I thought I knew what book she “should” write before we consulted her creative muse.
I was wrong.
It happens.
And that’s why I love my process for helping new authors clarify their book concept: they look within for their final answers.
Your Book Concept: The Whats of Your Book
What do I mean by book concept? Think of it as the “whats” of your book:
- What’s your vision for what your book will accomplish in the world, in your readers’ lives and in your own life?
- What’s your book about?
- Who’s it for? (Or what’s the target market if you want to be a stickler about the “whats”?)
- What features do you want to include?
- What content do you plan for it?
- What fits and what should you save for an in depth course or private consulting or the next book?
- What’s the structure of your book?
- What method of publishing do you choose?
I like to have clients determine the whats well before writing. You’ll save much time and heartache by doing this kind of planning first.
And so, these are the questions we tackle during the book concept consultation.
The Creative Muse Process
We start with your vision and work from there. I share what I know about the publishing industry and help an author evaluate whether to plan on self publishing or whether their book is a likely candidate for traditional publishing (and what it would take to get there).
We brainstorm ideas to make the book fresh and resonant for the target audience. We get creative.
As we go, we make a list of questions for the author’s creative muse—her creative source, her highest guidance, her inner knowing.
At that point, I guide the author in my favorite exercise, which I call, “Meet Your Muse.”
I asked the author to ask her creative muse to, “Show me my readers.”
These readers were younger than we expected. They were a completely different market from that of the primary book she planned to write. And the content was completely different as well!
Yet, her muse remained firm. “These are your people.”
So we went with it and she got more clarity on the content, title, motivations and even her big picture business plan. WOW.
A few times she said, “I think…” and I knew she was back in her head and it wasn’t her creative muse speaking. We returned to the muse and got a consistent and inspiring message.
When I asked her how it felt to see herself making this her primary focus she said, “Light. It feels right.”
What would your creative muse say about your book idea? You can find out by trying the free guided visualization for writers here.
