On 20 September I blogged about my client and riding instructor, Debbie, who thought I was joking when I suggested that she write a book. (Click here to read Part 1.) I knew it would be a great way to promote her services and to share her knowledge with some of the thousands of horse owners in the country.

Well, after Debbie stopped laughing, she agreed to spend half a day with me and Sarah Williams, The Book Consultant. Sarah has published many books herself and now helps business owners to write and publish their own books. She?s working on a clever process that will allow even more people to get the ideas out of their head and onto paper. Unsurprisingly, she?s writing a book about it and when it?s out, I?ll let you know. Without giving away too much at this stage, Sarah is developing a specialised thinking and planning process. She avoids putting too much structure into ideas too early on, keeping the structure as loose and provisional as possible, for as long as possible. The way she did this with Debbie was to start by asking her what riding is all about. The negatives and positives all went onto a flip chart ? all carefully colour coded. Then she asked Debbie about the process she goes through with new clients (riders) and again the answers went onto the flip chart. All this took a couple of hours and really gave us time to explore the ideas and issues in plenty of detail.

Then we took a break for lunch (and a glass of wine ? very important for the creative process!) After lunch we went back to the flip charts and suddenly things started dropping into place. From all the ideas and the loose structure, we could see chapters and sections of the book start to emerge. At the start of the day, if we?d asked Debbie what she wanted to write about, I don?t think she?d have known. But when Sarah asked her now, she could see quite clearly the important aspects that she wanted to write about. Out of the colours and words on the flip charts ? out of the provisional structure ? came a plan and a process for the writing. How clever is that!

Many people who want to write a book just don?t know where to start. 95% of the people who think about writing a book don?t ever do it. If you really want to write a book ? to promote what you do and build your reputation or just to share your ideas ? then don?t be one of that number. Get in touch and Sarah and I will see what we can do to help you get the book written and then promoted to the world.