Four Steps to Move Forward with Your Book

After working with hundreds of successful book writers (meaning, their manuscripts made it into print) and analyzing my own book journeys, I found four distinct steps that are far from magic.

I guess I'm a systems lover, as well as a creative person. I have some tolerance for being lost in the woods, but after a while, I want a path. I began asking writers for clues: what dependably brought their book to the finish line? What actually makes a book journey satisfying as well as successful?

Not all of you readers are working on a book. But many writers have a dream of a book inside, or they’ve written one and hope to write another. Many of us go into the process of manifesting a book half blind. There are so many theories and methods. Do we wing it or follow a plan?

First, in my experience, having written and published 15 books now (something I can hardly fathom), I find book writing demands a lot of trust. Even if we’re following a plan, like an outline or even topics given to us by an editor or publisher (as in many contracted nonfiction books), there’s still a lot of writing in the dark. We don't know how to get from this point to the next, what illustration or scene would best cover the gap. When we encounter blocks or (worse, often) the open stretches ahead, we may freeze or abandon the project for a while. We often doubt that we are good enough writers with good enough ideas to make it to “the end.”

I found it enormously helpful to be aware of the measurable steps along the way. Kind of like road signs in a foreign landscape. A way to locate yourself and see what might be next, rather than just leave it to best guesses and blind hope.

Step one: visioning

A large number of the writers I spoke with said they spend upfront time visioning the book. For some, this didn't take place on paper, just in their heads. Others took notes, jotted down ideas and images. Some discussed their ideas with friends and writing buddies, testing the waters (and this worked as long as the energy was not dissipated by the talking).

But more than just thinking, jotting notes, or talking, writers who succeeded with this step actually "saw" the book in their imagination. They visualized the end result.

Some saw the book as a completed manuscript, a stack of papers on their desk. Others saw it in published form, on a bookshelf. It's an ancient principle: As above, so below. As you vision, so shall it be. It's the basis for visualization, used in professions from sports to business.

No surprise that successful book writers use it too.

How did I do it with my books? I spent time visiting bookstores and libraries. I looked at what else was out there, imagining my book in comparison—how would it be different? I thought about my ideal reader and what they might want from it. I drafted a mock cover of my book—complete with made-up testimonials by famous writers.

I made a book collage, one of my favorite visioning tools. I created a visioning statement for my book, asking myself, What's this book really about?

Step two: thinking it out

Successful authors often move directly from a solid vision to the action step of thinking. Once the book is alive and breathing inside, then it's time to plan the journey.

This is a planning step, and to some, planning feels very "uncreative." But books take planning, because they are so large—you have to plan when you have 300 pages, right?

What kinds of planning? This step might include research, character sketches, drafts of scenes ("islands" or free writes), interviews.

With my books, I’d start a writing notebook for each project and begin to use it now. I free write in it every day. I use the free writes to get deep into the idea of the book, to try out ideas on paper.

While visioning can be done completely internally, planning begins to externalize the process of manifesting a book. I get my book thought out on paper, and create as much written material as possible so I have plenty of choices later. If you’ve worked with me in storyboarding classes, you know that this step is when you accumulate pages of material—and they don’t have to be organized at all yet.

The goal is to have plenty to work with—whether or not you end up using the ideas. This step can take months, even years, depending on how much time a writer devotes to the book.

Step three: forming the structure

When the accumulated material grows so plentiful, you feel lost in the woods again, it is time to organize. Here’s where dreaming the form, or the flow or structure of the book, starts. A fun step: the book starts to take shape, even look like a real manuscript.

I prefer storyboarding as my main tool for this step. I go through my ideas, islands, and free writes and pick, place, arrange, and rearrange until I have a structure that feels right. I then use that to cut and paste together a first draft.

Still rough, for sure, but it looks a bit like a book now. It flows. It makes me proud and a little scared and maybe even hopeful.

A book must make sense to a reader outside your writing world. Your reader is important in the dreaming stage, as you imagine what they might need or want from your book. But now, you are creating a pathway through your story that they can follow. A world that can be entered fully and populated with witnesses who are also able to enjoy it.

Step four: refining

I’ve worked with skilled wordsmiths who go right to this step, ignoring the first three. It’s possible to retro-fit your book, starting with language and moving in reverse to structure and content. It might satisfy the love of prose, but often it’s harder work.

I certainly am a writer who loves this last step best of all, because I worked as an editor for several decades and know words are a make-or-break element in successful books. If a writer has no love, skill, or tolerance for refining, the book doesn't usually make it to an agent, much less publication.

But refining can also become a dead-end. I recently read an amazing story that was so well crafted, the prose blew me away. But after two read throughs, I still couldn’t say what it was about. We got plenty of incredible details and setting and character information but did we care, in the end? Not really. It was a snapshot, but it wasn’t, to me, a story yet.

It’s easy to get so involved in refining and word choice that we miss the point of what we’re trying to create. We’re not talking just to ourselves. The first three steps bring the reader into the conversation.

This last step can take up to 50 percent of the book journey, and it helps to lean on your community for stamina and assistance. I reach out for feedback from my writing colleagues and good readers, I hire editors, I take classes—all to help me see with fresh eyes.

Cycling through the steps

Even though I’ve listed them as distinct steps, they tend to not live separate from each other during the journey to manifest a publishable book. I find myself revisiting my visioning as the book shifts in structure. Maybe a new idea emerges via feedback during the refining, and I go back to earlier steps to see where it might fit.

It's normal and creative to not travel a straight path. But it's also helpful to know approximately where you are in the journey at any one time.

Your weekly writing exercise

When I’m lost in the woods with a book manuscript, I like to get out my writing notebook and dialogue with my book on paper. Express my frustration and confusion. Ask the book—radical idea!—where it thinks it’s at.

Try it this week. Share your insights and questions with our community.