How to write – before you start

I’m now giving serious consideration to my workshop. Last Thursday I had a session with a client who is about to start her book. Before she’d even written a word of it we started in on the planning.

Which was about…

• what she wanted the book to contain
• how she wanted the book to look, both on the outside and the inside
• how she wanted people to use it

Which then led to a discussion about the easiest way for her to write it. Now that might seem odd to you but everybody has a different way of working and what I was trying to help her find was her easiest and most efficient way.

It isn’t just about putting your hands on the keys and typing – or writing in a notebook. It’s to do with the way you structure your writing to make sure that where possible you don’t have to re-do things more than is necessary.

My client is a trainer – so she is used to constructing workshops of varying lengths and patterns. That means her efficient way is to imagine herself writing workshops. It’s whatever works for you.

I read a story a while back about a woman who wanted to write a novel. But she couldn’t get started because the thought of writing a whole book terrified her. Eventually she came up with a strategy. Which was that though a book terrified her, she was happy to write short stories. So she planned and wrote her book as a series of short stories, ie chapters about her characters. Wrote the book in double quick time… once she’d removed the block to her writing.

And maybe that’s a place to start with the workshop – removing the blocks to writing.

What do you think? Like to hear your comments.