Speakers are great orators- they can speak and pontificate about a grocery list and make it interesting. If you ask many of even the most successful speakers to write, and they become deaf and mute. They look at a blank page and shiver from the cold sweat running down their back.
Someone asked me if a writer is created or born- and my short answer is that I believe they are born. It is a talent like art, or music. Some people are born with the artistic skill and some are not. If you are talented in one artistic medium, that does not mean you are talented in all of them. I can play the heck out of the piccolo solo in Tchaikovsky's fourth symphony, but all the people I draw are evolutions of stick figures.
Like any other talent, we can hone and polish our skills and techniques, but without a gift and passion it can be a fruitless process. Speakers I also believe are born. Some people just have a stage presence, and know how to work a crowd and some try and struggle.
It's ok- you don't have to be good at everything- but you are good at something. Speakers are often told to write a book to support their platform and add credibility to their brand. I have seen the attempts go three ways- 1. They nail it- their book is a success because they had some writing chops and a great marketing plan. 2. They start and then stop. They can't get past the first chapter or even the first line. 3. They write the whole book- and everyone around NICELY and POLITELY tells them its great and it sells like 20 copies.
You can have some writing chops, but need some training to polish your prose. And so sometimes a speaker has to step back to prepare themselves.
Some speakers don't have the time or the chops to write, and they hire a ghostwriter like me, or a book coach.
The important thing is that a speaker knows their limitations- because a bad book is worse then no book. Trust me!
Before Starting a Book consider these questions:
1. Have you ever written professionally before?
2. Have you ever written something this size?
3, Do you have the time to write?
4. Do you need some help honing your writing skills?
5. Do you really need to write a book or is it something you are being told you need to do?
There are no right or wrong answers, just things to consider.
In my next installment of Brain Bridges I will be talking about how writing partners can help your writing.
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