ORGANIZATION AND ACCOUNTABILITY

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THE PROBLEM

Linda is a very good writer. And a smart, wide-ranging thinker. By the time she called me she had already begun and stopped writing her book several times. She was easily distracted not only by incessant emails, copious phone calls and needy dogs, but by her own internal ideas and thoughts. Content was everywhere: in hard copy files, electronic files on two different computers, in her head, within dozens of websites, on sticky notes. “The book is all here, somewhere”, Linda said. She needed to get her time, thoughts and content organized.

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THE SOLUTION

I am a professional organizer as well as a book coach, so time management, productivity and organization are right up my alley and I bring those skills sets to my authors. Linda needed me right at her side to keep her focused. An onsite presence would allow me to help gather and categorize the relevant materials and prevent her from feeling overwhelmed. And I could hold her accountable for writing on a schedule.    

  

THE PROCESS

Linda and I held up for a week in her beachside home. We outlined the major topics of the book with sticky notes on the wall so she could see the different options for organizing the content.  Then we gathered all the content from everywhere and organized it by topic. She would write while I walked on the beach or played with the dogs (poor me.)  I held her accountable to a certain amount of writing time or a specific word count to keep her productive and sure enough, the book emerged. It needed the usual proofreading, a cover and interior design and other aspects outside of my wheelhouse, but the writing was done.

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THE RESULT

Confessions of an ADDiva : Midlife in the non-linear Lane won the Next Generation Indie book award. It positioned Linda as an expert on the topic of menopause and ADD and helped her establish revenue-making retreats, private coaching, and many speaking engagements, all of which could be bundled with her book.