How to Write a Book: Lesson 1

Writing a book is hard! That's why so many people want to write one but fail.

In this series you'll learn what it takes to finish a book, specifically the four things you need before you start writing.

The first thing you need to do is set a deadline and create some consequences. You’ll be amazed how effective this strategy is at ensuring you actually finish your book. In this video, I’m walking you through the system of deadlines and consequences I use myself, a system that’s helped hundreds of writers finish their books.

Creating your deadline and consequences is an essential first step to writing your novel or memoir. It’s not the only step, though. Stay tuned for the next lesson, where we’re going to talk about another essential part of the process: how to build your team.

So, if you don't know me, my name is Joe Bunting. I'm a wall street journal, bestselling ghostwriter, a memoirist, and the founder of the right practice. And I'm so glad you're here for lesson one on how to write a book. And I'm excited to talk to you about this because I used to struggle to write, not just books, but anything.

I struggled to write essays in high school. In college. I struggled to write short stories later when I decided I wanted to become a writer, I struggled to write books. And I struggled for years, about seven years trying to write and not being able to. And it took me a really long time, but in 2010, I finally figured it out. And I wrote my very first book. And since then I've written over a dozen books and more importantly, I've helped thousands of people finish books of their own with this process, which I'm excited to share about with you.

So to write a book, you need four things. First, you need an idea. Second, you need a plan. Third, you need a team and fourth, you need a consequence. And in this series, I want to talk about each of these, but I want to start at the end with a consequence because when I learned about this idea from my friend author, Tim, Grahl, it actually changed my life.

So here's what you do. First. You need to set a deadline for when you're going to finish your book. For my last book, I said, I was going to finish it in 10 weeks. You might choose a hundred days or even six months, whatever works for you, but I would suggest setting your deadline for something on the shorter side, no more than a few months.

So you can stay focused over a short, intense period. Then, what you need to do is write a check for an uncomfortable amount of money to an organization that you hate. For example, I was writing a book during the 2016 us presidential race. And so I wrote a check for a thousand dollars to the candidate. I disliked the most, that person is going to remain nameless, but you get the point, you write a check to something you don't want the money to go to.

Then give the check to a friend with the instructions that if you miss your deadline, they have to send it. And that's it. It's kind of fun, right? In a stressful way.

Personally, when I was finishing that book, I thought I don't need this trick. I have willpower. I had written several books already, but finally I tried it out after I had gotten stuck for way too long. And I will tell you I was more focused on my writing during those 10 weeks than I ever have been in my life.

So one trick to make this even more effective is to set smaller weekly deadlines and then set smaller consequences each time you miss any of those weekly deadlines. When I did this, I never missed a single deadline. At the end of 10 weeks, I had a finished book, but I still would have failed if I didn't have a team, which we're going to talk about in the next lesson.

Thanks so much happy writing and we'll see you soon.