Table of contents:
- Speak your book
- Have someone else interview you
- Start writing in a journal
- Set up an online Evernote file
My clients are all successful businesspeople, entrepreneurs, CEOs, and subject-matter experts who have been thinking about writing a book for a while. Some have wanted to share their stories for years and weren’t sure how to even start the process of writing a book, while others have started and stopped several times, unsure of how to make progress.
No matter your situation, if you’re considering writing a book and aren’t sure how to get started, let me share a few approaches:
Speak your book
Although books are written artifacts, you don’t necessarily have to begin by putting pen to paper or fingers to keyboard. If you find speaking a fast and easy way to share your ideas, then start there. Talk through your ideas and record them.
Fortunately, there are a number of ways for you to record yourself talking.
One way is to set up a Zoom meeting for yourself and record yourself talking through your ideas. You don’t even need to use the camera. Record yourself explaining your ideas and then get the recording transcribed. For paid Zoom subscribers, there is the option to turn on transcription so you receive a transcript automatically after you stop recording.
You can also use the Voice Memos function on your cell phone, in the utilities folder. Turn it on and talk out your thoughts as you have them or during scheduled dictation time.
If you have an old-school handheld voice recorder, you can also use that to capture your thoughts and ideas. A digital recorder is preferable so that you can more easily download the audio files later.
Once you have a draft manuscript, you can then hire a developmental editor to help you organize and flesh out your thoughts in a logical order.
Have someone else interview you
One of the best ways to get your thoughts clear is to have someone ask you lots of questions and record your responses.
This happens naturally when you’re being interviewed for an article or on a podcast or TV interview, so you’ll definitely want to get copies of those as background material. But what I’m talking about is hiring someone to ask you relevant questions and then following those basic questions up with more pointed queries to get at the heart of what you’re trying to share.
Usually, a writer or reporter is best for this role because they’re used to coming up with a list of questions that go beyond simple surface inquiries. You don’t need throw-away questions that are easily discovered through a Google search. Instead, you want someone who is going to push you, to get you to share how you really felt about an experience, or to recall a pivotal moment that you may not have realized was a big step forward for you.
Find someone who knows you or who is willing to get up to speed and then ask them to interview you on your topic. You can provide the questions to ensure you have the chance to address important elements of your book or ask them to develop a list based on what you share about your book’s topic.
In both cases — recording your thoughts or being interviewed — you then need to have a transcript generated from your spoken words.
Your transcript is, at best, ideas you can use as source material, and, at worst, a very, very rough draft. Either way, you’ll need help to make order out of your various recordings, but at least you’re not starting from scratch anymore.
My favorite tool for generating a transcript is Speechpad, because the company uses human transcriptionists. The result is a very accurate document that I don’t have to carefully review and correct, as with so many AI-generated transcripts. There is a fee of $1.30-1.40/minute and the time saved is well worth the cost to me.
Start writing in a journal
Another option is to begin capturing ideas and thoughts on your topic in a journal you’ve purchased specifically for this purpose.
Depending on your preferences, this journal could be a cheap composition book, a three-ring binder, or a leather-bound collection of blank pages. Whatever is going to entice you to jot down some recollections or observations regularly is the format you should go with.
Of course, the trick is to schedule time regularly to write in your journal. The best approach is finding a few minutes a day, such as on the train to work or right before bed, so that you know that time is coming up and you subconsciously prime your brain to recall material you’ll want to capture.
Set up an online Evernote file
Similar to using a journal to capture ideas as they occur to you, you can also set up a repository online with Evernote.
Using a catch-all, online note-taking space like Evernote is handy because you can place anything and everything related to your book in a folder here.
That can include links to articles you come across that you want to reference, blog posts, YouTube clips, as well as notes you make to yourself.
Finally, another option, of course, is to hire a professional ghostwriter. A skilled ghostwriter will help you organize your thoughts, ask insightful questions to get richer, more interesting answers, and then draft and edit the material with your guidance. The biggest advantages of working with a ghostwriter are quality of workmanship and speed. Your ghostwriter is your writing partner and publishing consultant all rolled into one.
But you don’t have to hire a ghostwriter if you prefer to craft your book yourself — and some people do.
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