THE BUSY PERSON’S GUIDE

TO WRITING A BOOK
12 Easy Steps for Completing Your Book 

Twice as Fast with Half the Effort

Michael Hyatt

This workbook is a place for you to record your notes, insights, and action plans. We suggest you print it
out before the webinar, scan through it, and then have it in front of you as the webinar begins. If you
want to comment on Twitter or Facebook about the webinar, please use the hashtag #writefaster.
Michael’s Twitter username is @MichaelHyatt. Megan’s is @MegHMiller. (Megan is Michael’s co-host
for this webinar.)

Introduction

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Premise

You can complete your book ________________ as fast with _____________ the effort by following
these _______ easy steps.


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 The Busy Person’s Guide to Writing a Book

1. Determine your ___________.

a. You can be the ______________________.

b. You can be the _______________________.

c. Similarly, you can be the _________________ without being the ________________.

d. Three questions to ask yourself:

1) Do you have any _______________________ writing?

2) Do you have the ______________ to write the manuscript?

3) Do you have the ________________ to _________ a writer?

e. Additional resources:

• ________________________________________

• ________________________________________

• ________________________________________

• Google: “________________________________________________.”

Action Item

☐ Decide what ____________ you will play. Will you be the _____________________, the
____________________, or both?

2. Schedule your _____________________ time.

a. You are not any __________________ than anyone else.

b. You have ________________ in your week.

c. People make time for what’s _________________.

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 The Busy Person’s Guide to Writing a Book

d. Understand the role of ______________.




@AndyAndrews: “_____________ is the ability to ______________ ___________________ do
something you don’t want to do in order to get a result you really want to get.”

e. Understand the role of __________________________.




@MichaelHyatt: “___________________ doesn’t usually show up until __________ do.”

f. What gets ____________________ gets ______________.

g. Schedule ________________________ with yourself.

Action Item

☐ Determine _________ you will write. Put your first four ____________________
____________________________ on your calendar.

3. Set up your writing _________________ __________________.

a. Choose a place where you have ________________.

b. Eliminate as many __________________ as you can.

c. Set the _____________________ to _________ or cooler.

d. ________ ________________ that inspires you and makes you more productive.

• _____________________________________

• ______________________________________________________________

e. _____________ plenty of _______________.

f. ___________ the proper _____________.

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 The Busy Person’s Guide to Writing a Book

Action Item

☐ Decide _________________ you will do your writing.

4. Use the appropriate ___________________ ____________.

a. Use ___________________ for collecting research.

• Check out: _____________________________.

b. Consider ______________________ for writing.

• Check out _________________________________.

• Check out _________________________________.

c. Learn _________________________________.

• Why? Four reasons:

1) Focus on the ___________________.

2) Use your favorite ___________________.

3) Maintain document _____________________.

4) Convert to necessary ___________________.

• Check out: __________________________________.

d. Try _____________________ for editing.

• Check out: _______________________________.

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 The Busy Person’s Guide to Writing a Book

Action Item

☐ Download the ___________ _____________ of ____________________ and give it a try.

5. Create a formal ____________ _____________________.

a. A book proposal will give you ________________ around five things:

1) Your _______________

2) Your _______________

3) Your _______________

4) Your _______________

5) Your _______________

b. Resources for preparing your proposal:

• _______________________________________________________

• _______________________________________________________

Action Item

☐ Write a formal _______________ ___________________________. This will be your blueprint

for success.

6. Establish your writing _______________.

a. Manuscript ___________________:

1) What percentage of readers finish certain length books?

• If the book is _________ pages or less, ______ of readers finish the book.

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 The Busy Person’s Guide to Writing a Book

• If the book is _________ pages or so, ______ of readers finish the book.

• If the book is more than _________ pages, ______ of readers finish the book.

2) Conclusion: One of the best ways to reduce your writing time is to _________ the length of
the book.

3) Examples of super-successful, ______________ books:

• The One-Minute Manager by Ken Blanchard and Spencer Johnson ( _____ pages)

• Tribes by Seth Godin ( _______ pages)

• The War of Art by Steven Pressfield ( ________ pages)

4) Rule of thumb for how long your book should be:

• eBook Opt-in: ____________ to ____________ words

• Business Book: ____________ to ____________ words

• Non-fiction Book: ____________ to ____________ words

• Fiction Book: ____________ to ______________ words.

b. Manuscript ________________________:

• Check out: ______ ______________ _________________________ (I’ll provide a link to

download this spreadsheet at the end of the webinar).

c. Example goals:

• I will finish a __________ word opt-in ebook by 8/22.

• I will finish a __________ word manuscript on productivity by11/30.

• I will finish a ___________ word novel by 05/30.

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 The Busy Person’s Guide to Writing a Book

Action Item

☐ Write a _____________ for finishing your book. Make sure you include the manuscript
_______________ and the manuscript _____________________.

7. Set up the book’s ____________________.

a. A book’s structure is like the _______________ of a house.

b. A typical book is divided into three main parts.

c. Examples:

• __________________

• ___________ ___________

Action Item

☐ Set up your book’s structure, using either _________________ or a _______________

_________________________.

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 The Busy Person’s Guide to Writing a Book

8. Gather your __________________.

a. I recommend that you use ______________________.

b. Set up a separate __________________ for your book.

c. Create a set of __________ for your book.

d. Examples of research you can collect:

• Straight ___________

• ________ pages

• ________________ highlights (To learn how to do this, go to michaelhyatt.com/

______________.)

e. Then you can just go back and forth between __________________ and your
_________________ program.

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 The Busy Person’s Guide to Writing a Book

Action Item

☐ Install the free version of _________________ and start storing _________________________

about your book.

9. Create a chapter ________________.

a. Stop _____________________ the _________________.

b. Instead, use a ____________________.

c. Make sure it is tailored for ___________.

Action Item

☐ Create your own chapter _______________________.

10. Write the _________________ ___________________ first.

a. Starting any project is like trying to get a __________________ turning.

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 The Busy Person’s Guide to Writing a Book

b. What you need to finish big projects is _______________________.

c. I typically start with the __________________ _________________.

Action Item

☐ Identify the chapter that would be the ___________________ for you to write.

11. Separate the writing from the _______________.

a. Modern brain research says your brain consists of ______ __________________________.

b. There are at least three implications for authors:

1) _________________ and _________________ are both important.

2) However, they should be done ________________________, not

_____________________________.

3) You should resist the urge to ____________ as you write.

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 The Busy Person’s Guide to Writing a Book

Action Item

☐ Purpose that you will resist the urge to __________ until you are done with each
______________________.

12. Know your enemy.

a. Your enemy is the ____________________.

It is an __________________, destructive force that opposes you any time you try to make an
________________________ in any area of your life.

b. It has three _____________________:

1) Strategy #1: __________

• Countermeasure: _______________

2) Strategy #2: ___________________

• Countermeasure: _____________

3) Strategy #3: _____________

• Countermeasure: ________________

Action Item

☐ Recognize that ____________, ______________________, and _______________ are just part

of the process.

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 The Busy Person’s Guide to Writing a Book



Conclusion

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