Welcome to Week 2 of my 52 Week Challenge

– I’m challenging you to write a book with me!!! 

Don’t forget to watch this week’s accompanying Youtube Video found here, for Week Two and if you missed it, see the Week One video here. 

What’s week 2 all about… Well after getting organized last week, we need to know WHAT exactly will we be writing for the next year?

I started this journey to document my process for writing a book from start to finish, which is so rote right now that I better write it down before I forget. Sure I’ve had checklists and such but I’ve learned so much I barely think about it anymore and sometimes that is not a good thing. The other reason I’m doing this, for you of course, but also I wanted to get back into blogging. Blogging used to be the number one way that I found and built my readers, fans and followers and I wanted to find a way to return to that with something unique, new and fresh, but that also would challenge me. If a video a week like an edited, captioned video a week isn’t challenging I don’t know what is. We’re talking camera ready, talking and speaking about what I tell others I know a lot about, what was I thinking?

Ahhhhhhhhhhggggggrrrrrrr

Despite documenting this from start to finish, if you’re new to my channel and yes, I’m documenting all of this for the very first time, every little detail I hope to share with you BUT, am I a cheater if I’m not new to writing?  I feel like it’s the first time, it is the first time for consistent Youtube content, and worksheets I’ll develop and share and no this nonfiction book, won’t be new but let me tell you, IT IS NOT WRITTEN!!! AT ALL, NOTHING, NADA, ZERO, ZILCH.

YES, this nonfiction book will be my third nonfiction type of project, next to my Publishing Action Guide Book (that’s 60 pages mind you-does it really count)  and my self help tiny book/part journal/part anecdotal advice for the journey, called Pack Light: Thoughts for Journey, and it will be my 15^th book overall, my heart is in romance and I WILL (some how in this craziness) continue to find time to write and release those books even through this process.

Throughout this, you will have access to three, if not five different tools I’ll be sharing on this journey with you.

The first three are standard and the last two are stretch goals if time and bandwidth (and a dose of insanity) permits me to create them for you.

1. A Youtube Video – not less than 5 minutes and not more than 25 minutes – My goal is to keep them short and manageable and watchable most importantly in a short amount time. I’m always respectful of people’s time as I hope they are of mine, but I’m a newbie Youtuber so if you have thoughts and constructive criticism, please share. Also share any questions or topics you want to ask me.
2. Other IG shorts, see my IGTV – these will be tips around whatever the topic for the week or other supplemental material that will hopefully expound on the points, and
3. Blog posts like these – I’ll summarize and delve further at times into the video content.

STRETCH GOALS*

4. Worksheets – free downloads I’ll link to both under the video and here in the accompany blog post

5. A comprehensive workbook toward the end of the year if it happens

*both items will likely have and additional costs to access, but I’ll really and truly keep them low costs and free when possible.

A word about where ideas come from…

For my fiction, I talk about it often, but for me, ideas come from the headlines. Being a news junkie I’m often obsessed with the headlines of the day, particular those around crime, missing persons and mysterious murders and unsolved mysteries. Think Dateline and 48 Hours television shows that get to more than just a simple tale of what happened but seek to answer something that is not usually never solved. Why? We’re usually never privy to such information (because it’s in the mind of perpetrator) but it is so fun to speculate and that’s what great romantic fiction with a little suspense is all about and that’s what I write.

With nonfiction, there is a different set of questions involved. I think it’s around, there is a problem that exists or a recurring motivation that puts people in the wrong place, whether that’s broke, or socially awkward, in debt or under educated and the issue is HOW did we solve a similar experience and how can we then demonstrate and depict how we have solved this issue that occurs for so many. That’s all most nonfiction is about: Finding and stating the problems or woes of the world and seeking about sharing with all willing learners and readers how to go about solving that problem.

For the duration of the year, it’s about a more systematic approach to leaving a 9 -5, to what Steve Harvey calls “jump”, but again, for me, a more orderly, systematic jump that is, I hope, going to be less stressful, doesn’t put me in a panic, leaves me financially and mentally calm (read in tact and not off my rocker), is orderly and that ultimately makes sense for me for where I’m at and what I want to do.

I’ll also share that SH seems to believe or at least says in his videos, that you can’t be successful without the jump. One, I’m a very cautious person, and you have to be careful in thinking about WHAT a celebrity or anyone really, says in relation to what they SELL. I can’t believe that anything is the ONLY way to do something or that there is ONLY their version, only one way. With what people say, think about what they are SELLING. IF they are trying to to SELL you something, and we are all salespeople whether we choose to admit it or not but despite his saying Jumping is the only way to success I’m sure he’d agree that it’s NOT the only way, it’s just one helpful and scary but workable way to get meet success. I mean really, aren’t there some “jumpers” that exist that didn’t become successful? Aren’t there some “jumpers” that ten twenty years later, still living from homeless shelter to homeless shelter, chasing an idea that never took off? Trying to fund an idea and a pipe dream that broke not only them but slowly took too much time, effort and dismantled their families, bankrupted their hopes and dreams and stole a piece or all of their mind and sanity they needed to function and focus? And still more that Jumped for about 5-6 years and somehow managed to find their way back to the 9-5 working for the grind and the man before the dismantling of their savings and their families?

For me jumping is sometimes too quick, I am with the school of thought that 1. People don’t work at their side hustle long enough before jumping. They jump and often have nothing to put in to their side hustle and that is problematic.

No funds, no growth.

Many a multimillion dollar entrepreneur has first taken whatever they made and funded the biz until it was turning a steady profit, not an intermittent profit but a steady, day in, sunny day, raining day, snowing day, flood day, profit. This is where I think most people’s problems lay. LACK of patience to steadily build something until it’s really showing you that the model you have implemented, works, longterm.

The other issue for some isn’t the income and the need earn a paycheck to fund the business, it’s the HEALTH CARE system, however broken it appears to be, that keeps most of us tethered to our work and oh say the fact that needing to be able to go straight to the doctor and get care the moment we’re ill. The bills that come home in the mail from the uninsured are astronomical. Your COPAY is a blessing. I know you hate it, but that word “CO” means there’s a partner in this medical system, helping you to pay your medical bills and working with you to reduce your financial responsibility for each one.

I’m #sorrynotsorry but the healthcare system isn’t broken for those with enough money to pay everything out of pocket without batting an eye, nor is it really broken for myself and others as an employee paid by somebody else.

This is what kept me at my FTE.

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Note some of the above passages are unedited.

By the way if you read all the above, honestly, when I wrote this, I was simply doing the blog post. When I look back over it, in an effort to explain to you, I see passages of what will be, if not the entire thing, will be used as the first chapter. Do you see it?  A kind of explanation of the impetus behind the work, what my issues are with work that’s already out there (or how others are “doing it” and why it won’t necessarily work for everyone/me) and essentially explaining to readers that for me, that way of doing something doesn’t work for me, here’s how I’m proposing/setting out on a course to do it in a way that I hope works for not only me, but maybe you too.

What’s the issue you’re working on?

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Important questions to ask (and to figure out) about your own book 

What are you writing?

Me?: Nonfiction, informational book, self help, reference

Find similar subjects/books like what you want to write

Me?: Elizabeth White – 55 And Faking Normal,  

I saw Elizabeth White on a NPR tube cast and liked her instantly. While I’m not 55, she had a universal story about ending up broke because it had happened to her. I hope to meet and interview her or likely quote her in my own work/this very project, which would be awesome. If you’re here not only for writing the book, but interested int he subject matter I’m tackling, enjoy this first interview that introduced me to her.

  Steve Harvey – Jump (HarperCollins) – there are more of course, but these were two I liked and the SH Book, I felt I was writing the direct anti/rejection of and i love the book don’t get me wrong. If I did not have a disability and a chronic condition, yes, I’d take the advice and jump too.

Remember when you’re looking at categories, look at this portion of the Amazon page for the books you’ve identified as similar to yours. Let’s be clear, the rankings are AWESOME, but at this stage, I’m after the categories.

Other side note: KDP Rocket (now called Publisher Rocket) is a software program invented by an Amazon/KDP author, that you can purchase that will assist you in finding a number of keywords to describe your book (and improve rankings). Most users proclaim that this is an ingenious program that can help you sell more books based on the number/better keyword/categories you have for your work.

Mentors (from Afar)

ME? Same as books mentioned above.

Note: The “afar” simply means I don’t know them at all yet I still believe in following people’s journey, seeing what they’re doing and you can be mentored in that kind of way. It’s important to note that, when I say find a mentor, whether that’s someone you meet with consistently or someone that’s more famous that you don’t know personally at all, I’m not saying copy this person by any means, but later I’ll put a collage on Pinterest of books similar to what I’m writing. When I write any book, I have ALWAYS found similar books to inspire me, to say I want this look and this feel, even after 13 books, I continue to screen shot, or bookmark covers I love as I plan and dream about my own writing, and when I choose a cover designer, I’ll also have a collection of titles I like; colors and feels and covers to then share with them as they try to create something I will love. That’s toward the end of our year together but get ready, there’s no reason you can’t look right now. Go ahead and  screen shot the day away…okay maybe not the entire day but if you write about 10 pages, I’d say you deserve a few hours of pointing and clicking. It’s research, a very important part of the process. 

Length of the Book

Me?:  200-300 pages

Extras that will make your book unique or different?

Me?:   Topical Index, Resource index, disclosure of condition that might resonate with certain folks and demographics and might also NOT resonate with other groups and demographics

Bonus: Mind Map for the book I’m working on for the year.

Bonus: Mind Map Template -Blank

A few of my favorite things

Check out some awesome tools for generating ideas and a little something to help you get ready for the journey. Note the following are *affiliate links, which  mean at no costs to you if you carry your purchase through to check out, I will receive a small commission.