So many people have a burning desire to share their life story, but need a little help. It takes discipline and experience, as well as dedication and determination. The process will take a few hundred hours. However, if you’re not a professional writer, don’t despair. You don’t need to abandon the dream. If you need help writing a book, you have options.
Improve your writing skills
If you must write the book yourself, you’ll need to gain experience. It’s time to roll up your sleeves and write and write and write, and then write some more.
What should you write?
Anything and everything!
Keep a journal of your thoughts and feelings. Describe objects in your home or people you know. Record family stories or funny incidents that happen to you. Write a love letter to your partner. Jot down that silly bedtime story you made up for your child. The more you write, the easier you will find it to get the ideas out of your head and down on paper.
It’s also a good idea to read books on how to write. These will teach you basic techniques that will allow you to bring your thoughts to life.
And definitely read the works of other authors. Notice how they tackle challenging scenes. How do they approach dialogue? How do they incorporate descriptions? When you find a passage you particularly like, dissect it and see how they were able to communicate their vision to you.
Now that you have improved your writing skills, tackle that story! For more information on how to get started writing your book, check out my Ask a Ghostwriter series.
Hire a writing consultant
If you want to write your own book, but feel you don’t have the experience and skill set to do so, you can hire a writing coach. This person’s job will be to provide guidance as you navigate your project. With this option, you will still do all the writing but you’ll have a guardian angel on your shoulder.
Find an experienced writer to help you. She should have a few books under her belt, preferably within the genre of your work. If she has never written a book, she will not understand the process and will not be able to guide you in the right direction.
It’s a good idea to lay out your writing goals early on. Share them with your coach and ask her to keep you accountable so that you finish your book in a timely manner.
Of course, it goes without saying that you’ll need to pay the consultant for her time. If you’re interested in hiring me to be your coach, please email me directly so we can discuss it further.
Hire a Ghostwriter
Another option is to hire someone else to write your book for you. When you hire a ghostwriter, all you’ll need to do is provide the basic, raw information then give feedback about her writing. Of course, this is the most expensive option for you, but it’s also the least time consuming one. Although you’ll need to review her work and be available for interviews, it will only require an hour or two per week of your time.
If you have limited time and a low budget, you might consider hiring a ghostwriter to write a novella. A novella is a shorter book, usually about 100 pages long.
Once you have your finished book, plan to spend a little extra money on an editor to polish it up and do your proofreading. Personally, I include editing in my pricing (and always hire an outside professional to read my book with an expert eye), but not all ghostwriters do. Strictly speaking, it isn’t usually included in the deal.
So, as you see, there are options for you to get help writing your book. If you need help sorting through these choices, please don’t hesitate to email me for a consultation!
If you’d like to learn more about how to hire a ghostwriter, check out my book: Your Guide to Hiring a Ghostwriter.
