I’ve been running a workshop that teaches people the secrets of writing a book since 2002 now. In it, I tell them how I had the first book I ever wrote accepted by the first publisher I approached. How I was fresh out of university, it was a cookbook and that I couldn’t cook.

So, why was I successful?

Was it just a fluke?

Well, back then I thought it was, but now, 26 books on, I realise that I got several things right.

So, I go to the flipchart and start to ask the audience what they think the reasons for my success might be. It always follow the same pattern. To kick off, they suggest things like focus, a good title, the right idea at the right time, a market, a wow factor and authenticity, but then the room falls silent. They wrack their brains. Then someone says, it always happens, someone says: “There’s something else though, isn’t there?” and the rest of the audience begin to nod.

You see, the other reason I succeeded was because I believed in myself. I was 23, I was young, naive, filled with hope. I did not consider for a moment that the fact that I was not a cook and had not been published before would stand in my way. I believed I had a good idea. OK, let me get it out of the way right now, before you wonder how I got away with not being a cook – though I had not written the recipes and could not cook, they had been given to me by French families while I had been living in France. The book was called French Tarts and it was a good idea and, in the mid-eighties, it was the perfect time. I truly believed I had a good chance of the book being accepted.

I believe that self-belief is the number one requirement if you want to write a book. It should not be the last thing on the list but the first. So, what follows, are five ways that I suggest you try to develop this elusive item.

1. Ask for feedback and take it, welcome it, know that without it you will never really know how good you are. Improve your chances by suggesting how you want the feedback to be served. Say you want to hear what they liked, what they felt might be missing and how they might improve it. This kind of feedback is much easier to digest and will leave you feeling good about your work.
2. Write every day. OK, almost every day. If you have a journal and are in the practice of doing ten minutes of what Julia Cameron, in The Artist’s Way, calls Morning Pages, then you will begin to feel like a real writer rather than an imposter. You see, real writers do something phony writers don’t – they write.
3. Read other books in your market. Devour them. Make Amazon your best friend and read everything else out there that is like the one you want to write. You’ll soon find things that you consider not to be so great about each book, as well as things you’d like to emulate in yours. This will boost your confidence in your idea.
4. Get published in a small way. Nothing will make you feel more positive about your potential as an author more than already having your name in print. So write articles, start a blog, write book reviews or theatre reviews. Get your name online and in print, build a portfolio. Not only will this increase your profile and Googleability, but will also develop belief in your writing.
5. Join a class or online program, one that makes you commit to writing, forces you to do homework and ensures you turn up at the class and the page regularly. Being in a class means you get feedback from the rest of the group, if you you are lucky, and from a professional,the teacher. Practice makes perfect and is habit-forming. Try it.

If ever I get stuck or ‘lost for words’ there are a number of books that I turn to that never fail to inspire me and have me heading for the keyboard. I’d like to share them with you now.

1. OK, so everyone knows about The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron, don’t they? This 10 week course will get you writing every day, for just ten minutes and will not only get your writing back on track, but will get the skeletons in your closet nicely aired too!
2. Stephen King’s On Writing is about his return to health after this famous Sci Fi author was hit by a car. It talks about how he got his own writing back on track. He is frank at all times and pulls no punches. Just as I was having a lovely old procrastinate, telling myself I’d write my novel after I’d got a new laptop, created a ‘writing corner’ and bought a new chair in which to sit, I read about King’s own experience of this and how, in the end, where he sat made no difference at all. All that mattered was that he just did it. He wrote.
3. I guess Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg was the first book on writing I ever read. It’s about writing anywhere, writing what is in your head, and giving yourself permission to ‘just go’ with the pen. This is the perfect limbering up book for writers.
4. I am ashamed to say that it took me 20 years as a writer before I found the work of Anne Lamott. Her Bird by Bird is a fabulous journey inside the mind of someone who makes her living as a writer. It teaches you, pretty much, as King explains, to cut the excuses and just write. But more than that, it explains how you just need to write in little chunks, just as you would if you were writing a book on birds, cover one bird at a time. Liberating stuff.
5. And the other one, Becoming a Writer by Dorothea Brande, was written in the 50s and it’s another book that aims below the belt and gets me going again. In it she suggests that if you tell yourself that you will, say, write a page a day, or ten minutes a day, and then you fail to turn up, that clearly your desire to fail is greater than your desire to succeed. Boy, did that one get me back to the keyboard.

I hope these five inspire you. Further, I hope  you promise yourself to add every single one of them to your wish list!

How will your story make a difference to others?

I hope to inspire some of you to realize the gift hidden within you and give you the tools you need to spread that message and give new ideas and knowledge to make this world a little better for everyone. If you have a unique gift or ability, a book is the easiest way to spread that message to as many people as possible.

I would like to share with you the stories of some of the authors who I have helped to recognize their gift and spread the “word” with their published book.

Read the full story

It doesn’t seem to matter how much writing I’ve done nor how much success I’ve enjoyed, but sometimes my motivation to put words on paper evaporates. At moments like this I find myself doubting my capability as a writer and wondering if I’m in the right job. Do you get days when you open up a blank document, position your fingers over the keyboard and your heart sinks? With nothing to say you decide not to bother, for now, and settle down to a spot of procrastination. When, like  me you make a living as a writer, you can’t afford to have bad days. So, over the years, I have developed five ways to get my motivation back on track and my fingers flying. I hope they help you too.

Here goes:

1. I re-read a book on writing that I love. Words by Natalie Goldberg (Writing Down the Bones), Anne Lamott (Bird by Bird) or Sheila Bender (Writing in a New Convertible with the Top Down) always do the trick and remind me why I love to write.
2. I attend a writers’ circle meeting even if I haven’t written anything myself. Just listening to others reading their work and joining in with the critique fills me with longing to write. Only this morning, my writers’ circle inspired me with musings on the weather, disliking pavlova, finding yourself at home in another country, African runners and how the world is becoming coffee-coloured.
3. I just start writing, not worrying that I may write utter rubbish and that I’ll delete it later. Once I’ve started it takes about ten minutes to get back in the flow. I write without editing, without looking back and just go til I get to the end. Getting to the end is  a fabulous feeling and polishing is a breeze once I’ve finished my Shitty First Draft.
4. I set myself a deadline and share it with others. This makes it harder to back down. So, when I am in the middle of writing a book and it’s going slowly, I find myself a date a few months hence when I’m giving a talk or workshop and advertise in the promotional material that my new book will be available for sale. That works every time.
5. I find an online source of podcasts on writing, poetry, literature or stories and download a few to my ipod and go for a long walk. Believe me, being outside without a pen can be agony and soon I’ve picked up my pace and am heading for home with fingers twitching.

I teach people how to write their life stories and now and again my students write something that upsets them and deeply moves those who hear it during the feedback sessions. Of course, it can make us cry when we remember painful events that we are now reliving by writing them down. But I think that is good. When I get goosebumps, to me, that’s a sign of great writing. Often, emotion bubbles up while we are writing and that scares us. Our tears make us doubt whether our words are appropriate, whether they are that bit too real, too authentic, too revealing. When this happens, it can lead us to censor our words, hold back and protect ourselves.  I know, it happens to me too. Only I welcome those moments.

After more than 20 years as a writer and a teacher of writing I have come to learn that it is the material we produce that is authentic, emotionally charged (often painful) and real that is our best work. It is this writing that resonates with others.

You know, if writing something is emotional, reading it aloud can be worse. Earlier this year I wrote a poem to my mother, which I planned to recite as a surprise at her Golden Wedding party. Several people who had read preview copies of my book, ‘A Moving Landscape’, in which it was to appear, told me how they too had ended up in floods of tears when they read those lines. I practised and practised, knowing that there was one particular stanza that made me cry every time. I tried to practise so hard that my emotion would go away.  I braced myself, stood up in front of 40 guests and began. My throat began to constrict as I approached the troublesome lines and read:

‘I see you in the mirror,

when I trace the lines upon my face.

I see you when my children stoop

to hold you in embrace.’

But directly after the second line, above, my mother interrupted:

“Well, that’s charming!” she butted in, offended that I should have mentioned her wrinkles. The room filled with laughter and my tears never came. I was disappointed. Part of me had wanted to cry, knowing that my emotion would enhance the meaning and show everyone how much I love my mother.

Since then, I have encouraged my students more than ever to write from the heart. To write material that makes them sad, allowing them to feel the pain all over again as they write it, again when they recite it in class and again every time they dare to share it. There are several reasons for this and none of them related to the fact that I like to watch people suffer. Not only is emotion cathartic but writing material that is raw and natural has a much better chance of touching the listener or the reader.

So, next time you baulk at the thought of exposing yourself and writing stuff that is too deep or too strong, ignore that inner critic and do it anyway. I think you will find you just wrote your best work.

Use this comprehensive checklist to ensure you’re ready to write your book.

Are you clear about your motivation for writing a book? Money, fame, reputation, legacy, sharing what you know?

• My motivation is:

Do you know who your competition is? Have you read those books, decided what works and what doesn’t and checked out their Amazon rating?

• Competitor A is:
• And I like:
• And I dislike:

• Competitor B is:
• And I like:
• And I dislike:

• Competitor C is:
• And I like:
• And I dislike:

• Competitor D is:
• And I like:
• And I dislike:

Does your book idea have a wow factor, something different, a Unique Selling Proposition?

• My USP is:

Do you already have some fans, a following and a Google-rating? A blog, a website and a direct route to market?

• My fans find me here:
• My route to market is here:

Do you have a support group, mentor, coach, writing buddies and trusted readers who can give you feedback every step of the way?

• My supporters are:

Are you prepared to write in your natural voice, simply, easily, accessibly and aim for a Shitty First Draft?

• Yes
• No
• Yes, but I need to practise and get feedback first

Have you chosen the ingredients for your book and decided on your recipe?

• Personal anecdote
• Case study
• Illustrations
• Tips
• Tasks
• Summaries
• Expert opinions
• Quotations
• Resources
• Bulleted lists, like this one
• Subheads

Have you mind-mapped your book?

See this article for more on how to use Mind Maps

Have you mind-mapped a chapter?

See this article for more on how to use Mind Maps

Have you written a contents list, complete with foreword, acknowledgements, title page, resource section and so on and received feedback on it?

Have you written a sample chapter, using your mind-map, ingredients and recipe and received feedback on it?

Have you explored the options available for publication?

• agent
• publisher
• paid-for-publishing aka vanity presses
• self publishing your own book
• ebook publishing