{"id":6972,"date":"2017-10-26T01:00:25","date_gmt":"2017-10-26T08:00:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/?p=6972"},"modified":"2017-10-24T16:53:46","modified_gmt":"2017-10-24T23:53:46","slug":"does-your-book-concept-have-legs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/does-your-book-concept-have-legs\/","title":{"rendered":"Does your book concept have legs?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Jerry-Jenkins.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-6975 size-thumbnail\" src=\"http:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Jerry-Jenkins-150x150.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" srcset=\"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Jerry-Jenkins-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Jerry-Jenkins-300x297.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/a>Today\u2019s guest blogger, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jerryjenkins.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Jerry Jenkins<\/a>, has written a thorough article, &#8220;How to Write a Book: Everything You Need to Know in 20 Steps<em>.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n<p>I love lists, so of course I was intrigued to find out more. And I love it when writers talk about passion.<\/p>\n<p>Listed below are a few of Jerry&#8217;s steps about writing a book, excerpted or paraphrased from his comprehensive list (link at the bottom of this post).<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Where to start\u2026<\/li>\n<li>What each step entails\u2026<\/li>\n<li>How to overcome fear, procrastination, and writer\u2019s block\u2026<\/li>\n<li>And how to keep from feeling overwhelmed.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h4>Establish your writing space.<\/h4>\n<p>If you dedicate a room solely to your writing, you can write off a portion of your home mortgage, taxes, and insurance proportionate to that space. You can also write in restaurants and coffee shops.<\/p>\n<h4>\u00a0Assemble your writing tools.<\/h4>\n<p>Try to imagine\u00a0everything\u00a0you\u2019re going to need in addition to your desk or table, so you can equip yourself in advance and don\u2019t have to keep interrupting your work to find things like:<\/p>\n<p>Stapler<\/p>\n<p>Paper clips<\/p>\n<p>Rulers<\/p>\n<p>Pencil holders<\/p>\n<p>Pencil sharpeners<\/p>\n<p>Note pads<\/p>\n<p>Printing paper<\/p>\n<p>Please click on the link below to see the rest of the list.<\/p>\n<h4>Break the project into small pieces.<\/h4>\n<p>Writing a book feels like a colossal project, because it is! But your manuscript will be made up of many small parts.<\/p>\n<p>An old adage says that\u00a0the way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time.<\/p>\n<p>Try to get your mind off your book as a 400-or-so-page monstrosity.<\/p>\n<p>See your book for what it is: a manuscript made up of sentences, paragraphs, pages. Those pages will begin to add up, and though after a week you may have barely accumulated double digits, a few months down the road you\u2019ll be into your second hundred pages.<\/p>\n<p>So keep it simple.<\/p>\n<p>Start by distilling your big book idea from a page or so to a single sentence\u2014your premise. The more specific that one-sentence premise, the more it will keep you focused while you\u2019re writing.<\/p>\n<h4>Settle on your BIG idea.<\/h4>\n<p>To be book-worthy, your idea has to be killer.<\/p>\n<p>You need to\u00a0write something about which you\u2019re passionate, something that gets you up in the morning, draws you to the keyboard, and keeps you there. It should excite not only you, but also anyone you tell about it.<\/p>\n<p>If you\u2019ve tried and failed to finish your book before\u2014maybe more than once\u2014it could be that the basic premise was flawed. Maybe it was worth a blog post or an article but couldn\u2019t carry an entire book.<\/p>\n<p>Think\u00a0<em>The Hunger Games<\/em>,\u00a0<em>Harry Potter<\/em>, or\u00a0<em>How to Win Friends and Influence People<\/em>.\u00a0The market is crowded, the competition fierce. There\u2019s no more room for run-of-the-mill ideas. Your premise alone should make readers salivate.<\/p>\n<p>Go for the big concept book.<\/p>\n<p>How do you know you\u2019ve got a winner? Does it have legs? In other words, does it stay in your mind, growing and developing every time you think of it?<\/p>\n<p>Run it past loved ones and others you trust.<\/p>\n<p>Does it raise eyebrows? Elicit Wows? Or does it result in awkward silences?<\/p>\n<p>The right concept simply works, and you\u2019ll know it when you land on it. Most importantly,\u00a0your idea must capture\u00a0you\u00a0in such a way that you\u2019re compelled to write it.\u00a0Otherwise you\u2019ll lose interest halfway through and never finish.<\/p>\n<p><strong>From Marlene:<\/strong>\u00a0 Are you getting the idea that Jerry Jenkin\u2019s article is a complete guide to writing a book?<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s worth a click: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jerryjenkins.com\/how-to-write-a-book\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">How to Write a Book: Everything You Need to Know in 20 Steps.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Today\u2019s guest blogger, Jerry Jenkins, has written a thorough article, &#8220;How to Write a Book: Everything You Need to Know in 20 Steps.&#8221; I love lists, so of course I was intrigued to find out more. And I love it when writers talk about passion. Listed below are a few of Jerry&#8217;s steps about writing [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sfsi_plus_gutenberg_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_show_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_type":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_alignemt":"","sfsi_plus_gutenburg_max_per_row":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[104],"tags":[1113,1112],"class_list":["post-6972","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-guest-bloggers","tag-how-to-write-a-book-everything-you-need-to-know-in-20-steps","tag-jerry-jenkins"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p43Dj8-1Os","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6972","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6972"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6972\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6978,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6972\/revisions\/6978"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6972"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6972"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6972"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}