Help! (Me Write a Book)
Arianne Cohen is the author of Help, It’s Broken! : A Fix-It Bible for the Repair-Impaired. I asked her to share a few tips on how to get a book done, and she graciously obliged:
Wake up early.
The secret to my book-writing schedule is simple: wake up early. Very, very early. When working on a book, I write every single morning from 6am-9am. It doesn’t matter if I’m tired, if I have numerous unmet freelancing commitments, or if I’d rather crawl back in bed. I force myself to sit at my desk from 6-9am.
Though actual writing is preferred, if it’s just not happening, I make a deal with myself that I must spend those 3 hours doing something book related: In the case of Help!, that meant organizing the illustrator’s assignments, editing already written chapters, or researching an unwritten chapter. This way, each week includes a minimum of 21 hours of book work.
The rest of the day progresses as usual, with the regular work and social commitments, along with high levels of procrastination, lack of exercise, and fooling around. A few months later, I have a book.
I’ve written two books this way (the first, what I call a “teething book,” sits unpublished in a drawer), and the strategy works because of the lack of 6am distractions: no calls, no emails, no shopping. Early morning is a particularly productive pocket of time, with the added bonus of allowing me to think through little issues later in the day while walking to work or running errands.
What to write.
Prescriptive nonfiction can be a hard arena to enter, only because there are so many topics to write on, and few writers feel like bonafide experts in a field. I choose my nonfiction topics by meeting two criteria:
Need: There must be a need for the book. In this case, there was a great need for a comprehensive fix-it book for people who have no idea how to use a wrench, but would appreciate a humorous explanation of how to do so. I knew that I was on the right track when almost every acquaintance I told about the book said, “I need that book!”
Books only you can write. Nonfiction projects maintain their author’s passion if they are books that only that writer could write. With Help!, I knew that few writers know a lot about home repair, and even fewer can maintain humor for over 200 pages of explanations. This personalized the project for me, and served as motivation.
Slow Agents and Editors:
Publishing is a mind-bogglingly slow industry. As a person who likes things done yesterday, this frequently drives me batty. However, I manage the slowness by trying to get things done early. When sending a chapter outline or draft to my agent or editor, I try to get it to them sooner rather than later, expecting the standard three weeks for a response. Ditto on competition applications and magazine pitches. Developing relationships with these people helps infinitely-you want editors and an agent that are happy to hear from you: my agent knows me well enough that I can call her and remind her that my entire self-esteem is waiting on her reading of my next book. She thinks it’s funny, but sometimes picks up the pace.
Get a Dog.
My mini-poodle, Mollie, is the best writerly acquisition I’ve made. I adopted her from the Humane Society as a four year-old, and she sits on my lap while I write, quelling all sorts of writerly loneliness and boredom. She also forces me to avoid the sedentary writer lifestyle with three daily walks, and numerous social interactions with fellow dog owners. Highly recommended.
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