Do you remember the feeling of walking through the doors of your alma mater on the first day of your freshman year of college? You were likely filled with a mixture of hope and fear, but also the confidence that you were making a solid investment in your future, and this decision would serve you well. We do, after all, encourage young people to pursue a bachelor's degree — or higher — in the hopes that the experiences and lessons that they learn, and the confirmation of their dedication and studies from a recognized institution, will launch a lifelong career.
Have you ever stopped to compare that experience to writing a book?
The two are actually surprisingly similar. The process of writing a book involves compiling hundreds of pages of your own thoughts, finding sources to back up your findings or inspire your fictions, pouring your heart and soul onto the page - and then taking a critical eye to it all and cutting parts that may have taken days or weeks to write, but are no longer relevant.
However, there’s one key difference: you don’t have a student body to bond with, become a part of, and lift your spirits up when you start to lose motivation when you’re writing a book. In that sense, it’s even harder.
Many professionals are now writing a book, or several books in lieu of completing a secondary degree, and here are five reasons why it’s becoming a valid replacement:
1. You Become An Expert On A Finite Topic
When you set out to write a book, you likely already have a topic in mind that you feel you’re an expert in. However, over the course of the project, it’s almost impossible to not learn more about the complexities and nuances of your trade, become more familiar with the influencers in control, and discover new debates and conflicts amongst those most closely involved.
2. You Learn Better Time Management And Self-Motivational Techniques
Possibly the hardest part of writing a book is just how large a project it is to undertake. It often takes years to complete one, sometimes decades — but those who take that long are certainly not focusing the majority of their efforts on writing and researching.
When you commit to being an author, you have to hone your skills in time management, pacing and motivation, because you’re test driving them on yourself. If you find that you’re wasting time and easily distracted — such as turning to social networks initially to research trends, and finding yourself engrossed in long articles about your favorite celebrity couple - you aren’t alone. The nougat of education comes when you learn how to keep your mind focused on the goal in a sea of distractions.
3. You Learn How To Critique Kindly
Once your initial draft is done, it’s time to edit. Critiquing your own work can be incredibly draining, both mentally and emotionally, as you have to take a critical eye to your own work. You know firsthand how difficult it was to write every single word on that page — yet you know that it isn’t actually perfect content, at least not yet.
“By taking a critical look at your own work, that you care so much about, you’ll learn valuable skills in how to critique a piece without insulting the creator,” says Joe Baldwin, CEO of Essaylook. “These skills will make you a better manager of others — by spending time in their shoes, you’ll be better equipped to offer guidance, instead of condescension.”
4. You Improve Your Communication Skills
This may seem rather obvious, but writing makes you a better communicator. Writing a book, and then having others read it and offer their criticism, improves your communication tenfold. As they say, practice makes perfect.
5. You Create A Clearer Picture Of Your Audience
As you write your book, you’re likely to start picturing the audience that you’re targeting. As you progress, adding in details, topics, and settling on a speech pattern, vocabulary level and idioms, it’s not uncommon to begin to picture a specific person when you’re writing. That person is likely your ideal audience — it’s the specific kind of individual you’d like to target.
Once you’ve completed your book, you’ll come back to your brand with a much better idea of who you’re trying to target, and the ability to jumpstart your marketing team to be more effective than they ever have been before.
Not sure where to start? There are plenty of guides on how to write a book, but the most important first step is deciding on a topic that you’re interested in — and knowledgeable about enough to create a massive amount of new, original, high quality content.
