Lessons
More
01Why I’m Doing This – Mission Statement
Why am I doing this? (Hint: because you're going to love it). Here's everything you're going to learn along the way.
02Story Ideas – The Premise
How do you know your story idea is a good one? One of the crucial initial phases is making sure your idea can support a full premise - the core elements of your story. With this in place, you can move on to the outline and scenes list. Watch below for more, including a downloadable example and extra learning resources.
03Story Ideas – The Outline
Taking your premise - the core elements of your story - and expanding it into a full outline. This is your roadmap to craft your narrative, and will help you know exactly what to write when you sit down to work.
04Story Ideas – Help! My Story Sucks! Fixing Structural Issues
Sometimes, you'll get through an outline, put together a scenes list, and start writing - only to discover that *something* doesn't quite work. How can you pinpoint these things early and save yourself extensive re-writes later? I've invited "Story Guru" Joe Nassise - an NYT Bestseller with over 1m books in print - to help me fix a few problems I found in my first outline. You can also download the "before v after" scenes list to see how it all works in practice.
05Writing – The Scenes List: Getting Started
Getting started writing - with your outline and scenes list ready to rock, you'll know exactly what to write next.
06Writing – Hitting Word Goals + Finding a Groove
How much can you write in a day? A week? A month? Sometimes life gets in the way - and your story changes organically too. Here's how I deal with it.
07Writing – The Book is Done! What Happens Now?
So, you've written "the end"... What comes next? Here's a rundown.
08Writing – Fun with Covers! Here’s How to Get an Awesome Design
Getting the perfect design for your cover is a mixture of art and science... how do you know what will work and what's the process? Here's my rundown.
09Marketing – Gearing up for Launch! Here’s What I’ll be Doing
Your book launch needs to hit the ground running - and also set you up for the future. Here's what I'll be doing.
10Writing Your Book While Holding Down a Full-Time Job – There Are Some Benefits…
Is working from home really all it's cracked up to be?
11When it All Goes Horribly Wrong…
What to do when your book just... randomly vanishes.
12Productivity – The Office!
I've given up and re-joined the rat-race. Sort of...
13What Goes into a Book Launch?
Lots of moving pieces... let's break it down.
14Five Big Book Launch Surprises!
I never thought these things would happen...
15Launch Results! (Plus, 3 Things That Went Horribly Wrong)
It's not all cake and butterflies... The launch of our boxed set went amazingly well, but three things nearly spoiled the fun.
16How Many Books Do I Need to Get Results?
And how long does my series need to be? It's a common question - but one with a few different answers...