Writing

Top 5 things I Learned From Writing a Book

Creativity/ Writing February 7, 2013 • Comments

(Today’s guest post is by Heather Rupe.  You can follow her on Twitter @drheatherrupe or check out her blog, The Pregnancy Companion, here!)

Three years ago, five days after bringing a new baby home from the hospital, I signed my first book deal. I was deliriously excited at two dreams coming true at once. In hindsight, I had no idea what craziness lie ahead. Luckily, I learned a lot along the way:

1.  You find the time for what’s important.

Writing a book is a staggering amount of work, but I’m used to hard work. See, I went to medical school for a zillion years. But working full-time with a newborn and a deadline felt overwhelming. I’m a morning person, so I was up at 4 every morning to write furiously before work. Those months were fueled by caffeine and adrenaline, but amazingly worth it.

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How to be a better writer instantly.

Writing January 23, 2013 • Comments

Want to be a better writer?

Let me write some of the words.

Why?

Because the best stories are the ones we tell ourselves.

I have 37 years of memories and moments in my head. I have a deep, rich, personal vocabulary based on my life.

If you’ll start the story, and leave me some room, I’ll finish it with words you’ll never have access to.

What does that look like?

It looks like the photo below.

That’s from the Dos Equis campaign about “The Most Interesting Man In The World.”

He’s laughing with monks, clearly having told an amazing story that even a stoic group of monks could not resist.

What was his story?

I don’t know. The commercial doesn’t tell you anything about it. They start the story by giving you the image and the setup, but they leave out the words. Now you have the chance to write the rest of the story yourself.

Great books do this when they make you feel like you’re in the story itself, and you can hear the words as if they’re coming from you.

Bad blogs don’t do this when they so overfill the post with the writer’s thoughts that there isn’t room for the reader.

Want to be a better writer instantly?

Let me write the story.

Source: google.com via Jon on Pinterest

 

For anyone thinking about self publishing…

Creativity/ Writing November 14, 2012 • Comments

The other day I met a guy who told me he had an idea for a book, but there was no way he was going to self publish it.

He was vehemently against the idea.

I self-published two books before my first traditionally published book, so I asked him why he didn’t want to self publish. His concern boiled down to a fear that readers wouldn’t take the book seriously if it was self published.

If that’s a fear you have about self publishing, let me give you a really simple task:

1. Ask your friends what their favorite books are.

2. Ask them who published those books.

3. Giggle at yourself for how silly it is to think people only buy books from certain publishers.

There are a lot of reasons traditional publishers are still awesome. (Despite what all the hype about self publishing might say.) There are lot of reasons self publishing is awesome.

Make your decision based on the reasons that make the most sense for you, not the fear that people won’t take your book seriously if it is self published.

Question:
What are your favorite books?

 

The difference one word makes.

Resources/ Writing November 1, 2012 • Comments

I saw this at a frozen yogurt place the other day and it’s brilliant.

No frozen yogurt has watermelon seeds in it. All watermelon frozen yogurt is seedless, but actually saying it on the sign changes the flavor.

It’s a little more exotic, a little more playful, a little more “wow, I’ve got to try that.”

Don’t miss the little words you could add to the things you do. They could make a big difference.
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5 AM is My Lunch Hour.

Quitter/ Writing August 22, 2012 • Comments

(Today’s guest post is by Jim Woods.  You can follow Jim on Twitter and check out his blog here.) 

Jon often recommends waking up at 5 AM to work on your dream. When I tried this approach, I often found myself snoozing on the keyboard or running on empty by mid-afternoon. My body completely rebelled, and it eventually led to exhaustion. Instead of getting frustrated and giving up, I found a more balanced approach to pursuing my dream.

Instead of waking up 2 hours earlier, I get up half an hour earlier. Because it’s not a shocking change to my body, I adjusted to this pretty easily. This half hour is warm-up time. I know I’m not really awake yet, so I might just read a rough draft or glance at some notes I’ve made. I know my energy level is not up yet, so I focus on tasks that don’t require much energy.    

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The hardest part of writing a book.

Creativity/ Writing March 19, 2012 • Comments

Right now, I’m in the beginning stages of writing my fourth book. And though I’ve learned the lesson I am going to share with you a million times, it hit me last week as if I’d never seen it before in my entire life.

The hardest part of writing a book is that every good book hides behind a bad book.

To write a good book, you have to write your way through a bad book first.

Scratch that. Let’s make that a horrible book.

And you know this is true. We’ve heard brilliant authors like Anne Lamott share this wisdom time and time again, but I promise when you sit down to start a new book you will think:

“Every sentence must be perfect.”

“I can’t waste time on this first draft.”

“I can’t throw away any of these words, they have to start great.”

But the truth is, for me and for you and for anyone who will ever write a good book, they are very easy to find.

They’re hiding behind the shadow of a bad book.

That’s where they are. Write your way through them. Go find them. Clear the bad book out of the way so you can get to the good one.

Question:
Have you ever struggled with perfectionism?

VIDEO: Kurt Vonnegut on the Shape of Stories.

Blogging/ Creativity/ Writing February 22, 2012 • Comments

Kurt Vonnegut is one of my favorite writers. He’s written a ridiculous amount of brilliant books and in this short video explains the shape of stories. If you’ve got 5 minutes today, watch this. Whether you ever want to write or not, this is a perfect example of how to communicate an idea. (Heads up, there’s one profanity.)

 

Do authors need blogs?

Blogging/ Creativity/ Social Media/ Writing September 12, 2011 • Comments

A friend asked me that question the other day, and I thought it might be good to answer it via video because it’s one that comes up a lot. Check out the clip, and let me know in the comments if you think authors need blogs .