043: My Top 3 Strategies for Writing a Book
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My top 3 strategies for writing a book
Hello, welcome to an episode of the podcast that I am recording while my internet is out at home. I spent the morning working in a coffee shop came back home to let my dog out and discovered that our internet is still out which is so frustrating. Thankfully, I don't have any calls or anything else scheduled today. So it's it happened on an okay day, but it's still just it's like you don't realize how much you use internet until it's not available. And then I find myself constantly reaching, reaching for my phone or wanting to do something on my computer. And I don't have internet and I have you know, I have some data on my phone and I can be recording this podcast episode, which is cool. I record in a program called audacity. And it doesn't I don't need to have internet to record I just plug in my microphone. So thankfully can at least do that. But yeah, it's it's frustrating. So but um, a good opportunity, I guess to catch up on recording some episodes.
So today's episode topic was inspired by something that I talked about on a training that I did. And it was a free training called How to write a book without losing your mind. And by the time this episode comes out, by the time you're listening to this, it will have happened a few weeks ago. But one of the things that I mentioned in that training is like okay, if I had to distill my three, my all of the strategies and tips and hacks and suggestions. If I had to just pick three things like three strategies to writing a book, what would those strategies be? So that's what I'm going to cover.
And tip number one is the biggest thing. It's something that I have talked about on the podcast before it's something I talk about in social media a lot. The idea of writing sprints a game changer, a sprint is simply you writing for a set amount of time, usually under 30 minutes. And when you are writing, you don't do anything else. So this is not you writing and multitasking. It's not you writing for a couple of minutes and then pausing to check your email or social media. It's not you writing while you're talking to your partner, your kids, someone else, it's just you writing, I recommend setting a timer for this, Experiment, see what works for you, maybe 20 minutes, 15 minutes, 10 minutes to start, whatever length of time you decide, set a timer. So that way you're not like looking at the clock and wondering how long it's been, you can just focus and then the timer will let you know when it's up. Now you can do another sprint after that. If you do, let's say you do 20 minutes, and you're like, hey, the 20 minute timer went off. But I'm still like having a good time I'm in flow things are, you know, the words are coming out of me then do another sprint. But the idea is that you could really focus, get into a flow state for those 15 or 20 minutes or whatever. And this really helps you be a lot more productive to get more words out than if you were trying to write for 20 minutes, but also talking to your partner and checking your email and pulling up Tik Tok and you know, whatever else you're doing. So just writing.
Tip number two is to focus on getting the first draft out quickly. Now quickly means different things for different people all of us draft at different speeds. There are some indie authors who will bang out a first draft in like a 90,000 word draft in like 30 days, so quickly doesn't necessarily mean that that's like very quickly. I'm just saying to focus on getting the first draft out as quickly as you can. There are a couple of reasons for this. Number one, I think it provides momentum and motivation to see that word count increase to see the page count increase to really feel like you're making good progress on your book and it's not taking you you know, five or 10 years to do it. That can feel kind of discouraging. It helps you stay connected and immersed in the story. And also what's what's really important about this writing quickly thing a big component of this is not going back to look at what you've previously written so not editing as you go. Just focusing on getting the first draft out letting it be really messy and rough. Just getting it on the page.
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When you do this, when you you don't go back to look at what you've already written, when you focus on getting a draft out quickly. This helps minimize the voice of your inner critic who tells you that your writing isn't good, no one's gonna want to read it, you're never gonna finish this book, whatever your inner critic tells you, right? That that negative self talk. Because you're not going back, you're not looking at what you've already written. And if there's a point where you're like, I can't remember what I said in chapter 13, about this one detail like was the car red or was the car black, just make a note of it in the manuscript, maybe put a little asterix and you can go back later to double check that. You can also just make a note of it somewhere like in a separate document to prevent yourself from going back if you really want to do this, and you have a hard time, not going back to look at what you've previously written. This, this is something that not every writer, this is something that won't work for every writer, some writers are.
Some writers have found that they can edit on some days when they don't feel like the words are really coming like they're having trouble writing, but maybe they can go back and edit a previous chapter or a previous scene like they can, they can still make progress on their book in the sense that they're editing. Even if they're not writing a new scene or a new chapter. So I you know, I understand that this approach is not going to work for everyone, some people like to edit as they go. And that's just how they work best. So I don't mean to discourage you, if you think that that's probably how you do your best work. That's totally fine. I just am suggesting this for new writers who haven't discovered that yet. Give this a try, like see if this helps you make progress, just not going back to edit what you've already written. But again, there's nothing wrong with doing the opposite. It's just this is my recommended strategy just based on my experience, but also experienced with coaching writers and working with writers. Tip number three, to help you write. My third writing strategy is more of a recommendation for support. I think it's important to have a writer to have a writing community around you. We write in isolation, we write just it's just us with our head down, working on our story working with our notebook or laptop or computer, whatever it is. And it's a solitary activity. And because of that, it can feel like we are alone when we experience writer's block or self doubt or whatever it is like anything related to the process. It can feel isolating and it can feel like we're the only ones who are experiencing that. Whereas if we have a network of writers, in person or on social media, it doesn't matter that we can turn to and get some inspiration or get some encouragement, maybe talk things out, just like laugh and commiserate about stuff. That helps the process feel less overwhelming. And it helps the process feel more fun and just like you're in this together.
And this is true even if you are an introvert I'm an introvert. I don't love being around big groups of people. But there's something about connecting with people on social media that's different. It's not draining to me in the same way that going out to dinner with a group of like four or five people would be kind of draining after a certain point. So yeah, don't be afraid to start connecting with people on social media, other writers, if you have not done this already, and I do have an episode about, about building a writing community that you can check out if you want some more tips and suggestions on how to do this, and why I think this is so important, including joining my new membership, which is something that you can do if you'd like. But yeah, I just think this is really important, whether it's joining a membership, or just connecting with people on social media, you know, and then there are people to celebrate with to like when you reach a milestone or you accomplish something, you've got people there to cheer you on and celebrate you. And I think that's an important part of the writing process, too is acknowledging the progress that we've made and like really celebrating how you know what we've accomplished and how far we've come.
So those are the top three strategies in a nutshell, writing sprints getting the first draft out quickly, and getting support. But out of all the strategies and all the tips I could give you, I think those are the top three that I would recommend. So hopefully that was helpful. You can let me know what your biggest takeaway was. If you want to DM me on Instagram at thekatiewolf or share, you know, share a screenshot of this episode and just let me know what your biggest takeaway was which one of these tips you're going to implement or have implemented and tag me in the story. I would love to see. Alright, see you all next week.