Part 2 - Writing

Part 2: Writing Copyright © 2013 – John Schwartz – All Rights Reserved Super Simple Kindle Books (Non-Fiction Personal Story)

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YOUR RIGHTS This electronic publication is restricted to your own personal use. It does not come with any rights of distribution. You do not have the right to reprint, reproduce, redistribute, or sell this publication in any form without the author’s express written consent. PLEASE NOTE The author retains full copyright to this publication at all times. The author has made every reasonable effort to ensure that this publication is free from error. However, the author assumes no responsibility (legal or otherwise) for any errors, omissions, or alternate interpretations of the subject matter contained herein. This publication is purely an information product. It is not intended for use as a source of legal, accounting or other forms of authoritative advice. No guarantees of income, sales, or results are claimed or implied. Figures and statistics are true only for the author and are given for example purposes only. The reader assumes all legal responsibility for the use of the materials and information contained herein. This includes, but is not limited to, adherence to all applicable laws and regulations pertaining to the reader’s geographic location. Any perceived slight of individual persons, groups of persons, or formal organizations is purely unintentional. The reader agrees to hold the author completely harmless in all such matters. The author assumes no legal responsibility or liability whatsoever on behalf of the actions or words of any purchaser or reader of this product. Your continuance in reading this publication constitutes your acknowledgment that you agree to every stipulation presented above. If you have any questions or comments, please send email to: [email protected]

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Part 2: Writing We are ALMOST Ready to Write! There’s something important to think about first... Before we get into it, now that you have a topic, I want to talk about the type of book that we are going to write. Two Sides to This Story We are going to write a book that’s made up of two parts: 1. In the first part, we tell a true story about your experience. 2. In the second part, we focus on what you’ve learned to help make a similar situation easier for your readers to deal with. This is very important for you to understand because it can be the difference between success and struggling: For you, the important part of the book is probably your story. After all, it’s your story. You've lived it. It means something to you in the most personal way possible. To your readers, however, the second part is going to be more important. They will probably find your story interesting. It will be good for them to understand that they aren’t alone. But they want help with their own situations. The second part of the book will often end up as more of a how-to guide in some cases, but it doesn’t need to be. Just think of it as your place to provide valuable insights, tips, and advice based on your experience.


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We are going to focus heavily on what is most important to your readers – the second part of the book. You Are you going to write this book as the real you (your own name)? You can use a pseudonym (fake name), of course. There are advantages and disadvantages to this, but I recommend that you make a decision before you start writing. If making this decision takes you longer than it should, you can always change your mind later. It’s not a big ordeal to go back and make changes, but it’s easier to decide ahead of time. Let's briefly talk about the pros and cons... Advantages of Using a Pseudonym In very personal stories, you might be more honest. I’ve written some very personal things and would have been pretty uncomfortable using my real name. When I’m not worried about what someone else will think because they don't know who I really am, I’m less on guard and more open about emotions, etc. A pseudonym can also protect your privacy, which is no small consideration these days. I’ve written some books that I’m not particularly interested in sharing with my customers, friends, or colleagues. Disadvantages of Using a Pseudonym Super Simple Kindle Books (Non-Fiction Personal Story)

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One big downside to using a fake name is that you might miss out on some marketing opportunities. Marketing is important. If you have a blog, list, or other books under your real name, you might get those people to check out your book if it's listed under your real name. If you use a false name - even if you promote the book to those people - you might not get the response that you would if you used your real name. It’s really rare for a self-published book to make it big, but it does sometimes happen. If you have a truly extraordinary story to tell, you probably should write it using your real name. Obviously, it’s up to you. If you feel at all uncomfortable using your real name, you’ll probably hold back as you write. It will probably take longer to write and the content won’t be as compelling because you’re not being fully open.

If you have any doubt, plan on using a pseudonym. Once you finish, you can always change your mind. Your Readers You need to figure out your audience before writing and then keep them in mind at all times as you write. That's very important! Your audience will be who you help with the second half of the book (where you focus on the reader). Who will benefit from what you have to say? Super Simple Kindle Books (Non-Fiction Personal Story)

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That's perhaps the most important question you need to have answered in your mind before you write a single word. It’s not always who you’d think at first. Maybe you’re female and want to write a book to give advice to men based on a female perspective. Maybe you’re a man who has a knack for cooking and instead of teaching other men how to cook, you realize that you can help women save time and effort by showing them simpler ways to do things. Figure out who you can help the most. When you think about them as you write, you’re more likely to write in a way that helps them relate to you. The Only Rules You're not writing an essay. You aren’t being graded by a teacher. You’re being reviewed by readers. Instead of worrying much about the teacher’s rules, worry about your readers. It's better to write in a more conversational, laid-back tone in most cases. Your readers need to be able to understand what you’re saying, of course, but the only “rules” you really need to worry about are the ones that help your readers grasp what you're saying without being bored or feeling like they're in the classroom. Here are a few helpful tips and reminders: 1. There shouldn’t be typos and sentences that don’t make sense. It’s not just that typos and weird sentences make you look bad. They are confusing. You should be clear. 2. You can definitely use “I” and “you” as you write. You should Super Simple Kindle Books (Non-Fiction Personal Story)

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write in a conversational tone. If it helps, imagine a member of your audience and pretend you’re talking to him/her as you write. 3. A quick refresher on quotes if you want to use them in your story: He said, “This is a quote. Note the comma before the quote and the punctuation at the end here.” “This is a quote,” he said. “Note the comma inside the first quote and after the he said, just like in the first example.” “This is a quote. Note that I’m going to end with a comma again inside the quotation marks,” he said. “Also, I don’t need to say ‘he said’ if I give some other indication of who is speaking!” British English handles quotations a little differently than American English. Do whatever you were taught. It doesn’t have to be perfect. Write the way you think is right. If it looks odd when you edit, look up how to do it properly. 4. Because people are going to be reading your book on devices or their computers, make your paragraphs shorter and space out your ideas. Again, this isn’t an essay. Paragraphs don’t have to have a main idea, points, and a conclusion – like you were taught in school. When I think a paragraph looks too long, I break it up into smaller paragraphs. Simple as that. Let your vision decide. When I want to call attention to an important sentence, I isolate it as its own paragraph. A lot of people skim as they read. If you want to call attention to something, use spaces or bold lettering. Super Simple Kindle Books (Non-Fiction Personal Story)

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Length I know a lot of you are wondering how long your books should be. You may not like my answer... Your book should only be as long as it needs to be. If you approach this with a certain number of pages in mind, you’re going to add a bunch of fluff that will only annoy your readers and ruin your reviews. If you write the way I recommend to you, your book won’t be too short. You shouldn’t be concerned about page counts. You should be concerned about the information that you are giving your readers. If it’s good stuff, most of them won’t care how long your book is. My job is to help you make sure that it’s good stuff. Just Write I can’t stress this enough! I say it over and over every time I write about writing. Don’t overthink. Don’t edit on the fly. Just write. Let it flow the first time through. The sentence doesn’t sound right? It doesn’t matter. You’ll fix it during editing. You might need to look up something you said to make sure it’s true? Write yourself a note with a bunch of asterisks in front of it so you won’t miss it in editing. Don’t stop to look things up now. Keep writing! Super Simple Kindle Books (Non-Fiction Personal Story)

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Stuck on some point that you’re trying to make? Write yourself a note and move on to the next section. When I write myself notes, they are impossible to miss when I edit later on. They look like this: ***************************Fix this section to make it less confusing! NOW...... Let’s Get Started!!! Step 1: The First Line Of course, selling your Kindle book is important. If your buyers actually READ your book, however, that's how you build a following and better establish yourself as an author. You’ll also be able to help more people. To get people to read what they've bought from you, you need to grab their attention in a compelling way. It's a lot like a headline on a sales page or newspaper. It’s the first part of the book, so we are focusing on your story. But we are not going to start at the beginning just yet. Instead, start with a compelling sentence or quote that brings the reader into your story at the moment that the conflict is clear. If there is no conflict in your story, it should be the decision that has to Super Simple Kindle Books (Non-Fiction Personal Story)

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be made or the moment that you realized that you needed to learn about your subject. [Remember in the first ebook where I mentioned these as the three sources of personal stories.]

You're going for a bit of a dramatic effect here so you can grab the reader's attention and draw him/her into your story. I’m going to use two different examples here – battling cancer (facing a problem), and the cooking guy from our audience example (learning a subject). Here are some first line situations and examples: Getting the News Cancer: Describe the scene where the doctor told you that you have cancer. This could work whether the doctor was compassionate, clinical, or even a bit of a jerk. Cooking Guy: The moment that he discovered he couldn’t cook. Maybe someone who normally cooked died. That person’s death or the reaction of a family member when he made an attempt to cook himself would work here. Maybe he tried to cook for someone once and they hated it. The quote of the insult or the description of the person spitting out or slowly chewing with a look of absolute disgust would make a good first line. Telling Someone Else


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Cancer: You telling the news to your spouse, children, or parent. Again, it doesn’t matter how you said it – whether it was a serious moment, if you tried to joke, or if you were acting like it wasn’t a big deal. Just be honest, even if you’re not sure if others will approve of your humor or telling a small child the truth. This reveal will let the reader start to know you. You’re setting the tone for the book. Cooking Guy: Telling a masculine friend that he was taking cooking classes; someone walking in while he was watching an embarrassing cooking show; or when he asked his wife if she minded if he took over the cooking and she laughed in his face because he was a bad cook. The Moment That it Actually Hit You Cancer: The moment you couldn’t deny it anymore. Maybe you were looking at yourself in the mirror expecting to see someone completely different after the diagnosis. Maybe it hit you hard when you heard someone else say that you had cancer. Maybe you were crushed by your child asking if you were going to die. The more honest you are, the more people going through similar situations will be able to relate. It might be difficult, but you can help others realize that they aren’t alone. Cooking Guy: Realizing that he can’t cook. Maybe he spent a ton of time and effort on cooking an elaborate meal from a recipe, got all excited, set a place at the table, took Super Simple Kindle Books (Non-Fiction Personal Story)

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his first bite… and spit it out. Remember that you are trying to get the attention of the reader. If cooking guy is writing a book telling women how to cook using his simpler method, he might say something controversial about how women make cooking too complicated. Action Step Go to the template and write your first line! It can be a quote or not. Write what feels comfortable. But just start with the first line and then come back! Don’t write out your whole story yet. We will get to that. Don’t overthink this. When you were reading through my suggestions, you were probably able to relate to at least one of them. If you thought of several things to say, just pick one. We will use the others later. Just write a line that: 1. Makes the conflict clear 2. Is true (or at least how you remember it) 3. Will get the attention of readers And don’t forget – you will edit later. There’s no pressure here, because anything you write can be changed. So go ahead and do it now. I’ll wait ;) Step 2: The Reaction to the First Line Welcome back! Super Simple Kindle Books (Non-Fiction Personal Story)

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Yes, I’m fully aware that some of you didn’t actually DO the first action step. Please reconsider. Think of it this way: The people who DO the action steps will have a nearly finished ebook by the time they’re done reading this guide! What will you have to show for your time? OK, let’s get back to it... After your attention-getting first line, you want to provide a genuine reaction to the attention-getting first line. We aren’t going to finish the story in this section. You only have to give someone’s quick reaction – it could be yours, another person’s, or a little of both. This doesn’t always mean continuing a conversation, although it can simply be that. Conversation If you or someone else said something heart-wrenching or inadequate or silly or embarrassing, write it here. The entire conversation can be covered by something as simple as: Cancer: “Seriously?” Cancer: “Are you going to die?”


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Cooking Guy: “It can’t be that bad!” Remember that you don't have to finish a conversation in this section. The other person doesn’t need to answer right now. We aren’t going to tell the readers what happens next in this section. Action Maybe the reaction to the first line wasn’t something that was said. Maybe someone did something. Did someone burst into tears or hug or just sit there in shock? Maybe someone ran out of the room or walked away without a sound. Remember not to go past the basic reaction to the first line. If someone hugged, don’t go past the hug in this section. Cancer: She looked at me like she was searching my face for some sign that this was a joke. Then she threw her arms around me and hugged me until we both cried. Cooking Guy: She offered to keep eating, but I could tell that she was hoping I would say no. I took away her plate and decided that I would learn how to cook. Thoughts The reaction doesn’t have to be something someone said or did. You might want to tell what you thought after the first line. Cancer: When I got terrible news from a doctor once, I couldn’t stop staring at the embroidery on his coat. I couldn’t think straight, and Super Simple Kindle Books (Non-Fiction Personal Story)

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absurd things were going through my mind. Here’s how I would write that: I knew I should be having some reaction. I knew I was supposed to say something back. But I couldn’t stop staring at the doctor’s name embroidered on his wrinkled lab coat. I wondered if he had been teased for that name as a child. I tried to think of names they might have called him on the playground, but he interrupted. “I’m going to refer you to another doctor to discuss your options.” Cooking Guy: If mother/spouse dying was my first line, I might write: Obviously, the last thing I was thinking at that moment was who would cook. Action Step Now it’s your turn. All you have to write is the reaction to the first line. Remember, we aren’t telling your whole story yet. We just need to finish the thought of the first line. Don’t overthink. Just write and then come back! Editing comes later. Step 3: Your Happy Place


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At this point, you're going to start telling the “meat” of your story. Caution: This part will probably need to be shorter than you will want to make it if you like talking about yourself. This is not a biography. You don’t want to start at the beginning of your life. We just want the reader to get to know you a little as it pertains to the lesson/tips/advice you ultimate plan to give in part 2 of your book. Let the reader get to know you by describing a happier time. Why a happier time? Because, in a lot of cases, it can make the reader start to like you as they get to know you (or at least be able to identify with you a little better). If you set out to get the reader to like you, you might try too hard or censor yourself. But when you describe happier times, you’re likely to relive the memory and spill emotion as you write. It’s easier for the reader to go back to that happy place with you. It’s the writing version of smiling as you speak on the phone. It comes through. For our cancer survivor, this would a time before the word cancer ever crossed her mind. For cooking guy, it would be before he learned to cook. Maybe it was when someone else was cooking for him or going to a restaurant that made him realize how great food could be. Maybe there’s a particular meal he remembers. Can you remember a specific day or moment when you were pretty happy (preferably shortly before your problem or experience)? It can Super Simple Kindle Books (Non-Fiction Personal Story)

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be a special event or a regular day – whatever comes into your head. The Date It doesn’t have to be the exact date. It can be a general time, or a time frame relative to the story. Examples: • • • • • •

On March 2, 2003…. When I was a kid… Back in the summer of 1988…. In the early 90s… Three years earlier… Elvis was still alive.

Why is the date important? Well, the first reason is obvious. It tells your readers when your story begins. The other reason is that it separates the story that you’re about to tell from the attention-getting first lines of your story (which take place in the future). If you use an actual date, you might want to use a transitional line like: • How did it get to this point? • I never thought I’d…. • Everything used to seem so simple. You don’t have to beat your readers over the head with a transition, though. In most cases, I only use it when I use an exact date.


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Think about it from the reader's standpoint. You have the First Line section where you get the reader's attention and then you finish that thought with the Reaction that follows. If you start your happy time story with an exact date right afterward, it might confuse some readers into thinking that the First Line section happened on that date. You When you start talking about your happier time, write as though you’re talking to a friend about something that happened. Use a conversational tone and avoid making it too dry by simply reciting a litany of facts and dates. Inject some genuine emotions and reactions that you had. You don’t have to describe what you look like unless it’s relevant to the story. You don’t have to give your resume (CV) unless it’s relevant to the story. Just tell your story and let the reader get to know you through your description of the events and your reactions to them. Go from your happier time up until the conflict part of your story (cancer example) or the learning part of your story (cooking guy example). If your happier time was a long time before the conflict, don’t fill in every detail. Skip ahead to right before the time of conflict or learning. This part of the story should end right before the attention-getting first line that you used. This section should not be too long. You are telling your story, but this Super Simple Kindle Books (Non-Fiction Personal Story)

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isn’t the important part of the story for your readers. This is simply necessary background. It should be long enough to tell the important parts of the story, but brief enough that you aren’t writing a biography and burdening the reader with too many filler details. I’m going to give you one filled-in example. Obviously, if I were writing these books, I would fill in details and tell the story, but if I do that here, this guide will run 200 pages. Cancer: On May 27, 1999, I ran my first marathon. I always had a hard time finishing things, so it was a HUGE achievement for me. I wasn’t a typical marathon runner. I didn’t even like running. But I saw a documentary and I was inspired by the stories. They were all in tears as they finished their race. I was in tears watching them! I wanted that experience of setting a goal, working toward it, and achieving it. When I started training, I was tired after walking a mile. I was that out of shape. I gradually… [I would briefly finish the training part if I were writing this. I have no idea how to train for a marathon. I’m making this example up as I go…]

My daughter, Jesse, was 5 years old at the time. She was waiting for me at the finish line. I don’t think she really understood what the marathon meant to me at first. But this time, there were hundreds of people all around us. There were cheering, holding up signs, crying, and Super Simple Kindle Books (Non-Fiction Personal Story)

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hugging. I think Jesse got caught up in the excitement. She jumped into my arms, buried her face into my sweaty neck, and bawled. “What’s wrong, sweetheart?” “You finished, Mommy! You finished!” I thought I might burst with pride. I was so proud of my accomplishment. I was so happy. I was so exhausted! I felt completely spent, dripping sweat with my beautiful little girl in my arms, and I honestly couldn’t imagine how my life could be any better. A week after Jesse’s sixth birthday, we were sitting together in the doctor’s office. I had a bladder infection that wouldn’t go away, and the doctor wanted to talk to me about my urine test. When the doctor walked into his office, we were finding hidden items in a picture in Highlights magazine. His face was grave. There was definitely something wrong. He said that he wanted to take some blood and do some additional tests to rule some things out. I was terrified, and Jesse must have seen it. She kept asking me what was wrong, but I just kept staring at the doctor. The longer I took to answer, the more panicked she became. When she hit me with the magazine, I finally lied and told her everything was fine.


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I’ll never forget that Highlights magazine. We accidentally stole it. When I found it in the car a week later, I saved it as a sort of morbid souvenir of the day my life changed forever. Cooking Guy: *Note: The following example is of a pretty traumatic thing that could spark someone to want to learn a new skill. It's probably an extreme example. More likely would be situations like these: • • •

A new golfer makes a golf etiquette mistake on the course with business associates and is embarrassed, prompting him to learn those rules better. A house guest makes an offhand comment about the cleanliness of her room, prompting you to learn better ways to get and keep your entire house clean. While you're away, your babysitter prevents a disaster by knowing what to do when your child chokes on some food, prompting you to learn about life-saving procedures and better home safety when you have children.

When I was a kid, every single Sunday after church, we would go to Sandy’s. Sandy was ancient. I know, when you’re a kid everyone over thirty seems ancient, but even the adults considered Sandy ancient. She hired people to run her restaurant, but she was the main cook. And man, that woman could cook! [Talk more about the food at Sandy’s – simple homemade goodness]

I love my mom. She’s an amazing woman, and all my life, she has been a Superwoman to me. There’s almost nothing she can’t do. Almost nothing.


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Mom can’t cook. I wanted to say that more delicately because she’s my mom (and I know she’s going to read this). But there’s really no point. She admits that she can’t cook. I think part of the problem is that she HATES to cook... [all about how during the week he would eat frozen dinners or whatever and he lived for Sandy’s cooking on Sundays – maybe about how he daydreamed in church about the food]

One Sunday after church, we went to Sandy’s as usual. But Sandy wasn’t there. I couldn’t remember Sandy missing a single Sunday in five years. I was surprised at how worried I was, and I wasn’t thinking about the food. I realized that this old woman… [Let’s say that his big First Line attention-grabber was: When I was 15 years old, the best cook in the world died. She wasn’t a famous chef, she didn’t have her own Food Network Show, but she changed my life forever. I would take his happier time story up to right BEFORE Sandy died.]

Action Step Go to the template and describe your happier time. Briefly continue your story up until right before the First Line conflict. You can do this. Don’t get intimidated. Just write. Anything you write can easily be changed later, so don’t proofread or edit yet. Just write, and then come back! Step 4: The Conflict (Including Your Initial Reaction) You may or may not be happy with what you just wrote yet, but the important thing is that you wrote. Let it go for now. You can always Super Simple Kindle Books (Non-Fiction Personal Story)

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change it later! In fact, you probably will change it at least a little during the editing phase. Next, we are going to tell the story of the conflict that we referred to in the First Line. In cases where there’s no conflict, the First Line might have been some embarrassing moment when you realized that you had to learn about a new skill or topic. It might have been some realization about your topic – a previously unknown (by you) insight. We will pick up where the happy place story left off (right before the First Line moment), and explain more about that First Line moment. This is an important part of your story. You want to be completely open and honest here. Describe the events as accurately as you can remember them. Include the facts, but don’t limit it to just the facts. This part of the story should include your initial reaction to the conflict: • What did you say? • What did you do? • What were you thinking? If you don’t remember exactly what you thought, you can say so. You can say that you were in shock, and you honestly can’t remember if you thought anything at all. If other people were included in your initial reaction, you should give Super Simple Kindle Books (Non-Fiction Personal Story)

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them a first name and say who they are (“my daughter, Jesse”). You should not give the backstory if it isn't relevant (or any other details). Keep the focus of the story on the conflict and the initial reaction to the conflict. Cancer: Our storyteller would pick up the story with her additional test results. She might tell about the excruciating wait for the results – how she snapped at everyone or withdrew completely or pretended that everything was normal and kept it all to herself. She might describe any effects it had on her daughter, spouse, parents, friends, and co-workers. She would then describe when she was given the news that she definitely had cancer. Maybe she felt disbelief. Maybe she argued with the doctor. Maybe she got a second opinion. She might have told her family right away. She might have decided not to tell them – maybe something special was happening at the time (a holiday, a birthday, her daughter’s dance recital, etc.) and she didn’t want to spoil it with the bad news. So she put if off until later. When she did tell them (or they unexpectedly found out), she would tell us their reactions. Maybe her mother told her to keep everything from the little girl. Maybe her spouse started making too many decisions for her. She would take this part of the story to point in time right BEFORE coming up with a plan to involve her family in her battle with cancer. Super Simple Kindle Books (Non-Fiction Personal Story)

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She will end this part with realizing the NEED for some kind of plan and to involve her support network. The next part of her story will start with coming up with a plan of action. Cooking Guy: Cooking guy would pick his story up where Sandy, the woman who ran his favorite restaurant, dies. I would want him to talk about how he loved the food, and Sandy was sort of an icon, and how much everyone loved and missed her. Sandy’s was sold to a new owner, and the cooking was OK, but he no longer looked forward to it all week, etc. His parents indulged him in trying to find a new Sunday restaurant, and some of the food was good (anything was better than Mom’s), but even the more expensive, higher-rated restaurants were missing that mysterious quality of Sandy’s food. A lot of the same people still went to Sandy’s. When I asked them if they still liked the food, they admitted that they missed Sandy’s food as much as I did. They might have told him that what made her food special was that she cooked it with love. Since he knew his mother loved him, too, Cooking Guy didn’t buy that theory. He decided that he would learn about cooking to figure out what Sandy’s food had that his mother’s (and others’) didn’t have. This part of his story would stop right BEFORE he comes up with a plan to learn about cooking. Action Step Super Simple Kindle Books (Non-Fiction Personal Story)

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Pick up your story where you left off on the last step. Include the conflict part of your story AND your initial reaction to the story. Be sure to include emotions, any thoughts that you had, and the reactions of other people. Stop writing at the point just before you figured out what you were going to do about your conflict.


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Step #5: The Course of Action You Took You just told the readers your backstory, your conflict, and your initial reaction to the conflict.

I hope you can see how this is all flowing in a logical order that should get and keep your reader's attention and interest! Next, you’re going to tell them what you decided to do. After an emotional initial reaction where clear thinking isn't very likely, people usually calm down and decide on some logical course of action. In this section, talk about your thinking as you came up with a plan. In some cases, there won’t be a whole lot of planning because you felt the need to take some first step before planning – just to feel like you were doing something. Then you would tell the readers what you actually did. You should go through the steps that you took one at a time. With each step, explain why you took that action and whether that step was easier or more difficult than you thought it would be. Maybe describe how those closest to you reacted to the steps you took. Important Note: Super Simple Kindle Books (Non-Fiction Personal Story)

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There is one thing about this part of the story that you should avoid telling at this point... Don’t review the actions that you took. Don’t talk about what you regret doing. Don’t say that you should have done something differently. In other words, don't analyze your actions at this point. We are going to use all of that thinking and reflection later (in the tips section of your book). Right now, simply tell what you did, why you did it, and what happened after you did it. Cancer: When we last left off, our wife and mother realized that she had to come up with a way to involve her family in her battle with cancer. She would tell her readers about her plan to let her husband have some say in the tough choices she would soon have to make. She would also talk about her concerns when it came to her daughter. She was probably concerned with balancing trying to hide the really bad things from her daughter, while giving her daughter hope, and avoiding worrying her daughter too much. She might have come up with a plan where she set guidelines and thought about how she would handle different situations. She might have been so overwhelmed that she only wanted to take everything one day at a time. Super Simple Kindle Books (Non-Fiction Personal Story)

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She should tell us about those decisions. She would then go through each of the steps of her battle, but this would be slightly different than a typical memoir about fighting cancer. Because her topic angle concerns her family’s involvement, she would tell us about that with respect to each action she took. There were, no doubt, some things she decided to keep from her daughter. When writing about this, she would say so and then explain why she made that decision [without saying whether or not she would do things differently if she could go back... that comes later, in the tips section]. Maybe there were people who disagreed with how much she involved her daughter in the process. She should also tell readers about that. Did she think her relationship with her daughter changed after some of the steps? How did her daughter react to the different steps? Her husband was probably involved in a lot of the different treatment steps. As readers, we want to know: • what he thought • when they disagreed • when she was adamant about doing different steps her own way and why • how the different steps affected their relationship She should also talk about how the steps made her feel. How pain, fatigue, and frustration affected her relationship with her family. Remember, she shouldn’t get into any regrets or second guessing at this point. Super Simple Kindle Books (Non-Fiction Personal Story)

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She would just tell about her plan (or lack of a plan), and then each of the actions that she took and her family’s involvement in each of those actions, along with their reactions. This part of her story would end where her treatment steps ended. We are going to handle the conclusion of the story in the next part. Cooking Guy: In the last part of Cooking Guy’s story, we left off with him deciding that he wanted to learn about cooking because he didn’t believe that Sandy’s superior cooking was solely based on love. :) He wanted to solve the mystery of why Sandy could cook and his mother couldn’t. Was it really all just down to skill? Could this skill not be learned or gained through experience? So then he would come up with some plan on the best way for him to solve that mystery. He decides how he will go about learning to cook. He would tell his readers the steps of his learning process and different things that he noticed about different cooks, techniques, and recipes. Maybe one of those steps is to watch his mother cook and ask her questions about why she does the things she does. He could tell us her reaction to being watched as she cooks, what he thinks cooking means to her, how she goes through the process, etc. Maybe he decided to enroll in a cooking class: • How many men were in the cooking class? • How did he feel about that? Super Simple Kindle Books (Non-Fiction Personal Story)

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• What did he learn in the class that helped the most? • What was the general attitude of the teacher and the students? He should describe the atmosphere. If there were other students who are important to his story, he should briefly tell us what we need to know about them. As he learns about cooking, he should relate these steps back to Sandy and solving the mystery of her superior and popular cooking skills. Cooking guy should tell us why he’s asking certain questions and learning different things. He should tell us his theories, how he tests them, and whether or not they are proven correct. This part of his story ends with the end of his main learning process. He probably continues to learn all the time if he still cooks, but he wouldn’t tell us about that just yet. This part is only about his primary (initial) learning process, what he learned, and how it relates to Sandy and her cooking. The next section deals with his what he does with everything he has learned, not this one. Action Step Go back to your template and continue your story by telling your reader about what actions you took in response to your conflict. If there was a plan before the action, take the reader through the process. If there was no plan, tell your readers why. Super Simple Kindle Books (Non-Fiction Personal Story)

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One at a time, tell the readers about the specific actions that you took to deal with your conflict. You can talk about: • why you took the actions • if they were easier or more difficult than you thought they would be • if the actions were effective • what other people thought of the actions. Do not, however, grade yourself on the actions that you took. For the tips part of your book, we are going to cover your regrets, what you wish you would have done differently, etc. You're going to talk about your assessment of what you did and the aftermath later in your book, in other words. So go to the template and complete this section. [I put some reminders in there for you.]

Step #6: The Update Instead of picking up your story again where we left off, we are going to skip ahead to the present time. You now want to briefly state the outcome of the story, but the focus is going to be the present day impact. Think of this part of your story as a “Where are they now?” sort of epilogue. It’s more compelling than just having a contemporary ending to your story because it better satisfies the readers’ curiosity and need for closure. Super Simple Kindle Books (Non-Fiction Personal Story)

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Date In this section, you're going to start out with the date like we did in the “happier times” section from Step #3. Only, in this section that’s giving an update, we start with the current date. If you’re going to use the actual date, you should only use the year. You might also make the reader aware of how long it has been since the time frame of your story. If it hasn’t been very long, you can just make it clear that you’re referring to the present day. Options are similar to the date examples from Step #3: • • • •

Fifteen years later… In 2013… These days… Now that I have a family of my own…

Your Long-Term General Outcome Once you establish that you are talking about the present time frame, you should indicate the outcome of your story. You should do so in a long-term, ongoing way. This simply means that instead of giving the end of your story as it happened in the past, you give the outcome over the entire period of time all at once. For example, someone writing about a divorce wouldn’t just say, “We were able to divorce amicably.” Instead, they would say something like, “Five years later, we still have an amicable divorce.” Super Simple Kindle Books (Non-Fiction Personal Story)

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The present tense situation is more intimate. You’re not just telling your story. You’re giving your readers the most current update - as though you’re talking to them right now. If any other characters were important to your story, give their updates as part of your general update as well. How the Story has Changed You Think about your happier times story... • How are you different from that time because of what you’ve been through? • Has your personality changed? • Is your day-to-day life different? • Do you have different priorities? • As a result of your story, did you start a business, start a blog, start to teach others? Preview of the Next Section At this point, you might admit that your experience is still a work in progress. Life is often messy, after all. There may still be remnants of the problem or relapses, and there’s always more to learn. You can also admit that you didn’t handle the situation completely perfectly. This would nicely set up the tips section. You did some things right and made some mistakes in other areas. This makes you human in your readers' eyes – and that's appealing. But the important thing is that you learned a lot of things from the experience itself that the experts didn’t tell you. That’s the biggest reason that people bought your book. Super Simple Kindle Books (Non-Fiction Personal Story)

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Give your readers a preview of the next section – that you’re about to give them helpful tips and advice based on what you learned from your experience. Cancer: As of last month, I’ve been showing no sign of disease for twelve years (knock wood). During some of those first years, I lived in almost constant fear that my cancer would return. Even now, there are times that I’m afraid it will return as soon as I’ve let down my guard. I have noticed definite changes in my personality. I have more confidence, and I’m more likely to do things that I’ve never done before. I think our whole family lives life with a little more flourish. My husband and I have had our ups and downs, just like anyone else, I guess. We still argue about my health from time to time. But for the most part, he’s very supportive. It might seem odd, but we often reminisce about that time the same way we talk about our horrible first apartment. It was a struggle that we went through together and came out the other side intact. Jesse is now twenty years old. She’s in college. We have a very close relationship as a result of what we went through together. There are times she treats me like I’m sick, but she’s always there to cheer me on! I definitely didn’t do anything perfectly. I made a lot of mistakes. But when I look back, I think I did some things right, Super Simple Kindle Books (Non-Fiction Personal Story)

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too. During my treatment and in the years since, there were so many situations that no books or doctors prepared me to face. I got both good and bad advice from others, but most of what I learned came from anxious trial and frustrating error. The next section of my book is filled with a lot of tips for you based on everything that I learned in my own journey battling cancer. If you are in a similar situation, it’s not going to be easy. But whether you’re the one with cancer or you’re a family member of someone who has cancer, I think I can help make it a little easier for you. If nothing else, I can help you avoid my mistakes! Cooking Guy: In the ten years since I learned how to cook, I think I have been able to capture some of the mystery of Sandy’s cooking. It would probably make a much better story if l could report to you that the thing that made Sandy’s food different was love. But I’ve come to the conclusion that a lot of it was common sense, along with some tricks that she no doubt picked up over the years. I also firmly believe that a lot of her “secret” was plain old simplicity. I do, however, see the connection between love and cooking. My wife loves that I help her with the cooking. My family actually sits down to meals together (shocking!). Super Simple Kindle Books (Non-Fiction Personal Story)

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I’m able to whip up some comfort food for friends and family when I don’t know what to say to make them feel better. I have even baked and decorated birthday cakes. The thing that surprises me the most is that I actually enjoy cooking. It’s nowhere near as difficult as I once believed it to be. I’m able to relieve stress and express myself through my cooking. I had no idea cooking could be so therapeutic! If you’re thinking there’s no way that you could possibly enjoy cooking again, I think I can help. I didn’t just learn about cooking from books. I also learned about cooking from people. Some of them hated it. Some of them loved it. I took the good, the bad, and the ugly and tested it all out for myself. I have a lot of fantastic tips to make cooking easier and more fun, as you'll see. I also learned a lot of ways that people make cooking harder than it needs to be. I’m going to share everything that I’ve learned – from easy recipe substitutions to changing your cooking motivations and mindset. Am I the perfect cook? Of course not! And that’s kind of the point here. If I can make this simple and fun and I end up with meals that people actually want to eat, you can, too. Action Step Go back to your template and begin your update. Super Simple Kindle Books (Non-Fiction Personal Story)

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Remember, you need to indicate that the update is present day by either stating a date or giving a time frame since the rest of the story. Briefly give the current outcome of your story. Include updates for any other people who were important to your story. Give a quick update on how the situation has changed you since the description of your happier time. Admit that you made mistakes, but also that you did some things right. All in all, you learned a lot from your experience and in the next section you are going to share all of that with your readers.


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Step #7: Focus on Your Readers We have now reached the second part of your book! For those of you who had any trouble writing your story from the first part, the good news is that this second part is often much easier to write!

All you have to do here is come up with tips and advice to give to your readers – based on the lessons learned in the personal story you just told. Don’t panic. One of the big benefits of writing a book from your personal experience is that you don’t have to do a lot of research and rely on other people’s tips and advice that has been recycled over and over. You have your own unique perspective and real-world advice. You also don’t have to have a lot of tips and advice in mind. You don’t even have to be very clear about what you’ve learned from your experience. Sometimes your own ongoing confusion contains important elements your readers will appreciate. Questions I have a long list of questions that can help you pick out great tips and pieces of advice from your experience. The questions should help regardless of the topic of your book. Tips and Advice List Super Simple Kindle Books (Non-Fiction Personal Story)

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I’ve done this several ways in the past, and I’ve found that the easiest way to come up with a good tips and advice section is to first make a list of all of them as they occur to you. Do not try to put them into categories or sort them at the beginning. Just write them all down. Thinking about your experience and coming up with tips when prompted by my questions is one process. Sorting and organizing that information is a different process. Trying to do both processes at once can be distracting and keep you from thinking of good tips and advice. So I recommend that you (in this order): 1. 2. 3.

Read a question. Consider your story as it might relate to that question. Type/write down any tips or advice you can think of from your story that addresses that question.

I separate each tip or piece of advice by a space. Then I keep coming up with more tips and advice based on the questions as I work my way through them all. Only after I have come up with as many tips as I can do I sort them into different appropriate categories. Tip Tips • You really shouldn’t give medical or legal advice. You can talk about choices that you made and why you made them. But when it comes to medical or legal issues, you should make it very clear that you are not giving legal or medical advice. In fact, I recommend that you include a disclaimer if you discuss medical or legal issues in your book. Super Simple Kindle Books (Non-Fiction Personal Story)

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• Separate and focus your tips. Don’t include separate actions in the same tip. Focus in on one step, action, or thought for each tip. • Advice should be just that – advice. You can make recommendations, but your advice shouldn’t be that your way is the only way to do something. • When you are listing tips, write down every single one that comes into your head. Later, when you are sorting them into categories, you can fix them or delete them. • In my finished book, I want to avoid presenting the most common tips that everyone already knows. I still list common tips while I am making my list. They can often inspire other tips for me. If I cannot think of some way to turn a very common tip into a unique one, I delete it. There are two easy ways to turn a common tip into something a little more unique: ◦ Don't just give the common tip, but say HOW you followed it. For instance, if you are writing about how you lost weight, you shouldn't just list “eat less” as a tip. You should come up with tips that tell your reader how you WERE able to eat less when sitting down to meals, between meals, at work, etc. ◦ Discuss how effective the common tip actually is by giving it some perspective. You can tell your readers that you always heard that weight training helps you lose weight faster, but this is the first time that you actually tried it. Your tip can discuss it. You can tell how heavy the weights were, how long you tried it, and the results. If you didn't notice any results (or got frustrated because you gained weight), don't be afraid to say so. Disagreeing with any tip or telling your readers that it didn't work can be really useful to your readers. Super Simple Kindle Books (Non-Fiction Personal Story)

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The How-To Distinction We are not writing how-to processes for the tips and advice section of this book. In the telling of your story, a lot of you will have already explained the steps of your process. A tips and advice section: • • •

keeps you from repeating yourself is easier if you’ve only experienced something once or twice usually applies to a lot more readers

Having said that, a creative spin on the how-to process would be to present your tips and advice as a kind of time machine scenario: “If I had it all to do over again, here is what I would do step-by-step.” Category Tips Once you’ve listed your tips and advice, you should sort them into appropriate categories instead of keeping them as an unordered list. I can’t tell you what your categories should be because they are dependent upon your tips and advice and topics. I can, however, tell you that they should be based on categories that would make sense to your readers. For example, Cooking Guy might have tips categories like: ingredient substitutions, customizing recipes, cooking motivations Those categories would interest the readers a lot more than categories based on his story.

Remember to keep the focus Super Simple Kindle Books (Non-Fiction Personal Story)

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on the readers in the tips and advice section! In the action step below, I have listed questions that will help you pull tips and advice out of your story. I have also listed them on the template you got when you bought this package. You should take the questions one at a time. If something comes into your head immediately, great. Add that tip to your list. If you can’t think of something right away, try applying that question to specific parts of your story. Don’t spend too much time on each question. If you can’t think of something in general or when you apply it to specific parts of your story in your mind, move on to the next question. You can always return to questions once you get the hang of coming up with tips and advice from the questions. And, of course, sometimes you simply won't have a tip in response to a question from the list I'm providing. If other questions come to mind while you’re coming up with tips, add them to the list of questions for your next book! Let’s get to it! Action Step Apply the list of questions below to your experience (the story you just told in Part 1 of your book) to come up with a list of tips and advice to help your readers.


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Don’t sort your tips into categories yet. Just make a list of as many tips as you can. Questions: What could your readers do to better prepare for the entire experience and/or different steps of the experience? What specifically could they do or plan ahead of time? What one thing did you do or say that gave you the most satisfaction in your experience? What was the most intimidating part of your experience? Did it turn out to be as bad as you thought? How can you help readers be less intimidated or somehow better cope with that part? What do you regret doing or saying the most? What led to it and how can you help other people not make the same mistake? What did you find to be the most overwhelming? What did you do/could you have done to help you with that? Is there something that happened that seemed to ruin everything at the time? Is there anything you could have done to prevent it? Can you warn your readers that it could potentially happen and possibly help them prevent it? Were there any signs/symptoms that things weren’t going well (that your readers should watch for)? Were there physical challenges that you encountered in your experience? Could you have prepared for them? Did you find any ways to help deal with them? What one trick/tip/method seemed to work/get good results Super Simple Kindle Books (Non-Fiction Personal Story)

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every single time? Did you/should you have asked someone else for help at any point? What tips can you give your audience (on specific things where people can help the, who could possibly help them, what they should tell the people who could help them, what parts you think they should definitely do for themselves, etc)? What tricks/shortcuts did you figure out to save yourself time or effort? What took the longest to get used to? What was one of the easiest actions you took? What part of your experience took the longest amount of time? Did you figure out any ways to make go faster? Could any part of it be done ahead of time? Were there any parts of your experience that you made more difficult than they needed to be? How can you help your readers simplify? What specific things were the most confusing? Did you ever figure them out? Did you have to actually do some task before you were able to really grasp it? Can you explain them to your readers in a simpler way? Can you give them some resource that helped you finally understand it? What were the most emotional parts of your experience (good and bad)? Is there anything you can say to your readers to prepare them for those moments, help give them some perspective, or otherwise make them feel better? What’s often-repeated task was the most annoying? Did you Super Simple Kindle Books (Non-Fiction Personal Story)

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come up with any ways to make it less annoying? Was there something you were dreading that actually ended up being fun? Did you avoid others/lie to others/keep things from others out of embarrassment or to protect them? Did it end up being a good idea? What advice would you give readers on that subject? What mistakes did you make in each step of the process? How can you help your readers avoid those mistakes? Are there some parts of your experience that were really similar to some other (maybe more common) experience that would make it easier to understand, plan, or do? What are some really unique/rare problems that you encountered, and how did you deal with those problems? Can you tell your readers how long specific parts of your experience took so they can have an idea of what to expect? Is there anything they can do to change that time frame? Did you meet/talk to other people who were also going through your situation? Is there anything you can tell your readers about what other people did/advised/taught? Was there a time when you went against the advice of someone else (or something you read somewhere)? Did it end up being a good or bad thing? Can you tell your readers about that piece of advice? Maybe if this happened, you have something to say about advice from others in general? Did people judge you or say mean things to you during your experience? Can you tell your readers what happened, how it Super Simple Kindle Books (Non-Fiction Personal Story)

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made you feel, and what you’d recommend if it happens to them, too? Is there something that you wish someone else had told you that would have made some part of your experience much easier/faster/better? Are there things that you often forgot? Would it be good for your readers to remind themselves of specific things with email reminders, calendars, or notes? If you could go back in time, what would you have told yourself or done differently? After you come up with your tips, go over them and figure out how to sort them into good categories. Remember, the important consideration is to make it convenient and relevant for your readers! Step #8 Conclusion with Resources for Your Readers (optional) At the end of your book, your conclusion can be short. You've already concluded the actual story you told, and the tips/advice portion you just finished serves to give readers some ideas/actions to pursue. The one thing that might be lacking is a sense of encouragement. Including some “you can do it” language at the very end serves two worthy purposes: 1.

It leaves your readers with a positive feeling of empowerment, ready to take action.


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2.

It increases the likelihood that buyers will seek your new books out and continue buying from you.

When Kindle authors have websites that they want their readers to visit, they often include links. While this technically falls under marketing, I wanted to point out that this type of Kindle book works well for giving your readers some special resources. Instead of just including a link to your website or telling them to sign up for a newsletter, you can give your readers unique resources that will help them (while still getting them to visit your site and sign up for your list). The easiest resource you can give them is a printable cheat sheet of your tips. Depending on your topic, you could also do something like: •

a recipe newsletter

•

a printable calendar to help them progress with learning or taking some action

•

a troubleshooting guide

•

printable “in case of emergency” instructions.

Anything you can do to make it easier for readers to more easily use the information in your book is more likely to get them to your site (as well as helping them deal with the subject you covered in your book). Super Simple Kindle Books (Non-Fiction Personal Story)

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Get creative and think of win-win situations where you can both benefit. Speaking of resources, here's a handy free guide for formatting your Kindle books the way Amazon requires: https://kdp.amazon.com/self-publishing/help? topicId=A17W8UM0MMSQX6 NOTE: Be sure to closely edit your book before you submit it as a Kindle book! If you are not sure about your spelling or grammar skills, get someone who you know has excellent skills to take a look. It's worth it because typos and run-on sentences, etc. can really make a terrible impression on readers. It can even lead to refunds!

Quick Note About Book Titles Your book title, in general terms, needs to be both descriptive of the contents and intriguing enough to get potential buyers to take a closer look at your listing at Amazon. The title should be: 1.

Descriptive of what the readers can actually expect to learn (the tips and advice part)

2.

Include the angle/twist of the topic

3.

Be longer if it needs to be to cover 1 and 2


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4.

Use the right keywords so people can find it when searching at Amazon

I see a lot of titles where people are obviously trying to be clever and intriguing, but they go too far. It's not a good idea to make people have to actually click on the thing to find out what it's really about. That's too clever by half and, frankly, it's annoying.

Be accurately descriptive in your title and you'll attract a buying audience. Good luck with your new Kindle Book!


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Part 2 - Writing

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