Tag: writing

How to Write Your Book

Photo by Brett Jordan on Unsplash

Writing is hard.

How do I get through it?

One step at a time.

When I’m in front of the laptop, I’m never writing a book. Some days I schedule myself to write scene beats (snatches of dialogue, setting description, background, and the reason the scene pushes the story forward). Then I write one single full chapter.

The next day I return to pen another single chapter.

Write. Review. Repeat.

The process for revisions is similar. I review critique and beta reader comments for one chapter at a time. If that chapter affects another, I’ll make notes in the follow-up chapter. I revise the next chapter.

Revise. Review. Repeat.

The building blocks of writing and revision stack on top of one another and eventually I have a four act novel or novella.

If you want to write a non-fiction book or novel, that is the simple process I recommend.

Never give yourself the goal of writing a book. Give yourself the goal of writing and revising one chapter. Then write another. And another.

One step at a time means one chapter (or even one paragraph) at a time.

Chapters add up.

The chapter collection is your book.

How did you write your book? Easy.

You plowed through it one building block at a time.