For most of us, we have the idea of writing a book and then – once we finally have the time – we get down to writing it. We might have a rough content plan, though often authors don’t. And 60,000+ words later we’re drowning in the tech side of Kindle and Kobo. But what if there were a better way to write your book? One that gets your Inner Genius ‘pyjama-ready’?
When you’re going from being an expert to becoming an author there’s a shift you need to create that too many authors miss.
You need to go back and be able to walk in a beginner’s shoes again.
You might have spent years honing your skills and practising your Inner Genius and it can be really hard to remember exactly how it is you do your ‘magic’.
It’s something I see over and over in the online course world: a ‘guru’ creates a 4-figure course that doesn’t work for most of their students. The students feel embarrassed (and are often ‘blamed and shamed’ by the ‘guru’ if they speak out). And the ‘guru’ is left confused, because they faithfully taught you their ‘sausage machine’ and don’t understand why it isn’t working for you.
The same happens with books – except that it’s worse, because you don’t have the online course’s Facebook group or ‘office hours calls’ to help people out when they get stuck.
Fact: the majority of #nonfictionbooks are read on trains or in bed or on a Saturday morning, curled up on the sofa in PJs with a cup of tea. That's why you need to get your #innergenius pyjama-ready.Click To TweetWhat has gone wrong?
The expert didn’t get their inner genius ‘pyjama-ready’.
Getting your Inner Genius pyjama-ready is about writing a book that works – distilling the essence of your magic in a way that’s easy to learn and apply – without you sitting next to your reader, whispering in their ear. Because most of us would get a bit freaked out by our favourite authors thinking sitting next to us in bed, late at night, was ok.
You need to be clear about the ‘sausage machine’ that makes your process work. But you also need to spot:
- where your (beginner) reader might get stuck
- which bits they might not understand
- which beliefs / values you have created or ditched over the years, that make your process work for you
- which tweaks and refinements come as second-nature for you, which your reader might not guess
- what you already knew and took for granted, before you began the stage of your journey that you’re teaching in your book
The book you’re writing needs to work for your reader, even though you’re not there to help them through.
And that’s a skill.
That’s why it’s so important to understand your compelling promise and your reader journey, before you start writing your book – so that getting your Inner Genius pyjama ready becomes second-nature to you and doesn’t slow down the writing process.
I’d Love To Hear From You
Have you ever had the experience of a course or non-fiction book not working for you, because the author hadn’t walked in a beginner’s shoes?
What could you do to commit to get your Inner Genius pyjama-ready in your book?
Let me know via the comments!
And if you’re on my From Expert to Author Mastermind, fret not – we deep-dive on this in module three. See you there!
x Clare