Writing Coach Garrett Pierson & Author Beth Neibert

Coaches are often blamed for poor results, but seldom praised for their successes. If winning is involved, we usually look exclusively to the player. But I suggest that both the coach and the player should share in the positive results of the endeavor, as each of them are motivated, dedicated and focused on achieving the same goal. Whether the activity is sports, business, or writing, coaches and participants should share in the glory when success is reached.

Garrett Pierson, author of How to Write a Book ASAP, is a writing coach. Over the last few months, Garrett has been coaching Beth Neibert on how to write her own book. As a result, Beth, at the end of January, 2013, finished her book “The 7 Marketing Success Strategies for the Online Entrepreneur.” Garrett worked with Beth to set goals and to organize the theme and Beth stayed on task and finished even a little earlier than scheduled.

Beth now, as an author, can add that distinction to her already impressive resume and Garrett has another feather is his already peacock-like cap for training and coaching a successful student. You can find out more about Beth and even purchase her book by visiting her website http://bethneibert.com. Like so many other want-to-be authors, Beth realized that to reach her goal, she needed a qualified, motivated coach.

You can purchase Garrett’s book by clicking on http://howtowriteabookasap.com. By following that link, you can also receive information on how to become another of his success stories ~ by taking your desire to become an author and having Mr. Pierson help you achieve your goal. As your coach, Garrett will ensure that your project effectively accomplishes everything that you want to achieve as an author.

Top Ten Tips on How to Write a Book

Writing a book can be a monumental task. But for someone with a dream and a passion, they will do whatever it takes to make it come true. Below are a top ten list of tips on how to successfully write a book:

1. Just start. Put a pen to a page, fingers to a keyboard, or a voice to a recorder. Waiting around for the perfect moment or the perfect word to begin with may never happen. Start with what first comes to mind and then go back and edit and revise to create that perfect moment.
2. Write everyday. Cory Doctorow, author of With a Little Help, says “Anything you do every day gets easier. If you’re insanely busy, make the amount that you write everyday small, but do it everyday.”
3. Be organized. Whether you use post-it notes, flow charts, excel sheets or scraps of paper, have your thoughts organized. Make sure your organization fits your style so you can easily find what you are looking for.
4. Create a workspace. Rid it of distractions and fill it with things that will help you stay on point. Having a designated space to write allows you to step away from the real world and into the reality of your book.
5. Seek feedback. Open yourself up to criticism and constructive feedback. Only use confidants with whom you feel confident – people that you trust. Don’t be afraid of opening yourself up to an outside view of your book.
6. Use resources to teach you how to write. Using professionals will help increase your knowledge and range of writing. By using self-help books, writing coaches and websites you can learn how to effectively write a book.
7. Don’t give up. If you need, take a break (one hour, one week or one month). Whatever works best for you, just take a breather and then dive right back in. Giving up has never accomplished something great.
8. Listen to your gut. Write what makes sense to you and what feels right. Remember you are writing for yourself and you are the one who must be happy with the end product.
9. Rewrite. Once you think you’re done, you’re not. Look back over your work, rewrite what doesn’t work and then start the process over again.
10. Publish your work! After all that hard work, don’t forget to get your book out there. Work hard at getting it published.

The huge task of becoming an author can be manageable as long as you remember to break it down into easy to follow steps. With the write tools, friends and family to support you, and enough drive, you can successfully learn how to write a book!

15 Things I Wish I Would Have Known Starting Out…

The following video was recorded at The Messenger Summit early 2012 in San Diego. This was a Keynote by me, Garrett Pierson that I know you will enjoy. Click the play button below to start watching the video.

In this video I share some simple, yet powerful success strategies that I have learned over the years as I have studied successful people and become a success myself. You will discover my personal side as I talk about my family, business, successes, failures and more.

Please comment below on what you learned from the video, thanks.

Three Important Gems I’ve Learned From Gracie

I can hardly believe that my beautiful blue-eyed daughter Gracie celebrated her fourth birthday yesterday.

I still remember the day she was born and what an amazing day it was! From the moment she entered this world I loved her beyond words expression.

Gracie at 2 Weeks Old with Daddy!

Today, four years old and getting more beautiful by the minute, Gracie has been a light in my life that none other can fill. She continues to teach myself and others what the true meaning of life really is. I love you Gracie.

I instantly realized some very important “Gems” that I’ve learned from Gracie over the past four years that I want to share publicly with my subscribers and anyone that stumbles across my blog.

All of these items can and do apply to life, business and even authorship. So pay close attention to how these “Gems” apply to you individually.

Persistent

If only we all had a little more persistence, we could get exactly what we want, when we want it. When’s the last time you truly fought for something that you believed in, something that you desired? Another word for persistence is consistent (one of my favorite words ever!).

Gracie is the epitome of being persistent/consistent! When Gracie wants something, she usually gets it. I’m not saying that Daddy and Mommy are pushovers, what I am saying is that Gracie usually puts up a good fight for what she believes in and what she wants. That is a trait that I respect!

I’ve discovered over the years that successful people are persistent in every aspect of there lives. If they want to lose weight, they are relentless in accomplishing the necessary tasks required to lose weight. If a successful person desires to write a book, they are consistent in that desire. A successful person learns, like Gracie, how to be persistent.

Cautious

If you know Gracie, then you know that she is a shy little girl in public. But, what you didn’t know is that she is actually the craziest little girl ever. When she’s at home in her comfort zone she is as extroverted as any four year old. What I have learned is that Gracie is just cautious. Let me explain…

Gracie knows who to trust and who not to trust. She gives no one the benefit of the doubt, she is cautious. The lesson from this is that as we get older we try to fit in, we sometimes change ourselves to someone that we are not to be accepted. We do or don’t do things based on what others say or what we think they will say. This is very dangerous.

Yes, Gracie is cautious, but she doesn’t care what others think about her and this is something that we can all use a dose of.

I have the wonderful opportunity of guiding people to authorship, but one of the top roadblocks I see is people worried about what others are going to say about their book(s). “What if people don’t like or buy my book?” They’re worried about other peoples opinions and therefore, they never finish their book.

Here is a powerful quote by comedian Bill Cosby that really puts this point into perspective:

“I don’t know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody.”

Be cautious about the people you trust and the people you are trying to please, they shouldn’t define who you are and who you desire to become.

Enthusiasm

Gracie has an enthusiasm about life that will knock your socks off! She loves life and that brings joy to my heart. This is, by the way, the key to success in my opinion.

Yesterday (her birthday), I pulled into the garage and as like most days, Gracie comes running out with a big smile on her face ready to give me a big huge hug! This day, was no different other than she was extremely excited about her birthday party later that evening, she had no other care in the world.

She wasn’t worried about the bills, she didn’t care about all the things she had to do, plus she didn’t give a crap about how much money she made that day.

If you want a happy, healthy and fulfilled life then be excited about each and every day you have left here on earth. STOP stressing the small stuff and give yourself a break. STOP chasing the money and START doing what you want to do. STOP procrastinating your success. Being enthusiastic about your life gives you the opportunity to be present, and being present allows you to be creative. Being creative builds your confidence. Being confident enables you to be successful.

Gracie has given my wife and I a new perspective on life. She teaches us things that as adults we often forget or take for granted. A four year old little girl has more power and potential than I ever imagined. What is your potential? What will you do with your life to be more persistent, cautious and enthusiastic?

Thanks Gracie, Daddy loves you!

So How Can You Get Creative, Get Inspired and Get Writing?

Writers get writers block. This isn’t a myth, but is instead a simple fact of being a writer. Writing is a creative process and, like all creative processes, much of the creativity takes place at the subconscious level. One of the byproducts of this fact is that writers will sometimes run into a mental “brick wall” where the blank page becomes the enemy and even the simplest good idea is a ghost. Don’t worry if this describes you or where your writing is right now, as even to the greats throughout history have had similar experiences.

So what are you to do if your writing skills and ability to generate new ideas, characters, plots and everything else that makes up the writing process now eludes you? First, don’t panic. Secondly, don’t begin stressing and thinking about the fact that you can’t seem to shake this block or lack of creativity!

In an odd way, writing has something in common in performance in sports. Frequently, professional sporting teams hire specially trained psychiatrists to work with their athletes. Why? So much of athletic performance is mental in nature. Now while there is not a direct parallel per se with writing, you can be sure that what you think about your own writing and your general state of mind has an impact on your final product.

As you may have guessed, the foundation of getting back on that “writing horse” is to adjust your mental approach to the game… just like a professional athlete that is in a slump. First ask yourself what the consequences are if you can’t seem to shake your writer’s block. Unless you have a concrete deadline or a very angry publisher and/or agent breathing down your neck, you don’t have the palpable pressure of worrying about time constraints. This is a very good thing, as this kind of pressure can make your job of tackling your writer’s block a good deal tougher.

Staying calm and not sitting in a chair, in the dark, at 2 am is a big step towards getting your writing Mojo back! Our next step may surprise some of you and that step is to begin meditating. Why meditation? Meditation will help you calm your mind, relax your body and may even help you change your perspective. Modern medical science has learned a great deal about meditation in recent years, and researchers and scientists have walked away quite impressed.

Meditation is so effective that it can actually decrease stress hormones quite appreciably. Meditation, listening to calming music or just getting out in nature (instead of glaring at a computer screen or a blank page) is good for you and good for your creative juices. So let’s sum up the process: calm down, don’t panic, realize that your subconscious needs time to generate new ideas and embrace the concept of relaxation.

Once you feel as though you are centered and calmer, only then should you begin working again. If at first you don’t find that you are having any success, again, don’t worry. It may very well come to you in time, so be patient.

Brainstorming is a great way for you to tap into your creativity and start generating new ideas. Brainstorming will work far better and you will get much more out of your brainstorming sessions if you go into your sessions with the right frame of mind.

There are many ways to approach brainstorming and finding what works for you is, of course, part of the key towards brainstorming success. Part of how you should approach brainstorming depends on how you feel. Do you want to work on character development, plot, structure or some other aspect of the creative process? This is a key point, and here is why. Since the writing process is highly interwoven and interdependent, if you have a breakthrough in one area, you may very well find that this breakthrough radiates out into other aspects of your creativity. Once you get that first creative spark, you might see all kinds of sudden progress erupt forward.

Mind mapping is another great way to generate some creative influence. Taking time to map out where you want to go with your writing can greatly increase the artistic side of your brain. Here is a list of “15 Great Mindmapping Tools and Apps” that can help you with your mind mapping sessions.

There is an intimate relationship between creativity and inspiration. As most writers already know, if there is no inspiration, there is likely not too much creativity either. The too concepts are closely linked and depend greatly upon one another. Likewise, you as a writer need both creativity and inspiration in order to crack your writer’s block open and begin fueling the creative process of writing once again.

All of the points that we’ve covered thus far don’t just apply to creativity, but also apply directly to inspiration as well. If you are clear headed and relaxed, you are much more likely to be able to see, recognize and feel inspiration when it does come to you. Now, take the time to meditate, relax and brainstorm your way to success!

Asking yourself why you want to write and why you want to work on a given project in particular is a great starting point for finding inspiration and reconnecting with your creativity. Once again, there is an intimate relationship between inspiration and creativity. If you can have a breakthrough in one area it will fuel the other. Once the process begins there usually will be a series of “chain reactions” that can fuel a long burst of creativity.

Since writing and creativity have a subconscious component, you may very well need to “step away” from the process for a while. Learning a new skill, even if its as simple as playing a new video game or learning to ice skate, can serve to distract your mind and let your subconscious go to work. One of the main points of this article is that the more your push to tackle and conquer your writer’s block, the more difficulty you may face. Some things are not meant to be forced open. If you do force them open, the end results may not be what you want, if you get anything at all.

Inspiration often comes when you change up your perspective and how you see your world around you. Sometimes this is as simple as sitting on the ground for a day instead of using a chair, and other times changing your perspective may mean moving thousands of miles away and sitting on a beach. Creativity and inspiration are funny that way.

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I recently did an interview with Bryan Cohen all about creative writing, click here to watch the video interview!

Top Three Ways to Become an Author

Many published authors agree with the top ten ways to become an author. From those top ten, here are my top three.

Don’t stop writing until you are finished.

It is critical to set timelines. Where are you going to write (so that you will be uninterrupted)? When are you going to write (so that you will be able to focus exclusively on the book)? How long each night (or Monday – Friday) are you going to spend writing your book? How many pages (roughly) is the book going to be? How many pages are you committing to write each night? When do you estimate you will finish writing your book?

It is critical that you have a starting goal and a finishing goal. Draw out a rough draft of your cover when you get started to motivate you to continue to work until that cover has a book to … cover!

Care.
This might sound odd, and for many of you it might not be an issue. But the truth is that readers know when writers care about what they are writing. Readers can actually feel the interest (or lack thereof) of the author. To become an author of a book that readers want to read, don’t simply go through the motions. Put your whole heart into it!

There are additional benefits that come with caring about what you are doing as a writer. I have been told, and have experienced it for myself, that when writers write with passion and devotion, writer’s block is non-existent.

Find a mentor.
Garrett Pierson, author of How to Write a Book ASAP, has mentored many individuals on the basics and not so basics of writing a book quickly and getting it published. There are millions of people who have failed as authors only because they were afraid of what people might think – without asking people what they thought!

Find someone you trust who will be honest with you about your subject matter, your characters, and your overall concepts. Writing a book is a daunting task if you try to do it alone. But it can be a very rewarding experience when you have someone who will take the journey with you.

There are the top three ways to become an author. Follow these tips and you will become a proud, successfully published author.

Five Tips on How to Make Your Own Book

Here are five tips that will help you make your own book as soon as possible.

Be Consistent.
It might take a few months to write your book. Be prepared with outlines or reference sheets of plots, places, and characters. For places, you could draw out a map and number or label the places by either chapter or importance. For characters, you could write down every detail about each person involved so that you can refer to it from time to time to ensure that you describe the person the same way throughout the book.

Use Simple Grammar.
All too often writers turn off potential readers by looking up words that are hardly ever used in normal, day-to-day conversation. If readers don’t understand what they are reading, they’ll stop reading. Use words that everyone knows.

Read Your Book Out Loud.
One of the best ways to make your own book is to stop between chapters or ideas and read what you have just written out loud. If the flow of the sentences and paragraphs sound like they sounded in your head when you were writing them down, continue. If not, work on that area until what is on the paper matches what you had in mind.

Remove the ‘Deadwood.’
Perhaps the hardest part of writing is erasing. Especially when you have worked an hour or longer on a particular event or idea, admitting that it just doesn’t fit with the rest of the book is a tough pill to swallow. If you are the least bit concerned about it fitting, remove it – at least temporarily.
Have Someone You Trust Read It.

Making your own book shouldn’t be a solitary adventure. Get ideas from friends, have children or your spouse or friend do some research for you. Ask a junior high student who will be honest read it and tell you what they think about it.

Making your own book as soon as possible shouldn’t be a stressful situation if you are organized and determined to become an author. For more tips, check out http://howtowriteabookasap.com

Becoming a Writer is Easier Than You Might Think

Dorothea Brande wrote a book called “Becoming a Writer” way back in 1934. Of course she discusses a few ideas that are no longer relevant – such as the suggestion of having more than one typewriter. But many of her recommendations still apply.

One of the goals of her book was to “guide the writer to freedom from all forms of writer’s block.” Her focus was on the potential writer’s heart and mind. Getting unique ideas from the individual’s insides and sharing them with the world in the way they felt most comfortable doing it.

Just like Garrett Pierson’s book “How to Write a Book ASAP,” Mrs. Brande’s book doesn’t include a lot of writing technique. I suppose if one could ask her, she would admit that technique lies outside the specific reasoning behind the book.

For them, the most important thing a writer can do is be true to his or her own style of writing without trying to copy someone else’s techniques. Some people who really want to write hold themselves back because they feel that they don’t have enough technical training. Mrs. Brande would say: “Start writing anyway!”

Just like Garrett, she had an apparent distrust in the formal approach of writing as taught in secondary level writing courses. Garrett’s low scores in English class were no indication of his ability to put concrete, valuable information onto paper. The idea that they or any other students should write the same way that others have written did not sit well with either of them.

Both Mrs. Brande and Mr. Pierson agree that true originality can only come from within. To become a writer, one must write without worrying about what others have already written and without worrying about what others may think about what is written when it is finished. The only concern of a writer should be in the preparation, organization, and dedication to completing the task of becoming a writer.

Garrett Pierson’s Writing Course will help those who have the desire to receive the notoriety and acclaim that only a writer can achieve. He will take men and women who want to become writers and show them step by step how to begin and finish a book, novel, or short story. Becoming a writer is easier than you might think.