I've been tossing around the idea about writing a book for some time now and finally decided to pull the trigger and actually set a deadline for when I want it done.
I'm going to be using the 12 Week Year to complete this book in short sprints. I'm not entirely sure how long it will take, but I have the outline of the book made. Starting April 1st and ending on the 24th of June, I will have this book completely written, previewed, and edits made. A bonus would be to get it published by an agency and getting it on audible, but that would probably have to go into my next 12 week year.
The topic will be building a foundation from which you can improve and change all other areas of your life. It's based upon much different self-help, business/entrepreneurship, theology, physiology, all that I've used and proven through practicing regularly.
My target audience is primarily young adults 15-25 who have the drive to be different and above average but don't know how or where to begin. All of these practices can be applied to older generations as well with equal results, though I'm primarily speaking to the younger generation.
One of the struggles I've been working through is not making this an "all-inclusive" book; I've got a lot of material to work with but couldn't fit in a single book if I had any desire to publish it within the next 5 years. So I'm limiting myself to only talking about building a foundation and rock that doesn't change your life.
The biggest reason I want to write this book now and not later is primarily due to my age. Apart from my life mission, I want to bring more rational thinking and a real, lifelong desire to keep learning and growing. It's become a major problem with people of my generation with many spending time on entertainment. I want to write this book before I turn 18 because I can prove it's not only possible but fairly easy to do things young.
I only get one year to be 17, so I may as well make the most of it. Plus, being in the age demographic that this book is written for I have close insights into the troubles and can clearly remember/recognize problems I may not be able to recall in the future.
Doing some research about writing a book and the proper forms it should be outlined, I've found a few good starting points to start to get a good idea of the work involved and where to begin.
Generally, a self-help book is approximately 7-12 chapters long, with an average of 10 pages per chapter. The word count on each page is an average of 250-300.
The outline of the book goes as follows:
1) Introduction - Who I am and why I can talk about this topic
2) Ch 1 - Introduce the problem with examples
3) Ch 2 - Produce the solution with what it looks like after
4) Ch 3-9 - Step by step guide to having the solution with takeaways/actions at the end of each chapter for the reader to practice
5) Ch 10 - Overview of each step and a call to action
Photo by: Yannick Pulver on Unsplash