The Foundation Great Writers Never Skip: Part 1 of Your 4-Step Roadmap to Writing a Great Book (Ep. 18)

If you’re dreaming about writing a book—or struggling in the thick of it—you might be wondering exactly what that process will look like and what kind of support will help you cross the finish line.

Whether you end up self-publishing or getting a traditional book deal, there are a lot of steps along the way—and there’s a lot of lingo that can cause confusion.

That’s why I created this guide to demystify the book creation process, alert you to common pitfalls, and point you in the right direction if and when you’re ready for professional support.

In this episode I cover the first two of four phases of book creation: ideating and drafting.

You’ll learn:

• Why “writing a book” is about far more than just writing
• The key questions every author must answer before they start drafting
• What a “book map” is and how it dramatically improves your chances of finishing
• What to look for in a book coach (and red flags to avoid)
• How to handle resistance, procrastination, and your inner critic during the drafting process

Here’s the truth successful authors know: a book is only as good as the ideas behind it, so building a strong foundation is the most important step of all.

Note: This guide is designed specifically for nonfiction authors—from prescriptive nonfiction like self-help to creative nonfiction like memoir. That said, the phases I outline and many of the potential pitfalls remain the same for fiction. Just keep in mind that some of the nuances will be different.

Mentioned in this episode:

• Hungry Authors book
• Hungry Authors on Substack

Learn more about Momentum Book Coaching: maraeller.com/book-coaching

Book a free consultation call with me! 

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Transcript

0:03

Welcome to The Soul and Science of Great Writing, where the mastery of craft meets the mystery of creation. I'm your host, Mara Eller, freelance editor, book coach, and writing teacher with over 16 years of experience. I'm obsessed with the transformative power of words and with understanding what makes writing truly exceptional, not just to help my clients, but to grow my own craft too. So what makes writing truly great? Is it the spark of inspiration, the unique voice, the intangible soul that breathes life into words? Or is it the careful structure, repeatable strategies, and attention to detail that turn an idea into something readers can't put down? In truth, it's both. This show brings creativity and craft together, exploring the soul and the science with equal parts awe and analysis. Today, I'm sharing part one of our two-part series, Your Four-Step Roadmap to Writing a Great Book It's a guide for first-time authors to help you know what to expect and how to set yourself up for success. In this episode, we're going to focus on the first two steps of that process, which are ideating and drafting. Let's dive in. Writing a book might sound romantic until you actually try to do it. between the initial idea and the final draft lies a wilderness most writers don't expect, a maze of decisions, doubts, and unfamiliar territory. Many first-time authors end up confused, overwhelmed, and disappointed, either with the process or the product or both. If you're dreaming about writing a book or struggling in the thick of it, you might be wondering exactly what that process will look like and what kind of support will help you cross the finish line and get it published. Whether you end up self-publishing or getting a traditional book deal, there are a lot of steps along the way, and there's a lot of lingo that can cause confusion. Plus, it ain't cheap. You know enough to recognize that you can't just dump some words in a document, slap on a Canva cover, and send it off to Amazon, at least not if you want to have a book you're actually proud of or that anyone will read besides your mother. You probably know that you'll need some editing, but what kind? How much? And editing only comes in once you've finished that first draft. So what if you're struggling to get that far? First of all, let's throw any shame that brings up right out the window. It is one hundred percent normal to struggle to write a first draft. Only three percent of people who start writing a book actually finish, and even established authors working on their fifth or tenth books hit roadblocks. That's why I created this guide, to demystify the book creation process, alert you to common pitfalls, and point you in the right direction if and when you're ready for professional support. No matter how you slice it, writing a book is hard business. In the sixteen plus years I've been working as a freelance editor, I've yet to come across an author who said otherwise. Having the right kind of support at the right time can be the difference between a half-written draft collecting digital dust and a finished book you're proud to share with the world. Even if you are going to finish your book no matter what, professional guidance can bring relative ease and joy to the experience, one that can often feel lonely, frustrating, and incredibly vulnerable. Plus, it can save you valuable time and even money in the long run. I can't tell you the number of times I've been hired to edit a book that clearly needed significant structural help. Chapters out of logical order, big ideas unclear or inconsistent, lots of repetitive or unrelated content, missing support and long-winded personal stories, and so on. This author would have benefited from professional help much earlier in the process, but now they're stuck trying to completely rework a manuscript they've already labored over for months or even years. Other times, an author set out to hire a proofreader when what they really needed was a line or developmental editor. Only they had no idea what the difference was, so they ended up having to pay for proofreading twice. I have seen similar struggles in my decade teaching upper-level writing classes. My students are used to getting a prompt and diving straight into drafting. The most conscientious among them may be making a rudimentary outline first. Then they wonder why the drafting process is so hard or why their, quote-unquote, first draft is a complete mess. I use quotation marks there because for me, first draft means a complete draft that represents the writer's best effort before getting professional help. The first effort is what I call a rough draft, which requires revision to become a true first draft. They're always shocked when I tell them we'll be doing at least four drafts, and that we won't even look at their punctuation until the last round of revisions. Shock turns to disbelief when I explain that in my class, they'll be required to submit six steps of pre-writing before the first draft. in both situations, with the person who turns in a draft for editing that's really not ready for what they think it's ready for, and with the upper-level writing students, the confusion comes from a faulty or absent understanding of the process, of what it takes to produce truly great writing. Even a short essay of two to three pages requires significantly more work than most anticipate in order to reach the level of clarity, concision, and eloquence that makes readers want to keep reading. With a book-length project, it's even more important to begin with appropriate expectations and to follow a proven process. The longer the piece, the more complex the ideas. The more complex the ideas, the easier it is to lose the reader. Or lose your focus while writing. Strong writers might be able to take a new idea and pound out a decent blog post in one sitting without much of a process. Not so for a book. The key to actually finishing your book without losing your mind and producing one you're proud of without wasting thousands of dollars or years of your life is to set yourself up for success from the beginning. To do that, you need to understand the process, anticipate roadblocks, and know where to turn if and when you need support. In this series, we are going to look at the four phases of book creation that every author must go through to produce a high-quality book, as well as the different levels and types of support available during each phase, when they come into play, and how they help. Again, this episode is gonna focus on the first two phases, and the next episode will cover the next two. I do wanna mention here that this advice is crafted specifically for nonfiction authors, from prescriptive nonfiction, like self-help, to creative nonfiction, like memoir. That said, the phases outlined here and many of the potential pitfalls remain the same for fiction. Just keep in mind that some of the nuances will be different. Okay, so what are those four phases? When most of us hear "write a book," we probably imagine sitting at a computer and typing words into a document. You probably know enough by now to understand that a lot of other stuff also has to happen in order to end up with a book you can hold in your hands. But you'd be far from alone if you still expect that the bulk of your time will be spent putting words onto the page. After all, that's why it's called writing a book, right? Actually, wrong When it comes to producing a high-quality book, there are four essential phases you'll need to pass through, dedicating approximately equal time and energy to each. They are ideating, drafting, revising, and publishing. Notice that drafting, what we usually think of as writing, is just one of those four steps. The time you spend actually putting words together in your manuscript document will only be about one quarter of the total time and energy you spend creating your book. Author Chris Abani said, "People think that writing is writing, but actually writing is editing. Otherwise, you're just taking notes." As an editor, I appreciate his sentiment and agree to some degree, but I have to expand on that to say that writing is thinking and editing, and if you want to publish and have people buy and actually read your book, that's another major part of the process, too. The truth is that great writing is so much more than writing, and great writers recognize that fact. As we're moving through these four phases, please keep in mind that the divisions between them are not as clear as I might make it sound. You might find that you need to do a bunch of free writing during the ideating phase before you can figure out what you really want to say. Or when you're halfway into your rough draft, you might find that you need to adjust your outline. Or maybe you find you need to rewrite an entire chapter when you're technically in the revising phase. And you should always think about your publication goals during the ideating phase, since you have to know who your book is for in order to craft your book's argument effectively. So give yourself permission to move fluidly between the four stages, doing whatever is necessary to create the best book possible. Only don't think you can skip or rush through one of the phases. Each is essential, and an astute reader can tell when one has been neglected. Okay, so phase one Ideating. The goal of the ideating phase is to create a detailed outline or book map, a clear plan for what your finished book will look like and how you'll get there. A book always starts with an idea. Before you start writing, you need a plan, a clear map of what you want to say and how you'll say it. This requires that you answer the following questions. What is my book about? Who is it for? What problem does it solve? What makes it unique? What is the central argument or takeaway? What are the steps of the journey from the first page to the last? Key here is knowing how much clarity and how much detail is enough during this phase. Some writers think simply knowing their topic is enough. This is a big mistake that leads to months, if not years, of wandering in the wilderness, of writing in circles as they try to figure out what they really want to say, sometimes becoming more confused rather than less as the words pile up. Others want to have every detail planned down to the topic of every single paragraph and every piece of supporting evidence, or in the case of memoir, every single scene. They are convinced that they can create a perfect outline and that when they do, the writing will be effortless. It can also become an excuse to avoid the vulnerable task of actually writing. Let me just tweak this outline one more time. The sweet spot is when you have a crystal clear main idea for the book, as well as a good sense of the argument for each chapter and a bullet style list of the ideas, examples, and anecdotes you'll include in each chapter. To get there, you'll need a thorough understanding of who you're writing for, what problem you're solving for them, and what the steps are to get there. For memoir, the reader's journey follows yours, so you'll need to know the overarching theme, the before and after for the main character, which is of course you, and the primary complications you navigated to get there, broken down into parts and chapters. Crucial to this phase is providing yourself with a clear guiding structure for moving through your argument or story and breaking the book down into manageable chunks, i.e. chapters. This will help you avoid overwhelm and keep you on track when rabbit trails beckon. This phase lays the foundation for your book. The clearer your main idea and structure are, the better your book will be. Conversely, if your foundation is shaky, if your ideas are half-baked and poorly organized, the best writing in the world can't save it. Now, I wanna touch on a common struggle or misconception here. While I do always recommend creating a detailed outline before writing your first draft, remember my definition of a first draft is the best draft you can produce without getting outside help or, you know, professional help. That does not mean you can't write as part of your ideating phase. I've found over and over that there are some writers who simply cannot make an outline before they write out their ideas, and still others who can make an outline if forced to do so, but cannot execute that outline. They simply must write out their ideas in sentences and paragraphs first. That's how they discover what they really think. If that's you, I'm here to tell you that is one hundred percent okay. Free writing, writing out your ideas as they come without editing, is actually a wonderful tool during the ideation phase. Just don't mistake that writing for a first draft. If you need to write for a while and then look through what you've written to discover the big ideas you'll use for your outline, go for it. But you do need an outline or a book map before you're ready to officially work on that first draft. Think of your free write material like blog posts or journal entries that an author might use as inspiration for a book. They might even pull in some of that material directly, but they would never paste them in a row and call it a book. No two authors will follow exactly the same steps in exactly the same order for the ideating phase, The same author won't follow exactly the same steps from one book to the next. What matters is that you do what works for you to produce that detailed book map that will guide every step and decision that follows. A book can only be as good as its ideas, which is why this step is so important, and why I strongly encourage first-time authors to seek professional help in the ideating phase rather than waiting until after they've written the first draft. The two forms of professional support most commonly available for the ideating phase are book mapping and book coaching. We'll talk about book mapping first, as it is typically part of what a book coach does. According to book map gurus Ariel Curry and Liz Morrow of Hungry Authors, quote, "A book map is a visual representation of your book's structure. It can be as high level or as detailed as you want, but the goal is that it provides a clear picture of exactly what content is going to go where in your book, creating a map that you can follow as you're writing." Their book, Hungry Authors, is a fantastic resource if you want to do this step on your own. But I highly recommend getting some professional insight. Why? Because a book is only as good as its structure. and because having a clear, well-thought-out book map dramatically increases your chances of actually finishing that first draft. Most authors I work with on this step have realized that it's extremely hard to get perspective on their own ideas. Especially since they've probably been thinking about these ideas for years, if not decades. For example, many life or business coaches decide they want to write a book so they can share their methods with more people. But when they start trying to write down everything they've done with clients over the last fifteen years, it quickly gets overwhelming and chaotic. Coaching is rarely linear, but a book, by definition, is. What order is best? What are the bigger steps in their coaching process that involves dozens, if not hundreds, of exercises? This can be incredibly challenging, not to mention time-consuming. Memoirists also struggle mightily with this step. On the surface, it can seem simple. Obviously, you start at the beginning, and you tell the story in chronological order. But what exactly is the beginning, and what is the narrative arc? What should be included, and what should be left out? The possibilities are virtually infinite, since any detail from the author's life could become material. And then there's the question of genre. Will it be pure memoir or some kind of hybrid incorporating reflection questions or educational content? Of course, before you can make a map, you have to know what the main idea of your book is. What is your central argument, message, or theme? What is the overarching transformation for your reader and/or for you in the case of memoir? These are complex questions, the answers to which will direct everything that follows. That's why it pays off to invest in professional guidance at this stage of the journey. Getting help nailing down your main idea and how to best structure its delivery can save you valuable time and hair pulling, setting you up for an easier time drafting, and it can ensure that your draft doesn't require massive edits in the revision stage. Book mapping is sometimes offered as a standalone service with a fixed price, or it may be part of a larger package offered by a book coach, which is what I do. You can find it offered in a group or in a course, but that will still leave you doing the bulk of the figuring out on your own. If you can swing it, most authors find it well worth it to invest in one-on-one help at this stage. I'll add that when well done, a book map will provide you with the bulk of the language you need for a standard book proposal, the book resume you will submit to agents and publishing houses if you're looking for a traditional book deal. For prescriptive nonfiction, not memoir, standard practice is to require a book proposal with several sample chapters, but they do not expect the entire book to be written before it is accepted. Memoirs, which read more like fiction, do need a completed manuscript in order to be pitched. They wanna make sure that you know how this story is going to end and that you can actually pull it off, because with memoir, even more so than other types of nonfiction, we can think we know where the story is going, but often the actual writing process ends up throwing us some curveballs that we have to contend with before we can get to that finished draft. So nearly always an agent or, uh, acquisitions editor is going to want to see that full manuscript in addition to your book proposal. However, even though you're not required to have a full manuscript done when you submit a book proposal for prescriptive nonfiction, I've worked with several authors who chose to write the entire book first anyway because they knew that the writing and revising process might significantly alter their book idea. Plus, they wanted to retain creative control over those steps and preferred to pitch with a more finished product. Whether you're planning to self-publish or pitch traditional publishers, It's extremely helpful to come up with most of the material that goes into a book proposal before you start drafting. Hence, the book map. Or if you want a bit more guidance, a book coach, which is the other form of support that can be really helpful in this ideating stage. Book coach is a bit of a catch-all term for someone who helps you bring your book into the world. It can basically encompass anything you need help with, but book coaching most often refers to providing professional guidance during the ideating phase. This will typically include book mapping, but can also extend beyond it. Once an author has a strong book map and/or book proposal, a book coach can help create a schedule for the drafting process with deadlines and accountability. This might include providing feedback on the first few chapters as they're written, which is what I typically do, to make sure that the writer has a good idea of how to execute the book map. It's one thing to have an outline of what you're supposed to write, and another to actually turn those bullet points into the flowing prose you've been imagining. That's why my book coaching package spans the ideating and drafting phases, ensuring that you not only know what you're supposed to write, but also how to write it effectively. Book coaching varies widely in terms of how it's offered and priced. Some coaches offer a coaching package with a fixed price, which is what I do. Each client receives customized guidance within that package depending on their needs and their starting point. Other coaches charge by the hour, usually upwards of a hundred dollars an hour, could be two hundred, even more for experienced coaches. Anyone worth their salt will offer a free consultation call so you can both see if it's a good fit, something you absolutely want to do since you'll be working closely with this person for several months. You'll want to evaluate their experience and credentials, which you should be able to do on their website, but you also want to get a sense of their style and personality. Some coaches will be more assertive or aggressive, providing strict deadlines and using rigid formulas. Others will be more relaxed and encouraging, providing guidance when you ask, but letting you run the show. It can also make sense to try to find someone who has some basic familiarity with the topic of your book or who at least isn't the opposite of your ideal reader. As an editor and a book coach, I don't need it to be a book that I would buy in order for me to do a good job, but it sure helps if it's something that I'm interested in and that I think matters. And there's just something intangible when it's a person-to-person interaction. You wanna feel comfortable with this person. You wanna trust them. You wanna feel like they're gonna give you honest feedback, but in a way that's not gonna crush your spirit. And, you know, those things are just gonna vary between every two people and the way they interact. So highly recommend doing a consultation call so you can get a sense of the person as well as the coach. The right coach will be someone you feel comfortable with who has some experience in your genre. So remember, memoir is very different from other kinds of nonfiction. Typically, some coaches will specialize in memoir or at least have a lot of experience in that area, and others may not. Likewise, an academic nonfiction book is going to be different from a devotional, for example. They should also have a solid track record providing the kind of support you're looking for, so check out their testimonials. And they should have a demeanor that feels both motivating for you and comfortable. Writing is an inherently vulnerable process, and if you don't feel safe, you will struggle to make meaningful progress. If you wanna learn more about what it might look like to get my support for this phase, you can, of course, book a free consultation call with me. I'll put that link in the show notes, and we'll make a customized three-part plan for your progress. Plus, I can give you some initial feedback on your book idea or existing book map, so you'll walk away with actionable next steps whether we end up working together or not. Okay, so phase one was about getting really clear on the ideas of your book, of spending some time really thinking about what you're trying to say and about what the best structure would be. detailed book map and a clear overview of your big idea, it's time to start drafting. Phase two. This one needs less explanation because it's what we think of when we hear write a book. However, my clients encounter two primary challenges in this phase that are worth discussing. Number one is that resistance raises its ugly head. They find all kinds of creative reasons to do something other than write, and their inner critic goes into overdrive. They feel miserable and progress stalls. The second big challenge they encounter is that their outline doesn't seem to be working. Maybe they find themselves veering way off track, or maybe they follow the outline religiously, but it feels awkward and uninspired. They start to question the book map and waste valuable time wondering if they should change direction. Conquering resistance requires a steady stream of encouragement and is usually supported with clear deadlines and external accountability, such as that provided by a book coach. Regardless, if you find yourself questioning each line you type, try to write without editing. Pretend your delete key is broken and that if you stop typing for more than a few seconds, your progress will be lost. There's actually an app that does exactly that. I think it's called the most dangerous writing app or something like that. You have to keep writing something every few seconds or it will literally delete everything that you typed into the box. The point is that in the drafting stage, we just need to get the ideas down and worry about perfecting the prose later. Writing and editing use two different parts of the brain. writing is a much more creative, intuitive process, whereas editing is about assessing and evaluating and analyzing. And they really are two very different types of processes. So do everything you can to separate them just right, and then you can edit at a different time. Also, let your rough draft be rough. I like calling it that because it's supposed to be rough at this stage. A great way to silence the inner critic for me and many clients is to actually give ourselves the goal of letting it be messy, letting it be that crappy first draft that you hear about with various names. That's part of why I don't like to call it the first draft and call it the rough draft, so you can just focus on getting everything on the page and worry about making it good later. As my friend and creativity coach Meredith Height Estevez says, Your first draft doesn't have to be good." Of course, I would say rough draft there, right? But it doesn't have to be good. It just has to exist. The second challenge, the one where you feel like the outline doesn't seem to be working, is a little more complicated. As with the pitfalls we discussed of the ideating phase, the writer must avoid both extremes. It won't help to throw out your book map and dump fifty thousand words into a document. Though remember that some writers, especially memoirists, find they have to let out all the words onto the page first and then create their outline. If that's you, remember that's totally fine, but that free writing brain dump process is part of the ideating phase, so it must be followed by clarification and organization. On the other hand, it also won't serve you in the long run if you force yourself to adhere to an outline that your ideas have outgrown. An important part of the process of writing is discovery. The process of putting our thoughts into sentences and paragraphs brings additional clarity, and if you're doing it right, your ideas will evolve and mature. So remember that your book map is a tool, not a god. If you need to adjust it, go for it, but make sure you have a good reason for doing so. That's, again, where the perspective of a book coach can be extremely helpful. When you're in the thick of drafting, it can be incredibly hard to distinguish between the disruptive whispers of imposter syndrome or procrastination and the constructive insights of a deepening understanding of your subject. Having someone to bounce ideas off of who knows your book and the market intimately can quickly get you back on track or help you retool your book map to take into account your new idea. If you work with a book coach during the drafting phase, they will likely provide emotional support in addition to industry expertise. They can help you overcome internal resistance, keep you on track if you're tempted to deviate from your book map, or discern whether it might be time to revise the book map in light of new insights you've uncovered. They will usually provide external accountability in the form of deadlines, keeping you moving forward towards that completed manuscript. Unless you truly want a cheerleader and are willing to pay for it, I'd encourage you to talk to your prospective coach about what kind of support they typically provide during the drafting phase I've heard of some coaches who seem to do little more than check in with clients and tell them some version of, "You can do it. Keep going." While having someone in your corner can be powerful, especially if you don't have anyone in your life who gets writing or supports your dreams, you should consider how much you're willing to pay for it. Finding another writer to cheer you on would be far more cost-effective, and then you can save that money for a great editor. In my work as a book coach, I leverage my background in editing to provide constructive feedback on the writing itself as clients are working through their first chapters. This helps writers settle into their unique voice, nip bad habits in the bud before they become embedded in the entire book, and employ strategies to make their process smoother and faster. One writer I've been working with decided he wanted to write the entire book with my guidance, benefiting from my feedback and instruction every step of the way. he'll end up with a manuscript that can skip straight over developmental editing and probably some line editing too because he's getting that chapter by chapter. Of course, if he traditionally publishes, he will receive a developmental editing pass, but that editor will have a pretty easy time, and he will have an easy time making a few fine-tuning adjustments, perhaps things that they want him to do in in order to fit the book better to their understanding of his ideal reader and things like that. Many writers hesitate to invest in professional help at this stage because they feel like they should be able to do it on their own. After all, no one can make you put your butt in the chair but you, right? While that's true, it's also a lot more complicated than that. By that logic, you might say that all it takes to run a marathon is lacing your shoes and pounding the pavement. But you probably wouldn't expect to get a good time on your first marathon and avoid injury without paying for a coach. Drafting a 50 to 65,000-word manuscript is definitely a marathon. It actually takes most people more time to finish a high-quality book than to train for a marathon. So kick that should to the curb and treat this endeavor like the marathon it is by investing in the support you need. If you wanna learn more about what it might look like to get my support for this phase, you can use the link in the show notes to book a free consultation call, and we'll chat all about your book, where you are in the process, where you're struggling, and what kind of support you most need, That wraps up our discussion of the first two phases of the book writing process, ideating and drafting. I hope that helps you get a better sense of what should go into preparing to write a great book and what to watch out for along the way, how to set yourself up for success from the very beginning. Next week, I'll be covering the next two phases of the process, which are revising and publishing. Talk to you then. That's it for today's episode. If you found this episode helpful, could you do me a favor, take an extra minute and rate and review the show. This will help others find it and will also make my day. I will be back next Wednesday, taking you deeper into the transformative power of writing. Until then, remember, words are more than ink on a page. They are a path to wholeness.