Top Tips From The Write Coach
What is slowing you down, standing in the way, or stopping you from writing your book? What are the four main blocks many people face? How can you work through or around the blocks you face?
During every Best Book Ever Session, a complimentary introduction session with my prospective clients, I ask them “What is slowing you down, standing in the way, or stopping you from writing your book?" There are four common answers I receive. After asking the writers in my Write My Book Facebook group, and I discovered they shared similar struggles.
I have experienced all of these struggles at one point or another in my writing career. I experience the first one still! It is a constant battle for time.
There are more struggles than the main four listed, but most struggles will fall into one of these categories. Today we are going to discuss the four main blocks to writing, and what you can do to overcome them or work through them.
The Four Main Blocks To Writing:
Time - Demanding Schedule - Creating time to write
- Taking care of family
- Physical Health
- Where can you make time?
- Sometimes you can’t, and you are stretched to thin for a season.
- Then there are ways you can. Look for the little snippets of time.
- Make an appointment with yourself, and keep it. Don’t stand yourself up!
Fear - Fear of Not enough experience to write about the topic or to write period.
- First, most writers have this doubt at one time or another. It is a valid fear when we begin our writing careers. Start small, and work your way up. Start with a blog post. Writing for an audience changes how you write. It forces you to be alert to your words and presentation.
- Gain confidence by writing consistently. Share your work with some friends or ask for an honest critique from a writing friend.
- Join a Critique group - this is kind of like finding the right mate. The first group may not be a best fit but try. Keep trying groups until you find the right one.
- Read like a maniac! Read everything you can about the craft and business of writing. As well as, books in as many genres as you can possibly read.
- Go to writers Conferences to learn the craft and business of writing. Network with like-minded writers. Meet agents and publishers. Learn how to expand your writing career.
- Fear of not knowing grammar and English rules well, and not writing good enough. Use a program like Grammarly or ProWriting Aid to help you. These programs help you clean up your manuscript for an editor. Don’t forget! You still need an excellent editor to help you create an influential book.
Overwhelmed with the process - learn how to break it down.
- This is how I love to help my clients to break the process down into baby steps.
- Use the Four-Steps To The Write Book Series to start your book.
- Plan out your writing times. What are you going to work on what day? Plan on Saturday or Sunday what your writing plans are for the week. If you need to be held accountable, then ask for help from fellow writers.
- Free write your ideas. Dump them on paper or the computer and remove them from cluttering up your mind.
- Next, organize your thoughts using the Four-Steps To The Write Book I teach in the email series.
- Join the Write My Book~Nonfiction group on Facebook for support and connection with other writers.
Don’t know how to Organize Notes and Ideas into written work.
- Create a solid outline/framework to follow - This brings organization and help to your creative writing.
- Utilize Evernote to organize all your ideas and research. Learn more at my post How to Use Evernote. I have a video in each of the post for you to see how easy Evernote is to use!
- Follow the Four-Steps To The Write Book to create your outline/framework for your book and each chapter. If you are stuck on a step, free write your thoughts out to see clearly what you want to share. Learn the steps explained in detail in the email series.
If you are struggling with one or all of these, tackle one block at a time, and move to the next one. Give yourself grace and time to work through the blocks. Sometimes we fear creating a book, because we only see a big project. We don’t see where it will lead us.
Steven Covey was known for then line, “Begin with the end in mind.” What do you have a burning passion to share? Is it your story to help others overcome their challenges similar to yours? Is it a process or system you learned to make your life or business easier or more efficient? Whatever you want to write about it, give yourself permission to learn and grow.
I am here for you as The Write Coach cheering you. You can do this. You can write this book. You can learn how to write a book even if you never had a high school English teacher tell you how much they loved your writing. I didn’t!
If you have a desire in your heart, take the time to learn how to be the writer you want to be. Enjoy the process. Each day you will learn more and grow in the practice and craft of writing. Then a year from now and 10 years from now you will see all the steps you have taken.
Review:
- Identify your block - When you know what it is, you can do something about it! Choose one block to focus on.
- Make plan to work through your block. Use suggestions above.
Repeat steps 1 & 2, and you will be moving full steam ahead in no time on your book.
What is stopping you from writing your book? What are the four main blocks you face? Episode #201 -> Listen to The Write Hour with Joyce Glass, Tips From #TheWriteCoach #TheWriteHour
Episode Highlights:
00:35 Intro
02:45 Four Main Blocks To Writing
02:58 Time
08:45 Fear
18:29 Overwhelmed
23:00 Don’t know how to Organize Notes and Ideas into written work.
30:45 Review
Links Mentioned This Episode:
Four-Steps To The Write Book Series
Best Book Ever Session
Write My Book ~ Nonfiction - Facebook Group led by Me! The Write Coach.
Grammarly
ProWriting Aid
Blue Ridge Mountains Christian Writers Conference
