Storytelling is an art. As art tends to do, it evolves with the times, often questioning its roots yet keeping a keen eye on those who came before. The premise of this article is to take a look at the roots of journey in storytelling, question them, and create a renewed perspective while also bringing forth two examples of evolving story journeys. The purpose of focusing on two story journeys is to get to the heart of the journey. The essence of the way a story is told. From there, a writer can expand upon key elements to bring the story into life. And yet, doing so from a more evolved perspective of inclusivity and diverse human experiences.

Hero’s Journey in a Nutshell

Are you a fan of the Star Wars movies? Did you know George Lucas adapted Joseph Campbell’s A Hero with a Thousand Faces into the first Star Wars series and that George referred to Joseph as “my Yoda”? ¹ It wasn’t until the 1980’s that Joseph learned about George’s direct reference to the monomyth in Star Wars. Campbell revered the first Star Wars movies as works of art. Joseph Campbell’s extensive work in analyzing myths around the world created a framework for storytellers to follow. A journey of adventure and personal transformation with specific stages of trials, mentors, conflicts, rewards, sacrifices, battles, and coming home. The hero’s journey has changed the way stories are told, at least in America and the Western world. Luke Skywalker became a benchmark for how to write a story based upon the hero’s journey. Christopher Vogler enhanced the hero’s journey in Hollywood’s storytelling. As a former story consultant for Disney and story analyst for 20th Century Fox and Paramount, Vogler is well-versed at bringing the hero’s journey into this big arena. In regard to why the hero’s journey has spread in Hollywood like wildfire, Vogler says, “With these tools you can construct a story to meet almost any situation, a story that will be dramatic, entertaining, and psychologically true.” ² Psychologically true for whom? Does the hero’s journey apply to everyone, as Joseph would have liked, or is it outdated? Vogler admits in his third edition of The Writer’s Journey that even though the hero’s journey is universal, women may have different needs and focuses of their journeys.

Heroine’s Journey in a Nutshell

Maureen Murdock, the author of The Heroine’s Journey, was a student of Joseph Campbell. When she expressed to him that his model didn’t account for women’s mythologies and the contemporary feminine experience, he replied, “Women don’t need to make the journey. In the whole mythological tradition the woman is there. All she has to do is to realize that she’s the place that people are trying to get to.” ³ In response, she wrote The Heroine’s Journey. ⁴ Her book is about the psychological and spiritual struggle for women who have taken on the hero’s journey in response to surviving the patriarchy—the book shows women how to come back to themselves and embrace a journey more true to the feminine experience. A bit different than Gail Carriger’s version, although there are similarities. Gail’s Heroine’s Journey ⁵ focuses on three goddess myths and archetypes for writers to create a potential outline or core story beats. She gives detailed examples of these myths that organically unfold in a compelling way of storytelling. Carriger also includes fascinating pop culture examples of what are and are not heroine’s journeys. Both Maureen and Gail mention how women often react to their situations rather than taking action. This comes from women being part of a marginalized group. More to the point, any peoples who have felt victimized have difficulty rising up to take action. This is where some editors may ask for a character to have more agency. But, there is a balance between acting and reacting. I believe the heroine’s journey is about empowering oneself and/or one’s main character to overcome great odds and gain agency. Balanced with self-care. And, with the help of friends, mentors, and communities. To include more community-based intersection of relationships and self-actualization stand-points.

What About Everyone Else . . .

What about people of color and marginalized folk? The aboriginal people of Australia pointed out to Vogler how the hero’s journey has “hidden cultural assumptions . . .” ⁶ What about the gender fluidity folk? What journey do they follow? Gail Carriger asserts the heroine’s journey is not based on gender. However, it’s been pointed out that the very name of the journey is gender biased. What about the wonder women and dark phoenixes of the world? What about the men who are meditators, artists, and healers?

The Evolving Journeys

If life and storytelling are all about the journey, and the type of journey is what matters most, then it’s important to look at more inclusive ways to write stories! As writers, it’s our responsibility to acknowledge the power we have in inspiring and influencing people’s lives through our words. It’s vital for us to consider how our characters and their journeys affect our readers. Is it a matter of balancing the key aspects of the hero’s journey and heroine’s journey in a way that is more inclusive of diverse ways of living? Or do we attempt to create new journeys? The answer lives within the diversity of experience our readers desire to read by creating evolved journeys. It’s an ambitious undertaking to reconsider Campbell’s monomyth and Murdock’s and Carriger’s heroine’s journeys. This is where keeping a keen eye on the roots of their creations is important. The work in evolving story journeys stems from acknowledging the inherent essence alive in the heart of storytelling. The following two journeys are based on the key aspects inherent in: plot driven vs. character driven stories, hero (as outlined by Vogler) vs. heroine (as outlined by Carriger and Murdock) stories, and internal vs. external stories. To be clear, some of these elements cross over into each other because being human is a fluid experience. The emphasis is on the specific focus within each journey: mission or transformation. The focus is the key that delineates the type of journey a character is taking while also allowing creative space to explore diverse arcs. I invite you to consider whether you can identify specific books and movies that would fall into these evolved journeys quite easily. I’ve provided a few examples of archetypes and stories to consider for each.

Mission Based Journey

Story focus: These stories are action and plot driven based upon achieving a goal or a mission. The main character’s overall goal/mission can include bettering the world; however, it usually is based on stopping danger, or completing a project or series of projects toward one aim or one sector of society. The character’s choices and actions bring about the major changes in the story’s arc. Action oriented: The main character must focus on achieving a specific goal or mission by taking specific external actions to get there. The choices made by the main character drive the story. Their actions are the primary way the main character achieves the end goal or mission. System/World: The community, system, and/or world is what the character battles against and pushes up against to gain the goal/mission. Solo: The main character generally goes the journey alone with help from a mentor, friends, or network. However, their stories aren’t about achieving friends and community. Their stories are about succeeding at their goal/mission, sometimes at the cost of losing friends/family. But they march on. Agency: The character already has some form of agency that builds when accomplishing tasks, overcoming external obstacles/challenges, or succeeding at learning from a mentor or through experimentation. Learning from mistakes or missteps is a big part of the main character’s motivation to continue to take action. Aggressive battles: The story includes aggressive battles, fights, or killing the enemy. Internal transformation: The character may undergo a small transformation; however, transformation is not the main focus of the journey. The main focus is achieving the goal at whatever cost. Crisis: The main character must go through a crisis that nearly devastates their forward progress. This is the key mission commitment moment where the character makes a pivotal choice that propels them forward on completing their mission. Usually includes external antagonists attempting to thwart their progress. Archetypes (as patterns of behavior): Warrior, Scientist, Entrepreneur, Detective, Goddesses/Gods of war/battle/action, Adventurers/Explorer, Ruler (rather than sovereigns), Outlaw, Achiever, Magician (externally focused). Story examples: Trail of Lightning by Rebecca Roanhorse, Upgrade by Blake Crouch, Dune by Frank Herbert, Jack Reacher character, 2017 movie Wonder Woman.

Transformation-System Change Based Journey

Story focus: These stories are both action and internally driven, or character and plot driven, based upon a character undergoing a personal transformation to change a system. The main focus for this type of journey is for the main character to move through challenges/obstacles (external and internal) toward a more enlightened and authentic state of being in order to feel fulfilled by the end of the story. Psychological and/or spiritual development is a big part of the main character’s transformation. The character must go through an internal transformation in order to reach a goal, or build a community, or change a system. Changing a system: A large focus of the character’s journey is on changing a system (family, community, network, or world system). The character’s family, community/network, and/or world is the external container that pushes up against them for the inner transformation to occur. Some members of family, friends, and/or community may assist with forward progress by helping the main character learn lessons along an internal and external arc. Speaking out or acting against antagonists becomes a group/team or partnered effort to change an oppressive or unenlightened system. And yet, the character must reach a more enlightened place within the self (working with defenses, emotions, psychological inner battles) to be able to affect change without raging against the system, but instead finding more subtle loopholes to transform the system. Rage may be present; however, it’s sublimated into agency and forward progress. No aggressive battles: The story doesn’t include aggressive battles, fights, or killing the enemy. Instead, the main character must look within the self to identify how the antagonists are affecting them to then sublimate defenses and extend compassion while also building character agency, so the character will no longer be intimidated, oppressed, or overrun by antagonists or their systems. Breakthrough moment: The main character must have a breakthrough moment. This is the key transformational moment of self-awareness where the character makes a pivotal choice that propels them forward on their path toward fulfillment. Integration: Integration is a key element occurring throughout the story so the character gains the agency, wisdom, and wherewithal to change the system. The main integration of the entire journey cycle is toward the culmination of the story where the main character integrates the lessons learned and embodies more of their actualized self to then bring those lessons into the family, community, network, or world’s systems. Mission: The main character may be on a mission; however, they must undergo an internal transformation with the help of mentors, friends, or community in order to achieve this mission. Friendships/Community: Friends, family, and community, including mentors, are a large part of how the main character survives their challenges. The main character may lose friends/family/community, and when they do it comes as a hit to their internal transformation. This means the loss must become part of the transformational journey that needs to occur for the character so that a “surrogate” family and/or network can be rebuilt as an aid in moving forward on the journey. The “surrogate” or rebuilt network helps create fulfillment in the end, including a better world. Agency: The main character is self-effacing and must find agency through difficult choices and reactions to others. They may achieve agency through completing tasks such as learning from a mentor; however, they learn the most from reflecting on and considering what they’ve learned about those tasks and/or what their mentor is asking of them. Bettering the world: The character’s overall transformation can include bettering the world and is usually connected to creating more enlightened communities, awakening to a greater understanding of how the world works, what needs to occur to change the system, and/or helping others make changes for the better of society. Archetypes (as patterns of behavior): Teacher, Mentor, Change Agent, Goddesses connected to transformational journeys (such as Inanna, Mary Magdalene, Isis), transformationally focused Queens/Kings (sovereigns), Artist, Healer, Shaman, Lover, Caregiver, Sage, Reformer Story examples: Harry Potter series by J.K Rowling, Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins, Akata Witch series by Nnedi Okorafor, Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum. * * * The opportunity to write compelling and relevant stories lives within each of us as writers. It’s because we can sit at the table with Campbell, Vogler, Murdock, and Carriger that we can create a renewed storytelling journey. Remembering our roots as storytellers allows for more richness and aliveness to occur in our stories. There may be some universal aspects within both the hero and heroine’s journeys, but not all stages of these journeys apply to everyone. My hope is that the evolving journeys outlined here allow for writers to branch out into more inclusive stories with a clear heart of focus and a keen connection to their roots.

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Citations: 1. Lucas Seastrom, October 22, 2015, (website) https://www.starwars.com/news/mythic-discovery-within-the-inner-reaches-of-outer-space-joseph-campbell-meets-george-lucas-part-i. 2. Christopher Vogler, The Writer’s Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers, 3rd Edition, (Ventura, CA: Michael Wiese Productions, 2007), 3 3. Maureen Murdock, “The Heroine’s Journey,” Maureen Murdock (website) https://maureenmurdock.com/articles/articles-the-heroines-journey/. 4. Maureen Murdock, The Heroine’s Journey, (Boulder, CO, Shambhala, 1990). 5. Gail Carriger, The Heroine’s Journey, (Gail Carriger LLC, 2020) 6. Christopher Vogler, The Writer’s Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers, 3rd Edition, (Ventura, CA: Michael Wiese Productions, 2007), xix.

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Regina Stribling is a Developmental Editor at Manuscripts, LLC. One of her passions is helping writers create powerful, transformative memoirs with universal themes. Her current personal writing project, The Last Time Guardian, is a mindbending and heartwarming speculative novel that is being pitched to agents. Regina has appeared on local radio shows for poetry in Colorado (KGNU Boulder, and KRFC Fort Collins). Connect with Regina to experience her flair for the otherworldly and penchant for helping writers tell their transformational stories.

You have ideas as a writer, but how do you connect with your readers? One of the most difficult things to do is translate those ideas from your mind to someone else’s, but it is also one of the most important when it comes to manuscripts. Without the ability to connect with others on the page, they will not be able to learn from or be impacted by your words. So, until mind-meld technology exists in the real world, we have to make do with other methods, such as with storytelling. Throughout your life, you deal with three variables:

1. Objects
2. Information
3. People

You have built countless experiences around these three things, and depending on the commonality of the experiences, you can relate them to others by the power of analogy.

Objects (On or in Your Path)

Have you ever banged your knee or shin on a low-lying table or other piece of furniture? This is an experience you can relate to it when hearing a similar story. You can relate to it because you know that being in pain is a terrible thing. You do not have to bump your shin to grimace and fully understand. Furniture, whether moving it, buying it, or running into it, is something common readers can relate to, and this is true for most physical objects. But what if you are writing about more complex information?

Information (You Have Learned or Have Trained Others About)

Information is something you can help others relate to as well. Not many people have piloted a spaceship, but complex processes have three things in common:

1. A set of instructions or procedures
2. Certain times tasks must be performed
3. A learning curve

There are more, but any of the above can be used in one’s writing to relate a complex process to readers. Because nothing is perfect, spaceships and complex processes break down. Did any part of the plan need deviation? What decisions were made along the way and why? Readers relate to learning to innovate, or through frustrations, or schedules, or through the pain or fear of learning something new. It is all connected. Even if readers have not worked for NASA or do not understand how to work a particle beam laser, they can relate to stories about such things if the writer successfully translates information to the page. Readers will be able connect to the shared thoughts, feelings, and discoveries. And this all leads to one of the biggest sources for analogies . . .

People (Others Can Provide Examples)

Human experiences often involves other people, whether they are real or imaginary characters. Activities and circumstances are different for everyone, but other people and their faults and flaws can be highly useful. Observing surroundings, as well as reactions to situations, can help train this muscle. Have you ever had a child get sick on a school night? If so, can you relate that idea (that feeling) to people who do not have children of their own? Yes, because they will be able to see themselves in that ill child and can empathize with human suffering. Even though some of that example might be unfamiliar for those who do not have children, most of it is relatable. Part of the experience of being sick is the same, no matter the age.

Familiarity Is Key

As you move from familiar concepts to the unfamiliar, those unfamiliar parts are how you keep readers curious to discover more. Also keep in mind that every piece of the analogy you are drawing from and writing about does not need to relate to the reader directly. All you need is one connection. The closer the better, since that makes bridging the gap easier. With one solid connection, whether by object, information, or people, you can coax readers closer to the writing as you break down more of the idea. Readers will become familiar with the concept until they no longer seem as though standing across some wide chasm. You and the reader are right next to each other. If you can get that one big theme going, everything else will follow. What might you draw parallels between to translate your ideas into the minds of your readers?

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Ty Mall is a Developmental Editor at Manuscripts LLC. He runs the Fiction and Copy Decoded blog and lives in the Midwest with a cat he suspects wants to adopt him.

Think about any of the most popular nonfiction books: Atomic Habits, Braving the Wild, Tipping Point, Start with Why, or Lean In. What percent of the writing in these books are stories? Most people will guess 25-30%.  Wrong. When we analyzed the best-selling nonfiction books, 70-80% of these books are story driven.  It’s not just facts, figures, frameworks, and teachings that matter. Stories are what lead to exceptional nonfiction books. Stories make us care, tap into our emotions, and help us learn. And that’s why it’s critical to master the art of story gathering when writing a nonfiction book. 

Mastering the Art of Story Gathering

Modern Authors need to write stories for great books. And to write great stories, you have to gather great stories (or at least gather the raw materials to write into a great story). What kind of story ideas should you look for when writing your nonfiction book? The answer may be obvious — you want story ideas that revolve around real people, places, and events. And learning about them first is an essential part of writing a nonfiction book. As you start the book writing journey, we'll learn and gather content for your book. So, learning before you write is critical: it helps you understand what you want to write about and how your topic fits into the bigger picture. And where to find and gather stories? The great news is that the last few years have unlocked a flood of new story sources: the best I've discovered include podcasts, YouTube videos, blogs, and even social media.   Whenever you're out gathering information, just gather stuff, write up a few notes about it, and you'll be fine. The following example will demonstrate how you can do this as a nonfiction author.  There are usually intersections of things in great books. You might talk about trauma and business executives, or you might talk about your experience, understanding how the male perspective finds happiness, whatever it may be. Let's imagine you're writing a book exploring the intersection of politics and technology.  Sometimes, however, you look at intersections of things, and that's a great place to start. In the case of this book idea, we are going to look at the following:

• Technology 
• Politics 

Great books often explore the intersections of two or more things. Let's say the book title is: The United States of Tech: Can Technology Save Politics?. However, as of now, you have yet to decide where to start. You could be interested in understanding how the world could evolve, but you want to understand polarization and new third-party campaigns. Essentially, what we're going to do here is walk you through the following four steps that might help you discover the book's direction and the book's content. STEP 1: Identify Book Keywords  STEP 2: Hunt for Stories (in everyday places where stories live online)

• Podcasts
• TED Talks
• YouTube
• Google

STEP 3: Capture Intriguing Stories & People  STEP 4: Write Short Notes (Snippets) About Each Thing You Capture

STEP 1: Identify Book Keywords 

As a first step, you will have to define book keywords, which you can use to sort and hunt for books. Keywords are words that describe the topic and central theme of your book. At this point in your book, you may have some theories, ideas, and questions you're exploring. Look at your book description and identify words or phrases. One of the first things that come to mind when discussing technology and politics is the two-party system, third-party candidates, online voting, and social media. Usually, you'll settle on a dozen or so keywords and phrases that are interesting most of the time.  As a result of this process, you can refine things. This is one of those things you will add to and change over time, but you can start by deciding on a few keywords. I like to use the thesaurus, and sometimes I’ll let Google autosuggest help. About fifteen minutes of thinking, exploring, and hunting on the internet can get you a robust list. Example: The United States of Tech: Can Technology Save Politics?

• Keywords
• Technology
• Politics
• Two Party System
• Third-Party Candidates
• Online Voting
• Social Media
• Etc.

STEP 2: Research Typical "Secondary Interview" Sources

You’re going to be writing stories.  Next, we'll look at common secondary sources. We're looking for stories. Ideally, we'd like to hear first-hand accounts of events. You will look for someone on a podcast, Ted talk, or panel to share their experiences.  However, you won't be interviewing them one-on-one to gather information, but you will listen to them as if you were. When searching for content for your book, you should consider four primary platforms:

1. Podcasts (Apple and/or Spotify)
2. TED Talks
3. YouTube
4. Google

Podcasts (Apple and/or Spotify)

Searching on Podcasts is fun and easy. Pick some keywords you think would be relevant, but I suggest picking more specific keyword phrases. In this case, if you just put politics or technology, it will be pretty broad, but if there are some key ones, you should go into those. In this case, we will consider third-party candidates.  There is an idea here about how someone with a third-party candidate could use technology to stand out. So all that we have to do is start by putting that into apple or Spotify.  Example: The United States of Tech: Can technology save politics?

• Go to Apple and/or Spotify
• Search
  • "Third Party Candidates"
  • "Two Party System"

TED Talks

The second one is TED Talks. It has an excellent repository of speakers and speeches, and an algorithm that lets you find "what is similar" to a talk you like. Aside from being transcribed, TED Talks are also searchable, so they are straightforward to use along the way. So we just go to ted.com forward slash talks and add those keywords similarly.  Go to: https://www.ted.com/talks

• Add keywords and search → "Two Party Political Systems"

Find relevant talks (read the transcripts of all the talks) and see what is similar.

YouTube

The third is YouTube, it is a great resource. You'll find a lot of information there. It will require you to do a little searching, but there is amazing content to curate. 

• Go to YouTube
• Add keywords and search → "Two Party Political Systems"

Google

Google is the last one, the fourth one here. Although Google is great, it is also vast. Suppose you put a two-party political system. Generally, you're going to get a lot of stuff from it. The trick is to add little words at the end that can help you. 

1. So the first one is about the two-party political system. You'll see many books when you type them in the search bar. Although I wouldn't suggest reading the entire book, I recommend seeing if anything interesting might be helpful to you. 
2. The next step is to Google two-party political system speeches. You will have many lectures that have come up and covered this subject here. 
3. Lastly, go to scholar.google.com, type in two-party IL system, plus add research. You'll see that a lot of stuff comes up in there. 

Use keywords and add:

• Books → "Two Party Political System" + Books
• Speeches → "Two Party Political System" + Speech
• Research (scholar.google.com) → "Two Party Political System" + Research

STEP 3: Capture Intriguing Stories & People 

Third, we'll begin keeping track of the stories that resonate with us.  In this stage, you'll quickly see you have a lot of names already to work with if you've started this work. Using just one keyword/phrase and the first layer of digging, this is all we have to go on. The list will quickly grow if you keep doing this.  Example: The United States of Tech: Can Technology Save Politics?

Podcast Research

• Ezra Klein
• Lee Drutman

TED research

• Pia Mancini → https://www.ted.com/talks/pia_mancini_how_to_upgrade_democracy_for_the_internet_era
• [TED recommends more like...] Beth Noveck, the former deputy CTO at the White House → https://www.ted.com/talks/beth_noveck_demand_a_more_open_source_government
• [TED recommends more like...] Coder and activist Jennifer Pahlka → https://www.ted.com/talks/jennifer_pahlka_coding_a_better_government#t-1012

YouTube

• Vernon Bogdanor
• Sean Wilentz
• Yanis Varoufakis

Google

• Books:
  • James L. Sundquist
  • Joseph Romance and Theodore J. Romance, Joseph Pomper, Gerald Lowi
• Scholar:
  • William H. Riker

We identified 11 people who could be valuable sources of information.

STEP 4: Write Short Notes (Snippets) About Each Thing You Capture

You don’t need to write the story – just write some notes about it. We call this “snippet” writing. Snippet writing is the informal writing authors do early in the book development process. We encourage you to keep snippets on the shorter side (50-250 words) and do them frequently. As you begin writing more, these snippets will often turn into longer stories, research, and chapters. There's no single way to do snippet writing, but here are some examples to guide you.

• Write whatever comes to your mind, but some common examples of snippets include:
  • Podcasts, YouTube, & Presentation Snippets (notes on interviews, presentations, talks, etc.)
  • Research Driven Snippets (notes on key topics or research on the subject)
  • Personal Story & Moment Snippets (notes on the key moments that matter in your life)
  • Narrative Snippets (notes, ideas, your thoughts)
  • Prior Blogs or Articles Snip (stuff you've written already that can be transformed for the book)

And that’s a wrap. Stories drive great nonfiction books. Most of the best books you’ll read today are filled with insightful, well-written, emotionally-driven stories. You’ve just got to find yours. It’s not just facts, figures, frameworks, and teachings that matter. Stories make us care, tap into our emotions, and help us learn. That’s why it’s critical to master the art of story gathering when you’re writing a nonfiction book.  Stories are what lead to exceptional nonfiction books. Find yours!

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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.

“So, what do you think of my idea?” When I meet an aspiring author, the most common question they ask me is about their book idea or topic. “Is this a good idea?” “Will readers buy this book?” “Is there a market for this?” Usually, they want to know if it’s a good idea, would make a good book, or could be a bestseller. My response often surprises them. “I’m not concerned about the idea . . . yet, anyways.” I want to know why you’re writing it . . . so we can build a system to write it. Amateur authors make the common mistake of focusing on their idea. Modern authors focus on their writing process. Modern authors talk writing logistics. If you have an amazing idea for a book but no process to write it, you’ll probably never finish the writing. But if you have a writing process that regularly and efficiently gets words on the page, you’ll eventually figure out a killer idea through the writing. 

“You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems. Your goal is your desired outcome. Your system is the collection of daily habits that will get you there. This year, spend less time focusing on outcomes and more time focusing on the habits that precede the results.” - James Clear (Atomic Habits)

Systems create outcomes. We just have to build yours. Let’s talk about designing your writing process and your writing systems.

Designing a Writing Process

I’m a big fan of the concept of Design Thinking, an approach pioneered by the Stanford D School to help people iterate and prototype new solutions and products.   Why would design thinking have anything to do with a writing process?  

1. If you’re writing a book, it’ll require a multi-month process. 
2. It’ll require you to write regularly. 
3. It’ll force you to get through ‘writers block’ or periods when you just don’t feel like writing. 
4. You need a process to finish something big. 

Design thinking works because you need to design a process that works for you. The product is your process. So we want to design a solution that will work for you, that can change with you, and that’ll enable you to succeed.   There are five ‘phases’ to design thinking, and we are going to leverage all five to design (and redesign) your writing process:

• Empathize
• Define
• Ideate
• Prototype
• Test

STEP 1: Empathize

This may seem a little counterintuitive, but you are the audience for your writing process. And as much as you probably think you know yourself, it’s often harder than we imagine to truly ‘know thyself.’ This isn’t about an aspirational or hopeful view of ourselves. We want to focus on the actual realities.  Here are the two key questions to ask yourself about designing your writing process:

When I have typically written bigger things (term paper, thesis, work project), what is my style?

• I set aside time every day or multiple times a week and try and chip away at it. (Habit Writing)
• I don’t work on a set schedule, but usually, I write in bigger sessions — 3-6 hours of intense writing — is how I make progress. Usually, several of those are how I write. (Episodic Writing) 
• I get most of my best work done right before its due — sometimes that means late nights or intense pushes, but I get it done. (Deadline Writing)

What makes you most nervous about writing your book?

• I feel uncertain about the book's direction — as I’ve begun to explore, I have doubts if it’s as exciting as I originally thought. (Boredom)
• I feel energized during the sessions, but when I’m working on it by myself, I get in my head. (Loneliness)
• I feel like an imposter — am I qualified to write this, and when it's finished, will it be any good? (Insecurity)
• I am very busy, and I want to do the book, but I'm nervous I have sufficient time. (Fatigue)
• I am not sure I can do it. I’m not a great writer and am worried I can’t write a whole book. (Uncertainty)

STEP 2: Define

I encourage authors to combine these two terms to define themselves — you may want to pick multiple categories in each question, but force yourself to pick the answer that is most like you. This creates a simple way to define yourself. I am a Deadline Writer who struggles with Fatigue. I am a Habit Writer who struggles with Loneliness. I am an Episodic Writer who struggles with Insecurity.

STEP 3: Ideate

Now here’s the fun part. You’ve defined how you typically write (not an aspirational version but your reality), and you’ve defined what makes you most nervous about this writing project. What are ways you could potentially solve this? I am a Deadline Writer who struggles with Fatigue.

• Cut out some activities for the next few months.
• Scope the writing project smaller and set weekly deadlines to deliver content.
• Schedule time each week with a writing group.

I am a Habit Writer who struggles with Loneliness.

• Join a Zoom writers' group.
• Recruit a friend who has wanted to write a book to write hers at the same time.
• Hire an editor and do weekly calls.

STEP 4: Prototype

There are endless solutions you could try, and at this point, you want to pick the idea or approach you’re most intrigued or excited about. Remember, this isn’t the solution . . . it’s a prototype, an experiment, or a trial.   I advise people to prototype a new writing process that you can begin tomorrow and try for two weeks.   How do you prototype? Usually, it’s an incomplete or a partial solution based on what you can do quickly — but it may not be perfect. Here’s an example: I am a Deadline Writer who struggles with Fatigue.

• I am going to schedule time each week with a writing group.

Now you probably can’t find a writers' group that you can join tomorrow, and you don’t want to pay to join a group if you aren’t sure it’s for you. You need to prototype it. How? What does a writers' group require?

• A group of writers
• A shared time to write

Consider this idea. Send out a text message to five people in your life. “I’ve got a writing project I’m working on — looking for a bit of shared accountability. Want to jump on zoom (or meet at a coffee shop) this week for some shared writing time?” If one person says “yes” then you’ve got your group.

STEP 5: Test

Now you’ve got your prototype, and you’re going to run it for two weeks. You need something to test this approach against.   Create a hypothesis: I’d like to write an average of 2,000 words each week for the next two weeks. Write this down.  Run the experiment, and see what happens. If it works, great — now you’ve got a new writing process. If it works for a while and then stops working, go back and change something such as a new prototype or perhaps even a new definition.  

* * *

The writing process isn’t some static system. It’ll evolve and change, but the best part is once you have a process, you can use it to write anything! If you have an amazing idea for a book but no process to write it, you’ll probably never finish the writing. But if you have a writing process that regularly and efficiently gets words on the page, you’ll eventually figure out a killer idea through the writing.  Have fun building your writing process. 

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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.