If you want to build a house, look for builders and architects.
If you want to fix your car engine, look for a mechanic.
If you want to write a book, look for a ghostwriter.
Once again, I advocate: You do not need to be a writer to be an author.
If you do not have the time or the skill to write a book, you’d need two things: ideas and a ghostwriter.
But, how do you generate ideas ? How many ideas do you need before you can hire a ghostwriter to complete the writing process for you?
My first experience in ghostwriting was tedious because the author handed me just the main idea and a few sentences for his book.
Although he had brilliant ideas in mind, it took us so much time to filter them into a coherent book.
Therefore, handing over the main idea and a few sentences to a ghostwriter is not enough. You need to generate and structure ideas in a manner that will allow the ghostwriter to understand the intent of your book .
But first,what’s an idea?
An idea is something you think about, talk about or hypothesize about.
We humans are idea containers. Each day we make observations and ask questions about things we like, things we don’t like, problems we’ve encountered and the solutions to those problems. In the course of doing this, we are generating ideas.
In this blog post, I’m going to share with you a simple process on how to generate ideas that transform into a book.
But first, acknowledge that you cannot assemble all the ideas you need for a book in one day. It may take a week depending on the scope of your book.
That said, the process begins with:
Identifying the main idea.
The main idea often comes from something you have observed in the society or from something you are passionate about.
It could be a problem you want to solve, or something you’ve learned and wish to share your experiences with the world.
What are you currently battling with in your workplace, church, family, school or in life?
What is your life’s purpose? What do you feel passionate about (your feelings or experiences) that you wish to share with the world? What skills do you already have or have learned as a professional?
Providing answers to these questions serve as a fertile ground for generating the main idea of your book.
For examplle, in my case, I have observed that many people lack the time and the skills to transform their brilliant ideas into a book. In addit
In addition to this, many people in my community are not aware that you can self-publish a book and make passive income just by handing your ideas to a ghostwriter to transform them into a book.
These observations have prompted my desire to write a book that will demystify the fear of authoring a book.
Likewise, you could look for something you are passionate about and make it a niche to write about.
In my opinion, every professional should be an author.
Brainstorming the main idea.
Brainstorming ideas from the main idea is a key step in shaping the content of your book. This is because every book is born from an extension of a main idea.
A simple way to brainstorm ideas faster is to apply the following steps:
- Move to a quiet environment void of distraction.
- Take along with you a piece of paper and a pen. You could take along with you a laptop.
- Set an alarm to go off in about 30 minutes.
- Force yourself to write about 30-50 unedited sentences related to the main idea.
- I recommend you write in question form using the Journalism 101 technique of 5W and H to form questions. where, when, why, whom and which; then how.
- As soon as the alarm goes off, drop your pen, type and secure your questions on Google docs for future use.
For example: I am assuming that if Lilian Thuram, a retired French International football player were to brainstorm ideas on racism in football, these could be some of the ideas he’d put forth:
- What is racism?
- When did it begin in football?
- What was my first experience like?
- What are the common racial slurs in football ?
- Which league has the highest prevalence of racism in football?
- What is FIFA doing about it?
- What sanctions could I propose for racists slurs in football?
- How should other footballers react to victimized colleagues?
- How could we educate spectators on the pitch on the damaging effects of racism in football?
- Why is racism in football prevalent in European leagues?
I could go on and on to ask specific questions on racism in football if I were a professional footballer, or have experienced racial abuse in football.
Once you are done with brainstorming ideas from the main idea, the next step is to find the answers to questions you’ve generated.
Do some findings
The beauty of brainstorming ideas in a question format is so that you can generate answers to those questions to grow your book.
The more discoveries you make, the more ideas you generate. The more ideas you generate, the more you grow the content of your book.
A simple Google search is enough to find answers to all unanswered questions on your brainstorming list.This is what constitutes your references and citations.
You could work alongside a ghostwriter to help you with this background search. As a ghostwriter, I’ve helped many authors find answers to some of the questions in their brainstorming list.
Once this step is completed, your ideas are ripe for delivery to a ghostwriter.
Conclusion
An idea is powerful when you refine it, simplify it, amplify it and spread it to the world.
Writing a book is a good way to refine an idea and make it powerful.
Today, powerful ideas create industries and change the status quo.
Every book is an extension of a single idea. If you are not a skilled writer and wish to generate quick ideas for your book, consider applying these three key processes.
- Tap into your values, goals, vision, skills, purpose and passion to determine your main idea.
- Brainstorm your main ideas using the Journalism 101 technique of questioning: 5W and H technique.
- Research answers to your brainstorming list of questions.
There are many ways to generate ideas for a book, all of which are helpful to skilled writers. But if you are not a skilled writer and look forward to working with a ghostwriter, you’d need these key ideas to generate the minimum ideas for your book. Your ghostwriter will take care of the rest.
Finally, hand over your generated ideas to a ghostwriter to complete the book writing task for you.
Authoring a book is not rocket science. Every book is an extension of a single idea.
If you need help generating ideas for your book, contact us here.
To your success,
The Ghostwriter,
Shei Jini
