A Book Coach's Tips to Finish Writing Your Book in 2023

Hello. Just going to wait for a few people to pop in here. I see some people coming in now. Yes, you're in the right place. Yes, I am not Julie, but I will be sitting in for her today and I'm looking forward to walking you through a few tips that will help you. But we'll wait a few more minutes here as people come in. Oh, there's Efren. Hey, Efren. How you doing? Efren, you've heard all this, so. Hello, Angela. Hello, Jacqueline. Thank you for the support. How we doing? I see the numbers creeping up. Wait a few more minutes. Hi, Shelley. As I was saying earlier, yes, you're in the right place and no, I'm not Julie. I'll be sitting in for Julie today. So thanks for joining us. Let a few more people trickle in. Just letting get a few more showing up. So we'll wait another. Another minute or two. Basically, as I was saying, you know, filling in for Julie. And I'll be walking through some tips that'll help you finish your manuscript in 2023. It's an interesting challenge in terms of talking to a group of people because everybody's at different stages. So we'll kind of walk through the different stages of where you might be in writing your manuscript and hopefully there'll be something in here that you find helpful. Let's just give it another few seconds. Hey, Bonnie. Soggy California. Yeah, you're getting a lot of rain out there. Usually that's a good thing, but not when it comes in buckets. So. Okay, well, we're at the three minute mark, so I think I'm going to go ahead and, and jump in. So as I'm sitting in for Julie. My name is Chad Sanborn. I'm a pen to paper pro at Book Launchers, which means I'm a writing coach and a ghost writer. Since I guess, 2020, I've been helping book launcher authors, you know, write their manuscripts and tell their stories. I'm also an author myself of both nonfiction and fiction. But I really do enjoy helping people, you know, get their stories down on paper. So today, like I said, what I want to do is I want to give you some tips that hopefully will help you finish your manuscript in 2023. And along the way, we're also going to give away a few prizes as we do here on book Launchers tv, we've got mugs, we've got a journal, I think to give away or possibly Julie's book, Self Publish and Succeed, maybe even some T shirts. I think we're kind of limited on those, but anyway, we'll get through that. And again, the way you get to be qualified for the, you know, to be entered into winning the winning a prize is, you know, you comment on these videos the day they're posted and then your name goes into a hopper. Julie has a randomizer and she picks the names. So anyway, if there are no other things that no housekeeping I need to take care of, I'm going to go ahead and jump in. So you want to finish your manuscript in 2023. As I mentioned, you could be at various places in the process. And we'll also answer the biggest question, which is, how do I know when I'm finished? It's never as easy as it seems. And really it's a question you need to be asking yourself throughout the process. Am I done with this part of the process? So we'll go ahead and jump in. Now, like I said the first would be, you haven't started writing yet. You've got an idea, which is a great place to be because you're starting fresh, blank piece of paper, as they say, blank page. And so you've got your idea. The next thing to do is meld that idea with your ideal reader. We work extensively on that at the beginning of the process and I'll explain a little bit why as we go through this. But it's important to know, you know, who you're writing for because that's going to, that's going to help shape what you say and it's also going to help help you on the marketing, on the back end of things, which is why we put so much emphasis on. On that as who the ideal reader is at the beginning of the process. And you just kind of start, you know, start by just describing who they are. And that doesn't necessarily mean demographics, although it can. But it's really, again, this ties back into your, your idea, you know, the problem that you're solving for them. So sometimes it's about psychographics as much as it's about demographics. What is it they need? What is their mindset now? What's going to make their lives better? And like I said, a simple way is just kind of, you know, what are you offering them that no one else can that's going to make them make their life better? A good question is just say my. Just start from their point of view. My reader would be delighted if. And just finish that sentence of your idea and what you have to offer them. And like I said, it's also Going to bring you clarity as you go through the process, and it's going to be the foundation for your marketing when you get that far. But first you got to get that far. And so that's why it's really important to kind of take your idea and meld it with the person that you're writing for. The next step, once you've got that honed, you're like, I know who I'm writing for, and this is what I'm going to offer them, is you kind of start to. You build your outline. Now, when I say outline, a lot of people, they freeze up because they think of their outline in high school. You know, with. It's very detailed. It can just be like a loose collection of topics. It's really just kind of for your. A guide for you as you're going through the process, you know, and it's, you know, what do I want to write about? Is a great way to kind of start listing your topics. What I want to write about. Another great way is to say, what don't I want to write about? You know, we focus a lot on if there are books in this space, what's everybody saying? What are they missing? And sometimes, you know, I. It's. It's almost as important to declare what you don't want your book to be and what you don't want it to be about as it is to. To declare what you want it to be about. So those are two good questions. What do I want to write about and what don't I want to write about? And again, how does that relate to my ideal reader? You know, the question, when you have ideas, should it go into my outline? Is this appropriate? This, again, is why it's so important to know your reader. Because will your reader care? Will it delight them? Will it make their life better? How will it help your reader? And just again, outline just a loose list of things. You can put it in a sequence later. That makes some logical sense, but really it's a living document. And that's the other thing is a lot of people will do their outline and then never look at again. That will cause you to go off into tangents. And again, there'll be things that you don't have. You don't have to have a complete outline to get started. It's just a general direction that you then, like I said, kind of start to kind of shape into play. So if you're just starting out, those are the main things. Just kind of figure out who your reader is and what is it you want to say to them. And so how do you know when you're finished with that phase? And that's when you can't think of anything else to put into your outline. That's when you're like, okay, it's time to start writing, knowing that you're going to go back. We're going to have questions later just to let everybody know. I'd like to take a moment now and give out our first prize because people love to win things. So again, Julie took the names of the people who commented on the book launcher TV videos the first day when they were posted those name into this randomizer. And so today our first winner is Caitlin Duncan. I don't know if Caitlin's here, but Caitlin, you commented on the video the day it was released. So you get a prize. Contact Angela at she's. What is team Book launchers dot com? That's Team T E A M Book launchers dot com and Angela take care of you in terms of getting you, you or the prize that you want. That's exciting. I don't really in my job get to give away prizes, so that's kind of fun. That's. I got a bit of a rush and I didn't win anything, but I'm hoping, I'm hoping I made somebody stay just a little bit. Yeah, let's see. Okay, so maybe you're not at the outline phase. Maybe you're writing your first draft. And I always, you know, talk about this. We've got. You've worked on your outline. I describe this as the what do you want to say part. I often call this the dirty draft or messy draft. It's not about dirty language. And this is really about just a creative mindset where you're just trying to take all those ideas that you've kind of sketched out in your outline and really just get all that on paper. If you were sculpting, it's getting out all the clay on the table. It's just really, it's just, it's just information out there on the page. But that can be a little overwhelming. Right? Especially you know, it's like you're standing at the bottom of mountain looking up the most important this is. If you take away anything from this, this is the most important part for any part of the process that you're in. You need a consistent writing routine, consistent editing routine when you get there. I prefer daily does not necessarily have to be daily. Some people's don't. Some people's schedule doesn't Allow for that. But it needs to be consistent every other day or I only write on weekends. Consistent time and place if possible. And it's not that these things are hard and fast rules, because they have to be. It's because habit beats discipline every time. We all have willpower, we all have discipline. And it always falters because it takes a certain amount of energy. But habit, it's amazing how habit can stick around. That's why we try to create good habits. And that's what you want to do, is create a good editorial habit, your writing habit, editing habit. And it's also going to help you. A consistent habit of writing helps you beat procrastination, resistance. Because you're not getting into the whole mindset of I gotta, gotta build up my, my willpower and sit down and do this. It's just what you do at that time, at that place. One of the examples I always like to give, I heard this somewhere, I just think it's perfect, is, you know, they were talking to Lorne Michaels, Saturday Night Live, fame producer, executive producer. And he made the statement that Saturday Night Live doesn't go on because it's ready. It goes on because it's 11 o' clock Eastern on Saturday night. And that's exactly the way you need to approach your writing routine, which is you're not waiting for inspiration because sometimes inspiration will be there. If you have a consistent writing practice, you will sit down and write at that time and place because that's what you do at that time and place. And that's how you'll start to get words on the page. And at this point in the process, again, you're just. It's the dirty draft. We're really focused on amount. Like how much can you get on the page? Some people get motivated by word counts, some people get motivated by page counts. You may have a daily count, or you may have a weekly count. Because we're going to go back and shape all this. You know, the dirty draft is just that. It is just getting everything out. So it can be really helpful to just focus on amounts because that'll do something else. It'll take you off the sort of quality control that we all have in our head. You need to let go of that. For this phase, there should be no self criticism. Bad writing is wonderful. That's how you get to the good writing people. It's really about building momentum at this point. So that's why at this phase it's focus on amount, Focus on amount. Get as many words as you can. You've got your outline right, so you can always refer back to that. You don't have to follow the order of the outline. Find the thing that you're most excited about. Spend your time on that. You can always loop back to the things that might be a little more challenging. Or maybe you're one of those people likes to tackle the hard parts first. Whatever works for you. Just make sure you're using your consistent practice and you're. You're working on the pieces that excite you or that challenge you in some way and just, just keep moving. If you get in the middle of something and you can't finish it or you can't think of what happens next, then go ahead and, you know, jump to something else. Can always come back to it. Again, do not edit your work. At this stage, there should be no editing, no reviewing even. There are just two different mindsets, and we'll get to that mindset in a minute. The editing is a little more critical. The problem at this phase is if you start letting the constructive critical mind in, you're also going to let in the less helpful critical mind, which we all have. Doesn't matter how many books you've written, we all have this some sense of imposter syndrome or who am I kidding? Or, you know, just general procrastination. I can find 15 ways not to write, and one of those is criticism of, like, this is not any good. Oh, hi, Mike. So just at this phase, again, it's about amount. It's about words on paper. They're going to stink. That's why we call it the dirty draft. You know, there'll be some gems in there too. And that's, that's the beauty of it. But again, we're just focusing on what you want to say. We're going to get to how you want to say it later. Another thing that I find very helpful at this stage is to have a list of steps and in the, in, in your process and then follow those, those steps and every time you sit down and they are very simple, like an example of some of my steps when I'm writing. Like, step one, open outline document. Step two, open, you know, manuscript document. Like that, that detailed review. Step three, review outline. Step four, write something like that. It's so helpful because a lot of times maybe you have to come away, step away from your work in the middle of something. Or obviously your writing session is done and you come back the next day at the same time, same place. It helps you go, okay, this is where I was in the process. You don't have to start from scratch and go, okay, now where was I? You can just look at your list and go, oh, I crossed off one and two. So I'm on step three. That's where I jump in. It just helps you get up and running quicker. You don't have to worry about trying to, you know, build up momentum. It's amazing how quickly you can get in here. Here's another quick tip on getting writing fast. Some people, like, you know, they sit down and they need to ease into it. This is not something I came up with. A guy named Hemingway came up with it, so he was pretty good. Not bad advice. Leave a sentence unfinished, but know what you want to say when you. When you end your writing session or write half a sentence, knowing what the rest of that sentence is going to be. It's amazing. You come back the next day, you finish the sentence, you're back in the flow of things so much quicker. That's. That's one of those things that I. When I first heard it, I thought, that's too simple. And it just works every time, you know, you also just remove barriers to entry. Some people just need to leave their software open. It's one of those things where you just kind of, you know, anything that is a barrier to entry. If you have to go to your office to write, you know, make sure the door's open, don't lock it, that kind of thing. Also, if those things, an even better way than avoiding them is to make them into rituals again. Rituals. Habits. We're creatures of habit. We're creatures of routine. That's the only way I make it through the mornings. It's just a routine. If I have to stop and think about things not going to work. Same thing with the writing. Once you have to stop and think about, oh, it's time for me to go write, things can creep in. But if you just go and start doing something, just sit down, start writing, finish that sentence, it's amazing how quickly you can. You can get moving. So anyway, so that's. We'll move on. Kind of droning on about that. But it's such an important thing in that phase because it is just about getting the words out. It's about, you know, you're putting your butt in the seat and getting the work done. So how do you know when you're finished with that phase? It's very simple. You've said all you want to say. You go back and look at your outline. You've decided that that's it. There's no more I want to say. And that's another thing. As you're writing, things are going to come up. Like you're in the middle of, let's say, writing a paragraph and you have another idea that fits. It's not in your outline. Go write it down in your outline and then come back and finish what you're doing. I say this all the time. And again, I stole this from somebody else as well. But it's like a mind is a great place to have an idea, but it's a terrible place to keep. Your outline is a living document. I encourage you to always have it open because it'll tell you where to head next. It's a good place to put down new ideas and figure out where they go before you spend time writing them. So you'll know you're done with this sort of dirty phase when you've pretty much said all that you want to say. Not that things won't creep up later, but you can't think of anything at the moment. And then you're going to go from the dirty phase to writing and editing for your rough draft, which is really more about you said what you want to say. Now this version is for how you want to say it. Like, what do you want to sound like? Is this, you know, this is where you start to talk about, you know, you've heard writing is rewriting. This is where they're really starting to. To get to that point. And this is where that constructive, critical mind can come in now, because again, you've got all the clay on the table now. You're shaping it. You do need to have a measure of, you know, constructive criticism. Is this what I. Is this what I want to say and how I want to say it? Maybe this would go better here. Maybe they need to hear this first or learn this first before we get to that part. Those things are all part of the process, and it just works out again at this phase, you've got your draft, have a list of what am I going to do from opening documents to what am I working on. I want to fix that story that opens up chapter four. Put that on your list so that then when you're done, you come back and sit down. Maybe you're in the middle of it. You go, oh, yeah, I'm working on that story. In chapter four, when you're done, you cross it off. Nothing feels better than crossing things off your list. Move on to the next thing. But just, you know, work lists, task lists, very, very Helpful because they just keep you grounded and rooted and focused on the work. And there are days when you don't have a lot of energy, maybe, but you still sit down to do the work. Good for you. Maybe that's spell check day as opposed to, you know, really working it. Sometimes you just kind of. You need. You need to give your mind a little bit of a break. And athletes have found the, you know, that rest is key. The same thing is for any sort of creative endeavor. Your brain needs rest sometimes, but you still want to do the work. There's always little tasks that you can do. So even if you sit down for, you know, half an hour, it's, you know, that's great, but maybe you only sit down for 10 minutes. Still, you did some work. You know, it's better than. It's better than nothing. But that list will help you every time. So again, you've got your draft. You've been going through it. You figured out, you think you figured out. Like, this is how I want to say this. So how do you know you're finished with this phase? You've said everything you want to say. You said it the way you want to say it. Now you need fresh eyes to take a look at it for you and go, yeah, that works. Or that doesn't work. So before we get to the part about feedback and developmental editing, we should probably give out our next prize. So let's see. We have. Okay, the winner of our next prize is kj. KJ again commented on a video the day that it was released. So, you know, KJ wins a prize. KJ, please contact Angela@teambooklaunchers.com. And then, you know, Angela will take care of you. She'll make sure you get a. Get whichever gift that you'd like to have. And we have one more gift to give away. And of course, like any good carnival barker, I am going to save it until the very end. And that one will be a little bit different. It's not going to involve people who've commented on videos that have been posted. It's going to be based upon comments in this book. Launchers broadcast, the TV broadcast. So stick around to the end. We're also going to do some questions and things like that, but. Okay, so where were we? So you finished? You need somebody else to take a look at it. You need some outside point of view, some outside input. This is kind of part two of how do I want to say it? And this again goes back to, you know, your. Who's your reader who's your ideal reader? Are you reaching them? Are you, are you meeting them where they live? Are you using the language that they understand? Are you telling your stories in a way that they understand? Do they grasp what you're saying in terms of, you know, the, the things that they can do to make their lives better? There's two types of feedback, really. There's professional feedback and then, you know, non professional feedback. At Book Launchers we have a process. You know, this is the phase in Book Launchers where you would go to a content editor or a development developmental editor and again, that's somebody who's, you know, versed in sort of, you know, breaking apart stories and putting them back together. And that term break is exactly what they're trying to do, and I talk about with authors about this all the time, is, you know, before they go to their manuscript, goes to a content edit, I say, you know, this is probably going to come back and there's going to be a bunch of red, essentially red pen, lots of things that you know, that you're not going to be too happy about. But the idea, if you've ever done any software development, it's like beta testing, you want to break it so that you can fix it, make it stronger before it goes out into the public. And that's what a content edit does. At Book Launchers, it really does go through and just finds the weak spots and says, you know, I didn't understand this or you might want to, you need to cite this source so that this carries more weight. We need an example here. You'll get positive feedback too, which is great. But positive feedback never makes your manuscript better. It just makes you feel good. It's the constructive, you know, pieces that, where you sometimes maybe don't want to hear it because at this point you've probably been working on it a while. And then you just, you have to figure out, you know, even if, even if you reject it, don't reject it out of hand because again, it is your manuscript, but you try to find the things in the feedback that you can use to make it better. Why did the content editor react? The way they acted, reacted. Example is one of the most, One of the biggest examples I ever have is we had a, I was working with an author, someone else did the content edit and the content edit came back with, you need to take this section out. It was about domestic violence. This was a self improvement book about relationships and it's about domestic violence. And it was like, hold on, you know, you really don't Want to take this out because this is important piece of information here. And so I worked with the author to figure out, like, what could it be? Why did the content editor say, take this out? And it really came down to the way the information was presented. It wasn't what it was about, it was how it was about what it was about. It was just a little too brutal. It wasn't graphic. There was just something brutal in the word choice. So we worked it, shaped it because again, if it's brutal, the person, the content editor didn't get the message. The important thing that could have helped them. If the content editor didn't get it, you know, the reader's definitely not going to get it. So even though they didn't just take the advice at face value, there was something in there that made the book better. So that's why I always say, even if you disagree with it, take some time, think about it. It's just, it makes it so much stronger when you, you know, get those really hard to hear pieces. They're hard to hear not because you don't want it to make the book better. It's hard to hear because you really feel like at this point, I'm so close to being done and you're much closer than you were. But it's still, your book's gonna go out there with your name on it. You want to be the best that it can possibly be. Let's see what else we got. So content editing after content editing, you're gonna get copy editing again. We're still talking about professional feedback. Copy editing is easy unless you have a degree in grammar. Just do what they say. It's the greatest thing in the world. You just kind of go through and, you know, just, yes, accept, accept, accept. It's pretty straightforward. Just do what they say. Now, let's talk about unprofessional readers, non professional readers, people who don't do this for a living. The thing you have to understand, and that's, I'm not saying you shouldn't turn it over to people like that, although definitely don't do it too early in the process. But people are only concerned with what they know. An example I always give is, you know, if I'm writing a memoir and I give the book to my mother, she's going to be focused on, why did you say those horrible things about our neighbor? Whereas if I gave it to somebody else, they might say, well, that part of the book didn't make any sense. So, you know, when I get the feedback from my Mother, I have to go. Okay? That's what she's concerned about. And again then I would look at that and go, is there, do I need to massage this? Is there a way I should present this scene differently? And it's, you know, same thing for prescriptive books. You know, people are going to be focused. If it's a business leadership book and you give it to a person that you work with to read it and they disagree with some things in there, it just could really have more to do with them than it does with the book. You just have to be very discerning. So that's why I always encourage people not to turn over their manuscripts too early in the, in the process. Because people, you know, my wife, for instance, if I have her read something of mine, she has no interest in what I write, very particular about spelling. And so I'll get no notes from her on this is great or this is bad. I'll just get you misspelled here. You misspelled it. And that's after rounds of spell checking. But I always miss stuff. So just make sure you understand, like this person's only going to be able to give me advice within this sort of area. And I think the main thing is at this phase, I only want you to hear constructive criticism. You're going to get things from other people, especially if you're giving them to non professional readers that, you know, might even be a little hurtful. But the issue is, are they constructive? Can you find the constructive element in there? If not, just ignore it. Pretend you didn't hear it. Again, I only want you to take the things that you can use that make your manuscript better. That's going to save you a lot of time, it's going to speed up the process and it's going to get you to the end of your manuscript quicker. Same thing goes for this part of the process. List of tasks, steps, follow the process, you know, and the steps in this case could be things like, you know, again, got feedback that this story in chapter seven was confusing. Fix story, chapter seven, story. Or, you know, add exercises. Exercises would be helpful. Or add examples here again, so you cross those things off as you go. And again the list starts very specific with the actual steps that you do to get to the process, into the process of, for your writing routine as well as the things that you'll be working on in that, in those sessions. And I think the other thing at this stage, again, you've got your draft, you got an outside feedback is you're making your Passes each time through for specific tasks. For instance, you know, this time through I'm looking at spelling. This time through I'm fixing stories as opposed to, I'm going to work on chapter four. I'm going to fix everything in chapter four. For I find it's a little more beneficial. Again, it builds momentum that you kind of go soup to nuts, you know, beginning to end with one thing in mind. Because if you have to, if your mind has to keep switching to the thing that you're trying to do, it just gets mentally exhausting. You know, I think another thing within all these is your writing sessions. Don't be afraid to do sprints and short writing sessions. Don't be afraid to do 20 minutes, as much as I can do and then take a break. Not, you know, not every writing session has to be 6 hours. I write professionally and I can't do more than three hours at a time without just being completely wiped out. But I love four 20 minute sessions over the course of a day. Again, I got my steps in place. When I sit down, I got my unfinished sentence, I know what I'm doing. Boom, 20 minutes. You just go and go and go, whether it's editing or writing your first draft, whatever. So don't feel like it's got to be this huge chunk of time because that's a great way to procrastinate. Well, I don't have six hours to write today, so I guess I'll wait and see tomorrow. So, yeah, 15, 20 minute sprints are great. And then sort of, you know, how do you know you're done there at this point? You've just finished your task list of everything that you want to fix, whether it's feedback from someone else or things you've noticed and going through the manuscript again and again and again. The dirty little secret is you will be so sick of your manuscript by the time you're done, but you'll have a fantastic book. And that's just, that's just part of the process. So the next phase, of course, is just the polishing and that's finished work. That's the detail work. It's fixing this little thing there, it's fixing that little thing there. And that's the real how do I know I'm done with polishing? And that can be the toughest one because there's always going to be something you can fix. You'll go back to your book two years later and go, ooh, I wish I would have used a different word or a different sentence or added this or taken that out. So they're never really done. The value judgment you have to make at this point is what's the return on investment of the change that I've made? Is the book that much better? Because I used this verb versus that verb again. At this stage, you're so close to shipping your work and that fear is going to come up again and you're going to try to find ways to not have to put your book out there in the world. And don't worry at this phase, you still got a long way to go in terms of, you know, production and marketing. So it's really just getting across your manuscript, across the finish line to get to the really fun parts of the process. I always describe it as what I do with authors, you know, is the pregnancy and when. If you have kids, you know that the pregnancy is everything until the kid is born, and then you forget about the pregnancy and it's all about the kid's life as it should be. Same thing with your book. Seems like it's the most important thing, the writing part of it. And it is, because if you don't have a book, you don't have anything. But the real fun begins once you have a solid polished manuscript. Then you get to do the really fun stuff and the hard work is over. And again you just go, is this better? By making this little change, is it clearer? Is it more interesting? If it is, great, make the change. But at some point, just know you're gonna have to let go your baby and just gonna have to ship the work and that's it. I mean, if you kind of follow some of those tips of just daily writing routine, making lists, keep moving forward, listening to the constructive criticism, finding the things that you can use to make it better. You can fly through this process, especially if you keep your reader in mind. It solves so many problems for you. Should I put this in? I don't know. Would it interest your reader? What is it they need from me? Because again, they're coming to you and saying, you can help me. At least you say you can show me what you got. And so if you always write with them in mind rather than yourself, you'll meet them where they live, as they say. And that is something that. That's why we write books and that's why people read books. And it's this wonderful little connection that gets made. You know, you're writing for one person. You hopefully have a lot of people who buy your book and are influenced by your book. But a book is really just sort of a dialogue that takes place in the head of the reader and it's a one on one conversation. So always keep that person in mind of what they need and what you can do. And that's sort of it. If we want to open things up for questions just to see how, you know, if anybody has any other. I'm open to tips as well. That's the other thing. It's, you know, it's like, it's like martial arts. It's like kung fu. There's always somebody over the hill who's a little better than you are. There's always a new idea that you'll get from, from someone else. So I'm, I'm looking for anything as well. Any tips that you have and again, any questions that you have. I'm going to take a little sip. I hope I wasn't talking too fast again. I don't have Julie's energy, but I do tend to talk really, really quickly. While we're gathering questions, I might mention some things that are, that are coming up a little more housekeeping on. On Wednesday, January 8th, we'll be doing a client only training. Again, gotta be a client. But there's, you know, this one's good. Was it January 13th? That's going to focus on marketing. In particular lead maggots. Maggots, lead magnets, brand messaging and email marketing. Let's see. Do we have a question here? I like running. That is true. Sprints are really helpful, especially with other people. You know, at some point you may want to get into a group for critiquing, but certainly not earlier in the process. But there is an accountability group. Those are great. Again, you're not like reading things aloud to try to critique. It's just like, hey, how many words did you do today? How many pages did you do this week? That is a great way to just really build momentum quickly because we feel a little more obligated. I am a little leery sometimes of book groups that are about critiquing certainly and especially early on in the process. Let's see, we got a question here. Any tips for creating consistent writing habit? It's time and place if you make it first thing every day or again. I'm a morning person. I taught myself to be a morning person when I had kids because there was no time to write during the day. So I was like, I got to get up before they do. And you just. The alarm goes off. My alarm doesn't even go off now. I get up at 5 o' clock. Every day I just wake up, and you just get up and you start doing your thing. You have your routine, you have your process. It's the coffee. Turn on the computer, open up my. What step am I at? Oh, look, there's my half finished sentence. And just go for however long it needs. Everybody's schedules are different. You know, I'm fortunate enough that I get to work from home. A lot of people don't get to work from home, but there are all kinds of tools that you can use, whether it's, you know, writing remotely, you know, using your phone. I had one author who sent me drafts just as text messages on his phone. It's really about finding a way that fits in with your schedule and your lifestyle, but being consistent about it. Not just, like, I'll write when I. When I feel like, oh, I've got the inspiration. It's. I'm writing because I write every Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday, or I write every day, ideally, but not the same. As long as you have a consistent practice. And, you know, again, the Saturday Night Live thing, this is what I do at this time. You'll be surprised how quickly it becomes a habit. And when I say habit, I mean, like, if you've ever been a smoker and you don't have a cigarette, you're like, oh, I need it. Same thing with the writing. This is my writing time. I need to be writing now. It just really drives you. Drives you crazy when you can't get to it. Some of the questions we have. See, See, Mike, you say consistent avoids me. Time is strained. That's one of those things where you really have to be a little selfish again. You know, I had kids, so I didn't want to take time away from them, but I had to kind of give up on some sleep and make a choice. Maybe you're a night person. Or again, maybe it's not about length of time. It's about making sure you just get 20 minutes a day. Sometimes that's the consistency that you need. Ideally, it's the same time and place, but, yeah, everybody's schedules are different. And maybe it's, you know, Tuesdays, it's on evenings, but Thursdays, it's in the morning, but it's consistent every time so you don't have to think about it. Let's see what else I'll be able to organize. Put the next, I think two books. Efren uses a mind map. Yeah, I've gotten into that. Those are kind of fun. I'm a little too linear for that. Sometimes I feel like I just need it to be a little more constructive. But everybody's different. I'm a person who plots and plans and outlines and outlines and outlines. And I know people who don't really have to do that. So it's, you know, whatever worked for you, that is the main thing. That's the beauty of it. There is no one way to write a book. You just have to figure out works for you. But I will say that again. Hammering on this consistency writing routine, that'll, that'll do, you know, that'll get you farther than, than anything. So anyway, I was. Okay. Question. You want to be able to organize, put the net around the material, two books and bounce between my own. Any advice on this? Yeah, again, so much information. They're trying to organize the information for two books. It's at that point, it's really, this is where your outline is going to be your best friend. In fact, it's going to, it's going to be your lifesaver. You have to get all those ideas on page, on, on the, on paper, on the page. And again, I'm not saying write the draft. I'm saying, you know, outline bullet points, whatever, make sure you've got everyone down, and then figure out sort of like, these go here and these go there. You know, it's fiction. But I write series fiction, and I know what's going to happen in book six before I start book one. Not because I've got everything detailed, but because I know generally what's going to happen. Same thing with Prescriptive or with any kind of nonfiction is, you know, you're leading up to something, you're making a case, you know where it's going to end, and maybe that's it. Maybe you start at the end from an outline standpoint or just a topic standpoint, Start at the end and work backwards. But I think the thing to get that net around it, so to speak, is going to be to get it all on paper or note cards. I love, you know, note cards on the wall. It looks like you're doing something. My wife comes home and is like, oh, you did something today. Versus when I'm on the couch thinking with my eyes closed, she doesn't, doesn't seem to see the benefit of that. But yeah, just I think it's really getting all the information in one place so that you can kind of look at it and go, okay, this goes here. This is missing. And then that should help you to go like, okay, this is book one, this is book two. I hope that helps. Let's see, any other questions? I think I was mentioning, you know, there's going to be a client only training on the 18th. We've also got some things coming up. On Saturday the 21st, there's going to be another Book Launchers Deep dive. It's going to be on 2023, book cover design trends. So you definitely, you know, want to tune in for that one because, you know, cover stuff is so first of all, I'm not the visual person. You know, Cassie, though, our lead designer, she's just, you know, she's magnificent. And, you know, it's the trick there is to be to give people exactly what they want, only different. And it's like, how do you do that? How do I convey in an image that this book is the book you're looking for? It fits in this genre, but it stands out enough that it catches your eye. I mean, that's an alchemy right there. That it's just, it's amazing how good she is. Let's see, any other questions? Okay. Yeah. Angel saying you can register for the deep dive@book launchers.com Again, that's Saturday, January 21st. Also on the 24th, I believe I got a couple of things going on. One is, I believe, clients only. It's an ask me anything with the marketing folks. They're going to answer all your burning marketing questions. And then Also on the 24th is going to be our next book launchers TV live stream like this one. You won't have to look at my ugly hairy face, though. It will be Jacqueline Kyle, who's head of our production and a wonderful person. But she'll be answering questions and talking a little bit about the production process and all sorts of wonderful things. So, yeah, that's the 24th. So we got two things on the 24th. One is an ask me anything, which I believe is for clients only, about marketing questions. And then Also on the 24th is right here will be book launchers TV with with Jacqueline Kyle. And let's see, any other questions? I think that's it. Let's go ahead and give out the final prize for today. So as I mentioned, it's not going to be a comment from one of the posted videos. It's going to be a comment from today. So for the final prize, we're looking for the 10th person to comment that will be the winner. And again. Yep. Okay. And then yes, same process. Reach out to Angela team@book launchers.com she'll be able to help you with your prize. And. But for this one, if you want to be entered for the next one for future giveaways, make sure that you comment on the video the day that it goes this video the day that it goes up. And you're automatically be entered to win some book launcher swag, which is always kind of fun. Let's see. I was thinking. Yeah, whatever. You tell me, Angela. I'm a rookie at this. In terms of the specific comment, What's quizmaster saying? How is what possible? I've been so distracted listening to the sound of my own voice that I've missed so many of these wonderful comments. I just want to jump in here. All right, well, are there any other comments or what do we. What do we think? 10th comment is Efren Delgado. Of course it is. Of course it's Efren. Has anyone seen this reminds me of. Has anyone seen the Netflix documentary about the guy who goes on Price is Right and wins again and again and again? It's a great documentary. Highly recommend it. But for some reason, I'm reminded of. Of this now that. That Efren is. Is our winner. So. But he does it. He. He does a great job passing gifts along to other folks and things. So we. We love Efren. So. All right, one last call for questions. Does anybody have any questions? I hope this has been helpful. I really want you to finish your manuscript in 2023, no matter where you are in the process, whether you've started, you're about to start, you're nearing the end, or you just think you're nearing the end. But I hope that. Let me just check one thing here. Okay? I just got a note from producer Angela, as they say, to do one extra prize, a random selection for someone who is participating in the. Participating in the chat. I'm assuming that that's their name there, Angela, that you sent me. Explore Embrace Express. That's the handle. Explore Embrace Express. You are a random winner again. Please reach out to Angela@teambooklaunchers.com and she'll hook you up with some. Some book launcher swag. Let's see. All right. Yep. Teamoklaunchers.com all right, well, this has been fun. This is a bit of a stretch for me, and so I enjoy this. I would even consider doing something like this again. I hope what I shared with you is helpful again, because I just love helping people write books. So anyway. Oh, Brian Parker has a good one. Brian coming in at the last minute. Sometimes I feel like my book is too short. Not sure how long your book is or what type of book it is. But one of the rules of thumb is just a book you know, is as long as it needs to be just under 20,000 words. One of the best books I've ever read is much shorter than that. It's by Steven Pressfield. It's called the War of Art. And it is. If you haven't read it, go get it. If you have any issues with resistance or procrastination and you haven't read that book, go get it. It's just a fantastic book and it's very short. It's like you have pages with just two sentences on it. Because it's. The value is in what comes out of the book, not what's on the page in terms of number of letters or number of words. Go ahead and get that book. If you have any issues with procrastination. But the point being, it doesn't really matter how long your book is, especially these days with ebooks and things like that. You know, there are certain standards you kind of want to hit. 40,000 is great, you know, if you're writing fiction or nonfiction. But, you know, 40,000 is great for a nonfiction book. But we've done books that are, you know, 20, 25,000 words nonfiction books. Because again, it's just what do you have to say and how much you know, how do you want to say it? And people are busy. They're might be more apt to buy a book that's 20, 25,000 words. And you know, again, there are things you can do with layout to make it feel like it's got more heft. There are things you can do in terms of takeaways and exercises that add to it. So again, just write the book and we'll figure everything else out. All right, well, if there's nothing else, I will go ahead and end this broadcast. But I want to thank all of you for joining us. I want to to thank everybody, book launchers who helped me out with this. And anyway, just don't, don't be a stranger. And Good luck in 2023 finishing your manuscript. All right. By.