Taking Your Book Idea To The Finish Line
Updated: Jan 31, 2022
Written by: Adrea Peters, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
Taking an incredible idea forward may be the hardest thing any of us do in our lifetime. It’s also ridiculously gratifying and completely worth the ride.
Let’s break down some “Idea Rules” that will keep you in the proper lane:
Rule One: Your ideas are not something to take lightly
Your ideas are not something to be taken lightly. Your ideas matter. They are important to you. You matter. Our ideas reflect who and what we are. That is excruciatingly important. Chase. Them. Wildly!
Rule Two: No one creates the same way
You are a unique, one-of-a-kind individual and have your very own life experience. You see only the way you see. You hear only as you hear. And so on. We could have the same exact idea, but our execution of that idea could not be the same because we are not the same as anyone else.
Rule Three: They didn’t steal it, they made it their own
And that is a good thing. A compliment, if you will. It’s annoying until you let it fill you with confidence and pride for your own ingenuity. You did something awesome once. Easy to do it again. If you can’t accept that people will follow and imitate you, don’t create anything so great! (Yes, I am teasing/being sarcastic).
Rule Four: There is plenty of room for all ideas
Focus on your idea. Not theirs. It’s magnificently shocking how effective you can be when you mind your own business.
Rule Five: People love to consume a variety of the same thing (I love this one!)
Original is awesome and if you’ve got an original idea, I bet someone else has basically had it before. This goes with the above—no one creates the same way. AND people often buy in the same genre and about the same topics. I love physics. Do you think I have only read one book on physics? You get my point. Thank you.
Rule Six: You never run out of brilliant ideas
I promise. I swear. You have so much more talent than you can contain. Deactivate worry.
Rule Seven: People will never be as invested as you are in you
Let’s ease up on everyone else and press the ignition for our own engines.
Structure helps. A book must have a beginning, a thorough middle and an ending that loops back to the beginning of the story. My upcoming article, Making and Keeping Promises in Your Writing will offer more insight on structure.
These questions will help you decide if you have an idea worthy of your energy and love:
Who is the idea about? (Not what, please. Who.)
How does it end? What is delivered?
Why does it end this way?
What is the opposite of the ending?
What does the celebration/after party look like once this idea is implemented?
Do you love this idea?
Describe why you love it.
Who would you be if you didn’t follow through on this idea?
Discipline is necessary. Chasing after a great idea is far better than the thing you most enjoy. The discipline to let yourself focus and bring it to life is the greatest investment you can ever make in yourself. Whether your book sells or not the journey of creating it will bring you clarity beyond your wildest imagining. Clarity is priceless. Experiences are what last the test of time. It may be grueling, emotionally, at times; it may hurt and sting and ache and fill you with sadness and grief. Do. It. Anyway. The discipline to stay in the story is what gets you through the story.
Space matters. You need a spot where flow happens. Yes. I am metaphorically asking you to find your toilet! You will have to write/chase your idea in a variety of settings, no doubt. But there is a special place where writing works best. I write in bed, preferably in my jammies. I have two active Labradors and the bed is a sedative, which gives me freedom to create uninterrupted. Take some time to find your space. Claim it. Own it. Sit in it. And...
Write the book. The hardest thing about writing is often writing. I encourage you to love what you are writing. The subject matter. The characters (or clients you are writing it for). The end you are chasing. Loving everything about your creation makes a tremendous difference. It fuels your discipline, which fuels your structure, which creates a beautiful space for you to write the entire book, work through multiples edits, promote it endlessly and connect with your beloved readers on the regular.
The secret to writing a good book is wanting to buy and read the book you wrote.
The secret to writing a phenomenal book is treasuring the book you wrote.
Seeping with pride and love for every single word.
For more information about Adrea, please visit her website, www.adreapeters.com. Links to her representative for rights and bookings as well as social media accounts can be found on her site. She also writes a popular monthly letter to her community that you may enjoy. Thank you.
Adrea Peters, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Adrea Peters is an award-winning author with a unique focus on endless possibilities. Her exuberant knowledge of story and its connection to the physics of us makes every offering she delivers mind-blowingly expansive. She wants YOU to understand YOU and how to let your stories reflect that. Both her fiction and non-fiction offer playful insight on how life works, how relationships suffer and bloom, and how we, as humans, always have triumph awaiting us. In addition to writing, Adrea worked for a Fortune 35 company before starting her consulting firm where she has helped many colleagues soar equal to the characters in her stories. Her mission: For each and every one of you to know that you are a unique, one-of-a-kind human being living an extraordinary life.
