Four years ago while I was drifting off to sleep inspiration struck me to write. I had a notepad and pen beside my bed, so I grabbed them and began writing.
The words were coming out so quickly, it was like something had taken over me. After about 30 minutes of non-stop writing I began to read over what I’d written and I realised that I needed to write a book.
I was so excited to start writing again the next day, I opened my laptop, started a new word document and then… nothing.
My inspiration had disappeared and all of a sudden the idea of writing an entire book felt heavy and overwhelming. Where was I supposed to begin? What message did I want to share? What was the point?
With complete determination I decided to persevere, but it wasn’t easy. In fact, I felt like what I wrote was beyond dreadful.
There were moments of elation, like when a literary agent from New York contacted me to write a book! Followed by moments of despair, because my book felt like one big mess.
As the years passed by I began to feel like writing the book was hopeless.
Then finally in 2015 after receiving an email from Hay House UK, I knew I had to finish what I started four years earlier… somehow I had to get the book out of my head and onto paper.
After going it alone for so long I’d come to realise that I needed help to reach the finish line, which is where Morgan Gist MacDonald came in.
I worked with Morgan to get myself out of the book mess I’d got myself into and to finish my book.
I’m delighted to report that it’s 99.9% done – words can’t even express how happy this makes me!
I know so many entrepreneurs have a book inside of them, waiting to be shared with the world, but so often the books get stuck inside of us, which is why I did a 10-Minute Masterclass with Morgan. She’s the founder of Paper Raven Books, an amazing team of coaches, editors and authors who can help budding authors get their ideas off the ground and create the book they dream of!
In this masterclass Morgan shares:
- How to get started and putting your ideas on to paper
- What to do with your ideas once you’ve got them and how to get organised with them
- The next step to taking your ideas and start turning them in to your first draft
- + lots more!
Have a watch below…
GIVEAWAY: Make sure you leave a comment below and let us know what kind of book you would love to write or any of your experiences so far with writing your book, and be in with a chance of winning a 6 month pass to the Members’ Club!
about Morgan
Morgan Gist MacDonald is a writing coach, editor and author, helping entrepreneurs write, edit, and publish books that grow their businesses.
Get Morgan’s FREE guide here >>
the Breakdown
Here’s a breakdown of what Morgan shared in the video above…
FREE WRITE FOR 5 DAYS IN A ROW
Free writing is literally how it sounds, writing freely, and this is often where the magic happens. When you allow yourself to write freely on your topic, without the intention of writing a specific part or chapter of your book, ideas will flow and your writing is totally uninhibited.
The trick is to write as quickly as you can, which aims to stop you from critiquing or analysing your writing as you go along. It can be really awkward at first, because writing quickly (without judging what you’re writing) is something we’re just not used to, but you’re forcing yourself to write quicker than those judgemental thoughts can come out.
We’re so used to taking our time when we write anything, which then enables us to change and tweak things, but free writing doesn’t allow that – and this is where great ideas can come from!
Try doing this for 5 days in a row, even if it’s just for 5 minutes a day, and it will really help you with your ideas and clarity.
CREATE A ROUGH ORGANISATION
This is a great way to get all your ideas on paper and then begin to organise them.
Take the time to write out all your ideas, stories, insights and advice that you want in your book, but don’t worry about the order or organisation, just get everything out on to paper. Once you feel like you’ve got all of your content on paper, go back to the beginning and start adding more notes and detail.
It’s great to wait some time before coming back to organise all your notes, either an hour or two, or even over night, then come back and start organising, putting together notes or stories that are connected to each other and start grouping them together. Once your groups have a common theme you can add a subheading and if you see several groups relating you can put a chapter heading on them.
After this process you should have a rough outline of how your book is starting to look, and it might not be anything close to perfect, but it should give you confidence to enable you to begin writing your first draft.
WRITE IN 25 MINUTE BURSTS
Following on from tip 2, start at the top of the organisation that you’ve created, set your timer for 25 minutes and start writing out your section until it feels completed. If your first part is only one paragraph or more than that, just write it out until you feel it’s complete and then move on to the next part.
Keep writing until your timer goes for 25 minutes and then take a break, even if it’s just 5 minutes (or longer if you like) then when you come back to writing, do another 25 minute burst.
the challenge
Challenge yourself to spend 5 days in a row to free write for your book! Share with us in the comments below the amazing ideas you come up with for your book, what you gain from the experience, what things you learn – and if you’ve already written a book tell us about your experience and more about your book, we would love to hear more!
the giveaway
Comment to WIN a FREE 6 Month Members’ Club Pass
One lucky winner will win a FREE 6 Month FEA Membership! This offer is open to current members too :)
To Be Entered to Win: Leave a comment below and let us know what kind of book you want to write and any of your experience so far if you’ve already started, how have you found writing your book?
See you next week for another 10-Minute Masterclass!
Carrie xx
P.S. If you’re not already a subscriber, sign up below so you don’t miss next week’s Masterclass!
