welcome back i've put a lot of time into this so it should bring you some substantial value if you are looking to write your book finish your book you're in the process of writing your book perhaps you're stuck in the dreaded middle so before we get into it if you could please like the video it really does help to ensure that more people see this content more authors see this content most importantly do comment below if there are any areas in particular you'd like me to elaborate on if you have any questions we love answering author questions in the comments.
okay let's talk about how to write your book finish your book and create that masterpiece you've been trying to finish the first thing you need to do is to establish a writing space so make sure that you give yourself a clear and dedicated space whether that is in your house in your bedroom if it's at a particular coffee shop that you like to go to just make sure that you have a dedicated space and somewhere where when you are sat there it's time to write you have to block out other distractions and really just give time to your writing and there's no better way to do that than to have a space or somewhere you go and that time is then dedicated to your writing okay the second thing you need to do is you need to pick your writing tools so you need to decide are you going to write this in word are you going to use google drive are you going to use grammarly as you go to make sure that your writing all makes sense that is picking up on your errors as you go you know really sit down and think about the tools you're gonna use if you're not signed up to our emailing list make sure to head over to our website because by monthly we send out an email newsletter where we feature some of the best writing tools available and most of them end up being free so if you haven't done so already make sure you are subscribed there when we talk about writing tools it could even be something as simple as a nice desk or a comfortable chair it's really just about making sure that wherever you are doing your writing you're comfortable and you can stay focused and you have everything you need to get on with your writing the third thing that you're going to want to do is to break down your project so of course writing a book can seem like a mammoth task often the phrase used is how do you eat an elephant you have to break it down bite by bite chunk by chunk not the best analogy but you get the idea you can't eat an elephant in one sitting and the thought of it would just mean .
you never start and that can often be the problem with writing a book because you need to break it down so it doesn't seem like this enormous task once you know step by step what you're going to do then it will be much simpler to get started number four is to make sure to settle on your book idea so how do you find your book idea the best way to know if you have a good idea or you're passionate about this idea is if it's an idea that you just can't forget about so if you just can't seem to forget about this idea it's just constantly on your mind you're constantly talking to your partner your friends your family about this idea and the idea just keeps growing and growing and growing then that is the idea that you want to work on uh really it's an idea that you just can't forget you know you have to work on this idea those are the ideas that you really want to be going forward with number five is to outline your book so if you're if you've been in the writing community for some time you've probably heard there are outliners and then there are pantsers as they're called what panzer means if you're not familiar is it simply someone that writes by the seat of their pants so they are constantly making it up as they go stephen king is probably one of the most well-known panthers as they call it um and so an outline is something that i personally think is essential i work really well when i have it written down i know the steps i need to take if i was to approach writing a book through the panzer method it would just never work for me even if i'm writing a small article or a blog post i am writing you know here are the intro bits here the other bits i want to cover and here's how i'm going to end it of course just in rough detail and it is just an outline and it may change as i go but i need something to help me structure a plan in place and something to follow another important point on outlines is that if you are looking to get an agent or a publisher then an outline in fiction.
is not a must a synopsis you know will do but if you are writing non-fiction then you must have an outline agents and publishers won't go near it unless you have an outline they want to see clearly what you're going to be writing about and what these steps are so that's a top tip finally a really useful anecdote on this section is if it's boring to you your reader is and i think this is a really important point when you're thinking about the setups and the payoff you need to keep building that tension we'll talk about this a bit more later on in the video but you want to be thinking about that in your outline for how am i going to build the tension where are the points where i'm building the tension because you have to keep hold of this reader you have to keep them wanting to continue through the book so this is going to be point number six about how to write and finish a book one of the biggest mistakes we see is not planning your book or not planning your time or scheduling your time to write so we spoke earlier about having somewhere where you go and write but what i do is i have in my calendar i block out time in my calendar and i say these are the times these are the dates i am writing between you know nine o'clock and 10 a.m is writing time and i turn off you know phone goes down i turn off notifications email all that kind of stuff it's on do not disturb and that is my writing time so whether you're doing that in the evenings weekends whenever it is you just need to block out that time in your schedule the other really important point is to set yourself a deadline so most authors don't set themselves a deadline you know if you have a publisher and they've given you an advance then they'll be setting this for you but as an independent author why not set yourself a deadline because it's going to force you to have something to stick to and it will just mean that when you have that date in mind and it has to be finished but then well then you're going to have to make sure it gets done for that date so get yourself someone you know an accountability buddy or someone that you can work with.
who's going to hold you to that deadline if you're having trouble holding it you know holding to it yourself and actually comment below if you'd be interested in us setting up accountability buddies if you're trying to finish your work and you're trying to get a book finished we could potentially pair some people up with accountability buddies so comment below if enough people are interested we'll look into setting something like that up in order to have this writing time you might need to sacrifice some other areas of your life to get the writing done so it might mean that you miss a few social events it might mean you can't go out to eat it might mean that you only go to the gym four times instead of five times you know i'm not saying you should you know sacrifice your health for your writing but you get the idea you're going to have to sacrifice here and there in order to make sure that you get this writing done and you stick to your deadline point number seven is all about research so you need to make sure that you are conducting research and this is obvious when it comes to non-fiction we always think about research in the context of non-fiction but you need to make sure that you are also doing research for your fiction you're not going to want to show off this research in your book if you like so what i mean by that is you don't want the reader to be aware of how much research you've done where the research shines through is where you reference a weapon or a location or if it's a historical fiction novel you're referencing a time period in history and you clearly understand when that time period is believe me readers who enjoy a certain genre or certain topics are going to be hot on this so if there's any mistakes they will pick up on it so make sure that you do your research tip number eight to make sure that you finish your book and that you get off to a great start when writing your book is that your first line is so important that first line do not underestimate how quickly someone is judging your book based on that first line so not only when we think about just getting someone to read a book in general are we thinking about the cover the blurb the next thing they're doing is they're opening up the book and then looking at that very first page and the key thing they're looking at is that first line of your book so you have to capture their attention with that first line.
so let me have a quick look and i'm going to read the first line from george orwell's novel we're all familiar with his novel 1984. um so let me read this to you and you'll see what i mean it was a bright cold day in april and the clocks were striking 13. that line sets things up so well for us to be intrigued to figure out why is that important you know and the ominous nature of the number 13 so there's so many things just in that first line that capture and pique our interest so really do think about that so there's a few ways you can structure that first line that first line wants to be surprising or it wants to be a dramatic statement or philosophical or poetic so those are really the four that you want to be thinking about when you're writing that first line if you're struggling with your first line leave a comment below we'll take a look we'll give you some feedback point number nine is that you want to fill your story with tension and conflict so it's contrary to our everyday lives where really we don't want constant drama tension conflict we would like things to go smoothly when it comes to writing and it comes to stories this is where people go for attention conflict drama they want that it's what keeps them turning the page and it can even be down to things that are really really mundane even in your book so for example one character could say ah what a beautiful morning and the other character might reply with well you would say that and you can see there that there's immediately tension oh you know why are they why would that other character have picked up on that seems like you know there's already tension what's going on here it pulls you in so that you figure out what's going on between these characters why is there tension if it was just a statement of oh what a lovely day and they said yes it is there's not much to pick apart there um so you need maximum tension um that's what's going to pull people through the novel pull readers through the book that of course works really well for fiction but what about non-fiction so with non-fiction this is where the setup and then the payoff is really really important so you're constantly setting the reader up to say i'm going to give you some information here's the payoff or i'm going to teach you how to do this here's the payoff and so that's the equivalent in non-fiction number 10 is the age-old classic of write drunk and edit sober so just get the words down on paper so don't worry about it being perfect silence that inner critic put that to one side just get the story down get all your thoughts down just write and write and write really don't overthink it and then you can go back later and edit so this is the number one reason we see authors delayed with their books or not finish their books is they get too caught up trying to edit as they go when really they want to just get the story down editing can come at the end number 11 is all about the marathon of the middle we often get stuck in the middle of the book the middle is the hardest part.
so you've written the exciting beginning you've reeled the reader in and then you've got that ending in mind the big finale that you just want to get to now and the middle is often where authors get marooned they get stuck things don't move forward there and that is where books die and there are so many manuscripts that get abandoned at the middle stage and the reason is that is the hardest part of writing so what can you do to push through that bit well really that's where an outline is going to help you so if you have an outline and you know where you're going and you've written down those steps that's going to help you get out of no man's land the other thing that you want to do is go back to the fundamentals of building tension and building those setups so keep building on that tension you know keep adding more and more of these characters things are getting worse you know that stakes are going higher all the time and that's going to help pull you through that middle bit so the more exciting you make that middle bit the easier it's going to be to actually get through no man's land get to the end and get to your finale your ending is what all of the readers are of course going to remember most vividly about your book so this is the 12th tip and what you really want to be thinking about here is a grand finale imagine you've been to a play the curtain comes down and there are floods of applause you know it's so noisy people have enjoyed the play so much this is what you want for your book so you want the ending to be incredibly emotional you want to really capture the reader you know and just give them something just completely incredible so even if your ending takes up as much time as the other two thirds of the book you know as the rest of the book that's absolutely fine.
this is so important and this is what's going to make them go and tell friends family and other people and recommend your book and the final tip number 13 is to become a ferocious self editor so you've written drunk you've got your book finished you've gone the whole way through which is an amazing achievement in itself and now starts the editing process so you want to be ruthless with that red pen you want to go through and you want to eliminate anything that isn't absolutely necessary you want to keep it concise make sure you haven't waffled and give the most you can get the most you can out of that book so editing is hard but that's really what's going to separate you from other writers and put your book in the best possible position going forward once again i hope you have enjoyed the article.
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