Writing a book takes commitment. 9 out of 10 people want to write a book, but less than 2% ever do, and it all comes down to your commitment. We will talk a lot about the magic of words and the miraculous energy of your intention and commitment. This is what brings you from being a writer to a published author!

WHY? This may seem like a simple question, but beginning writers and leaders often neglect to ask it, and they spin their wheels for far too long, never getting traction. Dig deep into this session, listen to the stories, and be honest with yourself about the answer. Your WHY is your reason for breathing, for living! The Japanese call it your IKIGAI! It will help you engage faster, learn your voice more strongly, and easily differentiate your story from other books and projects because you have done the work to know who you are and WHY you are here on the planet.

Now that you know your WHY, it’s easier to differentiate your WHAT! I invite you to focus on ONE specific book for this particular writing course, including the publishing and launching of your project. You likely have many ideas if you are a visionary, a leader, or an imaginative creator. However, one project completed is better than 11 started.

At first glance, this may seem like such a simple concept, but I invite you to engage in this session fully as you determine your WHO. This session can be the difference between floundering and being able to complete your book. It can mean the difference between taking years or laser-focusing your story in the most powerful way. Discovering your avatar (your WHO) is a dynamically foundational part of your writing process. Smart authors will repeatedly refer to this person to stay on point.

Now, we start getting into some really juicy information so you can begin outlining your book. This session has powerful information to ensure that your story structure works best for you. This is a dynamically interactive session in which you’ll imagine your book’s outcome and decide on the best setup for the power of the story and the alignment of your chapters. As you go through this process, we will use both the left brain for structural time-based organization and the right brain with emotional depth for juicy detail, setting, and character arc evolution. So hold onto your shorts—you’re about to discover some really juicy elements to your story and storytelling that will make your book dramatically powerful—and so juicy that your reader can’t put it down!

Now that you’ve had the opportunity to outline your book, building the main characters your readers can’t help but fall in love with is absolutely vital. It may also allow them to love to hate certain characters in your story. Here, we’re creating multi-dimensional characters through some character ideas that you might not have ever thought of—not flat, but outstanding and unforgettable. People do not engage with stories about strangers. Make your characters REAL!

You may have noticed an overwhelming amount of information out there regarding publishing. Which way should you go? Traditional or self-published? What are the pros and cons of each? Well, there are many, and I show you how to recognize the good things about both options. Your intention for your project, your goals, and your timing will determine which is the best path for your book.

If you choose to publish your book traditionally, you enter the wonderful, mysterious, and often confusing world of royalties and advances. Don’t get too caught up in the details, because as you’ll see at the end, it will all depend on who you work with to publish your book and if you accept their terms. Strive for the expandable win—where you win, the publisher wins, and the reader wins.

This juicy section is about the marvelous world of agents. Obviously, you will use this only if you decide to publish traditionally. As you learn about the intricacies of working with an agent, the bottom line is that it is a relationship that you want to foster for the long term.

Any good business person knows that if you have a product, you want to market it so people can find and buy it. Any good business person also knows you want to do the same if you have a service. A book is unusual because it involves both! You are presenting a product in which you have invested some of yourself. It can open doors like nothing else I know. This is the magic of your visibility. You’ll learn when you should start being visible and what you should begin to do, even as you are writing the book.

This bonus session is part of WriteJUICY, my masterbrain course for outlining your book. Outlining is especially useful for memoirs, autobiographies and biographies, and helps determine important stories in your how-to, motivational, and self-help books. Believe it or not, we also highly recommend it for fiction books! It’s a powerful tool to keep the timeline and details of your characters straight. This will enable you to use both sides of your brain in order to avoid taking your readers through destructive time warps that make them put your book down. Instead, you have a beautifully flowing, well-constructed story that finally brings sense to your tangents (or helps you realize when to remove them) and fills in the story holes.

Enjoy this beautiful Meditation in a quiet space as you honor your journey with this virtual retreat.