Jaime Mathis and The Words

Part 2 Not to be a stickler for organization, but it's important when you're embarking on a long journey. It's helpful to think about writing a book in terms of a getting a college degree. Even if you go full time and take maximum credits or challenge every class, it will still take you a certain amount of time to get through all the material. Just so, now that you've been doing your Morning Pages faithfully for at least a month, you can see how much material is generated when you write a certain number of pages every day. The average novel length hovers between 75 and 90 THOUSAND words which means that you'll be typing or handwriting A LOT. I recommend you chose whatever form is the most fluid for you. Just remember though, you'll need to transcribe all your handwritten pages onto the computer eventually, so my vote is for the keys. Especially with your first book. It's important to have carrots of accomplishment at regular intervals and now is not re

Part 1 Yes, there are parts and I'll tell you why. It takes more than a good idea to make it onto the NYT best-seller list. There is an old saying that goes, "If you're going to eat an elephant, do it one bite at a time." The reason I am writing about this at all is that I have managed to write three books so far and I'd like to spare you the decade it took me to figure out and execute the steps necessary to have something you can hold in your hand that has words and your name on it. Writing is like any other sport, activity, or subject you can get better at. The one thing we all say but rarely do is apply the adage, "Practice makes perfect".  This means that you need to work out those writing muscles, namely, producing content. When I look at writers who struggle to crank out one sentence a day or who show up at the page and stare for hours, I imagine a marathon runner who spends his/her time looking at their running shoes and standing in place...or