5 Things I Learned From Writing My First Book
As you may have seen or heard, my debut book, “The Content Fuel Framework: How To Generate Unlimited Story Ideas,” comes out on February 24th. (Pre-order available on January 29th!). And while I’m certainly looking forward to the launch, the closer it gets, the more I find myself looking back at the journey that brought me here.
I’ve always said I wanted to write a book. I’m a writer after all, and I’ve already written all kinds of other things; powerful speeches, witty tweets, promotional sales copy, thoughtful newspaper editorials, branded content, investigative articles, heartfelt letters, practical blog posts, AP English essays, letters of recommendation…
It turns out, a book is a whole different animal.
As much as I wrote this book to help teach others, I learned a lot for myself (and about myself) in the process. Here’s just a few of those lessons.
Writing a book is hard. Like, really hard.
I know what you’re thinking. “Obviously.” It’s not that I expect it to be easy. It’s a big undertaking, after all.
But any time I would sit down with the entire weight of “writing a book” hanging over me, I inevitably had difficulty coming up with a single viable sentence. The size of the project was paralyzing, at first.
This totally caught me by surprise, if I’m being honest. I’ve always been very comfortable writing and been largely un-phased by deadlines or word counts. But a book… it’s just different, I suppose.
Take smaller bites.
The one thing that made progress possible was breaking the book down into progressively smaller parts. I made an outline of the different sections, then listed out all the chapters, then broke each chapter down into sections, subheadings, and individual anecdotes and examples.
That way, instead of sitting down with a vague promise to “write a book”, I could start a writing session with the intent to “write the example for chapter 8, section 2.” Everything felt much more manageable that way, and I’d often end up writing more than I set out to, initially.
The Acknowledgements are the hardest part.
Or, at least, they were for me. I probably edited this section and added to it more than any other.
I consider myself blessed to have this as a challenge: so many people have loved me, supported me, and helped me get to where I am. It’s a long list.
But that brings with it the immense fear that I will forget someone important, and accidentally hurt them in the process. I was adding and updating the acknowledgements through to the final print deadline.
I’m still not sure I got everyone. I’m sorry.
Finishing the manuscript is wonderful.
When I finally sent that email off to my publisher with the manuscript draft attached, I felt lighter than I had in months. (This, of course, is a metaphor. I was eight months pregnant so was in fact heavier than I had been in months. But you get what I’m saying, here.)
For the first time in so long, I didn’t feel the weight of “needing to write” hanging over my head. I didn’t have a deadline sneaking into my consciousness while I did other activities, and I didn’t feel guilty for sleeping in, or watching a movie, or doing anything else that wasn’t working on the book.
I was free!
(Now is probably a good time to thank all the folks who helped encourage me to get the book written before our little one arrived, bringing with her an entirely new schedule, a seismic shift in priorities, and a mild sleep deprivation that would have made finishing a book next to impossible for the months that followed. Thank you.)
Finishing the manuscript is just the beginning.
The relief of finishing the manuscript was short-lived. Because finishing the manuscript signals the beginning of an even longer editing and revision process.
Turns out, editing is hard too. (Here you go again: “Obviously.”) But it wasn’t because my manuscript was poorly written or needed tons of revision. (I’ve trained and worked as a copy editor, so I prided myself on turning in a manuscript with especially clean copy, thank you very much.)
No. The hard part was knowing when to stop editing. I had a hard time letting go of the book and calling it “complete.” I wanted it to be as close to perfect as possible. That said, I also knew that there’s always something you can revise, edit, update, swap or cut.
It turns out, a book is never really done. Eventually, it’s just time to set it free and see what it can become.
So that’s what I’m doing on February 24th: The Content Fuel Framework will officially be set free, to go forth and help as many marketers and creators learn how to maximize their creativity by systemizing it.
I can’t wait to see what you all create with it.
