Blog

Writing a Book: Overview

Tue, 11 Apr 2017 18:54:30 +0000

I’ve been a book coach for 19 years, working with people all over the world on memoir, novels, self-help books and even film scripts. I began my career as an international journalist (in newsrooms like London’s Financial Times).

People come to my company, Art of Storytelling, wanting to write and publish a book. Few understand the stages involved. I’m creating an outline of the stages here, and expounding upon them on my YouTube Art of Storytelling stream. Subscribe to both blog and stream to keep posted on more on the publication process. We assist people wherever they are at in the book writing process, from rough draft to publication.

Rough draft

Duration: On average, a rough draft takes a new writer one to two years to complete.

Skill sets: In this phase, you’ll be learning to develop characterization, setting, plot and theme.

Biggest Lesson: The greatest lesson you can learn at this stage is to get into a zone, and to write from the soul no matter HOW rough it is. Most new writers start as perfectionists and must unlearn this to become true writers.

Revision

Duration: More than one revision will be required, sometimes three to five revisions.

  • The first revision is a deepening of the rough draft and usually means simply getting the story straight from start to finish. Because this is so deep, it can take one year for new writers.
  • The next revision is for polishing the language. This can take a few months.
  • A final polishing revision is required. At this stage some writers send the manuscript to a professional editor. Duration one month.

Skill sets: Learning how to write a plot, deepening of characters, integrating setting details, deepening the themes.

Biggest lesson: When you write a book, it must be transformational to you, and only in so doing will it be transformational to others. Leaving the intellect and burying oneself deep in the soul is the lesson here.

No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader.
No surprise in the writer, no surprise in the reader.

– Robert Frost

Publication

We’ll cover the process of publication (building an author platform, finding a literary agent, and the publication process for both traditional and self publishing) in our next blog.

Art of Storytelling is a book coaching and editing service, and offers a free initial consultation. Contact us today.