3 Tips for Writing Your First Draft

Writing a book – especially the first draft – seems like such a huge, daunting, overwhelming task with the biggest question being “How do I come up with all the content?”

Here are three quick and easy ways to generate the first-draft of your book.

1. Transcribe a class you’ve already taught.

083016-WritingMost business owners have some form of content already. Maybe it’s an audio or a video training, Or even just a series of PowerPoint slides. You can use this as the framework for a book. And you’ll find that BAM! A large portion of your content is already created for you.

A word of warning: Do NOT just publish a transcript! We speak very differently than good writing. Don’t believe me? Read a transcription without listening to the audio. It’s nearly impossible to follow what the speaker is talking about – especially if that speakers isn’t very articulate or practiced – or when she’s answering a question.

2. Start small

When writing your book - start small! With bite sized chunks you can manage without getting overwhelmed. Click To TweetWhen I first got started writing books, the idea of creating an entire book was completely overwhelming. So I started with what I knew: short fiction. My short fiction tends to be VERY short, like under 5 pages per story, so I knew that just one story wouldn’t be enough for an entire book. I was able to collect the stories I already had written, write a few more, and publish my first book – Scary and Silly Campfire Stories.

This works with articles too! Many of my books have their roots in articles I’d written over months or years.

3. Look to your backlist

Chances are you already have “stuff” you’ve written: blog posts, checklists, newsletter articles, white papers, etc. Don’t feel you have to start completely from scratch when writing your book! If you lay out all your articles you’ll find common themes running through them. Look for the patterns and use this as the framework for your book. You’ll have to fill in the gaps and write additional content but you’re not starting from scratch!

Now pay very close attention to what I’m going to tell you next:

This is your FIRST draft!

Don’t think you can just compile this content, format it as a book, and call it good! You’re still going to need to edit everything, make sure you’re being 100% clear, look for transitions (“In last week’s newsletter I said…”), and completely polish your book.

But this is enough to get you started and moving forward toward publishing your first book.

And remember that going it alone isn’t good either! I’m here to help – and more than happy to chat with you! All it takes is applying for a complimentary Writing Adventure Discovery Session.

Your Thoughts:
Where are you going to start? How will you be using your book?

Kim Galloway
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