I just finished writing my first book.

Here are 40 tips for writing yours.

1. Build an audience
2. Embrace their problem
3. Solve their problem
4. Have a singular purpose.
5. Be honest with your intentions.
6. Turn off social
7. Process email once daily
8. Turn off spell check.
9. Think “calling card”
10. Don’t think “income generator”
11. Write in isolation.
12. Write by water.
13. Write with music.
14. Set an early alarm
15. Set a deadline.
16. Outline top-down
17. Write a title
18. Pick a proven structure.
19. Build an outline
20. Expand the outline
21. Expand the outline again.
22. Write by section
23. Write easy sections first
24. Write conversationally.
25. Write short sentences.
26. Get people to the next sentence.
27. Use simple words.
28. Make it finish-able.
29. Keep em wanting more.
30. Ignore page count.
31. Ignore word count.
32. Get a printer.
33. Get an editor.
34. Be done.
35. Price for value.
36. Publish to Amazon Kindle.
37. Tell your audience.
38. Ask for honest reviews
39. Give limited-time free access
40. Be delightful.

Want the color commentary on this list? Watch this vid I just published.

[The Perfect Mix is available on the Amazon Kindle store, free today only.]

I read a thing lately that really messed me up. Here it is:

Humans have been anatomically human for 200,000 years. But, we didn’t start writing stuff down until 3,500 BC.

So for 200,000 years, we harnessed fire, and that’s about it. (Around the last quarter of that, 50,000 BC – ish, us behaviorally modern humans communicated a bit, but still did not write anything down. We only spoke.)

But since starting to write stuff down (currently only the latest 2% and 7% of our existence as anatomically modern and behaviorally modern humans, respectively) we figured out how to make FaceTime calls work seamlessly from underground subway stations.

So despite being unsure if I wanted to keep writing on this blog, the answer is clear.

Publish your thoughts.

Let go of what others think. Let you readers (or lack thereof) be damned.

If 99 out of 100 thoughts are duds, maybe one of them lights a spark.

***

FYI: I wrote a short-read ebook published to the Amazon Kindle store. It’s for people struggling to eat more plants: The Perfect Mix.