If you write I’m sure you hear the same thing that I hear all the time: “I have a lot of ideas for books, too.” Sometimes they follow up with, “You know, I could give you the ideas and you could write them, and we’d split the money. I’d give you half!”
Somehow I manage to remain underwhelmed by these shows of generosity.
Let me quote a non-writer who lives in the world of books, Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon. He told Success Magazine, “I think ideas are easy. It’s execution that’s hard. If you and I were to sit for an hour and scribble on a chalkboard, we could come up with a hundred good ideas. The hard part is making them work.”
I’m sure the full-of-ideas-nonwriters will never get that. It’ll stay our little secret.
So let's move on to execution. What are the components of that? I'd break it down this way:
1) Having the ideas. (The fun part)
2) Picking the best one--even though you can never be quite sure which one is best. But you must choose, otherwise you never get past this step.
3) Commitment. Having decided on one idea, you stop worrying about whether it's the right one and get on with it.
4) Doing the work. Setting aside time on a regular basis. Avoiding distractions. Not deciding to drop the project halfway through because a new, shiny idea pops up.
5) Overcoming perfectionism and doubts. Dealing with the Inner Critic.
6) More of doing the work. Getting past the rough spots, knowing that you can fix it in rewrites.
7) Putting the first draft aside for a while. Clearing your mind.
8) Getting constructive feedback. Being open to the good advice and secure enough to ignore the bad advice.
9) Doing as many rewrites as it takes to make it as good as you can--but no more.
10) Having the guts to send it into the world, take rejection, learn from it, and keep on going.
Most of us find at least one (and often more) of these challenging. If you can identify your weak poimts you can come up with strategies for overcoming them.
(For some help along the way, check out "Focus: use the power of targeted thinking to get more done," published by Nicholas Brealey and available from Amazon and other online and offline booksellers.)
