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How to synthesize information from multiple books
How to analyze a book
How to set reading goals
Writing a book: Getting started
- Decide what the book is about. Write the argument of your book in a sentence, then turn that into a paragraph, then into a one-page outline. Then write a table of contents to help guide your writing. Break each chapter into a few sections.
- Set a daily word count goal. John Grisham began writing when he was really busy as a lawyer and new dad. He got up an hour or two early and wrote one page a day until he had a novel. A page is about 300 words.
- Set a time to work on your book every day. Consistency makes creativity easier.
- Write in the same special place every time that is different from where you do other activities.
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Writing a book: Finishing
- Commit to shipping. No matter what, finish the book, then release it to the world.
- Embrace failure. Writing a book will be hard, and you will have failures. Be okay with that and give yourself grace.
- Write another book. Mo...
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Writing tips
- Write and publish one chapter at a time, using Amazon Kindle Singles, Wattpad, or sharing with your email list subscribers.
- Start small. Write a shorter book of poems or stories.
- Start a blog to get feedback early. Eventua...
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Most people never finish their books
Your book could have helped people, brought beauty or wisdom into the world, if only your book came to be. Or worse, you wrote a book, but nobody cared about it.
Producing a work that sells is not just about writing what you think will work. It's about finding an idea that will exc...
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Writing a book: Doing the work
- Set a total word count. 40,000 - 60,000 words = standard nonfiction/novella book. A long nonfiction book/standard-length novel contains 60,000 - 80,000 words, and a very long nonfiction/long novel contains 80,000 - 100,000 words.
- Give yourself weekly deadli...
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What it takes to write a book
The hardest part of a writer's job is sitting down to do the work. Writing happens in three phases.
- Beginning: You have to decide what you're going to write and how you're going to write it.
- Staying motivated: You will face self-doubt and ov...
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[8] Know where you’re going
You don’t “find the book as you write.” You have to do the hard work of solving the problem first. You have to figure out the best route, too. Before you start to write, articulate the idea in one sentence, one paragraph and one page. Nassim Taleb wrote in
Journaling on a Calendar
Instead of getting a notebook to journal in, get a (large) desk calendar or date book, and then just challenge yourself to write a sentence or two every day, on that day.
This small amount of writing a day feels attainable. By writing it on a calendar, it’s very obvious wh...
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