Module 6: How to Write the Book Okay, guys. Katrina Starzhynskaya here, and lesson 6, how to actually write the book: time frame, where to get your ideas from, and how to get inspired. Let s begin. Time Frame First off, we ll talk about time frame. How long should it take you to write a book? Some people get so overwhelmed thinking about writing a book. They think it will take them years, which sometimes could be the case. However, you need to make a deadline for yourself, and you need to decide how many pages a day you will write. For example for myself for my first book, Katrina s Recovery, I had decided that I wanted my book to be 300 pages, and I would write three pages a day no matter what. I was done with my book in about 90 days, and then, I was going back and forth, and I was completely done within four months. Then, I submitted it to my editor, and editing took about four months, because we went back and forth. It s actually too long. You can get it professionally edited in two weeks. For me, it was too long, and then figuring out self-publishing took me maybe another four months. For you, it will take no time, because I m teaching you all about self-publishing in this course. Okay, let s move on. You have to put a deadline for your book writing, because you have other projects for you going on, and the book is
never a priority. Unless you have a deadline, you will never get it done completely. You might start, and then, you might quit, or you might start and then procrastinate, so take out your calendar and circle your deadline for your book. Sourcing ideas for your book Okay, so where can you get your ideas for the book? It s okay to use somebody else s ideas in your own words if you get inspired by them and if you can inspire other people as well. What you should do is reread your favorite books that really inspired you and see what exactly inspired you. You don t have to steal anybody s ideas, but you need to see what moves you, what makes you tick, what inspires you, what makes you excited. Also, you should watch as many videos on YouTube or other video websites and find videos in your genre and get inspired. See what s new, what people are talking about, what s going on in your industry or in the topic you re writing about. Movies, a perfect, perfect example. You can watch movies, old ones and new ones, and also get inspired and make notes, what really moves you, what do you remember after you finished watching this movie, and try to simulate ideas in your book. Inspirational stories are always the best. They can be from books, movies, YouTube videos, or from newspapers, or simply maybe your grandma or your parents told you some inspirational stories or your friends. They are so all amazing to put into your book to inspire other people.
Writing versus talking Okay, so writing versus talking. 90% of people that write their books nowadays, they actually talk into a dictaphone to later on submit it into a transcription service, and as I said, I think maybe even over 90% of people dictate their book. However, I am not a pro in that, because I really type. I write all of my books, I m a more visual person. I like to type and reread what I just typed, so I do not use a recording service. However if you are the type that it s much easier for you to talk your book out, just to let you know that two hours of audio will be approximately 150 pages. So if you want to make your book around 300 pages, you need to talk for four hours and sometimes even more, and then you look for transcription services online. They re pretty inexpensive, and you just submit it there, and then, they will return a first draft for you to edit. Sourcing inspirational quotes I really encourage you to add inspirational quotes in your book. It doesn t matter what your topic is. If your topic is health and wellness, there are plenty of inspirational quotes that will inspire people to take actions and to think about something important in their lives. Why are they improving their health? Why are they trying to reach financial freedom? So all of those quotes are really inspiring for your readers, and inspirational quotes are the best way to get reader s attention and
inspire her or him before they even read the chapter. Some people, they don t even read the whole chapter, but they skim through your book, and they see all those inspirational quotes, and it already moves them and drives them to finish up your book. It s really a great idea to start every single chapter with an inspirational quote, and there are so many quotes online you can find. There are so many quotes you can actually create yourself that you can use later on for your own products for branding purposes. Paraphrasing People often ask me about paraphrasing if they want to use ideas of other people, some ideas that they just loved, and they want to paraphrase and use them in their book, and it s okay. It s totally fine. Yes, you can paraphrase, and paraphrasing is very different from copying. Never copy and paste anything. The best way to paraphrase, you should read the chapter of the book you want to paraphrase and then rewrite everything in your own words, never copy and paste. Paraphrasing should be true to the original author s idea, but it is written in your own words and sentence structure, and it s always a great idea to give credit to the original author, by the way. Let s take a look at an approach to paraphrasing. Reword, rephrase, and restructure all of the material that you would like to use. So, how should you do it? You read the passage you intend to paraphrase, highlight the ideas that support your argument, that get you inspired, and that will inspire your readers, and without looking at the original
source, write the important ideas in your own words and check to make sure that you have reworded, rephrased, and restructured the whole text. Copying and pasting is really stealing somebody s material, and it s a big no-no. Never do that. Never copy and paste anything into your book or your blog or anything you do, that s bad. Always try to give a credit to the author if you take some ideas from their source, as I already said. For example, as I wrote in my book, as Dr. Shultze says, sympathy lies between shit and syphilis in the dictionary. I could use it as my own words, but of course, I don t want to steal Dr. Shultze s quote, so I gave him credit, even though maybe I paraphrased the whole paragraph and used it in my own words. Get inspired and inspire others For your book, I want you to get inspired and make sure your book will inspire others. Before you even write anything, set an intention to inspire your readers. Your story and your book can and will influence lives of thousands of readers. Dream big. Never think that nobody will read your book. There are thousands of people that will benefit from your book, and they will tell all their friends, and all their friends will buy it and benefit as well. Remember, there are no bad ideas. Everything is genius.
Homework Your homework for today will be to reread your favorite books. Watch videos on YouTube, Vimeo, and other websites. Watch some inspirational movies, inspirational stories, and also when you search for inspirational quotes online, you will get more ideas for your chapters, for your topics. So, don t delay. Do it now, and good luck.