Five Simple Steps to Write Your Book in 2024 Without Losing Your Mind
Whether you’re writing fiction or nonfiction
You know it will take a lot of work, but you still want to write your book.
That’s great.
But how do you do it without losing your damn mind?
How do you motivate yourself to keep writing even when you feel like tossing your computer — and yourself — off a cliff?
How do you commit to writing thousands of words over the next three months or more, without giving up in the middle?
It takes grit to write a book, so it’s important to ask yourself these questions if you don’t want to waste your time.
Although the writing process becomes simpler with experience, it by no means gets easier.
Whether you’re writing your first book or hundredth, you still need to come with your A-game or the entire process will overwhelm you until you give up.
This article aims to break the complex task of writing a book into five simple steps so you don’t lose your mind.
Step #1: Find the central idea
Many things held me back from finishing my book. But one main reason was that I didn’t know the true essence of what I wanted to write — the central idea
This is also called the theme or controlling idea.
It is the WHY of your book — whether you’re writing fiction or nonfiction. If someone reads your book, what’s the one thing you want them to know above all else? What is the core message you’re trying to communicate to them?
That’s the central idea.
Ever since I started taking this seriously, it’s been a game-changer. Not only do I write faster because I know exactly what the book is about, but my stories feel more profound and impactful.
With the central idea in mind, you avoid exploring ideas or topics that have no relevance to the book.
Take fiction for example.
Is your novel about love, justice, revenge, or tyranny? And if it’s about any one of those things, what are you trying to say about them?
Two stories about love can have very different messages. A story whose theme is that obsessive love can destroy all the parties involved will be very different from a story with the theme, true love transcends class and race.
For nonfiction, it’s even more straightforward.
The core idea of the book, Atomic Habits by James Clear is:
Good habits can be adopted with the right systems in place while bad habits persist when an individual fails to follow the right systems.
At least that’s what I got after reading the book.
If your book is about wealth creation, self-improvement, relationships, or education, ask yourself:
What is the main message I want to communicate to my readers?
Knowing this will be the lighthouse that guides you to write not just any book, but one that changes people’s lives.
Step #2: Brainstorm ideas
Books are the literal embodiment of the creative soul — ideas of the mind brought to life.
Without ideas, you can’t write anything. It sounds simple, cliche even, but one reason why you’re probably struggling to write is because you don’t have enough ideas.
We’re bombarded by ideas all the time. Some are good, some are meh, and some you just know will be freaking epic. Come up with as many as you possibly can. For every idea you get, there’s an even better one lurking somewhere in the crevices of your mind as long as you keep brainstorming.
Do lots of research.
Get inspiration from other books. And if you write fiction, go a step further by learning from other media such as movies, animations, and comics.
Ideas are recycled. Being original is simply how well you recycle old ideas into something new and fresh.
Step #3: Plan your book
So you’re getting all these ideas. What do you do with them?
First, here’s what not to do:
Don’t start writing yet.
You need a plan — a map to guide your entire writing process — so you don’t get lost along the way.
Depending on whether you’re a pantser or plotter, create an outline that suits your creative needs.
For fiction, your plan or outline could be scene by scene, spanning over thirty pages (usually for plotters) or a general overview of your entire novel, a page or two long (usually for pantsers).
I find that planning a nonfiction book is more straightforward. I simply do it in chapters, clearly spelling out the various subheadings I intend to include.
Having a plan completely revolutionized my writing. Before I discovered this amazing tool, I could never finish any book. However once I learned that I was a plotter who could only function with a detailed map, I finally finished my book for the first time. I’ve since gone on to write four more novels in two years.
Not bad for someone who who struggled with writing one book for years.
Step #4: Carve out time to write your book every day
Writing a book takes time. And I don’t just mean it will take you several months to finish. I also mean you must allocate time for it every day. This is how you finish, working on it one word at a time.
Simply having the goal to write a book is not enough. Like everything in life, you need a system to get it done.
You know what your daily schedule looks like. You know when you’re busy doing important things and when you’re busy doing things that don’t matter. Eliminate the latter and channel that time into working on your book.
Dedicate at least one hour every day to your book. Whether early in the morning before work, at noon, or late in the evening after work. As I said, it all depends on your daily schedule.
Or instead of tracking your time, track your word count, like a thousand words each day.
Writing 1000 words five days a week adds up to 5000 words. In a month, that’s 20,000 words. By three months, you’ll have 60,000 words — a novel-length book.
As long as you work on it regularly, you will finish your book.
The opposite is also true. Don’t expect to make any significant progress if you don’t consistently put in the effort.
Step #5: Write first, edit later
So you’re working on your book every day. But you’ve been stuck on the same chapter for weeks, and you’re not making any progress.
What the hell could the problem be?
One thing might be stopping you. You’re writing and editing at the same time, a great hindrance to your creativity. I used to do this too. That coupled with my lack of an outline were the two reasons why I never finished a book.
I had the painful habit of writing and rewriting one chapter, over and over again, tweaking it until it satisfied my inner perfectionist. Most often, I was never satisfied.
Months would pass, and all I’d written was a few scenes at most. All because I was wasting time on getting the perfect chapter before moving on.
Your first draft is not meant to be perfect. It’s an opportunity to discover your story and get even more epic ideas. Explore them while resisting the urge to go back and edit.
Writing and editing at the same time will only slow you down. So make all the mistakes you have to make in the first draft. Only after you’re done should you worry about editing your book.
Final thoughts
As long as you break it down into simpler digestible parts, writing a book isn’t as complicated as it sounds.
If you want to write one, all you have to do is commit to it. Sure it takes a lot of time and effort. But so is everything worthwhile.
So stop overthinking and just get started.
Are you writing your first (or next) novel? My free ebook, From First Draft to Published, will help you do that and more.
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