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7 Steps For Turning The Dream Of Writing A Book Into Reality

You dream about writing your book, having it published and becoming a successful author.

But how do you turn this dream into reality?

Believe in yourself

Step 1: You must start with your dream of writing and publishing a book. That dream must be strong and then you must believe in yourself.

Believe that you can achieve it.

Some authors reach their dream but there are others who don’t. 97% of the population are still in the same place as they were a year ago.

Those authors who do succeed in manifesting their dream make a paradigm shift in their thinking. They have one essential ingredient: they believe in themselves, and they have total belief in their ability to it.

They understand what is required of them to achieve their goal.

These authors are driven, they are hungry to achieve, and they have that one big “why” which is all powerful and which drives them towards their ultimate destination.

Set the goal 

Step 2: The second step is to turn that dream into a goal because a  goal is a dream with a date. So in simple, practical terms write out that goal and put down a date for achieving the goal.

Daily action

Step 3: Take action on a daily basis. While you have written down  your major goal now break this down into smaller, more manageable goals.

Ask yourself what you can do on a daily and then a weekly basis to make your dream become a reality. Take action each day moving towards the bigger goal.

Little bit by little bit the daily actions add up even if they don’t seem to be all that significant at the time.

Remember the song “From little things big things grow”.

Identify the steps you need to take 

Step 4: If your goal is to have a manuscript completed in the space of 30 days then analyse the steps you need to take to make this a reality. Here are the steps you must take in order to reach your destination:

• market research
• do your research for your book
• define your market
• work out the dimensions of your book – word count, number of pages, number of illustration, trim size 
• set milestones for your book writing journey
• outline a writing timetable
• create an outline for your book
• start writing and have a daily word count
• chunk the contents of the book down into small bits.

Mind set

Step 5:  Mind set

Work on your mind set and have an attitude for success. To make your dream become a reality your goal must dominate your thoughts and you must focus on that result you so desire.

See yourself achieving the goal and you in turn will attract it and your future will become your present. As Joe Vitale says “Decide what you want to be, do, and have, think the thoughts of it, emit the frequency, and your vision will become your life”.

Here is a way to action these sentiments:

• write out you goals with dates for their completion
• read these goals aloud at least twice a day. Better still speak the goals while looking at yourself in the mirror
• visualise these goals and see yourself achieving them
• feel how it will be when you achieve them

Momentum

Step 6:  Build momentum

By taking daily action you will move towards your dream and goal. This regular activity breeds momentum and once momentum is in full swing it becomes a force that is unstoppable.

Focus

Step 7: Along the way learn to focus. Focus on your goal like a heat seeking missile learning to focus without distraction, crystallising your thoughts, becoming better at what you do, and sharpening your vision.

Sources

Cristallo, Michaela   “10 Ways To Turn Your Big Dream Into Reality” https://www.lifehack.org/articles/communication/10-ways-turn-your-big-dream-into-reality.html

Proctor, Bob Learn How To Turn Your Dream Into Reality https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-FXGt01X_4

Vitali, Joe in The Secret by Rhonda Byrne. New York, Beyond Words, 2006.

Marji Hill

12 STEPS TO WRITING A NON-FICTION BOOK IN 30 DAYS

Many people dream of writing a book. Do you? 

You’ve come to the starting line but then panic sets in. You realise that you have no idea how to start writing your book. You stare at that blank page and you freeze. Is this familiar?

Where do you begin? How do you begin? You feel that the idea of writing your first book is so daunting.

To help you out I have identified 12 steps to assist you with creating your book.

Step 1: Research

Do your research and have this information at your finger tips. As you do your research take note of your sources and document these because you will need to acknowledge the sources in your manuscript.

Step 2: Define your target market

Define your market because it helps to know who you are writing for?

To be a professional writer, get to know everything about your prospective readers and understand what it is they are looking for. What are their needs and problems and how you as their author can provide a solution.

Step 3: Word count

Make a decision on how long your book is going to be. If crafting a book for the first time consider writing a straight forward, short book. It could be just 10,000 words.

If typically a non-fiction book is 60,000 to 80,000 words and you want to write a book in 30 days then make it a short book. An A4 page can easily fit 200 words so a 10,000 word book is 50 pages.

But if you factor in the size of the font, physical size of the book – the trim size – adding illustrative matter, and book’s layout it is possible that a 10,000 word book can be as long as 100 pages.

Step 4: Set milestones

Set milestones. Decide the date for completing your manuscript and make a commitment to having it finished within 30 days. 

To help you reach that deadline decide on a daily word count. It could be 500 or 1000 words a day. If you produce 500 words a day you first draft would be completed in 20 days but by increasing your word count to 1000 words then your first draft would be done in 10 days.

Step 5: Mind Map

Get started by creating a mind map to brain storm your ideas. A mind map helps you to organize your thoughts and to generate fresh ideas. 

Step 6: Write out your thoughts quickly

After working through the visual exercise of creatively generating ideas spend half an hour quickly writing out these thoughts. Set the alarm on your phone to make sure no longer than 30 minutes is spent on this exercise.

Step 7: Draft title

Knock up a draft title for your book because this helps you to crystallise and narrow down your subject matter.

Step 8: Outline

A non-fiction book consists of an introduction, chapters and a conclusion, so create an outline for your book. Transform the ideas you generated in the mind map together with your fast notes into chapter headings. 

Think in terms of 10 chapter headings and allow 1000 words for each chapter. Break the book down into even smaller units with sub-headings under each chapter heading.

Step 9: Bullet points

Once you have a rough outline, set out the book’s content in the form of bullet points. Estimate the number of words you will need for each bullet point. 

So if you have 5 sub-headings in the form of bullet points each sub-heading could be 200 words. That will give you a 1000 word chapter.

Step 10: Frame a question

One tip for coming up with your sub-headings is to frame each sub-heading in the form of a question and then answer that question.

Step 11: Start writing

Having completed the outline for your book start writing.

Step 12: 1000 words a day

If you can maintain your schedule for writing 1000 words a day the first draft of your manuscript will be finished in 10 days. This then allows you time to rewrite your book and produce multiple drafts.

Chunk it into small bits

These 12 steps for writing a book in 30 days may seem very mechanical, even mathematical, but as an author who has produced many non-fiction books I find it an excellent productivity method. It is far less overwhelming to do your planning and to chunk the contents of the book down into small bits.

Will this method work perfectly for you? Maybe, maybe not.

The important take on this is to have a plan of action that will help you focus and provide you with direction. 

Sure, you may not be perfect and you may deviate at times from the plan. But this gives you a course to follow, and like a sailing boat the sails can be adjusted.

Marji Hill