A lot of you who are listening are working on books. I’d like to share a method I’ve been using to write my upcoming Daily Writer book, which will release this coming October. This process is very doable for anyone.

I’ve been doing my Daily Writer podcast since November 2020, well over a year now. As you probably know since you listen to this show, I release a short episode each weekday, then do an interview on Saturdays. On Sundays, sometimes I do a short episode, bonus content, another interview, or something else.

Here is what you may not know: each weekday episode is actually the first draft of a daily entry in my Daily Writer book. This will be a book of daily meditations for writers. Each quarter has a specific theme, and each month has a sub-theme within the quarter.

Each meditation is about 200 words (give or take). I write in Scrivener, and so far, I have a little over 80,000 words of content for the book—the vast majority of which was produced as episodes for this podcast. That’s the equivalent of two full-length books, or three shorter ones.

In order to get rough drafts of these daily meditations done, I often dictate them while driving or taking a walk. I have a seed of an idea that I’ve written ahead of time, I dictate it, clean up the writing for the podcast, then, of course, I am editing them again for the book.

But… it all starts with the daily podcast. It has forced me to write these whether I feel like it or not. And because I know people are expecting these every day, I have to produce.

A big reason I started this writing podcast was to force me to create these daily entries. Now I’m getting close to having 3/4 of the first draft finished.

So, my encouragement to you is that if you have a book you want to write, but you’re having trouble making time to do it, an EXCELLENT way to get it done is by outlining it ahead of time, then writing it as tiny little chunks for a podcast. Or you can just talk it out on the podcast, then organize it into a book later.

Either way, the regularity of the podcast will force you to produce, with the added benefit of getting feedback from listeners as you go.

Daily Question: Have you ever considered using a podcast as a way to force you to create content for a book?