It’s been awhile but I got asked this week, “How did you write your book?” The best part of the question was the fact that the inquirer was actually interested in the answer which is a nice bonus. I’ve answered this question in a number of different ways in the past including actually writing a book about well, writing a book. I’ve also answered or addressed this question in various seminars, workshops and coaching sessions with aspiring authors. However, in the off chance that you, dear reader, are interested in how I wrote, THE WEST COAST TRAIL: One Step at a Time, following are some of the basic ideas of how I did it.
Now if you are not interested in how to write a book (and I completely understand and forgive you your trespasses), you might be interested in what I’m making for dinner tonight and that recipe is here. On the other hand, if you don’t read on past the recipe, you will never know what this week’s Boomer Tune Alert is. Here’s the recipe for
Pollo Alla Romano:
serves 4
- A nice plump chicken weighing about 1.5 kg / 3 lb
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- 50 g pancetta, diced (optional but I used it)
- salt and pepper
- a plump clove of garlic (optional – never spare the garlic)
- a glass of dry white wine (and another for the cook)
- 300 g tomatoes or passata
- 4 large red peppers (I used red and yellow)
Clean the chicken and cut it into 8 eight pieces.
In a large heavy based pan fry the diced pancetta in the olive oil until it renders its fat. Add the chicken pieces skin side down and cook until the skin forms a golden crust, then turn them and fry the other side.
Add salt, several grindings of black pepper and the garlic and turn the pieces over three or four times. Add the wine and let it bubble away until most of it has evaporated.
Coarsely chop the tomatoes and deseed the peppers and cut them into chunky pieces. Add the tomatoes and the peppers to the pan, stir, cover the pan and leave over a modest heat. Keep an eagle eye on the pan for the first 10 minutes, stirring every now and then to prevent sticking. Once the peppers release their juices, half cover the pan and cook for another 45 minutes or until the tomatoes and peppers have collapsed into a dense, rich sauce and the chicken is tender.
Allow the pan to sit for about 15 minutes or better still a couple of hours or overnight (in which case you can just reheat it very very gently over a low flame until it is warm but not hot.) Serve with good bread and a glass of wine.
reprinted from
Rachel Eats Onward and upward to a few tips about how I wrote my first book but first a word of warning; there is no “one way” to write a book. Every author has a unique approach and that approach generally morphs with time and experience so that a writer’s 5th, 10th and 100th book may be much improved in both process and results. In order to learn to write YOU HAVE TO WRITE. Sorry for yelling but it’s the truth.
I suppose we could start with why I wrote The West Coast Trail book and basically there are three reasons,
1. It was one of the most significant adventures of my life and I firmly believe that absolutely everyone reading this has a significant adventure or event in their lives that should be shared.
2. Friends and family were constantly asking about our experiences and while I had developed a bit of a patter for relaying the stories, I was also tiring of telling the same thing over and over.
3. And finally, my mother-in-law had heard many of the stories and enjoyed them each time but after a few months she asked if I would write down some of the tales so that she could take them home to Regina to share with family and friends – thus started the next adventure – writing a book.
I had a full time job, a family and a house to tend to, so how the hell would I have time to write a book? The company I worked for at the time was rather poorly managed and it wasn’t difficult to disappear most mornings to have breakfast around 10:00 which had become a habit. Light bulb goes off – I have an hour every day that no one knows about and if I used that, maybe I could get started on this book. I have used and promoted that approach ever since and to the point that I use the term,
The One Hour Author to both describe myself and title another book. Sometimes it requires rising an hour early or going to bed an hour later but devoting one hour per day to anything will change your life.
BOOMER TUNE ALERT
Born to Be Wild became the anthem of the baby boomer generation as we marched, sat in, demonstrated, and generally raised hell wherever we congregated. I think that the angst of our generation started in the States as a protest against the Vietnam war but rapidly gathered acolytes around the globe as we threw off the shackles of the previous generation. We no longer wanted to do what the man said – we would live our lives on our own terms, not our parents, teachers, politicians, military or church leaders old ways of marching in lock step to ideas that we simply could not comprehend.
So, now that you’ve got your motor running, back to writing a book. Since I had no experience, I figured that the best way to write a true adventure story was to start at the beginning and tell about how we prepared for this incredible back country hike on a trail that is always ranked in the top ten. We had done some online research, picked up videos and read a bit and knew that it was going to be incredibly challenging. I began by writing about the physical training regimen to prepare for this odyssey into the unknown. This naturally moved on into the trip to get there and then the day by day experiences until I arrived home from the adventure of a lifetime. The memories were fresh (including some of the pains) and I found myself in a rhythm of writing for an hour every morning and in some way that I still don’t understand completely, when I sat down the next day, the next stage of the hike would have entered my mind so that I could disgorge this information on to the page. The same thing happened day after day. About 2 months after I started this process, I had wrapped up the initial version but there was lots more to do. Most of what was left, I had no idea about. I knew about my experience but had no clue how to actually make the book available for people to read.
Next week I will tell about the process that I used to publish
my first book and offer a number of sources that will make the trip to published author much easier for you.
This is an incredible time in history for anyone with a story to tell. Whether it is for private consumption or you want to make it available to the world, technology and innovation have come together to offer even the first time author a platform that wasn’t even dreamed of previously.
Tune back in next week when I reveal the do’s and don’ts of creating a book.
