BOOK CHAPTER

#2. 10 Minute Author — Introduction

Introduction to writing with consistency

INTRODUCTION

Welcome to 10 Minute Author, Book Two in the Write Now Book Series. Let’s start by framing this book so that you are completely clear on what I’ll be providing and how I will meet your expectations. 10 Minute Author is a guide on how to write a book in 10 minutes a day. This is not a book about every aspect of how to write, but rather how to write anything with consistency, focus, and without the threat of writer’s block.

I’d like to start by telling you a story. Now, this is a story that you’ve probably heard, many times. It’s a story you were probably told as a child and you likely won’t even remember when you first heard it or who told it to you. But, it is a story that is so relevant and significant to 10 Minute Author that the simplicity of it may be the difference that makes the difference.

The story is about a hare and a tortoise. Yes, that’s correct — the story I want to tell you is about the hare and the tortoise. Does that surprise you? I am about to tell you how to write a book in 10 minutes a day and I’m starting with talking about the hare and the tortoise whose moral is slow and steady wins the race, isn’t it?

We’ll get there. For now, the story. For brevity, the hare and the tortoise entered into a race. The speedy hare bragged about how fast he was and the slow and steady tortoise challenged him in a race. The hare was fast, but he was inconsistent and cocky. The hare jumped around everywhere; he had no focus. The tortoise, however, stayed on track and just kept moving. The tortoise got to the finish line first. I wonder how that affects your expectations of what this guide will provide you.

Let’s look at why you’re probably reading this book in the first place and I trust that the story of the hare and the tortoise and its place in this guide will reveal itself… if it hasn’t already.

You are probably reading this because you want to write a book, but you don’t have a lot of time. You consider yourself time-poor and when you saw the title, you thought, “Wow, I can write a book in just 10 minutes a day? I want to know how to do that.” You may have picked up this book because you want to see how somebody else has managed to write a book in 10 minutes a day, perhaps you don’t even believe it’s possible. “Does it mean in 10 minutes? Really? What’s the catch?”

First, I want to address the real problem. If you truly want to write a book, and you’ve been looking for a way to make that happen, and you believe you are time-poor, I’m about to give you a no-excuses way to make that happen. Oh, but the real question is, will you still make an excuse?

You see, the real problem is not that you lack time, it’s that you lack consistency, structure, and focus. Would you agree that anyone could find 10 minutes a day for something truly important to them? Would you agree that anyone could give up 10 minutes of television, or 10 minutes of sleep, or multitask for 10 minutes a day to be able to do something that is really that important? If you said, “No,” I hope you didn’t spend too much money on this book, because you will never write one. That may be harsh, but you know that it also resonates as true. If you are not willing to change your current experience to allow just 10 short minutes for something that means something to you, then you are not yet ready to experience this journey. I trust that one day you will be, and I hope that you’ll pick up from here when that time comes. Now, for everyone else that said, “Yes, of course, duh,” awesome — let’s continue.

Wonderful, so we’ve already overcome the first hurdle, and you’ve agreed that yes, you are willing and can find 10 minutes a day to give back to yourself. Congratulations, that was your first step and you nailed it.

Now the next major problem you are going to come up against is consistency. You’ve said that, yes, you can find 10 minutes a day, but how long is that going to last? Consistency is not about finding 10 minutes on Monday, finding 10 minutes on Wednesday, I didn’t have time on Thursday, so I’ll find 20 minutes on Saturday and slowly no longer finding 10 minutes at all. Consistency is about allocating that 10 minutes every day dedicated solely to this purpose. I provide you with the steps and the structure — oh, that part is easy, but what you need to do, right now, is step up and say, “Yes, I will allocate 10 minutes a day whether it be for three months, six months, a year, until this is done.”

In this guide, I’m going to provide you with how to do that. It’s not just a matter of knowing that you need to allocate 10 minutes a day and be consistent, it’s also about knowing how you do that and how you manage yourself for your overall project.

This guide is broken into three sections that will address that for you. We’ll start by looking at planning and we will go through the process of thinking, researching, and structuring your book. Then we’ll go into create and this is where we write and edit the book. The third part is share and this is where we will publish, market, and potentially sell the book. This book is structured into these three parts with the specific intention of helping you through the process of preparation, creation, and completion while allocating only 10 minutes a day.

We’ll cover how to work out what you’re going to include in your book, tricks to help you to focus and get the highest level of productivity and efficiency from your 10 minutes a day, as well as address some common issues and questions that I often receive. I will offer you tips, tricks, and steps on your journey of writing a book in 10 minutes a day. You may wish to aim for completing these tasks in 10 minutes a day over however many days you wish. I recommend that you aim for anywhere between 3 months to 12 months to write your book in 10 minutes a day. Imagine that for a moment. Imagine in 3 to 12 months, having finished a book and potentially being a published and maybe even printed author. How does that feel? That’s a very important question and I want you to take note of your answer, right now.

I’m going to assume that your desired outcome from reading this book is to write your own book in 10 minutes a day. Over what timeframe will be decided by you as you go through the first part of this book; Plan. I cannot tell you to write a book in 10 minutes a day in a certain time frame simply because I don’t know who your book is for, what the intention of your book is, what you want to achieve, how long you want your book to be, or what you are capable of in 10 minutes. So, we are going to start this book by exploring those questions so that you know the answers and then you can make an educated decision on the time frame over which you will write your book.

Let’s be conservative and assume that your timeframe is 12 months. Let me just quickly add that I wrote Say No and Be Okay with It in 10 minutes a day and it took one day to complete the big picture planning element, five days to complete the structuring, four days to plan the marketing, and then 38 days to write the 22,000 words. Do not expect this of yourself, for I am an experienced writer and publisher with quite a few books under my belt. For you, the big picture planning element may take a week, it may take a month. The important thing is that I’m going to show you how to do each step so that you can do it in a condensed time frame. More importantly, I’m going to show you how to develop consistency and how to use that 10 minutes a day with optimal efficiency.

In this book, I’m going to share with you how I wrote a book in 10 minutes a day and how you can potentially do the same with focus and consistency. I’m even going to show you how, with tips and tricks and little tweaks, you can develop the focus and consistency that you’re currently lacking. Of course, this book is going to show you how to be a 10 Minute Author of your book, but I wonder if you’re already starting to see that this methodology of focus and consistency and structure is not just about a book.

As you work through this book, please keep in mind that this represents only a fraction of a fraction of the learnings, skills, tools, etc necessary for book writing. This is an overview of how I wrote a book in 10 minutes a day and how you can too. For skills development and a deeper unpacking of everything presented in this book, consider reading How to go from No Idea to Published Author which dives into the steps I follow in 10 Minute Author.

Copyright © 2020 Writer’s World

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher, except as permitted by Australian copyright law.

This book was written a few years ago and published in 2020; however, since then, I have closed the program and website that it refers to so, I need to update it. What better way than to share it on here? I’ll be sharing a chapter (or part of a chapter) every week but if you can’t wait for the updated version to dribble out to you, you can access the full original copy on Amazon now.