Write and edit your book

Three ways to get a first draft

There is no single right way to write a book. What matters is choosing a method that matches how you think and how much time you have. Here are the three most common routes for authors with expertise, each explained fairly.

1. Type it yourself

The classic route: you sit down with your outline and write. It works best for people who think clearly on the page, enjoy writing, or need the act of writing to work out what they believe.

The biggest trap is editing while you draft. You write a paragraph, reread it, fix it, reread it again, and an hour later you have three polished sentences and no momentum. The Scribe Method recommends what it bluntly calls the vomit draft: write as fast as you can, do not stop to reread, do not edit, and keep going until the draft is done. A bad first draft you can fix. A perfect first page with nothing after it you cannot.

If you worry about your voice, write as if you are explaining the idea to a friend, or to someone going through the problem you have already solved. That is your voice.

2. Talk it out, then transcribe and edit

Many experts explain things brilliantly out loud and freeze in front of a blank document. If that sounds like you, talk the book instead. This is the approach the Scribe Method chapter on writing your first draft by talking describes:

1. Take one chapter outline. Record yourself explaining it, out loud, to your ideal reader. Imagine their questions and answer them.
2. Get the recording transcribed (by software, a person, or both).
3. Edit the transcript into prose: cut the filler, put the ideas in order, turn spoken sentences into readable ones.

Even better: have a friend or colleague interview you from your outline. People rarely get "speaker's block." Be honest with yourself, though, about step three. A transcript is raw material. Turning it into a readable chapter is real editing work, and it often takes longer than people expect.

3. Work with a ghostwriter

A ghostwriter writes the book from your knowledge, usually through a series of recorded interviews, and you review and approve every draft. The book is published under your name. This is common and accepted in nonfiction by busy experts, executives and founders.

What you still do: supply the ideas, stories, opinions and expertise; make the positioning decisions in Modules 1 to 3 (a good ghostwriter will push you on them); show up for interviews; and review drafts carefully, because the book needs to sound like you and say what you actually believe.

Your options range from independent freelance ghostwriters to full-service firms that also handle editing, design and publishing. Scribe Media is one of those firms, so take this with that in mind. Whoever you consider, ask to read books they have written, ask how they capture your voice, ask who owns the rights and the files, and ask what happens if a draft is not working.

Build a writing plan you can keep

Books get finished by people who show up regularly, not by people waiting for inspiration. A plan turns "I am writing a book" into a calendar. The Scribe Method chapter on creating your writing plan breaks it into a few parts:

• A set time and place. Decide exactly when and where you will write, and protect it like a client meeting. The chapter recommends at least an hour a day, or 30 minutes if that is all you have. Consistency matters more than length.
• A daily target. The chapter uses 250 words an hour as a realistic pace, roughly a book page. Pick a target you can hit on a bad day.
• Chapter deadlines. One chapter a week is a fast pace and one every two weeks is moderate. The chapter's advice: if you can only manage one a month, ask whether now is the right time to write the book yourself.
• Accountability. Tell people you are writing it. Report your progress to a writing partner, a group or a colleague.

If you are talking the book out, the plan is the same, measured in recording sessions instead of words. If you are working with a ghostwriter, the plan is your interview schedule and your review deadlines, and keeping them is the single biggest thing you can do to keep the project moving.

Four principles for clear nonfiction

You do not need a writing degree. The Scribe Method chapter on writing effective nonfiction reduces it to four principles. Keep them in mind while drafting, and apply them hard when you revise.

1. Short. Short chapters, short paragraphs, short sentences, short words. Brevity forces you to know what you mean.
2. Simple. Plain words. If a smart person new to your field would stumble, rewrite it.
3. Direct. Active voice. "We missed the forecast" instead of "the forecast was missed." Say who did what.
4. About the reader. Every page should answer the reader's question, "why do I care?"

Getting to the end of the draft

The middle of a book is where most authors stall. A few things that help:

• Skip ahead. Stuck on chapter five? Write chapter eight. Fill the gap later.
• Leave notes, not holes. Write "[STORY ABOUT THE LOST CONTRACT GOES HERE]" and keep going. Do not stop to research.
• Check the outline when you procrastinate. Repeated avoidance often means the plan for that chapter is wrong. Fix the outline, then write.
• Talk when you cannot type. If a chapter will not come, record yourself explaining it and work from the transcript.
• Count words, not quality. Until the draft is done, the only score is whether you hit your target.

When you finish the draft, mark it. It is a real milestone that many people who start a book never reach.

Revise in passes

Revision works best in separate passes, each looking for one kind of problem. First, put the draft away for at least a week, ideally two. You need to come back to it as a reader, not as the person who just wrote it.

The Scribe Method chapter on editing your book uses three passes:

Pass 1: Make it right (structure)

Read the whole book through quickly. Ask: does every chapter earn its place? Is everything in the right order? Is anything important missing? Is anything repeated? Move, cut and add at the chapter and section level. Do not fix sentences yet.

Pass 2: Line by line

Now go paragraph by paragraph. For each one, ask the six questions from that chapter: what point am I making, is it necessary, is it as short as possible, as simple as possible, as direct as possible, and did I leave anything out?

Pass 3: Read it out loud

Read every word aloud, or record yourself reading. Wherever you stumble, run out of breath or get bored, the reader will too. Fix those places.

Beta readers: who to ask and what to ask

Feedback helps only when it comes from the right people. The Scribe Method chapter on asking for feedback names three kinds of useful readers:

• An experienced writer or editor, for structure, pacing and clarity.
• An expert in your field, to check facts and make sure your claims hold up.
• People in your target audience, to tell you what is clear, what is confusing and what they wish you had covered.

Three to five well-chosen readers are worth more than thirty casual ones. And ask specific questions. "What did you think?" gets you "I liked it." Try:

• "Where did you get confused or bored? Mark the page."
• "What would you do differently on Monday after reading chapter three?"
• "What question did you still have at the end?"
• (For the expert) "Is anything here wrong or out of date?"

Avoid posting chapters on social media for feedback, and be careful with friends and family unless they fit one of the three groups. Look for patterns: if one reader dislikes something, consider it; if three readers stumble at the same spot, fix it.

The four kinds of editing

"Editing" means several different jobs, done in a specific order. Knowing the difference keeps you from paying for the wrong one, or paying for the right one at the wrong time.

Not every book needs a separate developmental and line edit, especially if you revised well or worked with a ghostwriter. Some editors combine developmental and line work. Every book needs a copyedit and a proofread.

Working with a copyeditor

The Scribe Method chapter on copyediting says plainly that every book needs at least one professional copyeditor, because authors cannot catch their own errors reliably. To get good work:

• Tell them who the reader is and the tone you want (formal or conversational, American or British spelling).
• Tell them your known weak spots, such as switching tenses or overusing a word.
• Expect a file with tracked changes. Accept the obvious fixes, think about the suggested rewordings, and reject changes that do not sound like you.
• Ask for a style sheet: a list of the decisions they made (spellings, capitalization, how numbers are written) so the proofreader can follow the same rules.

Lock the manuscript

Locking means you stop changing the text before it goes to layout. This matters more than it sounds. Once a book is typeset, every change can shift lines and pages, which costs designer time and creates new chances for errors. The copyediting chapter makes the same point: changes after layout begins add time and cost.

No manuscript is perfect. At some point more polishing stops making a difference a reader would notice. When the copyedit is done and you have reviewed it, call it final, save a clearly named file ("FINAL, locked, [date]"), and move on to Module 5.

Common mistakes

• Editing while drafting. Get to the end first. You cannot revise a book that does not exist.
• Waiting for big blocks of free time. They rarely come. Short, regular sessions finish books.
• Choosing a method that fights how you think. If typing makes you miserable and talking comes easily, talk.
• Treating a transcript as a draft. It is raw material. Budget real time to shape it.
• Asking everyone for feedback. Ask a few of the right people specific questions.
• Paying for a proofread before the structure is right. Fix the big things before the small things.
• Rewriting after layout. Lock the text first. Late changes are where new errors come from.

What comes next

In Module 5, you will choose a publishing path and turn the locked manuscript into a real book: cover, interior, ISBNs, formats, price, description, metadata and distribution.