Writing Tips

If you are looking for knowledge and accountability there are plenty of options. I’m sure you’ll find someone who suits you. Whatever you do though, be sure to check out my Mastermind, Private writing coach program or writing retreats on islands like Koh Phangan, Thailand, Curaçao, Dutch Caribbean, or Mallorca, Spain.

Many books – including (auto) biographies – start with an exciting scene in the intro or the first chapter. Once the reader is engaged, the writer starts explaining what happened before. This often works better than starting a book at the beginning (once upon a time …).

Planning to write a biography or a story about something you have experienced? Then be sure to take notes or keep a diary right now. Then you don’t have to do everything by heart. The fact is, you will have forgotten a large part by then. Think about what you did on August 29, 2014. No clue or just a vague idea? Exactly. So write down as much as possible: emotions, important conversations, events and so on.

Do you want to make the main characters from the book anonymous? Then don’t write with the fake names, but use the actual names to keep your emotions as pure as possible during the writing process. When your book is ready, you can easily do a find and replace and change all Pauls to Johns with one push of a button.

How long should a book be? That depends entirely on your purpose, font size, budget, type of paper, etc. In general you can say that a printed book contains between 10,000 and 40,000 words. Of course the calculation is different if you only publish it as an e-book. In that case, don’t focus blindly on length but on the relevance of your story.

The back cover has only limited space. It needs to include your bio and still be under 300 words.

Schedule writing time in your agenda and manage expectations towards the people around you. Towards the end there’s always a final sprint. So keep this in mind.

Finishing is just as important as starting. At some point a text is finished. After handing it in, there will be enough time to make any minor adjustments. So don’t worry. If you never let it go, you can never publish it. This will disappoint both readers and yourself.

Go for a walk.

Do some research.

Read the works of others for inspiration.

Review what you’ve written and trim down on unnecessary words without compromising on the content. Always make a backup of the original just in case you need it later on.

Search for unwanted words in your text: empty words such as nice, that, just, then, almost, very, something and so on that can be deleted or replaced. Avoid words such as become, will, can, go. See where also, usually and still are relevant. Also cut down on your punctuation mark usage. Make it easy to read and understand.

Reward yourself when you’ve written something.

Brainfood for writers: my go-to snack is water and nuts. Check out my Writers Recipes for inspiration on food, straight from my writing week in Mallorca.

Write a blog post.

Do an exercise in writing where you describe the experience of your senses: taste, touch, smell, sight and sound. How many types of red can you describe? Can you get the essence of your first kiss down on paper? Create a landscape based only on the sounds.

Do a braindump: take a few key words and then keep on writing without paying any attention to the sentence structure or grammar. Just go with the flow.

Find communities of writers or join a mastermind or course.

Stephen King in his classic about the craft: On writing.

Fiverr.com: for as little as $5 you can hire someone to design your cover, build your website, Facebook page or blog and much more.

Calibre: open-source ebook library & reader software.

More tips & tricks about publishing your book.