You know you want to write a book. I can help.
Everyone loves to talk about the lousy first draft.
Nearly everyone gets it wrong.
Yes, ignore spelling, punctuation, grammar in your first draft.
But also ignore everything you know about writing except this: tell your story.
The primary purpose of writing without stopping, spewing an unrefined first draft, is to not give yourself time to edit, even to think.
Only time to feel.
[image: ] A confused fan searches for one of my booksAlmost two years ago I started my 6th novel. Plotting and planning, then writing like mad. Research, plot adjustments, pondering, and more writing like mad.
Somewhere along the way, it crashed.
More precisely, I crashed.
On November 11th of 2011 I released 6 books simultaneously. (11/11/11, get it?) In the previous 6 months I’d written (or compiled) 4 books and co-authored 2 more, all books about business philosophy and process.
I switched to fiction. Finally followed up my first Irish adventure novel with a second, then started another series, and a third.
It was like driving a Lamborghini steamroller.
Then, I got some professional advice.
This is still a common question. Any time we’re embracing something completely new to us, the steepness of the learning curve is overwhelming. Sometimes we don’t even know what questions to ask. Sometimes taking a stab at an answer helps draw out more refined questions.
If you’re totally completely helplessly lost about this “ebook” thing, I’ll try to answer the question “Where do I start?” as long as we agree that it’s akin to asking “I’d like to learn to play music; where do I start?” Far too vague to have a real answer, but enough to start hacking through the underbrush to some better questions.
Not necessarily in any kind of order:
… more … “I know nothing about creating an ebook. Where do I start?”