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Summary

The provided web content outlines the essential steps in planning a book, emphasizing the importance of understanding one's intentions, setting word or page count targets, and envisioning the book's use before beginning the writing process.

Abstract

The web content, titled "#5. 10 Minute Author — Plan," is a guide that encourages aspiring authors to thoroughly understand their motivations and goals before embarking on the writing journey. It underscores the significance of knowing one's purpose for writing, whether it's personal fulfillment, business strategy, or establishing a writing career. The guide advises setting clear targets for word or page count, considering how the book will be used post-publication, and defining what success looks like for the author. It suggests that by having a clear plan, the writing process becomes more intuitive and efficient, and it recommends seeking further education or mentorship to enhance the quality of the work. The content concludes with a call to action for readers to clarify their intentions and provides links to additional resources and the author's personal journey.

Opinions

  • The author believes that knowing one's intentions is crucial for a smooth writing process and for overcoming challenges.
  • It is implied that aligning the book's content with the audience's expectations is key to its success.
  • The author suggests that manipulating elements like font size and including interactive content can influence the page count, especially in non-fiction works.
  • The content expresses the view that a book can serve various purposes, such as building a brand, acting as a lead magnet, or fulfilling a personal dream.
  • The author emphasizes the importance of setting specific goals, such as sales targets or building connections, to guide the writing and marketing efforts.
  • The guide advocates for continuous learning and seeking professional guidance from those who have achieved the desired level of success.
  • The author provides a personal note, indicating that the guide is part of a larger series and directs readers to the full book available on Amazon.

BOOK CHAPTER

#5. 10 Minute Author — Plan

Task 3: Know your intentions

Adapted by author from photo by Vlada Karpovich from Pexels

PART 1: PLAN

Know Your Intentions

Know your intentions before you start writing. This includes setting your intention in regard to:

  • Your purpose
  • Your word or page count
  • How you will use your book
  • What you want to achieve

Knowing your intentions will set you up for a much easier writing process. Do all of your thinking before you start writing so that you can allow intuition to flow freely. And remember, if you need to develop any skills, ask for help.

What is your purpose for writing?

  • Is it because you’ve always wanted to?
  • Is it because you want to create a lead magnet in your business?
  • Is it because you want to build a writing career and you need to take the first step?
  • Is it to connect, share a message, or explore self?
  • Or is it something else?

The reason you are writing is not as important as knowing WHY you are writing. You must know why you’re doing this so that when you hit those inevitable walls, you can remind yourself of why you were doing it in the first place.

How will you feel at the end once you’ve accomplished your goal?

What is your word count/page count target?

Decide now, before you even start writing, what your target will be for your word count or page count. You may choose both, or one, or the other, and that’s fine. What is important is that your target is based on knowing your audience and aligning with what they want — even if the only audience is yourself.

Note: Page count can be manipulated, particularly in non-fiction. Adjusting your font style and size, adding in exercises, note spaces, white space, images, etc. will all increase your page count without affecting your word count.

How will you use your book?

Another consideration is what you plan to do with your book. Have you considered how you will use your book when it is completed?

  • Is your book a part of building an empire as a writing career and building your brand as a writer?
  • Will your book become a lead magnet for your business or an entry-level low-risk low-cost product?
  • Or is your book simply the fulfillment of a personal goal?
  • Will you share your book or not?
  • Will you apply to get your book into bookstores or not?
  • Will you sell your book or not?

What do you want to achieve?

If you know what you want to do with your book, the next question is what do you want to achieve?

  • Is your target to achieve a certain number of sales in a certain amount of time?
  • Is your target to build a certain number of connections, or to build your email list to a certain level?
  • Do you simply want to achieve publication status?
  • Or is this something else that you wish to achieve in this writing process?

Your Next Step

This guide does not dig deep enough to give you the how or to assist you in developing the skills to produce the highest quality — this guide is your first step. Your next step is to seek out help and education to allow you to create the best work possible. This could be in the form of online classes such as those from Reedsy:

You may choose to find a coach or mentor who can work with you. If you choose this path, please heed this advice:

Select a coach or mentor who has the success you are seeking. If you want a writing career, choose a coach or mentor who HAS a writing career.

When you know your intentions and you know your targets and goals, you have something to work towards and more importantly, you have a subconscious inner being working to achieve them so that consciously you can just do what’s needed to produce a quality product. I’ve been providing some examples of intentions you may set; however, the sky is your limit — or maybe, it is not.

YOUR TASK: Get solid about your Intentions.

Copyright © 2020 Writer’s World

Cover design by author

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.

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