• By Earma Brown
• Published 09/1/2009
• Writing

Are you able to work on your book on weekends? Great! You can write your book one weekend at a time. Take it from a fellow weekend warrior book writer, you can do it! You do the hard stuff all day long. I’m convinced you can get focused, fit it in and finish your book this year. Your audience is waiting to read your insightful book. Think about it; if you don’t get your book done this year you will miss out on some great benefits. You wouldn’t have the competitive edge you’d have as an expert with a book. You’d miss out on the adventures and opportunities waiting for you on the other side of getting your book done. And worst of all, you’d miss the extra profits you could make by charging up to 400% more on your fees with Author as your title. Now that you are properly motivated to cash in on all that you are missing by not getting your book done. Here are seven simple strategies to get your book written using your weekends or any small blocks of time. 1. Cut wordiness but be specific. Compelling books are concise. Unnecessary words waste your time and most of all your reader’s time. It dilutes your message and makes your book longer than necessary. Additionally, be specific. When writing your book, stick to the specific information about your topic. The more relevant facts you include, the better. If you don’t bother to dig for specifics about your topic, your book may end up vague filled with meaningless words that few people read. 2. Create a book in an electronic format. First, ebooks are not dead. There are still many selling lots of ebooks each year, including the author. Put your message in a downloadable file to sell. Top selling ebooks are normally shorter and more specialized. You can publish your book as an ebook first or compile an ebook version of your existing print book. Don’t delay any longer, write your short book and put it in a (PDF) to sell to your website visitors. 3. Use your existing body of knowledge. Even if you add more researched information later, start with your existing knowledge first. Pull from your speeches, workshops, work experiences, etc. You may have collected a body of information just for fun. Or you did a bunch of research to make a business decision. For example, when I published my first book I gathered detailed information about POD publishing service companies and vendors to make the best decision. I later compiled that information into a free report and gave it away to hundreds promoting my website. Over the years, I added to that body of information and it grew into a self publishing resource website. Then finally, I added enough that I developed it into a book about self publishing.

4. Write in an organized way. Leading experts say we waste over 150 hours a year looking for misplaced information. Get organized in a way that fits you. For example, to get started you can create a master folder

with your book’s title. Inside, keep a separate file for each chapter. Assign each chapter a short title that will make sense later. If you don’t have a title yet then assign chapter names by topic. Assign research notes or resources to each chapter named folder. Make a how-to folder as well, such as short-key notes, style or formatting notes. With this system you can manage multiple projects easily. Don’t waste anymore time being disorganized. Remember you only have weekends and small blocks of time to complete. You can do it; just get organized. 5. Write a clear thesis. Did you cringe at the word thesis? For some, it brought back memories of English class and writing essays. No worries, a thesis simply reflects the main central thought of the book. Make sure the main central thought includes the greatest benefit of your book and you’re done. Writing your book’s thesis before you begin will help crystallize your message. With your book’s thesis in mind, you can stay on the path of focused, compelling yet easy to read book. You could end up with a top selling book written on the weekends all because your message was tightly focused. 6. Write with extreme focus. Throw away your plans to go away for a week, a month or a year to write your book. Weekend warriors don’t have the time to dedicate solely to their book. So, it’s a good thing you don’t have to become a hermit to write and complete a successful book these days. You can commit to the tracking approach. Do a set amount; even if it’s only 30 minutes to an hour each day builds a cumulative effect. You could write 1 chapter per week and have a short book in 7-12 weeks. 7. Write overcoming writers block. Writers block can be a serious hindrance, especially when you only have a small window to work on your book. Here are a couple of tips to get rid of writers block anytime you face it. Know you don’t have to write chapters in order. You can jump around and fill in the blanks to gain momentum. Maintain your momentum. Don’t give in to writers block. Move on to work on the chapter you feel passion bubbling for at that moment. 8. Write a short book. Because your book is shorter and easier to write fast, you can expect to go to market sooner. To accommodate your weekend writing, write your book in chunks, chapters, sections and parts. Writing this way will allow you to easily refine, repeat and repackage your information. You’ll be able to synch your book with a website and pull out a stream of articles, reports, follow-up products and even services to build your book, your brand and your business.

If you don’t get started writing your book in the small blocks of time available to you, you may never finish this year. As a fellow weekend writer, I believe you can do it! You don’t have to say I can’t because I don’t have time anymore. You have the knowledge; you can now say I CAN. Go make us all proud; write your book in the midst of your busy life with the time YOU have, even if it’s just on the weekends. See you at the finish line. Finish fast; finish strong and sell sooner.