Easy book writing for people who talk

Speakers, if you haven’t written a book yet, you’re cutting yourself off at your financial knees. The tried and true business model for speakers includes writing a book that can be sliced and diced in multiple ways, including CDs and DVDs, eBooks, articles, blog posts, even Apps. But the book lays the foundation. 

Monetary benefits aside…

• Books extend your influence beyond the podium. You can’t be in multiple places at one time, but your books can.
  
• Books market your products and services. How often have you been so captivated by a book that you immediately searched for the author’s website to investigate her other offerings?
  
• Books build your credibility as a media expert. When you’ve published a book, people believe you know what you’re talking about. Books serve as your calling card to print journalists and talk show hosts who are always on the lookout for experts on various topics.

As an editor and writing coach who has worked exclusively with speakers over the past few years, I’ve learned that some speakers trap themselves into never ending cycles of frustration when they talk about writing a book rather than actually writing one.

Try forcing the issue by taking a speaker off the stage and putting a blank piece of paper in front of him. He may get what I call “page fright.” Taken out of his comfort zone, he starts remembering his mean English teacher with the red pencil.

Never fear. Writing a book doesn’t have to be as painful as writing a research paper. Yes, it does require a lot of work, but when you use your natural speaking gifts, writing a book can be just as enjoyable as delivering a speech. 

If you’re a good writer and a good speaker, you’re one of those rare beings who was blessed by the communications angels. Most of us have one dominant mode of communication: speaking or writing. If you’re unsure of your writing ability, seek out a writer, editor, or coach. To produce a quality product, this is all-important. Even veteran writers need to be edited and proofed, so a word to the wise: don’t cut corners.

Use your voice to write your book!

1. Record and transcribe. Invest in a good recorder and keep it handy so that you can speak your book while doing solitary activities (like driving). One of my clients works this way. At the end of a few months, he sends me several microcassette tapes. I transcribe them and edit the transcription.

Before you record one word, take the time to plan your book out first. Developing a simple Table of Contents will help focus and organize your thoughts. Jotting down a few notes per chapter will also help. The structure may change in time, but for now, it’s a good way to start. 

2. Take notes. Last year I worked with a pastor who likes to take notes while studying scripture. These notes form the basis of his sermons, and he realized they could also lay the foundation for his first book. He developed his Table of Contents, used that to organize his notes, and then began to write. I edited the manuscript, and he was delighted to finally self-publish his first book after 10 years of talking about it! 

By the way, when you’re writing your first draft, don’t worry about getting every sentence grammatically perfect. This will create page fright and shut down all creativity. Just let the words and ideas flow. You and your editor can fix it later.

3. Transcribe speeches. I include this method with caution. If you are an extemporaneous speaker, your transcribed speeches should serve only as the launching pad for your book, not the actual narrative. That would be too easy! I once tried to transcribe such a speech, but I soon realized that it was an exercise in futility. All those repetitions, colloquialisms, mmm’s, and ahhh’s that are so powerful at the podium fall flat on the page. 

Take the time to plan your speeches for the sole purpose of using them to develop your book. This may go against the grain of extemporaneous speakers, but trust me, planning your speeches, even preparing a script, will help in the book writing process.

Recording, transcribing, and note taking tap into speakers’ natural mode of planning and communicating, and they will definitely help speed up the process of writing a book. Just keep in mind that a transcription is not a book. You'll still have more writing to do. 

“Write like you talk!” my mother, the English teacher, used to tell her students. And I’ll add, it may be tough but stop talking about writing a book and get to writing!

Donna Marie

Jumpstart Monday // managing emotions, dealing with writer's depression

Probably the greatest obstacle to writers' success is lodged like a ticking time bomb in our souls. Triggered by setbacks, mistakes, failures, wrong turns, and disappointments, depression and frustration explode when things don't go our way.


You wonder, "I know I'm doing what I'm supposed to be doing. Why isn't it paying off?" or "What the heck am I supposed to do with the rest of my life?"


Health.com's article, "10 Careers With High Rates of Depression," was a revelation -- not because writing is #6 on the list, but because it was actually acknowledged that writers suffer from depression. 


I'm not a psychologist, but I know that if you don't manage your emotions, if you succumb to depression, writer's block and writer's procrastination are sure to follow. Not a good thing when you're on a deadline. For many, Monday morning is a trigger for depression, and it often begins with feelings of dread Sunday night. 


I subscribe to the simple but brilliant notion that our emotions are indicators of whether or not we're in alignment with God within us. If we're unhappy or fearful (about money, for example), we're out of alignment with that high vibrational state that expresses as Love, Peace, Joy.


When we are feeling loving, peaceful, and joyful, we're in a more receptive frame of mind to see the opportunities that are scattered, like diamonds, all around us, all the time.


So how can you start feeling better right now?


It's unreasonable to expect that positive thinking alone is going to make you feel better. Here's what you can do right now...


1. Acknowledge the feeling. It's telling you something. Listen.


2. It may take a lot of effort, but look for one small thing in your life that makes you happy. Meditate on that. Now think of something else. This is just enough to take some of the edge off, but that's enough to get the happy productivity snowball rolling. 


It seems like a little thing to do, but I guarantee, you're going to feel better.


Remember, the Monday blues is a mindset. Just as easily we can make Monday the best day of the week!


Donna Marie

Jumpstart Monday // whip words to SUBDUE writer's block

It happens to even the most experienced writers. You get stuck on a passage. You just don't know what your next article or book will be about. You fear the fountain of creative ideas has run dry.

Well, has a song ever run on a loop in your head?







Have no fear! As long as you have a mind, you'll have creativity. One way to stimulate new ideas is to whip trigger words back and forth through word games -- and like Devo says, whip them good.








We're in the Information/Digital Age. Words are all around us, but here are 3 sources of words to get you started:

1. Urban Dictionary. Regular folks send in their own definitions of slang words, which can be both hilarious and disturbing. For example, check here for the many and varied definitions of "snitch."

2. Google Keywords. This is my favorite keyword search tool. It's free, and if you use Google to search online, this is the tool to use. Using this tool can serve 2 purposes: it can jumpstart creativity, and it will show you how often words and terms are searched on Google. This is wonderful intelligence to have at your fingertips when doing any online writing, researching, or marketing.

3. Merriam-Webster Word of the Day. Sign up here to have the word of the day sent to you via email. Honestly I've been disappointed at the level of difficulty of the words. They are way too easy. However, they can be used to jumpstart creativity. Today's word is "ear candy: music that is pleasing to listen to but lacks depth." Sentence: It could be argued that the above 2 songs are mere ear candy.

Whip them good
Search these tools to see what words jump out at you. Then take the words and play around with them.

One of my favorite word games as a child was to see how many words I could get out of a long word or phrase.

I have friends who LOVE to acronym words. Example: W.O.R.D. = Writing Or Researching Deadlines. This can get irritating in books and presentations if overdone, but you might find that it's great at unlocking writer's block.

Word mapping is another fun creative word game. Write a word in the middle of a blank sheet of paper. Draw lines like spokes from the word and write down whatever associations and creative ideas spring to mind. This game is effective at turning on the fountain. Ideas stimulate new ideas and then the next thing you know, you're writing! I find brainstorming is more relaxing than actually writing sometimes, so I use this game to help me ease into the writing project.

Don't give into the Monday blues. Let Monday be your most creative day of the week.

By the way, do you have tricks and tips for dealing with writer's block? Please share!

Donna Marie

Jumpstart Monday // TRICK writer's procrastination

As my writing stars know, I constantly battle against writer's procrastination (in which writer's block may be lurking). Sometimes I give in and go shopping, but this leads to so much pent up guilt and stress (and fear that I'll miss my deadline) that finally, in an explosion of frantic activity, I'll force myself to write. When I'm done it's such a relief, but surely, there must be a better way?

Well, yes there is. I've learned that procrastination is not always the issue. There are times when you really want to work, but you just don't feel like writing (yet). There's more to the writing process than just putting words to paper, and so I suggest you trick writer's procrastination by doing other writerly things. For example, 

1. Do research. At heart, writers are information junkies. We love to learn about new things, so research can be a lot of fun. If you're researching a topic for your current writing project – the project that's causing all the stress – then technically you're not procrastinating. You're doing necessary work that will uncover information you'll use to develop your content.

I do a lot of my research on the Internet, but novelist Greg Rucka puts me to shame. He dives deeply into the real drama of human beings. His io9 essay, "There's no substitute for getting your hands dirty when you research a story," was a revelation.

Some of the best moments I've ever written have come about because someone, somewhere, blew my preconceptions out of the water and dropped a detail in passing that took the work in an entirely new, entirely unexpected, direction.

As you research your topic and fascinating new information is revealed and synchronicities occur and creativity is sparked, it will feel as if you have no choice but to write.

2. What if you are experiencing a bit of writer's block? Write in longhand – don't type. Sometimes the act of writing in longhand jumpstarts creativity. There's something about the hand-page-pen-brain connection that has the power to trigger ideas and writing. When the ideas are coming faster than your hand can write, then start typing.

Tricking writer's procrastination is all about building an inner momentum so that you can't wait to start writing. It's a psyche job. 

If you have a hard time getting started on Monday, you might want to try these 2 tips, as well as those listed here and here.

If you have other ways to trick writer's procrastination, let me know so I can share with my other writing stars on a future Jumpstart Monday post!

Donna Marie

Jumpstart Monday // writer's procrastination

Sometimes we writers say we can't write because of "writer's block." Uh huh.

Oh, I'm the only one? Okay then, I'll just speak for myself. When I'm working on a writing or editing project, I'm highly focused and on task. When my children were young, it used to really get on my nerves when they'd be like, "Mumz, I'm hungry" or "Mumz, can you help me do my homework?" or my favorite, "So what you doing, Mumz?" (Hip hop children. Their grandmother is G-Ma.) They didn't care what I was doing when they were playing with their friends, but now they need my attention?

Getting started on the project, well, that's a whole different story. I will allow a million things to distract me. I'll run to the thrift or the flea even though I don't need anything. I'll make up up urgent errands. I'll find sites and YouTube videos that are just soooo fascinating. I'll wash the dishes. Anything.

Is it just me or is procrastination more stress-inducing than the actual work?
 
I saw this quote today and it really struck me.

"When you choose a behavior, you choose the consequences." Dr. Phil McGraw 

Most of the time, procrastination is a behavior that leads to nowhere. Writer's procrastination leads to no writing getting done.

On the other hand... If you can be disciplined about it, procrastination can, at times, lead to new ideas about your project. If you really have been stuck (and not just making excuses for not writing), goofing off, doing something completely different, can lead to delightful revelations. This happens to me all the time.

You have to be disciplined about it, though, and honestly, I'm not always that disciplined. The other day I looked up and it was 4:00 in the afternoon – and I had not written not one word. 

What will always pull me back to a project, even if I have to stare at a blank screen or sheet of paper is the DEADLINE and the $$. If I don't do the work, I don't get paid. And mumz needs a new pair of kitten heeled boots. 

Time to get to work.

Donna Marie