With 10 days to go until the launch of Writing for Adventure Authors (1st May 2018) I thought it might be nice to share a little from each of the chapters.
Today's excerpt is taken from Chapter 1 - The Fundamentals of Book Writing.
So you want to write an Adventure Book.
Why?
What possible purpose would there be for you writing this book? What do you hope to gain from writing your book?
This single question (alright, that was 3 questions. Stop being pedantic) is THE MOST important piece of knowledge that you will have in the writing of your book. To be truthful, if you read this chapter and this chapter alone, you could probably go away and, with a bit of common sense and creativity, write a decent Adventure Book.
(That’s not to say the rest of this book is pointless. It’s definitely worth a goggle!)
Once you’ve established WHY you are writing a book then you can easily work out your ‘WHO?’ ‘WHAT?’ and ‘HOW?’ It’s like the ‘WHY?’ is the key that unlocks the whole writing process and makes something that is unwieldy and unmanageable into something logical and possible.
Here are the most common reasons for writing a book.
‘I want to write a book to reach as many people as possible.’
Or
‘I want to write a book to make as much money as possible.’
Let me just be clear that both of these reasons are absolute garbage!
They’re rubbish because they apply to every writer since some Ancient Egyptian stone mason started scratching pictures of animals on the inside of a pyramid.
(Ok, bad example. He probably didn’t think there were be much of an audience for his hieroglyphic graffiti on the inside of a tomb.)
Who in their right minds writes a book that they intend for no one to read? Who passes up on the opportunity to make a ‘passive income’ from their book?
What is the REAL reason that you want to write this book? Be honest.
You might say:
· ‘I want to write a book so that I can have it on my shelf at home.’
· ‘I want to write a book for the enjoyment of writing and for the fulfilment of completing a project.’
· ‘I want to write a book for a gift for someone. My children for example.’
These are the answers a hobbyist would give. Someone who is writing purely for the joy of writing. These are the sort of people who don’t want to make money out of their books. Mad, I know!
However, there is nothing wrong with these answers. They are clear on what their end goal looks like and they are extremely achievable.
They are also the answers that I gave when I first started writing and self-publishing.
Here are some different answers:
· ‘I want to write a book to inspire people to get outside on their own adventures.’
· ‘I want to write a book as a way to invite people into my on-line community / into other products that I have to sell.’
· ‘I want to write a book as a way of giving myself more recognition in the world of adventure.’
· ‘I want to write a book as a calling card to get more speaking gigs.’
Now we’re getting somewhere. These are the responses of a professional who is looking to further their career. They are for people striving to build their audience and sell more products.
These are the answers that I NOW give when asked what is my ‘WHY?’.
Here are some final ideas:
· ‘I want to write a book as a first step into a career as an author.’
· ‘I want to write a book to improve my writing craft and story-telling.’
· ‘I want to write a book to make £10,000 or to sell 5,000 books on the launch week.’
· ‘I want to write a book to become an Amazon category bestseller.’
· ‘I want to write a book to win a literary award.’
Again, all legitimate answers.
What is your reason for writing a book? Be honest with yourself. If you’re not honest with yourself now then you’ll be wasting your time later rewriting stuff to try and achieve your ‘WHY?’
It’s absolutely fine if you have more than one reason.
Come on Pinnochio, fess up. What’s your ‘WHY?’