John writes: “I know I need to be self-disciplined to write my book, but I’m just not a self-disciplined person. Is there any hope?” Well, John, you do need self-discipline to write a book. That’s especially true if you’re a part-time writer with a demanding day job and lots of important » Read More
Category: Writing A Book
Surprises from Writing a Professional Book by Terry Moore
More than a decade ago my best friend suggested that we write a book. We had two problems. We shared many interests, but we didn’t share much expertise and we couldn’t clearly identify the potential readers. We decided not to go ahead. The idea of a book continued to tug at my interest. Over the last generation I have » Read More
Master the Mundane
It’s great to be an author. If you’re an author, you’ve written a book. Thousands, maybe millions of people want to write a book. Only a few do. Here’s the dirty little secret of becoming an author. If you can read a book, you can probably write a book. You don’t need great writing talent or the biggest brain in » Read More
Writing a Book: When it’s time to write, throw all your mental energy into the task
If you’re a part-time author, you’ve got a lot of things on your plate. You’ve got your day job, of course. Then there are family obligations, what you do for recreation, and any volunteer work you do. Writing time is scarce. You must make the best of it. The only way to do that is to throw all your mental energy » Read More
Writing a Book: How to Beat Outline Block
Most of us learned to write for the first time in elementary school. That’s why so many of us are outline-dependent. We imagine an English teacher at the front of the room waiting for us to hand in our outline before we can write. I try to get most of my clients who are planning a book to use something other than an » Read More