You Can’t Write a Book in Your Head

I’ve hit a snag in my book writing progress and for days I couldn’t figure out why. Whenever I thought about opening up the document, I’d always find something else to do. Then, today, I figured it out. It’s because I’m trying to write the book the way I write articles.

You see, many people outline their articles on paper before they begin to complete the articles on paper or in a word processor. Not me. I think about how I want the articles to flow and then I start writing. I tried to do the same thing with my book. I thought I could think it through, but if I’m aiming for ~100 pages, that’s impossible. Though I’d written an outline, it was very top level and left me wondering where to start. I know better than that.

I’m going to take what I have so far and transfer it to notecards, then completely flesh out the idea on notecards before I start trying to type the book. I may even do it the way we did in grade school - write the entire book out on notecards. That way, I can arrange, rearrange, and continue to keep a visual picture of what I’m writing. You know, I really can’t believe I didn’t think of this before.