How to Write Your Best Book: Part One
Writing your first book is equal parts intimidating and exhilarating. You're scared and excited at the same time. One fear that grips new authors is how to write a book in the first place. Turns out, you re-learn this skill with every new title. After wri
Writing your first book can be both intimidating and exhilarating. You are scared and excited at the same time. Turns out, this never goes away. You are always learning how to write a book.
After writing four books, I assumed it would be easy to tackle my fifth. I was wrong. As my friend Tim Sanders likes to say, genius is a team sport. Writing Real Artists Don't Starve was no exception to this rule.
[share-quote via="sanderssays"]Genius is a team sport.
When I first learned the truth about Michelangelo's wealth, this nagging idea of the starving artist wouldn't let go of me. I knew I needed to write about it. There was a message worth sharing in there, but it was evading me.
So, I reached out to author, friend, and writing coach, Marion Roach Smith, for help. During the course of several conversations, Marion walked me through her process of researching, writing, and editing a book, and what resulted was the book that became Real Artists Don't Starve.
I've broken that conversation into four parts that I'm sharing with you here on the podcast in a series called "How to Write Your Best Book." In Part 1, Marion and I talk about getting started with writing a book. Listen in as we cover how to clarify your argument, what it takes to create a "closet" structure to write within, and how to hit your most stubborn beliefs with a hammer. I think you're going to like it.
Listen to the podcast
To listen to the show, click the player below (If you’re reading this via email, please click here).
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Show highlights
In this episode, Marion and I discuss:
Why doubt is an indicator of respect for your craft
How reading a book is like an adventure
What questions and doubts reveal about your book's structure
The original title for Real Artists Don't Starve
Attending a witch camp to research a book about redheads
The modular method of writing a book
Why you don't have to be right to write non-fiction
A practical writing strategy for not wasting 40,000 words
Asking surgeons unorthodox questions about their experience in the world
How long to research before you start writing a book
Quotes and takeaways
You re-learn how to write a book every time you write a book.
"We are all apprentices in a craft where no one ever becomes a master." --Ernest Hemingway
If you have no questions or doubts, you're not conscious of how textured the writing experience is.
"Books are a cumulative experience." --Marion Roach Smith
"Once you understand the argument and can put it into a sentence, you can build the best book in the world." --Marion Roach Smith
"How do you write a book? One word at a time." --Marion Roach Smith
The best way to get someone to learn something is to put it to music or make it funny.
"You can never stop short of fulfilling that obligation to your reader to make it as good as it can be." --Marion Roach Smith
[share-quote via="mroachsmith"]When people cling to the idea that they have to starve to succeed, they're going to starve.
Resources
The Roots of Desire by Marion Roach Smith
The Book Writing Framework
What does your research process look like? Where in your book do you start writing first? Share in the comments