Three full weeks until New Years. Arguably the busiest time of the year. Why not ice the Christmas cake and write a book too?

Better make a commitment here so I cannot turn back!

My Book Writing Journal Begins!

6 days ago I made a commitment to write the book I’ve been thinking about. I was at a breakfast where we were walked through the decisions to become a black belt thought leaders.

With a program already in the market, a book is already part written in me and I feel no compulsion to shell out 27.5K to be pushed to do it.

As an avid reader and self study, Google and Audible led me to a compact and well rated book. It was aptly called How to Write a Book That Doesn’t Suck and Will Actually Sell: Your No B.S. Guide to Learning How to Write a Non Fiction Book.

My kind of book.

I’m on my third listen now thanks to leveraging my gym sessions. I want to ensure I pick up all the tips before I embark on my journey.

One such tip is to journal the process. So today’s commitment is to do just that. This is day one of recording the process of my first book.

I feel I am ready now to start blocking in the time for 500 words a day. This first entry will give me an insight into how long it takes for that count.

I’ll expand on that 500 daily word commitment. The objective is to write a 10-20k book in 3 weeks. 21 days of 500 puts it into that bracket.

Naturally I intend to do closer to 20,000 words, but 500 minimum is a great momentum maker!

So to this point it (including the word count) it is 251 words in roughly 10 minutes.

This means I will need to factor in between 20 and 30 mins per day to hit my 500. That’s if I plan to write the book on my iPhone. I do type quicker on my desktop. Better speeds there.

Please note. If you are reading this while I am in the process of journaling it will be raw. Part of the process is a commitment not to edit the work while writing. Just write. Editing is a separate step. To keep to this practice I will be following the same process here.

Post Promise Edit: For those who have checked and discovered it’s inaccurate. You’re correct. While I promised not to edit, the full name of the book, and the intro paragraph has impacted the word count.

Note to self. Control + Shift + C is the Google docs shortcut to the word count. That will come in handy during this process.

My absolute next step will be to do a slate clean of my personal blog where I will post this journal alongside my actual book writing posts. That is a bit of a daunting task.

Next Up I will be reviewing the action steps in the opening chapters for more tips I can focus on for the next step. Generating the table of contents for the book.

That’s it for this session.

Day 1.5

Okay so I’ve realised that I need to get cracking on the word count for this book. Not just word count for the journal. Otherwise 2019 will ring in and I won’t be done.

I’ve asked my developer to change up the homepage for my blog. An overhaul can wait til the new year.

For now my focus is on getting the foundation work done. And that is deciding what I am going to write about. The goal is to write a kindle book for this first one. Cut my teeth. Write another.

Once I have a series with a bit of a following, God willing, I will consider a print book. That is the theory. At least for now.

The challenge in front of me is to choose the subject of the book. What are my skills? What knowledge do I have?

• A trained graphic designer
• Ran my own branding agency for 17 years
• Team management
• Culture development
• A rebranding specialist
• A values consultant
• Owned and ran one of Australia’s foremost weight loss companies
• Understanding of NLP

What are the biggest obstacles I’ve faced in my life? Fascinating question…

• My life has been heavily impacted by loss of loved ones (Mother, Grand Parents, Sister, Father, Brother all passed away) ~ Probably not a book there.
• Have been through a hellish separation and experienced parental alienation.
• Had a purpose moment and transformed my business – This could be good 🙂
• Discovered my shadows. Working to understand and integrate them so I don’t run sabotaging subconscious patterns.

What do I already read, watch and listen to?

• Hmmm. Depends what I need to do. Like this for example. Solves a need.
• Fascinated with the human brain, psyche, shadows, and human potential.
• Interested in the art of public speaking. Like a boss!
• Meditation and the power of reprogramming
• Leadership, Management etc
• Storytelling

Browse categories in the article directory for topics. – too painful. Skipping this.

Kindle Bookstore Review.

My eyes are getting too tired for this. Where I got to in this search is checking the number of kindle books with Purpose in their title. There is enough to demonstrate there is a market for this subject.

I will search some more in the morning.

Warmly, Luke