editor like Omm Writer or iA Writer is enough for you. Microsoft Word or Apple Pages will do too.

How to Focus on Writing: An Overview of Minimalist Editors

4. Writing as exercise - either do it regularly, or not at all. Waiting for inspiration is the lot of losers and the coolest self-justification for them. I fell into this trap myself and for a couple of months "waited for the wind in the sails." Want to write and have ideas? Sit down and write! Come up with a plan. For example, 5 pages of text, or 500 words, or whatever, and just take the time. Better in the morning. Either you write, or you go and tell me that you are doing it. Many are satisfied with the guise of a writer working on the BOOK. I didn't like it, and I just decided to come up with rules. I did it in a few weeks.

5. Everything can be reduced. Is always. As one tough editor-in-chief said: “Write an article and then remove the first paragraph from it. Well, now the article is better! Once upon a time, I worked as a copywriter and wrote texts with pay per thousand characters. This time was my honeymoon, with phrases like “It’s not hard to guess”, “One can draw an obvious conclusion from this”, “High-quality, shocking and amazing product for everyone who saw it”, … Well, in the same style. A book is not thousands. A book is the coolest way to get your ideas across to those who trust you with their time. Do not waste it on delivering water and lengthy turns. Write a chapter and go through it in a couple of days. 10-15% of letters are rubbish, which does not help to convey thoughts, but interferes with the conduction of ideas from you through the book to the reader. Cut down!

6. Writing is not a job. Well, not quite. It's a job for the likes of Marinina and the armies of monkeys writing more and more books under a single author franchise. This is a work in the United States, where hundreds of thousands of copies of a book could be sold on Amazon if it becomes a bestseller. The average author rarely earns enough from writing, and one should not think that it is wildly profitable and worth killing many months for a book. Writing is a way of spreading ideas. Are you sick of the idea? Then write a book! If you have no idea, and you are not ready to write for free, then do not even take it.

7. Way people are waiting for your book. Write a blog, talk about it as you write, ask for advice, collect an email list. Let people wait. It may turn out that your book will appear in parallel with some hit of Pelevin, or against the background of news about another revolution or terrorist attack. You will simply not be heard, and the moment will be lost. Be in the head of the future reader constantly, find a direct connection with him and inform through your channels about the release of the book when you deem it necessary. If no one is waiting for your work, then no one will buy it on the first day. And surely NOBODY will buy in all subsequent ones.

8. Think about your ideas carefully. The book is not a weapon of mass destruction, it is a precision weapon. If you aim at someone with your idea and hit, then the person is yours, and the connection with you will be very durable. If you need to zhahnut on squares, then write blogs, facebook, grimace on TV in Malakhov's program, laugh loudly on entertainment radio. If you want to influence the best minds, write books.

I hope this article will be the beginning of your book for you. And I also believe that after reading my book, you will want to change your life and write your own, even more interesting, story!