An article feature in my newsletter for February 2008. Plus you can check out my article at: What Is Your Legacy?

What are you leaving behind to make the world a better place? Wow! That’s a powerful question. Perhaps you thought about writing a book. Wow (Words of Wisdom) What about putting your wisdom and understanding about your life lessons in a book to leave behind for the next generation? Well today I would like to share five steps on getting that book out of you. First of all, everyone has at least one book inside of him or her and nobody can tell your story like you can. So step 1 – You can start with an outline. Begin to jot down everything you think you want to write about. Think about the main points you want to stress and the information that you want to leave behind. Remember to put down your favorite quotes that have kept you strong in your life. Share your favorite Bible verse. The outline is developed to help you to see and stay focus on your book. Step 2- You must begin writing everyday even if it’s just a thought. It could be 10 minutes, 20 minutes, even an hour, but just start writing. Now there’s four rules when you being to write. #1. Don’t try to proofread, edit, spell check, or worry about how it sounds. This will only slow you down. All of that process will come later. #2. Keep paper and pen with you at all times because when a thought hits you, you don’t want to be without your tools. #3. At night you must get out of your comfortable bed and write when you have the urge. Remember, this saying, “acting on the urge and the merge will occur.” Meaning when you get the urge to write get up with your pen and put it to the paper and watch your words merge on the paper. #4. Know when your body ticks so you can click. Meaning know if you are a morning writer, afternoon writer, or a midnight writer. Find the best time for you and stick to that. So follow these four rules and your book will be ready in record time. Step 3 – Write from your heart. Be true to you. Know your voice. This is your story. Be yourself. Your style is your style. You don’t have to sugarcoat your story. Be honest. Write what you feel. Write a rough draft, after that comes the next step. Step 4 – Get your work edited. Do not let family and friends edit your work. Get someone that is bias to your work. Someone that will do a professional job. Listen to what your editor says and make the necessary changes. There are three steps that you can do to proofread your work. #1. Read you book out loud. #2. Read your book backwards. And #3. Get another set of eyes to read it, because our work always seems right, but someone else’s eyes can catch our mistakes. Step 5 – Publish your book. It can be the traditional way or you can get your book self-published. #1 The traditional way is going through a traditional publisher and letting them do all the work and pay you royalties. #2. Self-publish and you can have say on what and how you want your book to be published. But there’s more information on both subjects and you can check that information out at your local bookstore or library for more details. If you're looking to write a book in 28 days, then check out Nick Daws course at http://www.writequickly.com/?afl=44815.