How to write a book? 9 writing tips + 1 to improve your writing from a 3 time author | Nir Zavaro

Oh, hello! How's it going? Are you thinking about writing a book? If so, I have something for you. This video. 9 tips plus 1 surprise on how to write your next book from someone who just finished the draft for his 3rd book. Are you ready? Let's start. Tip number 1: commitment. It's about deciding that you're actually gonna write a book. There's 2 ways you can do that. That work for me. Number one, use your phone, start taking notes. If someone says something funny, you take it down. If you have an idea, if you hear a podcast, something, anything, take a note. If you're taking notes, that means it's important to you. It means that something is happening. The second thing is when I open a file, I save it my next book. By the way, for me, it's interesting, it's always about a title first. When I wrote my first novel, I had an idea for a title and I said, you know what, I'll write it. Now, fuck the slides. I had an idea for a title even though it's a different book, different type, different language.

I open a file, I said, fuck the slides, this is my idea, this is my book.

Then I have a plan, I have something I want to achieve.

Once you're committed, everything looks different.

Tip number 2, make a visual commitment. I know it sounds weird, but I like making a visual commitment, something that other people can talk to me about. I don't know, something like this beard. So yeah, I grew this beard and I said I'm not taking it off. I'm not shaving it until I'm done. 10 years ago, I did the same thing when I was writing my first novel. It was August, it was warm, I was stuck, and I was like, oh, I can't write anymore. I don't know what to do. So I started to grow my hair. It got to like really long, just about to my shoulders, and it looked bad. Like, seriously bad. People would call me up and say, hey, did you take your hair— get a haircut? And I'll say, no, not yet. And they're like, okay, so stay at home and write. Even now with this beard— the beard— people would ask me, um, when are you done? You can't walk around like this. Even my barber made me get a haircut. So make a visual commitment, something that people will talk to you about. One of the biggest things is no one cares that you're writing. So make them talk to you.

Why?

They get invested in it.

They ask about it.

They want to know about it.

Good luck. You don't have to grow a beard or long hair. Do, do your thing. Okay.

Tip number 3. So you decided you're gonna write a book. That's amazing. And you know that you're gonna do something visual so everybody knows about it. What I also suggest, my experience shares talk to as many people as you can. I'll tell them about the plot, about the idea, what I'm thinking about. I'll run my methodology with them and I'll ask them for their opinion. You know why? Because every person you know has an opinion. I will then decide if I like it or I don't like it, if it's relevant or it's not relevant. At the moment, all I want is to talk to as many people as I can. Interestingly enough, they will have their opinion But you know what's the biggest secret? You, my friend, will also have an opinion.

It's interesting, but the more I talk about my ideas and I listen to myself again and again and again, I say, hmm, you know what? That's interesting. I didn't think about it. Oh, I can change this. So sometimes speaking, doing that idea, running it out loud so other people can give you their opinion is basically A selfish thing. I do it for myself.

Almost every single time I did that, I changed the structure of the conversation, what I asked, what I wanted, and how I did it. It was interesting because you remember the first thing being committed was me taking notes. So every time I was like, oh wait, wait, yeah, I'm hearing you, just give me a second. Notes, notes, notes. So be selfish about it, but talk to as many people as you can. And someone asked me about stealing. Let them steal. I don't care. I'll write another one. I'll do something else. And basically we're all copycats anyway, so it doesn't matter. Tip number 4. Oh shit, I forgot something. I'm stopping this video for a moment just to tell you that if you like the content, please follow, subscribe, join. You can sign up for my newsletter. Why? Because I will teach you everything I can for free to do it how to create a good pitch, storytelling, marketing, branding, and sales. Everything for you. So would you do me this kind favor and sign up now? Subscribe. Can we put this?

Yeah, no, we can't.

Yeah, we, we have some budget for that. Come on, um, I need you. And if you have any questions, hit me up. I'd be happy to answer. And now let's go back to the video. Tip number 4, find a significant I know it sounds very simple, but I usually tend to do a last-minute kind of date. So for example, when I did my first novel, it was the Jewish New Year, and the date I picked was, I don't know, a month away from doing everything.

Everything. Literally everything.

So the COVID the editing, and everything. My idea to you is reverse engineer. Pick a date. I don't know, um, um, Christmas, uh, Cyber Monday. Um, I once sold 250 copies and I had to deliver them for an event. And by the way, I'm doing the same thing now. So I sold 200 copies to a, a conference that I'm going to talk at in about— I don't know, by the time you see this, probably a month away. And the idea is Once you set a date and you have told people about that date, you need to, I don't know, be there. You need to do it. So for me, it has a lot to do with setting a date and then reverse engineering. You know what's funny? I remember doing the first novel. I sold 250 copies to bars as they were giving away a gift. And the gift was a copy of the book because it was a novel about the nightlife in Tel Aviv. and a bottle of wine. And one of the owners, I remember, Dan's calling me and saying, um, so listen, you're certain you're gonna have a book? Because we need 20 copies and we're gonna host it on— I don't know, it was next Thursday at 6 PM. The whole staff is coming. There's about 20 people. Most of the bartenders knew me and the waitresses knew me. And it was kind of weird because I said yes. I had no idea if the printing will be done. Setting a date, I don't know, kind of makes it real in a sense. Even now we're thinking about doing an editor's copy where it's not exactly the final version, but because the conference is buying the 200 copies, they'll get a version that no one else will ever have. And maybe someday it's going to be worth something. So yeah, what's your date? And, and don't pick I don't know, 1st of January. No one does anything in those dates. We all know that. But yeah, a potentially good date for me is also college years. So when the college starts, selling the book. Find a date that if you don't have a published book by then, you might lose a lot of things. So I don't know, publicity, promotion, sales, and so on. But the next time you'll get that chance is a year's Time, and that's probably not going to be worth anything for you. So tip number 5, divide everything into small deadlines. So yeah, we mentioned the big deadline, that's great, but what about having small deadlines? You know, things that people might not notice, but you definitely will. For me, it's always been about a definition of what I need to do next. So for example, just write an outline, just have a paragraph. I'll sort out small deadlines where I'll say, okay, I need to write 500 words today.

Or for example, I need to only write the outline of that chapter. When I wrote my first novel, for me, a deadline was going out drinking every single night.

And when I go home, open the computer and write. Anything. Sometimes I couldn't understand a single word. There were gibberish of different sorts, but sometimes magic. I could extract one good sentence, one idea, one key message that I can work with and turn that into something. So the idea was to go out, drink, have fun, explore, get experiences, meet new people, have interesting ideas, go home, write whatever I could remember, And then the next day find that writing. So I would say, okay, this is what I need. The deadline is to write every day at 2 PM. Great. Every night I had to write. What happened is quickly my deadline became to have at least 2 or 3 good paragraphs every single day. That was my deadline. And sometimes I would do it at 8 PM before I would go out just because I haven't done it the day before. So A deadline could be, I'll finish a chapter every week. Nice deadline. Might work, might not. Have a paragraph. During the second— yeah, the second novel, I think what I did was Post-its. And what I decided is only to write the plot, not write anything else. I had notes.

By the way, by the time I decided to write the second novel, I remember I had notes on my phone. I took them to a Word document. It had like 7,000 words.

It took me, I think, 6 or 7 weeks to kind of sort it out, figure out what works and what doesn't. I even found some sentences where I said, this is mind-blowing, it's unbelievable, it's amazing, only to discover in the editing process that I copied things from my first novel. So yeah, everybody copies. But it was interesting to see that I only focused on the deadline For the plot. So basically what I did is I would have Post-its on the wall and I say, okay, today I want to write only the plot for this chapter. I know it was chapter 2, chapter 3. I'll write it down. I could scribble it down on a piece of paper and then turn that into kind of what happens throughout the plot on a Post-it. So every day It felt like I was writing, but in reality I was just kind of like shaping and moving things and everything. Maybe I can find some pictures and post them here. I remember I had, I don't know, 60 or 70 different Post-its, and then my deadline was every day reach that next point in that plot, which was interesting. And then it kind of started to weave itself, and then I said, oh, I know what I want to do now, so I would do 2 or 3. And kind of got into some sort of a rhythm and a pace which I really loved and was really interesting. And yeah, so the deadline was write a chapter a day, only the plot points. And then now in this book, I felt it was much— I don't know, it wasn't even harder. I didn't know where to start. So basically my deadlines would be to write every single day.

Something, something.

Sometimes it could be a line.

When that deadline fell apart, that small thing, I started to look into different things and ideas, but I think I'll leave that for the next tip. Ready? Let's go to the next one. Yeah, it's enough.

Tip number 6. By the way, I think, yeah, almost one of my favorites, if not my favorite. Habits. You need habits, and I'm not talking about the deadline or writing. I'm talking about daily habits. For me, one of the best habits was running. Now you'll ask me, what does that have to do with that? I know, but I took on a challenge of running every single day, at least 5K, which was kind of interesting because the struggle became a win, the win became a good feeling, the good feeling made me want to do More. Then I take that into my— you guessed it— writing.

So food, unbelievable. Stop drinking, unbelievable. And I like drinking. Now, in the first novel, drinking was a major part. In the second novel, major part. Now writing a different book, I don't want to drink anymore.

So I established different habits of why am I skipping this, how am I going to drink differently, why am I going to drink less. And the habits, my friends, they work. So for me, it's been walking, it's been feeling good, it's been sleeping more. Um, for this book, I decided to add one more hour to my sleeping regime, eating differently. So I lost about— was it, um, yeah, just over 5 kilograms. I know, I'm almost at, uh, yeah, 10, 11 pounds. I think that's— yeah, I'll be at 11 pounds probably next week. So I'm losing weight, I'm training, I feel good. You see, I'm getting my shave on. But it has to do a lot with mentality. How do you feel? So resting, eating, and less drinking and exercising is helpful. By the way, um, days that I skipped— I skipped running, I skipped eating— um, slowly I would give up. Yeah, I'll do it tomorrow. Yeah, never mind. Yeah.

And that slowly, gradually started to kind of sink into everything I did. So work, but I did what I had to. What I didn't, wasn't a must, was my writing. So find your habits. Also, for me, a habit is my morning coffee.

So I have this habit where at 7 AM I'll go to my favorite coffee place. I'll have a coffee. I'll read the financial news. I don't know why. We'll have some discussions, arguments about politics. And it's a habit I've had, I don't know, for now it's 2022. I started this in 2014. Every single day I would go to the same coffee shop, same people, same drinks, everything. What I noticed is that that habit was actually hurting me. 2 reasons. Um, one was finding my Timing, when was a good time for me to write, and apparently it was in the mornings for me. And secondly, which I think is important, is that habit took away too much. So I, I would go back, I saw my computer here at the desk, and I would feel, I don't know, not just exhausted, but it feels like someone took a lot of effort out of me. I needed to rest, and that would— Involve 20 minutes of just looking at different news on the websites, you know, like go to website, uh, um, go to my Feedly, go to TikTok, go to whatever, but just spend and waste, waste time because I needed to kind of like recuperate, get my energy back.

So the habit of talking early in the morning, which as you can understand I love talking, kind of got to the point was bad thing for me. So I started to shift to coffee shops where people didn't know me. So same hour, but do the newspaper without talking to people. Same hour without doing the newspaper. And slowly, in order to find my best time of writing in the morning or editing, what I've learned is I don't need the newspaper and I have no need to argue about politics and it doesn't matter. So I stopped wasting time on that and I probably saved an hour and a half every day, which is amazing. Thanks to my writing habits. In the last phases of writing, which is interesting, what happened is I started to edit very specific things.

So my habit would be end of the day, prepare what I want to edit or what I need to finish. And then I would do, I don't know, 8:00 AM till 10:00 in a certain coffee shop, finish this. This was my deadline. If we spoke about the deadline earlier. And this is the way I'm gonna do it. And that was a habit. So I would go in, have the same coffee, sit in the same place, do the same thing, but a routine, which was great. And then 2 or 3 times a week at 10 AM, I would cross the street, go to a different coffee shop, but that was writing, not editing. And then, I know, midday I'd go have lunch, and suddenly I started to pick up this habit. So days I would go to the office or I wouldn't. So Yeah, find your habit. I think it changed— that's the thing that impacted my life in the last year the most from writing. Tip number 7, consume as much content as you can. Yes, it's that simple. Well, it's not because you need to spend time and you need to find the content and— no, you don't. I listen— no, I'm not sure about this one. You need to consume content just because it opens your mind. By the way, watch Netflix, I don't care. But if you're writing a novel, consume that type of content. If you're writing a self-help book, a management book— I did about 75 different books in that area, from storytelling, management, startups, the famous one and the least famous ones. I've listened to very bad books. Um, there's Podcasts that I've probably consumed hundreds of episodes of. Walk when you're on your way, when you have a few minutes, don't call your friend. You got a puppy, dog, great. Go downstairs, go to the garden, go to the park, listen to something. In the toilet, don't consume TikTok or Instagram. Just read one chapter every day. You'd be amazed. It opens up your mind, your vocabulary, things you want, it makes you dream. But more than anything, we need that. We need to bounce ideas from other people's ideas. So whether it's YouTube or your shows, go to the movie alone and let, let, I don't know, watch a Wes Anderson movie, you know, like let your mind run wild. Um, consume music, anything you can, but do it on a regular basis. I talked to you about habits.

That's a habit. I will shift my podcast every once in a while. Um, if I don't like a book, I might speed it up, but if not, I'll try and do it the 1 speed. Um, I'm now listening to a book where, yeah, the content is pretty good, sort of, so I'm doing 1.25 speed. Consume content. You need it. And, uh, the more you absorb— for me, by the way, during COVID it was about Literally seeing everything on Netflix. Everything. Documentaries, by the way. That's a good tip for you.

Tip number 8. Guys, I think we have a keeper.

No?

Let's keep going. Sometimes you just need to leave everything and step away. I know it sounds counterintuitive because you need to write, Sometimes I say no more and I leave it Friday, Saturday. I'm done. I'm not touching it no matter what. If I have an idea, I might take a note, but I'm not actively writing. I'm not in the process. I need to step away sometimes. By the way, if I'm writing or editing and it's been 20 minutes, nothing's happening. I'll walk. I'll do something else.

I'll do, I don't know, have a call, have a meeting, go have coffee. There's a very nice coffee place really close to where I live. I'll walk there, have an espresso shot, and come back. And yes, I can have an espresso shot in my apartment, in the office, that's not a problem. It's more about the walking and, um, completely forget about everything. I'll just listen to, I don't know, '80s or hip-hop or whatever I'm listening to. Every time I'm writing a book, um, I find this, I don't know, genre, and that's what I'm gonna do.

So I did hip-hop from early '90s to, I don't know, mid-2000s. And then I did, um, Britpop starting from, I don't know, end of '70s all the way to like classic Britpop of, I don't know, from Clash to, uh, um, yeah, Blur, Oasis, roughly those, I don't know, '76, '77 all the way to '96, '97. So it's interesting and you can do that, but But the most important thing, stop, step away, and don't touch it. When you go back, it's, it's something changes. I don't know why it changes. So that was that. Tip number 9. Almost there, almost there. Last tip plus one. Tip number 9, 80/20 rule. Know when to stop editing. So if the 80/20 rule is valid here in editing, you might finish 80% of the book, but the extra 20% will just kill you. It will take more than the 80% you did so far. Is it worth it? Is the 100% actually worth it? Well, let me explain. No, it's not, because in my opinion, what you need to get out is a draft, an initial first draft.

Once the initial first draft is out, forget about it. Now we can define what is editing. I suggest working with an editor.

Everything looks better Different. When I wrote my first novel, the first 500 pieces, I didn't have any money for editing, to be honest. So I asked my friends to edit. There were a few mistakes, not as many— much as I would have expected. Um, someone told me we had less mistakes than an average first edition in Israel, which was kind of nice for a novel of, I don't know, 400, 500 pages. 46,000 words or so. But the 80/20 rule came to be because for me, while writing, I— you can't achieve 100% alone. So do the 80% and say, okay, this is my first draft. I would clean out all the comments, all the remarks, um, I don't know, fix grammar mistakes, letters that I missed, whatever it was, and then say, okay, this is the best I can do. This is the 80%. And now I would define what I can do with an editor, external editor, with a company, which I did for the second novel, with a friend that edited. This time I think the 80% is the draft, the first initial draft, and now I'm gonna rework and then send again using the deadlines. But don't try and achieve 100% alone. I think it will take you, I don't know, another 2 years. It's not worth it. Finish, keep going. Okay, editing— what a tough thing. Know when to stop. Knowing when to stop the editing process is very, very important when you're trying to achieve the final stages. And yes, you can rewrite everything. I think in this book I've even started the book by saying I've written, rewritten, and written over everything because I couldn't stop. I could— I needed to do another version, another version. I ended up doing kind of more of the same at a certain point, but what are you actually editing? So I decided to finish this draft, and you know what, when I now visit the first chapter, different paragraphs along the book that I haven't read for a long time, and I like them.

So there was no point.

So read it, figure it out, and then start editing.

Which I think is important.

Tip number 10. We're done. This is the last tip, and it has nothing to do with writing. Or maybe it does. Be kind to yourself. You know, while I was writing and editing, I kept saying, I'll never make it. I can't do it.

It's too hard.

It's too tough. And it doesn't matter how positive I am usually or how I manage to I don't know, find adversity and win. It doesn't matter. You can be as tough as you want, but when you're doing— I don't know, a friend told me that he's doing the Ironman. I said, I have no will or desire to do the Ironman. And he said, yeah, but your book is your Ironman. And I love that. Each of us has their own struggles. So if you decide to write a book, imagine as you— if you're doing your marathon or your Ironman. It's hard, but you know the finish line. You have to get there. And if you have your deadlines and the habits and everything's in place, there's no need to beat yourself up. It just doesn't serve any purpose whatsoever.

So try and be kind to yourself. When I was doing the 30-day challenge and writing every day, I would go and run.

And I used to go running with some friends of mine, and especially um, Tommy, which is a good friend of mine, and we, we would run on the boardwalk. After 3 or 4K, he would struggle, and I would say, uh, you're good, you're good, you're doing fine, let's keep going, let's keep going, just a little bit more. And, and that words of encouragement would get him over the finish line. And once we're done, we would feel so good, and he would say, I hate you, but thank you. So doing the 5K every single day, and I started having I don't have— I started to have pains, um, in my knees, and I have a problem in my leg and the back. And it was less about will I finish or not, but more about how would I feel at the end. And then I never stopped. I just did the same run every single day. Sometimes it was easy, some was Sometimes it was really hard, but I kept pushing. And a big reason why I kept pushing was doing that concept of coaching yourself, because you have to do it and you decide you're going to do the challenge. It was about, you're okay, you're good, you're good. Just do that hill, just a little bit more, a little bit more, one more K and you can do it. And then I noticed that that mind shift also started to go into my writing process. Into my job, into a lot of the other things, was instead of being harsh on yourself— and if you think about it, the person you're the least nicest to on the planet is you, right? If something spills, there's a problem, something happens, you say, I'm so stupid, I'm so stupid, I can't believe I did that. Well, stop doing that because it doesn't serve any purpose. But if I say, okay, don't be harsh on yourself, what can we do to better the day? What can we write or edit to improve it? And even now, I wanted to skip this video. I usually say I will do it and I never actually do it, and then I feel bad, and then I say I will never get to anything because I don't do it. But you know what? This whole shaving idea, which I always wanted to do, probably took me— what is it now? Um, almost 4 hours, this whole video. And you know what, I hope you find something that interests you. And for me, I had fun. I, I had to sit down, I had to take notes, I had to do it. It made me feel good. I was positive about the things I've achieved and the things I, I learned about myself. And doing that process and being positive about it, it has something good to do with the way you look at the struggles or the tasks or the things you have to accomplish right now.

You can choose to be hard on yourself, and that's fine, but try the other way. It works.

Um, I hope you've enjoyed this video, and if so, feel free to subscribe.

My newsletter is gonna start soon, and the idea is to share with you learnings from my storytelling experiences. I travel the world During 2020 so far, I've done 35 days in the US. I've spoken at Collision in Toronto. I've been to I don't know how many countries in Europe. And I'm going to travel again quite extensively. And I invite you to join and learn and maybe share some of your own experiences. And if you're a startup or you're just trying to figure it out, If you're a founder, whoever you are, a student, I don't mind. I'll be happy to have you. So subscribe, subscribe to the newsletter and the YouTube channel, and I'll see you on the next video. And I'm not sure, but I think I'll keep the shave for a while. See you guys. Thank you very much for watching. Thank you.