Writing a book part 2: Anchoring
Hello! Last week you took the first steps to finding the ship of your book—the craft you’ll steer you for the duration of the journey, that will deliver you safely to some exciting land, or back home. You might be here if you are:
‘thinking about a book’ but not sure exactly what you’re writing about
struggling with a few competing ideas of what to write about
having trouble making further progress, but you know what you’re going to write about
not interested in writing a book but curious how these ideas might help with your other work!
Now that you’ve listed and organized the questions you have related to your book, and summarized your idea or ideas with what you know and don’t know (last week), do some anchoring—what grounds the book, what makes it important, what is the point of it, and why am I doing it? Whether it’s a how-to or guide, a philosophy or explanatory text, a personal history or memoir, or a chronicle about someone else’s life, some period of time, or some idea or event, anchoring will help define the book you’re going to write, and keep you safe in stormy waters.
Out of this process, you might find one anchor—a single word or phrase that summarizes your book, your reason for writing it, a value that undergirds the project, or the theme—that you can put on a post-it note above your desk or repeat like a mantra. Not a goal, but an outcome.
Anchoring questions
You can answer some or all of these questions, in whatever order.
Why am I writing this? Why now? What will keep me tied to this book?
Your answer here might be totally focused on you, the narrator (”I am writing this because I don’t want to live another ten years without answering this question I have about my life”) or your subject (”I’m writing this because people who’ve experienced X deserve to have their stories told”) or your audience (“People are hurting because they don’t know about this or how to do this properly”).
Ask yourself why again. Why do these people deserve to have their story told? Why is it important for others to learn about this? Why can I not keep living without the knowledge I hope to gain through writing this?
Your whys can go on and on until you hit an anchor—it might be a value, a root question or doubt, or “reason for writing.”
Who is this for? Who am I writing this book for? Who do I most want to reach with this book? Who will this book be important to? What is their pain point around this topic?
What is the thesis or theme of this book? Does my book have a ‘lesson’ or does it assert a truth or belief?
How is this book anchored:
In truth? How does the story I want to tell connect to something universal?
If you’re starting with a very specific story, like something you’ve experienced, work your way up the ‘ladder of abstraction’—what does this specific story stand in for, what is it teaching, what did it teach me, what does it mean, how do others experience something similar to what I am telling in this story, how is it shared, and at what levels?
In experience? How does the lesson I want to share or thing I want to teach experienced or expressed in narrative?
If you want to write about something abstract (love, God) or a lesson or how-to, how will you anchor it in real experience, story, people?
If you struggle with the thesis or theme, these questions will lead you there.
What is the driving force of this book? What verb best describes the arc of this book?
Depending on the book you’re writing, the force may be something that happens to the subject, narrator, or protagonist of your book (“me changing from who I was to who I am”) or to your reader (“the reader understanding how to become a leader in their space”).
Your force may be one of these, or a few of them that drive the book at different times—don’t overthink it yet. You can even pick a few verbs that resonate and figure out why later:
changing
understanding
revealing
hoping
causing
colliding
fucking up
destroying
building
creating
empowering
conflicting
establishing
seeking
promoting
developing
demanding
overcoming
oppressing
guiding
leading
For more ideas, look up active verbs and transitive verbs to play around with different forces.
What is the question my book seeks to answer? Every book responds to an initial question at least—a spark of curiosity that had you asking, “Why did it happen this way?” or “How does that work?” or “How does he live?” or “What does this all mean?”
If you’re writing a how-to book or guide, the question the book seeks to answer is the question it should answer, and it comes from the reader: “How do I become a great Saas leader?” or “How do I build a company?”
Of course, you might write a book that answers the question “How do I build a radio?” but really cares about the question, “What kind of life is worth living?”
For other books like a personal history or memoir, the question the book seeks to answer might be very personal and specific—How did I become the way that I am? What did my father’s early death mean for my life? Those are questions that you hope to answer in writing the book. But the book itself will answer different questions for the reader, up the ladder of abstraction—“Is change possible?” “Is love real?” “Are people good?” Consider what these may be.
Don’t worry yet whether your book can or will answer this question—that’s why I say ‘seek’ to answer. Not all books will answer the question they set out to. Some initial questions will become a complex array of questions. Some authors will discover that the ‘overt question’ wasn’t the meaningful one after all, and the ‘answer’ of the book is in establishing the ‘right question.’ Others will discover that there is no answer to the question, and the book is about the journey to that discovery.
It’s unlikely that you’ll “nail” each of these, and some explorations will be resonate with you more than others. Do those.
Your answers also may change and evolve! As you get to know the material of your book more, you’ll have more clarity about its key questions. What you learn or unlearn, what you have to reconsider, the journey that took you to this new understanding—this may be the book you were looking for all along.
What else you can do now
Create a Book Place
Notion, Airtable, Google Drive, Scrivener, Roam—wherever your ideas, artifacts, and pages can be stored, it helps to have as much as you can in one spot. Designate a Book Place this week.
Add Questions
As you’re anchoring, a lot of questions about what the book will cover are probably coming up. These are the questions we want most of all—Will I include this character or story? What’s the narrative I’ll use to explain this complex topic over the course of two hundred pages? Keep growing your list of questions related to the structure, theme, point, and material of the book! Remember, you can keep a specific note-book (or just a page in your Book Place) for this purpose.
Stress test
Some painful questions to stress-test your book idea as you get closer to locking it in:
Could my big lesson or system be explained just as well in a blog post?
In what ways is my ego attached to this particular topic in ways that might hold me back?
Whose good review do I want more than anyone else’s? Will I be motivated by this desire or do I need to set it aside?
Common questions at this stage
Is it too early to think about form and style?
For most of you, yes, it’s too early. Don’t rush forward to ‘how’ you’re going to write the book or tell the story, first decide what you really, really want to write about—what you’re going to write about. Your interest at this point is more important than the best form and style for the book.
For others of you who might already be familiar with form or have some ideas, it might be inspiring to think about form at this stage, as a way to help you scope and carve your initial ‘what.’ I’ll post more about form soon so we can all be on the same page about it.
Should I think about my audience now?
If you’re writing a personal history or memoir, it’s not necessary to think about the audience when anchoring—you should be thinking about why you’re writing this instead, and yourself as the most important reader. But if you’re writing a guide or explainer, it’s never too early to think about your audience—they’re necessary for establishing your guiding question, driving force, and thesis or theme.
I’ll share a lot more about understanding your audience for books, blogs, etc, in a future post. Question 2 in the anchoring list above is enough for now for anyone.
What if I just want to write a book but I don’t even have a topic or subject yet?
If you want to write a book but you don’t have a topic yet, again, try the steps above and in the last edition with a few different possibilities—it’ll help. If you’re not there yet, you can also figure out your 3D goals for your book, since you’re more driven by the prospect of a book project than any one idea right now. But caution—without a strong idea that really excites and compels you, it’s going to be very difficult to sustain the book process over the long term. I encourage you to focus on questions at this stage—what are you curious about, what do you wonder, what do you wish you could know?
Next up and final thoughts
Next week, we’ll take another step forward with a few more organizing questions related to the arc of your book—where it’s going—and then turn to generative listing of characters, scenes, plot points, and organizing of artifacts you’ll use to support the arc.
