Write a Book v2

Hey, friend!

I’m Grant Ferguson, a writer from Clifton, Texas, and creator of 7-Step Storytelling POWER. Thanks for stopping by!

You might know me from my posts about writing, but I’m also a productivity and story development coach.

For many years, I managed large-scale projects. Back then, I tracked and coordinated the blending of diverse people, products, and systems into a merged company.

The stakes were high, and with each merger, I worked through conflicts, many fraught with the potential of job loss — my professional death.

One day, I realized my past project experience paralleled what writers face today as they coordinate a book’s structure, characters, plot, and theme.

However, I had yet to figure out how to put my background to work writing fiction.

It all started with my love of reading

I wrote daily in my corporate job. For example, I created detailed project plans and training programs (another aspect of coordinating large-scale mergers).

Despite long hours at work, reading mysteries and thrillers in the evening was my favorite way to relax.

In 2012, my 86-year-old father came to live with us. A half-a-year later, we lost him to lung cancer.

My dad spent his last days worrying about what he had not done in life. He was full of regrets. Lots of regrets! After Dad’s death, my wife and I were determined to create a new life, one filled with creativity — doing things to inspire us and living without regrets.

For me, I dreamed of writing a book.

From Unaware to Aware

Inspired by our goal of living without regrets, I tried my hand at writing a memoir about our time as my father’s caregiver. Was it cathartic? Absolutely! Worthy of sharing with others? Not so much (save for a few family members).

But I had been bitten by the writing bug. For me, weaving together the many parts of a story was the ultimate puzzle — akin to what I imagined it might be like to play Star Trek’s three-dimensional chess.

However, writing memos, training manuals, and contracts in the corporate world had not given me the skills to write interesting fiction. But my chief problem: I was unaware of my ignorance — I didn’t know what I didn’t know.

I was at the honeymoon stage of writing — immersed in blissful ignorance and full of false confidence because I was an avid reader.

To my credit, I had a noble goal: to entertain and inspire young people with a story. I imagined writing a book similar to the first mind-blowing science fiction book I discovered in the 6th grade.

Unaware of how a story’s structure influences writing a book, “Grant-the-pantser” wrote like a madman on fire, driven by my dream to finish a novel for grade-schoolers.

But after self-publishing a three-book series, all I heard were crickets instead of ringing cash registers.

I had achieved my dream of writing and publishing a book, but the results fell way short of my expectations. But now I was aware, and I didn’t just want to write a book, my heart’s genuine desire was to create fiction readers will love.

The two-rules of writing

I felt like a loser because readers did not love my writing. Here’s where my years invested in coordinating projects paid dividends.

As you’ve probably guessed by now, I’m prejudiced toward excellence and biased toward action. So, to avoid developing a major regret, I used my project skills to study how writers create bestsellers and curate my findings into a database.

My research of Robert McKee’s book Story revealed two writing rules understood by bestselling authors.

➨ Rule #1: There are no rules, just principles.

➨ Rule #2: Don’t forget rule #1!

It’s not just about writing a book

After pouring over hundreds of notes in my writer’s database, I noticed how most bestselling authors consistently followed three principles of writing commercial fiction. It was as if these authors all subscribed to the same writer’s manifesto: to entertain, inform, and inspire.

Excited by yet more treasure gleaned from my database of over 3,000 writing notes, I wondered, could other writers benefit from this collection of actionable wisdom?

As a curator, not a famous author, I had another problem to solve.

How do I share the time-proven advice of bestselling authors based on principles, not rules?

After yet more research of books, webinars, and courses, I realized the wisdom in my writer’s database boiled down to these P-O-W-E-R essentials:

Plan, Outline, Write, Edit, and Repeat!

That insight led to the creation of 7-Step Storytelling POWER.