I always wanted to be an author.
I have always been a good storyteller, Fairly good in communication but I had no
formal training in writing a book.
And so I thought being an author was out of
reach.
And besides, I was told
that it takes years to write a good book.
And I had no years to spare.
I was already pressed for time.
I had a very flourishing career as a
motivational speaker and between travel and
assignments I did not have
years to spare to write a book.
In 2009 I wrote my first book I Am Another
You.
It went on to become the number one best seller
and went on to win multiple international
awards, it has been translated in several
regional and foreign languages.
I still have no formal education in writing
and I wrote that book in 5 days !
In this series, I am going to tell you how
to write that book you have always been meaning
to write, to write well, and to write it in
about a week.
Welcome to my show, How to Write a Book in
8 Days.
In this video I am going to prepare you to
get ready for the journey of writing your
book.
And when there, you can either get started
right away, or ear mark this video for the
future so you can come back to it for reference
later and write your book.
So I am going to be honest with you.
It is not important to have a degree in literature
to become an author, although some formal
education is always a plus point.
But you need to have a flair for expression.
You need to have a deep interest in people.
And you have to be that absent minded kid,
who is lost in different worlds of his imagination.
And if you have some experience in writing
– blogs / articles / short stories, then
you might just be ready to pen down your first
book.
I wrote my first book nine years ago.
But before that I had written over 600 articles
for various newspapers and publications for
over 10 years.
Now that’s a lot of writing.
And let me make a small mention, I never got
paid a single rupee for any of these articles.
And the thing is that I never asked.
I just wrote for fun… but I wrote professionally.
And I wrote fast.
So a journalist would call me and ask, Priya
can you write an article on lets say “how
to handle difficult people at work,” and
I would say yeah.
And because I was so busy and I didn’t have
time, I didn’t have much time to write the
article.
So I would get to it, and quickly submit it.
And I have found, that if you give the job
to the busiest person, he will get it done
the fastest, because he doesn’t have time.
Its ironic, but its true.
And I was very popular among the journalists
and editors.
So if someone didn’t have the time to write
or had a creative block, they could just call
Priya Kumar and get it done.
How did I have so much information and knowledge
to write about subjects that didn’t even
concern me?
Well, let me tell you that is the realm of
an author.
We will write about love and we will write
about revenge.
We will write about life and we will write
about death.
We will write about passion and then we will
write about murder.
Without haven’t lived through them all.
That is the realm of the writer, where you
give her a character, you give her a situation
and she will make a best selling story or
context out of it.
And to be honest, all my life I have been
the greatest and the most voracious reader
that I know.
As a child I would read and read and read.
I would often be punished in school for stealing
books from the library.
Well, I wasn’t stealing, I was borrowing,
but the thing was they would only lend us
one book at a time.
And I wanted to read five.
I would sometimes read two books a day, and
over the weekends.
I would fight with my parents to stay home
and not go out on our Sunday out tings so
I could read.
Reading stirs your imagination.
Reading allows you perspective.
You don’t always have to agree with the
author and it allows you strong opinions and
convictions when you find reasons not to agree.
And you have no one to argue with.
But you are forming your own convictions.
Reading strengthened my imagination.
Every few hours I could be in a different
world.
More interesting world that mine.
Stories have power.
Authors are the most powerful people on the
planet.
They get into your mind.
They make home in your heart.
They shape your thoughts.
They design your decisions.
Oh its an amazing position.
And as a reader, when you find in your hands
that powerful story, oh your life will never
be the same again.
You want to be the best author in the world.
Become the best reader ever.
You will have the practice of converting words
into thoughts and imagination and then as
a writer you will be good at converting thoughts
and imagination into words.
So how do you get started ?
Read.
Read a lot.
Read aloud.
Read.
Read.
Read.
It is exercise for your imagination.
It gives you practice of putting your thoughts
in alignment.
It gives you practice of orderly thinking.
Of building sequential events.
Of logical progression of events.
And these are great qualities to have even
if you don’t want to be a writer.
Look at any legendary person, someone you
deeply admire, they are readers.
Heck no, They are voracious readers.
Reading as a habit brings clarity.
It brings sanity.
And then write a lot.
Write articles.
Write blogs.
Even if no one is paying you, write.
Who is stopping you from writing an article
or a blog every day.
And don’t tell me you don’t have ideas
what to write about… that statement does
not suit an author.
Write about anything and write about everything.
And with every article, improve.
Learn new words.
Write better sentences.
Express more elaborate and then Make your
expressions tighter and shorter.
Write.
A lot !!!
And you will be preparing, reaching that place
where that one last article, that one last
sign off will set you free into the journey
of becoming a bestselling author.
