How to Find Time to Write a Book

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By Diane Eble

Let’s face a couple of facts: 1. Writing a book will take a chunk of time and energy. 2. Your life is already full, and you have no extra time.

Given these two facts, how can you make the time to write the book you have inside your head, the book that’s been calling to you to write for months or even years?

1. First, get in touch with that deep desire within you to write and publish a book. Envision as clearly as you can what it will be like to have a finished, published book in your hands. The title encapsulates just what you want the world to know. You name is on that book. It is bound, with a beautiful cover, and a publisher’s name on the spine, along with your own.

You’re a published author. What is this going to do for you? Win you the respect and admiration of friends, colleagues, and family? Increase your business by your new position as expert? Allow you to approach people you never could before, by sending them your book? Enable you to name a much higher fee the next time you’re asked to speak, and to have something to sell in the back of the room?

Whatever you want from your book, imagine it vividly. Then write it down. This is a most important pre-writing exercise. This desire is what will fuel your ability to keep on going even when the going gets tough. Review this document any time you feel your motivation sagging. Or, better yet, review it every day.

2. Prune and prioritize. You may have to make some tough decisions. If your life is already full, what will you cut out in order to harvest the time and energy to write your book?

Look at the chores you already do that take up chunks of time. Can you hire someone to clean your house or do your yard work so you can spend that time writing instead? How much television do you watch? Can you forego that time to write your book? Or can you go to bed earlier and get up earlier and write before you go off to work?

There are lots of great resources for managing time better, from books to audios such as The Time Commandments by "GoalGuru" Jill Koenig.

3. Start out with little blocks of time — and make sure you schedule it. Even 20-30 minutes spent jotting down ideas for your book, or researching, or writing can add up.

Here’s another insider’s tip. The little exercise I’m about to share was key in making me a very productive writer. Set a time to write for 10 minutes, say at 4 p.m. Let nothing stop you from dropping whatever you are doing to sit down and write from 4-4:10. It doesn’t matter what you write; for this exercise, the point is merely to train yourself to write whenever you need to. “Write on demand” as it were. You won’t believe the power of this simple exercise until you try it.

4. Get a handle on what your book is about, and then break it down into bite-sized pieces. Begin by brainstorming everything you want to have in your book. Then arrange these into chapters in some kind of logical order.

For each chapter, brainstorm everything you want to be in that chapter. Highlight any topics that you don’t currently know enough about. These areas will comprise your research.

When it’s time to write, choose one little thing to do that will move you ahead one step. Again, it might just be jotting down more ideas for a particular chapter. Or doing one bit of research. Or writing a page.

This is what professional writers do: They set aside time to work, and then set a quota (so many pages written, or X items researched, etc.). You will do the same, only perhaps on a smaller scale. The key here is discipline. Once you begin to structure your writing into your day or week, you will see your book materialize, step by step. That will build the momentum you need to keep going.

If you need help in implementing these suggestions, Diane Eble is a book publishing coach with 28 years experience in the publishing industry as an editor (magazines, fiction and nonfiction books), author (11 published books, more than 400 articles), and copywriter. She helps people to write, publish, and make money with books and other information products. This article was excerpted from her free "Your Book Publishing Coach" newsletter. If you feel you have a book inside you, check out her resource, Jump Start Your Book: 12 Questions You Must Answer Before You Write Your First Word.

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