06Mar

Why Category-Defining Books Start With a Question (Hint: You Don’t Need to Be an Expert Before You Write a Book)

“Why would anyone listen to me?” “I don’t know enough about the topic.” “Do you think I need to get a Ph.D. first?”
Expertise. It’s a common misconception about writing a great book. So the thinking goes, you become an expert and then just tell people how. But the reality is quite the opposite.   I asked author Dan Pink about the origins of his recent book When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing, and his answer surprised me. “That book had its genesis in this office. In an attempt to answer how I should approach my work.” A question he wanted to answer for himself. I asked Arianna Huffington why she wrote Thrive: Third Metric to Redefining Success and Creating a Life of Well-Being, Wisdom, and Wonder. “I collapsed from exhaustion and burnout in 2007, and started studying the whole phenomenon of burnout, covering a lot of it in the Huffington Post that I was running at the time. And then I started wanting to write about it. So, that's how Thrive came about it. It was really my new passion.” A question she wanted to answer for herself. Even my recent book Super Mentors began with a question: “Why wasn’t I a very effective mentor?” And the resulting work and book taught me something compelling that I shared with others through the book. This a question I wanted to answer for myself. None of us were experts, but we became experts by writing these books. Great books begin with a question.  But how do you find yours? * * * First, some wrong questions often clog the potential book writer’s mind:
  • Is it unique?
  • Will it sell?
  • Can I finish?
Those are different from the kinds of questions to fixate on. Sure, they are concerns, but truthfully they are much less relevant when you have a driving question.

Find Your Driving Question

Great books are based on a type of question I call your driving question  Driving questions are deeply personal, cross-cutting to numerous aspects of your life, and they nag at you often through an emotional thread.   It’s something that bugs you.  
  • Why can’t I . . . 
  • How come I . . . 
  • What’s stopping me from . . .
  • Why don’t we . . .
  • How come they won’t . . .
For Dan Pink, it was when he should be working to maximize his happiness, health, and success. For Arianna, it was how she should take care of herself to maximize her long-term well-being. For me, it was how to make a difference with others when I tried to help.   The way I summarize this is to ask yourself: What annoys you – and no matter what you’ve read, watched, heard, or done just doesn’t seem to fix it for you? That is a driving question.   What’s vital about driving questions is that conventional wisdom – what most people think or believe – is just unsatisfactory to you.   Sure, there may be answers from experts, research, and other places. But it’s unsatisfactory for you. You’re annoyed that you can’t find something that works or is satisfying for you.   Congratulations. You’ve got your driving question.

Is It Worth Finding Answers to Your Driving Question

Finding a question is relatively easy. Finding a driving question is more challenging. But the real trick is deciding something different: Is it worth finding answers to your driving question? Most likely, answers exist to this question. Books have been written. Podcast interviews are out there. Blog posts are plentiful.   Don’t expect to be the only one thinking about your driving question. Driving questions likely drive others too. That’s a good sign people are trying to answer it. But you’re on the right track if you find the answers unsatisfactory, incomplete, or too general. Remember, Dan wasn’t the first person or only person to write about the power of timing, luck, time management, or similar themes. There were dozens and dozens of books on wellness, sleep, purpose, etc., before Arianna wrote her book. And mentorship is one of the most covered subjects on the planet.   But none of them were satisfying, complete, or specific to us. Something was missing.   Remember, driving questions are deeply personal, and that’s part of what makes books special and unique:
  • Dan Pink was a modern, independent worker. As an author, he doesn’t punch a clock. Many books about time management or understanding timing were built when we didn’t control our schedules. He needed a unique and updated view for people like him. 
  • Arianna wasn’t a scientist, but she’d risen to fame and simply couldn’t go off in the wilderness and meditate to find her wellness. She needed to examine it for busy and ambitious professionals who wanted more. 
  • I was exploring modern mentorship in the digital era where the internet had changed access to advice and information. Nothing I’d read offered that modern look. 
But how will you know if it is worth finding answers to your driving question? I suggest you answer two questions:
  1. Is it something I’m willing to spend the next year going deeper into for myself?
  2. Is it something I’m willing to teach to others like me?
If your answer is yes to both questions, then you have checked a very important box in the book process:  This is a driving question worth finding answers to.

Where to Find Help Answering Your Driving Question

This is where many aspiring authors get stuck – answering your driving question isn’t easy or straightforward.   The answers will be nonlinear, more like a treasure hunt than a path.   And this is where the process is critical: You don’t look for an answer. You look for people who can contribute to your answer. This is critical – you should assume there is no answer. Dan Pink shared that he took a yellow notepad and began creating a list of people he wanted to learn from or talk to to answer his question.   Assume every expert will offer you something helpful, but it’ll be unsatisfactory, incomplete, or too general. There is no one magic TED Talk, book, or framework that answers your driving question. But they will have helpful contributions. What is a contribution? According to our good friend Webster (the dictionary), it’s when you give (something) to help achieve or provide something. For an aspiring author, the “something” here differs from what people usually expect from hunting for answers. Hunt for stories. I recently wrote a longer post about the hunt for stories called "Master Story Gathering: Four Steps to Research Story Ideas for Any Nonfiction Book". Especially early in your journey, you’re looking for contributions through the stories of others.  

Share Answers to Your Driving Question

Early in your writing journey, keep your writing short – usually, 50-250 word snippets that summarize the story from a podcast, an experience in your own life, a TED Talk, an interview you did, or just something random you thought of.  These smaller answers – contributions – are what will guide you toward answers that are:
  • More satisfactory
  • More complete
  • More specific
Remember, your book isn’t the only answer out there…  I can't guarantee that reading one book will change your life. But I can guarantee that writing one will. Through that process, you’ll answer your driving question,  and have something to share and teach others who also feel like you. * * * Most of the best books I’ve read didn’t start from a place of expertise; they started from a place of curiosity. Find your driving question and commit to answering it yourself and sharing it with others through a book. So, what’s your driving question?
Eric Koester is the founder Manuscripts, LLC, a b-corporation whose mission is to inspire, teach and support tomorrow’s creators — authors, podcasters, speakers, entrepreneurs, corporate innovators and course builders. Through his work he’s coached nearly 1,000 first-time creators. He is also a Professor of Entrepreneurship & Innovation at Georgetown University and the school’s only two-time entrepreneurship professor of the year, faculty at Growth University, and the executive director of the Intrapreneur Institute, which researches, trains and develops future innovation leaders.
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20Feb

Righting My Writing: What It’s Like to Work With a Developmental Editor

We believe writing a book is a solitary activity. But you can't make it solitary if you want to finish writing your book. I learned the hard way I had to Stop Writing Alone.
2022 was a very different year for me as an author. I published two books. Both books sold thousands of copies in their first year. Both books have won multiple awards. Why was 2022 such a great year for me as a writer? Two years prior, I began working with a developmental editor – a book writing coach. And if there’s a single thing that impacted my writing, it was that. I’m not unusual – I’ve interviewed and spoken to several hundred professional and successful published authors writing nonfiction, memoirs, novels, and essays. 70-80% of them shared they worked with a developmental editor or writing coach during their book development. And yet it surprises me that most first-time authors don’t. I thought I’d share my experience working with my developmental editor, Michael Bailey on my latest books: Pennymores 2 and 3 (I’m writing them both concurrently). I’ll share a bit about what held me back from working with a developmental editor on my first two books, then will talk about how Michael and I collaborate.

My Fear of Feedback as a Writer

I published my first book in 2009 and my second in early 2011. Honestly, I was terrified I’d written terrible first drafts when I shipped them to my acquiring editor. I was late on submitting them – five months late on each, actually – and was politely told if I didn’t submit them, I’d likely lose my opportunity to publish. I had what I’ve come to learn is a very ‘traditional’ view of book writing.
  • A writer writes until they finish a good draft.
  • An acquiring editor at a publisher gives you a ‘Roman-style’ thumbs up or thumbs down.
  • Revisions happen.
  • Publish.
This belief system holds lots of writers back from seeking or receiving feedback. And for many of us, we never actually produce something we think is ‘good enough’ to even submit to that terrifying acquiring editor.

You Want a Coach, Not Just Editing

Many first-time authors don’t work with a developmental editor because they believe editors simply edit what you’ve written. And unless you’ve written a lot or the entire thing, there’s nothing for them to do. It turns out that’s not what developmental editors do. Developmental editing is a different category, more focused on the structural components of the book rather than the prose. The analogy is building your dream home. The developmental editor is the architect who helps you design your house. Everything from the number of bedrooms to your kitchen layout to maximize the light. We think about other editors who help us with the prose, writing, copy editing, and proofing. They’ll help make the home feel right. Both are critical to having a home you’ll love, but you don’t do interior design until you’ve got the designs done, the foundation poured, and you are confident you don’t need to add a sun room. Great developmental editors coach. According to the ICF, 80% of people who receive coaching report increased self-confidence, and over 70% benefit from improved work performance, relationships, and more effective communication skills. 86% of companies report that they recouped their investment on coaching and more. That’s why I tell people Michael is my writing coach, and our working relationship is built very differently than I imagined:
  • We do a weekly call. We talk strategy, we work through ideas together, we talk about my writing time, and he coaches me when I’m struggling.
  • I share first drafts, and I share them as I write them. Usually, I’m sharing chunks that are 500-1,500 – so it’s not something that needs to be ‘complete’ or ‘done’. Michael reads what I write each week, and offers feedback on it as it’s written. But he also tells me not to make the changes – just read them and use that feedback to improve.
  • He doesn’t fix my grammar. Michael reads everything I write, but his comments are on strategic questions from structure, pacing, flow, and consistency. He doesn’t worry about my grammar or writing since that will all be part of revisions.
ICF defines coaching as partnering with clients in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires them to maximize their personal and professional potential. Michael isn’t editing or fixing my writing; he’s helping me realize my potential as an author.

The Psychological Benefits of Working With a Developmental Editor

I realize now that my first two books were written from a near-paranoid state. I didn’t share drafts with anyone, I didn’t tell many people I was writing them, and I spent a lot of time worrying about my grammar. I realize now it was a pretty lonely process. Working with a developmental editor provides me with a wide range of psychological benefits, both during the editing process and after the book is published. One of the main benefits of working with my developmental editors is that I gained a deeper understanding of my writing and general writing craft. A good developmental editor can provide feedback on the structure, pacing, arguments, and character development of a manuscript, as well as help an author identify and overcome any weaknesses or inconsistencies in their writing. This process helped me develop my writing skills, but the added benefit was enhancing my confidence in the book. The second psychological benefit of working with my developmental editor is that it has helped me to overcome writer's block and to stay motivated during the writing process. I’m now working on books six and seven, and I still struggle with feelings of uncertainty, self-doubt, and frustration when working on a book. A developmental editor can help provide guidance, support, and a sense of accountability. Michael has worked with hundreds of authors to navigate this, but he’s an author himself, having had the same feelings. Maybe it’s obvious, but having someone counting on me and a call scheduled each week to talk strategy has been central to staying focused and productive, avoiding getting bogged down by self-doubt or procrastination. I’ve also found a massive difference in the amount of rewriting I’ve done. My developmental editor offers perspective on my work as it’s happening. Writing a book can be an intense and personal experience, and it can be challenging to be objective about my writing. I’d spent quite a bit of time wrestling through a complicated scene, and after sharing it with Michael, I could sense he enjoyed it. He wrote in his comments that he wanted to hear more detail about it. A developmental editor provides an outside perspective on the manuscript, which has helped me see my work with fresh eyes and to identify areas that need improvement.

Five Tips to Set up a Positive & Productive Relationship With Your Developmental Editor

The most important thing is to remember your developmental editor is your writing coach, not just revising or editing what you write. You’ll need to collaborate, communicate, and iterate to success.
  1. Communicate effectively: Clearly express your goals, concerns, and feedback to your developmental editor. Understand the objectives of your coaching relationship. I recommend a weekly conversation, whether a zoom chat, phone call, or messaging over text/DM. But you want to have a conversation, not just send written comments on your writing back and forth.
  2. Be open to feedback: Listen actively and be receptive to constructive criticism. Your developmental editor’s role is to help you improve, so be willing to take their advice. Michael offers written feedback on what I write, but we begin each call and conversation by discussing things that I didn’t understand or wanted to clarify.
  3. Be proactive: Take responsibility for your development and work on achieving your goals. This includes following through on any action items or tasks your developmental editor assigns. We set weekly goals and realistic outcomes.
  4. Be honest: Be honest with your developmental editor about your strengths and weaknesses. This will help them tailor their coaching to meet your specific needs.
  5. Be respectful: Show respect for your editor’s time, expertise, and experience. This includes being punctual for meetings and keeping agreements and commitments.
* * * As an author, my work is essential to me. It’s my legacy and a craft I’m committed to improving. And that means being real with myself that I can’t do that alone. I need Michael and others to help me to maximize my personal and professional potential. Coaching has helped me. But more than anything, working with a developmental editor has provided me with a professional opinion. I’m fortunate to have Michael bring years of experience to me. Besides being an author, he has coached hundreds of authors like me as the Senior Editor for Manuscripts, LLC and trained dozens and dozens of other developmental editors. He’s able to consult with peers when I had questions on my use of tropes and quickly get me perspectives outside my own. I’ve grown as a writer, author, and creative. I’ve improved more in the craft of writing than anything – and even if my recent books hadn’t done well both commercially and critically, I’d still know I’m a better writer today than before. A special thanks to Michael Bailey and ChandaElaine Spurlock who have been my writing coaches and developmental editors. You both have helped me Right My Writing.
Eric Koester is the founder Manuscripts, LLC, a b-corporation whose mission is to inspire, teach and support tomorrow’s creators — authors, podcasters, speakers, entrepreneurs, corporate innovators and course builders. Through his work he’s coached nearly 1,000 first-time creators. He is also a Professor of Entrepreneurship & Innovation at Georgetown University and the school’s only two-time entrepreneurship professor of the year, faculty at Growth University, and the executive director of the Intrapreneur Institute, which researches, trains and develops future innovation leaders.
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30Jan

Writing Through Your Imposter Syndrome: Three Steps to Share and Publish What You Write

I hate the term Imposter Syndrome. It’s like you’re afflicted with this disease… shunned by society and destined to live out your days in the dark forest. I meet so many writers who struggle with it… stopping them from sharing or publishing what they’ve written. Here’s the truth: Every writer is an imposter (or at least has these feelings). We all are. Don’t try to stop feeling like an imposter. Instead, surround yourself with a community of other imposters who are putting their work out too. The advice in this post is pretty simple… Stop Writing Alone. But how?

Why Does Every Writer Feel Like an Imposter?

Most people believe writing is a solitary activity. We have this vision of a solitary writer, alone in a cabin with just a typewriter, silently working on her manuscript for a year before emerging with a perfect, complete book. In 2022, I was fortunate to have author Victoria Schwab speak to my class of writers. The past several years for her have been, to put it bluntly, unbelievable. Her work has garnered awards, praise, movie adaptations, and recurring spots on bestseller lists. She’s one of the top fiction writers today. As she joined our Zoom chat, I casually asked her how she was doing. “Better,” she said. “I spent the last two hours sobbing on my floor. But I’m better now.” The look on my face was quite telling. You were sobbing about your manuscript? You have doubts about your books? Victoria explained that she’d submitted the final manuscript to her publisher for a new book and she was convinced it was terrible, but she had a deadline and a contract. So, she submitted the revised manuscript and sobbed for two hours. This is from the woman who has had her books nominated for at least ten Goodreads Reader’s Choice Awards. When I asked her about advice for other writers she said, “If you're struggling with a story or struggling with creativity, it's not a reflection of your ability, it's a reflection of the fact that this is hard.” Victoria shared how she pushed through these feelings: She wasn’t writing this alone. She had others help her. Her parents had read it. Her editor had read it. Her peer authors had read it. And all of them encouraged and helped her to continue. Victoria doesn’t write alone.

The Science of Overcoming Imposter Writing

Two leading thinkers on distraction – Cal Newport and Nir Eyal – offer the same advice and guidance about beating imposter syndrome and distraction: Accountability. We are our own worst enemies. We believe what we’ve written is terrible. We believe we’ll be judged. We believe no one will care. And it turns out we are terrible judges of these things. Now, this isn’t to say that your fears aren’t rational. They are. Your brain is wired to mitigate risks. We’ve survived this way as a species because our brain is looking for that lion who could eat us or that cliff we could fall down or that berry we could eat that poisons us. Humans are wired to use fear to survive. But that same fear that helps us survive often prevents us from thriving. And that’s why writers need community. You need a system to help. Here are the three steps to build your community, create accountability, and share more of what you write with others.

STEP 1: Identify Your Who

You’re not sharing what you write with everyone. Start there. Building confidence in your writing starts by selective sharing. Picking the right people to start with is key. Be strategic and thoughtful, and you don’t need to post a draft of your unfinished book idea online or email a first draft of a blog post to your entire contact list. You just need to get the right people involved in your writing. This is the power of pacts. Nir Eyal, the author of Indistractable: How to Control Your Attention and Choose Your Life, highlights the power of pacts in combating imposter syndrome and distraction. Pacts are loose or informal agreements we make with others to hold us accountable. They aren’t usually formal, firm contracts (“You commit to writing 1,000 words a day”). Pacts operate more subtly, often playing on our personal feelings of guilt (“I’m going to get you a new chapter to read this week” or “I’ll get you a draft of my introduction by the end of the month”). And the secret of leveraging pacts to create accountability to move beyond imposter syndrome often comes from choosing the right people to help us. Pacts are the secret to accountability. As humans, we’ve been wired for them – these informal agreements between us. But not all accountability is created equal. Research finds that simply posting our goals online doesn’t create real feelings of accountability for most people. Two main types of accountabilities help writers improve and publish:
  • Professional accountability.
  • Peer accountability.
Professional accountability are people who have expertise in what we are looking to do or accomplish. In most cases, professional accountability is something you pay for such as a professional editor, a writing coach, or someone from a publisher. These are people who understand the craft. Peer accountability is people who know us as humans. They may or may not be experts in the profession, but they are people that we know – or at least believe – have our interests at heart. Often a brother, sister, family member, close friend, or peer also goes through a similar process. These are people who understand the person. My advice for aspiring writers is to have at least one professional accountability partner and at least two peer accountability partners. For me, I work with a developmental editor for my fiction writing, and I have two writer-friends who serve as my peer accountability.

STEP 2: Create Pacts

The bigger the writing goal, the easier it is for your inner critic to rear its ugly head. That’s why the secret of pacts is to think smaller… much smaller. Whether it’s a professional accountability partner (like an editor or writing coach) or a peer accountability partner (like a friend or another aspiring author writing their own work), I like to think about writing by time, not words. Many writers think about writing a thousand words or five hundred words or, heck, ten thousand words. We often think in word count because that’s how we’ve been trained to think about our writing – submit a 10-page essay or a 3-page paper. Research finds that we overestimate what we can accomplish early in learning any new skill:
  • We overestimate how much of a puzzle we’ll complete
  • We overestimate how much editing we’ll complete on our first videos
  • We overestimate how many words we’ll write when we start
This overestimation problem manifests a disappointment problem. If you thought you’d write 1,000 words and only wrote 300, you must not be a good writer or must not be motivated. Create pacts built around time. “I’ve got two hours blocked off to write this week. Can I send you something to read from that?” Here’s what you’ve done with that sentence:
  1. You’ve set aside the time. Here, you’re committing to two hours of writing. We know humans are better when they work for a set period of time. We accomplish more in less time than if we set an output goal.
  2. You’ve scoped your deliverable. You’re not committing to a word count or a form factor. You’re going to send them “something.” And that “something” is being done in a two-hour block of time over a week-long period.
  3. You’ve limited your feedback loop. You’re not spending six months, but you’re spending a week. You can play with these dates – two weeks, five days, or even up to a month. But much more than a couple of weeks can create greater expectations. You’ve told the person you’ll send them something this week. Their expectations should be lower (as should yours).
This is a writing pact that is built for success. You’ve made a loose commitment to your coach, editor, or friend, but you’ve scoped it for success by limiting expectations.

STEP 3: Gather Feedback

The first two steps are the most important in this process – truthfully, a substantial portion comes from building this feedback system. But the third step is important to build this into a compounding process. You’re putting yourself out there – even in this small way to this small group – and there’s a risk that they could accidentally make your imposter syndrome worse, even accidentally. You can ask for this feedback in person or over a video call or written. But often, I’d suggest early on making this a live conversation to get context. Don’t assume people know how to give productive feedback. Ask for feedback in the way you’d like to receive it. Here’s how:
  1. You don’t want them to edit your work. This may be the most important thing: tell them you are not looking for feedback or changes to the text. There are spelling issues, grammar issues, etc.
  2. You’d like them to identify two or three things they liked about the piece. You want to hear what concepts resonated, what stories landed, etc. You’re looking for insights about what worked for them. Not generalities (“I loved it”), but specifics (“I liked how you…”). And if they don’t offer them, push them on this.
  3. You’d like them to identify one or two things you could improve. Limit the scope to one or two things for them, and again make them specific. Sometimes people will hesitate, so you can guide them as “where could I have gone deeper,” or “what was unclear,” or “what would you add?”
Here’s a specific sentence you can use when you send a piece to someone: “This isn’t a polished piece so I’m not looking for editing on grammar or spelling. I’d love to know 2-3 specific things that worked for you and 1-2 specific things that could be improved in the next draft.” Here’s what I’ve found from this process: I’m always excited by their critical feedback because it means I know what to do to improve.
Writing gets stuck when we’re writing alone. Putting yourself out there is hard. It is. And it's the single reason so many ideas, stories, manuscripts, and concepts never see the light of day. The myth of the writer is that it’s a solitary endeavor. While it’s true you do spend a lot of time with just you and the keyboard, everything significant I’ve written is touched by lots and lots of others before it’s published. I sent the unpublished draft of my first book in The Pennymores series to more than 1,000 people. Part of that was to improve the book and the story. But a big part of that is accountability. I need others to help me push through my imposter syndrome. Remember, you don’t need 1,000 people… but you need a couple of people, often someone who is a professional and someone who is a peer. Find the right people, build the right system, and week over week, you’ll gain confidence in yourself and in your writing. It’s not a light switch that you go from imposter to not an imposter. It’s a process where you get the confidence to share or publish what you write despite feeling those imposter thoughts.
Eric Koester is the founder and CEO of Creator Institute, a b-corporation whose mission is to inspire, teach and support tomorrow’s creators — authors, podcasters, speakers, entrepreneurs, corporate innovators and course builders. Through his work he’s coached nearly 1,000 first-time creators. He is also a Professor of Entrepreneurship & Innovation at Georgetown University and the school’s only two-time entrepreneurship professor of the year, faculty at Growth University, and the executive director of the Intrapreneur Institute, which researches, trains and develops future innovation leaders.
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