The 3 Game-Changing Lessons I Learned Writing My First Book

All right, no smart remarks about how my first book was written in Sanskrit.

Yeah, I’ve been writing for money for 50 years and writing books for 40. And yes, by the time I wrote that first book, I had graduated from a manual typewriter to an electric.

Remember those?

I told some college students about starting my career on a manual typewriter and—thinking I was being funny—said, “I’m sure some of you have heard of the typewriter.”

A girl shouted, “I think I saw one once!”

Where? Jurassic Park?

Well, I drive an actual car into town these days; no more hitching the horses to the buckboard when the wife and I need to stock up on flour, sorghum, and molasses.

And not only do I keyboard my books and novels electronically now—and sometimes even dictate passages that magically appear as copy on the screen—but some things are changeless, like the lessons I learned writing my first book four decades ago:

1—There’s a reason the task appears overwhelming.

Because it is! You’ve heard the rusty adage about how writing a book is like eating an elephant—one bite at a time.

Adages become clichés because they’re true. I had to break down the book-writing steps into tasks with target dates, and that helped keep me sane and gave me the momentum feeling of accomplishment so crucial to success.

My first book was an as-told-to-autobiography, so—though a new challenge for  me—the steps were fairly logical. I needed to:

Amass enough information on my subject to sell a publisher on the idea
Gather all the published information I could find so I could have my subject confirm or correct it as a way to begin the interviewing
Shape a rough outline of my subject’s life
Interview my subject to get never-before-published material and insight into the events the public already knew about
Transcribe the recordings of the interviews
Reorganize the transcripts chronologically for ease of use
Carefully schedule the writing, the review by the subject, and the rewriting to meet the deadline

I confess I was spoiled by that first experience so long ago. It happened that my first subject was a bright young man who came with his own ideas and outlines, and he was totally prepared.

How could I know he was unique and that I would not enjoy that much help from a subject in dozens of similar projects since?

2—What I learned about publishers

They need your help. They really do.

Don’t be timid, even if you’re brand new. Offer, suggest, advise. No one knows your book the way you do. If the publisher doesn’t want your input or thinks you’re overstepping, they’ll let you know.

But you’ll regret it if they miss something important simply because you were too polite to mention it.

I wish I’d written my own back cover copy. They assigned it to someone who worked from my original letter and proposal, not the final manuscript. I had written that when I knew as little about the final product as she did, and it showed.

By the time I saw it, it was too late to change.

I wish I’d had input on the advertising copy, even though it was just one sentence on a page full of books. I’ve not mentioned the title or the publisher because I don’t want to embarrass anyone—despite that none of the principals are still there after all these years.

But get a load of what someone thought was a compelling sales pitch when all they had was one line to work with. It actually began, “A typical story of…” Can you believe it?

I couldn’t either, but because I didn’t know enough to speak up, I missed my chance. Lesson learned.

It’s sell copy! How about, “The dynamic story of…” or “The moving, or unforgettable, or life-changing, or dynamic story of…”?

3—You can do this

I’ve made a life of this book-writing thing, and you can too. If you’ve been hung up by procrastination, self-doubt, or rejection, just remember that I’ve been there—as have countless others before you.

Believe it or not, procrastination doesn’t have to be all bad. You can learn to harness it and train your subconscious to be working for you while you’re doing something other than writing.

Developing a daily writing ritual is key and will make you more productive than you dreamed possible. Determine whether you’re a morning or a night person, and schedule your writing hours accordingly.

My goal is to regularly offer free tips and inspiration right here, because I believe you have a story that deserves to be well told.

In the Comments section below, tell me what you’re working on and what’s standing in your way, and I’ll give you a little feedback.  :-)

The post The 3 Game-Changing Lessons I Learned Writing My First Book appeared first on Jerry Jenkins Writers Guild.