Best practices for organizing and writing a book for first-time authors include setting up a creative environment, develop a writing habit, creating an outline, focusing on a project at a time, maintaining focus, staying accountable, and dealing with writing resistance appropriately.
Prospective authors can set achievable daily word count targets, monitor progress using a calendar as well as identify a creative writing environment to have a high chance of authoring a book successfully.
FINDINGS
Writing a new book for first-time authors can be quite challenging. In this study, we have identified best practices for organizing and writing a book for first-time authors, and they include setting up a creative environment, develop a writing habit, creating an outline, focusing on a project at a time, maintaining focus, staying accountable while utilizing the “calendar” method, and dealing with resistance appropriately.
METHODOLOGY
To find out the best practices for organizing and writing a book useful to first-time authors. We started by scouring through Self-Publishing School, Become A Writer Today, and Project Life Mastery among other sites which revealed several tips and then determined best practices after cross-analysis of several credible sources, and the practices listed repeatedly were noted as best practices.
SETTING UP AN ENVIRONMENT FOR CREATIVITY
Setting up an environment for creativity has been identified as the best practice for organizing and writing a book for new authors across several sources as highlighted below.
Aspiring authors who are learning how to write a book must learn how to stimulate creativity. Authors should get creative with word processing software and platforms. While some people enjoy creative writing in longhand, it may require additional work by typing into a computer should there need to send the work for editing. It is advisable to be creative, and more so with word processors, but authors are free to decide whether to use freehand or computers.
First-time authors should be able to set up a creative environment, as one amongst the most vital aspects of writing a book is plotting an environment that empowers the author's creativity to thrive unhindered. The author's creative space can be flexible and does not need to be one spot as most authors confirm that their most creative ideas occur in unusual places.
Gaining a creative advantage is very beneficial to new authors as this may go a long way to destroy endless distractions and enables the author to do more of what matters, in higher quality and less time.
DEVELOP A WRITING HABIT
Developing a writing habit has also been identified to be among best practices for organizing and writing a book for new authors across several sources as highlighted below.
New authors should develop a writing habit with daily to weekly goals defined. It’s best to write at the same time of every day and have a target number of minimum words.
It is natural to feel overwhelmed when writing a book, but aspiring authors must note that this process always starts with the very first page. To write beyond the first page, and reach the last, one must take action, and this is why maintaining a writing habit will assist the writer’s steady flow.
CREATING AN OUTLINE
Creating an outline is also one among the best practices for organizing and writing a book and should be imbibed by prospective authors as this has been accepted across several sources as the best practice as highlighted below.
Having a clear outline gives clarity and orientation to the author's story, as it forms the road map for a book and keeps the author on track, ensuring that the author's ideas are organized to flow naturally.
Additionally, a clear outline helps the author to write much faster as well. Brainstorm by listing out every thought and idea by creating a mind map, organize and put all similar ideas together, order and arrange ideas in smaller sections starting from the most general to the most specific, label or create major headings and subs that may eventually become chapters.
The most important part of the writing plan is the outlining process. We can easily remember using outlines at a point in the form of Roman numerals for sections and sub-sections. There are several ways to implement outlining, however, the Roman numeral is still the most commonly used. A good outline is worth far more than several pages discussing vague topics and consumes a reasonable amount of time to prepare. It helps to guide the author long after the writing has commenced, should he lose focus.
FOCUSING ON A PROJECT AT A TIME
Focusing on a single project at a time has been identified to be one of the best practices for organizing and writing a book. The reasons that cut across several studies are as follows.
Although it may seem enticing, dividing a prospective author's attention can strain his energy and cause him to produce a poor write-up or at worse, result in the inability to complete a book. The solution is to focus on only one project at any time.
New authors are advised to concentrate and focus on writing one new a book at a time. If they keep their focus on writing a few words each time, they can get started and in no time begin making tangible progress on a book, although it may be difficult at first.
MAINTAIN FOCUS
Maintaining focus on a writing project once one has been started started has been identified to be one of the best practices for organizing and writing a book that has been recommended for prospective authors. The reasons, which cut across several studies, are as follows.
If feeling distracted, a prospective author can change his state by changing his physiology or focus. Some strategies help authors stay focused are getting up and going for a walk, exercising or workouts, meditating for 15 minutes to silence the mind, doing something that makes him feel good and energized or reading a book for about 30 minutes.
Once an author starts the process of writing his first book, it is necessary to stay focused throughout the duration. Any break to his concentration can take him back 20 to 30 minutes and disrupt the flow. He may become less efficient when distracted, and this can make him take twice as long to complete the book. To stay focused, turn off the phone.
STAY ACCOUNTABLE WHILE UTILIZING THE “CALENDAR” METHOD
Staying accountable and using a calendar to track progress while writing a book has also been identified to be one of the best practices recommended for prospective authors. Several reasons found across studies are as follows.
As with many huge tasks, the best way a prospective author can keep his book progress on track is to plan. He should plan due dates for every chapter throughout a calendar year.
A prospective author can set achievable target daily word count of 300 or 400 words. Then, utilizing basic mathematics and a calendar (like Google’s), he can figure out how much time the first draft of his book will consume and set himself a realistic deadline.
DEAL WITH RESISTANCE
Finally, dealing with resistance, which is a common hindrance that keeps prospective authors back from writing a book, has been identified as a best practice recommended for prospective authors. Some reasons found across studies are as follows.
Resistance is one of the common hindrances that holds prospective authors from writing. It is a type of fear that discourages to-be authors from writing and has the potential to throw them off their writer’s flow. Every prospective writer encounters this negative feeling, but they should not allow it to defeat them.
Every prospective writer grapples with resistance at some point and should let go of this weak mindset to write a book successfully. The fear on which writing resistance thrives is responsible for procrastination.
CONCLUSION
First-time authors need to set up a creative environment, develop a good writing habit, create a writing outline, focus on one project at a time, maintain focus, stay accountable, and deal with writing resistance to author a book successfully. Furthermore, prospective authors can set achievable daily word count targets, monitor personal progress using a calendar as well as identify a creative writing environment to have a high chance of authoring a book successfully.