Help! I can’t find time to write my book!
One of the common issues my clients have when they come to me for book coaching is that they can’t find time to write their book. They may have wanted to write a book for months, or often years! On high days and holidays, their friends and family ask them when they’re going to see this blasted book – and it’s getting embarrassing. I most often work on business books, so my clients are busy people, however a lack of time is NOT usually the root cause of the problem. Here are some ideas to get you writing – and sticking at it!
Here are my top tips to get you writing your book:
- Use your Table of Contents structure to break down the writing into chunks. It seems a whole lot more manageable when we break down a seemingly mammoth task into smaller ones.
- Get all of the prep work done first. Customer research, competitor research and identifying your goals for the book, both personally and professionally, should all be done before you start writing. Doing this work will clarify what you need to write, consequently making the process of writing your book quicker.
- Remind yourself that a business book is usually quite short. When you know that the average length of a non-fiction book is 30,000-50,000 words, it seems more manageable. Especially if we work on the basis of a ten chapter book, with an introduction, a conclusion and eight chapters in between. Then we know that we only need to write 3,000-5,000 words per chapter on average to be on track.
- Schedule in writing time. If we do anything on an ‘as and when’ basis, it tends to not get done. It languishes at the bottom of our to-do list – and there it remains. Even if you can only schedule in one hour a week and stick to it, as a result you will make progress. Increasing that to an hour a day or one morning or even one day a week will see fast results. If you can block out two to three weeks in your calendar, you could easily nail your book. If you’re writing a business book, it’s likely that you know your subject inside out. That means that with your book’s skeleton (Table of Contents) in place, you should be able to flesh out those bones with relative ease.
- Get support if you need it. Writing a book can feel like a lonely endeavour, however, it doesn’t have to be that way. If you’re struggling, you can get help and support from a variety of places. Writers groups, both online and offline, can be great places to meet like-minded people, discuss common issues and get accountability. There’s a directory of UK writers’ groups here. Alternatively, you might wish to consider getting a book coach, like me. We can give you an action plan and expert support. Another important part of the book coach’s role is to give you a kick up the bum if you need it. Or gentle encouragement if that works better for you!
I hope that you have found these top tips useful and you now know what you need to do if you can’t find the time to write. I wish you the very best of luck with your book project. If you’d like to know more…
Free ‘I Just Don’t Know Where To Start’ e-book
If you would love to write your own business or non-fiction book and just don’t know where to start, you’ll find lots of great advice in my free 25-page e-book. You can download that here.
Fancy a chat?
I’m always delighted to chat with aspiring authors about their book ideas. If you’d like to book a free, no-obligation 15-minute Coffee Chat with me, you can do that here.