It’s tempting as a writer to think that “everyone” is your audience. But the reality is that your message is not for everyone. It’s a paradox that the more you focus on a very specific type of person, the more people will be able to relate to it.

Specifically, narrowing down your audience will give you three things:

1. Clarity. A lot of the frustration that writers feel is because of confusion. When you understand who you’re writing for, and the frustrations that you’re helping to solve, life gets a lot easier and more fun. You want your material to attract the right people and repel the wrong reader.
2. Intensity. It is very exciting to go through this process and finally get a handle on who you’re writing for. This will give you an incredible intensity because you know your audience and understand them. It also takes out all of the guesswork about your writing. When you have clarity, you will then have an intensity of focus because you know what you’re trying to accomplish.
3. Feedback. When you start to write for a particular type of person, you will get feedback from people that will help you further refine your audience’s needs and interests. If you are writing for “everyone,” your message is going to be diluted because you’re always going to be second-guessing yourself.

If you try to write for everyone, it’s like going down a wide river that has no momentum. When you write for a more focused and specific audience, it’s like going down rapids where the banks are close together and there is lots of action. You will experience a lot more excitement and get where you’re going much faster.

Daily Question: What specific audience are you writing for?

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In the previous episode, I mentioned the importance of finishing a first draft of your book. But the urgency doesn’t stop there.

I’m not saying you should be sloppy or rush through things. You should make your book, or any writing for that matter, as good as it can be. But the fact of the matter is that we all have limited time on this earth. There comes a point after you have written the first draft, the second draft, done revisions and formatting, the other things you need to do with your writing to make it great, when you need to publish it.

Your #1 goal should be to get your current project finished and published, and then move on to the next thing. We make this whole writing thing overly complicated sometimes.

Make it good, do your best, and hit publish on that sucker. You won’t become a better writer by continually tinkering with your current project and never actually pulling the publish trigger. You’ll get better by doing more work and learning from each one, while getting feedback along the way. It’s hard to get a lot of meaningful feedback on something you have not yet published.

The author Dan Poynter was one of the early advocates of self-publishing. He said, “If you wait for inspiration to write you’re not a writer, you’re a waiter.”

But maybe that’s an overstatement. Even waiters deliver something to the table. So, make it your goal to deliver your work to your hungry readers who have been waiting for your book, blog, or podcast.

Daily Question: Have you been putting off publishing your work because you’re a perfectionist? Be honest.

The post Finish & Publish appeared first on Daily Writer | Essential Habits for Impact & Influence.

Many people have great ideas for books. They seem equally motivated to tackle the writing and publishing aspects. But the outline gives writers a lot of trouble because it seems like a mysterious, vague process.

On this episode, I’ll walk you through a simple 5-step roadmap for outlining a standard non-fiction book. This is the exact process I walk through with my clients when we are creating their books.

But first, a few questions …

What is a book outline? An outline is the scaffolding or framework that is the backbone of your book. I prefer to think of an outline as the journey the reader will take in order to solve a problem.

Why use a book outline? An outline makes writing much easier because you can see where you are going. It also gives you the big picture of the whole book and ensures that you are serving your reader in the best way possible.

When should you outline? It is always better to outline at the beginning because you will use your writing time wisely. You don’t have to guess where you are going. When you are “in the weeds” of writing, it’s easy to get lost in the details. The outline always brings you back to the big picture.

What Type of Non-Fiction Book Should You Write?

Knowing what you’re shooting for up front will be a huge help when developing your outline. That way you don’t have to guess at what type of book you’re writing.

I recommend a 150-page non-fiction book (Approx. 40,000-45,000 words.). This is a great length. It’s long enough to demonstrate your expertise, but short enough not to intimidate the reader. Unless you’re Stephen King, less is always more when it comes to book length.

For the outline, I recommend 10-15 chapters, divided into 3-4 main sections. This keeps the chapters at a manageable length (2,500-3,500 words). Each chapter will be divided into 5-7 segments of 500-750 words. You can get your head around writing in these smaller chunks, and it feels less intimidating.

Note: The steps below are primarily for authors who are starting from scratch. If you already have material from your blog, podcast, workshops, presentations, etc. you can easily start from there. However, you still want to go through the following steps to ensure that you are creating a solid outline that makes sense, rather than a collection of material that is loosely related.

5 Steps to Crafting a Solid Book Outline

1. Determine who your ideal reader is and the problem you are trying to solve for them.

This is a huge step all by itself. But the bottom line is that you must have a clear idea about your topic, your ideal reader, and the change you want to help them achieve as a result of reading your book.

Remember, a book is more than just a dumping ground for a bunch of information. You are taking the reader from point A to point B. Point B represents a place where they are happier, healthier, more successful, more abundant, or whatever change you are helping them achieve.

2. Figure out why your reader hasn’t already achieved these results.

In the book, you will use a simple sales technique where you are addressing reader’s objections (false beliefs). But first, you have to understand what those objections and false beliefs are.

These false beliefs typically fall into three categories:

• False beliefs about themselves (“I can’t do it,” “I’ve tried that before and it didn’t work”)
• False beliefs about the topic (“The topic isn’t relevant to me,” “Your program won’t work”)
• False beliefs about their environment (“My family doesn’t support me,” “I’ll be the odd one in my social group”)

Here are a few other ways you can discover people’s pain points related to your topic:

• Do keyword research to learn what people are searching for related to your topic: https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/how-to-do-keyword-research-ht.
• You can also use a tool call Brainstorm It!, available here.
• Spend a lot of time talking to people in your target audience to make sure you understand their pain, struggles, frustrations, and obstacles related to your topic. Don’t assume that you already know.
• Use Google to ask questions related to your topic. Google will produce even more relevant questions that will be helpful.

3. Use the reader’s pain points/questions and organize them into 3-4 major sections of 3-4 chapters each.

I recommend taking some time to write each pain point/question on an index card, then group them according to topic. This is where a lot of people get hung up because they don’t feel they’re organized enough to tackle this. It doesn’t need to be perfect. Go as far as you can with this step, and you’ll refine it in the next couple of steps.

Remember, you’re taking the reader on a journey. What is the most logical way to order the chapters so it makes the most sense to the reader?

Here is a typical structure for a non-fiction book (each Part consists of 3-4 chapters):

Part 1: Foundational information about the topic; why it matters

Parts 2-3: Dive deeper into the material and apply it to different situations

Part 4: Special circumstances, or other material that doesn’t fit elsewhere but is still relevant

You can also use mind-mapping to help organize and brainstorm content (There is some overlapping between these steps.).

4. Look at similar books in your genre to ensure you haven’t left anything out.

No, this doesn’t mean you are copying what other authors are doing. Rather, you are ensuring that you’re covering the bases of your topic. Looking at other books in your field will also help you see where your perspective is unique. You will probably get some ideas for your book outline or structure as well.

5. Get feedback from a few people who represent your ideal reader.

This is a key step because they will probably identify some things you missed. To keep things simple, I recommend going back to the people you talked to in Step 2 and asking them to review the outline.

Final thoughts: I know I went through these pretty quickly, so it sounds like a very simple process. It does take some time, but if you go through these steps, creating an outline is actually a very straightforward process.

Don’t be intimidated by what feels like a massive book project. If you take it step-by-step, you will get there! Once you create a solid outline, the book starts to feel like a real thing, and you will get even more excited about it.

Remember: we still have 6 months left in 2021—more than enough time to make awesome headway on your book project. So, get a jumpstart this summer. Come January, you’ll be glad you did!

The post How to Outline a Non-Fiction Book appeared first on Daily Writer | Essential Habits for Impact & Influence.