I have long since wanted to write a book and I think it is time for me. So I want to write a book on living with and treating anxiety and panic and phobia...though mostly anxiety and panic from a CBT and analytic lens. It's a subject I am very familiar with. I am a longtime anxiety sufferer who has not only treated anxiety in practice but had very personal experience with it. Obviously this book will be non fiction and I would like it to be professionally written. So I know this is weird...but where do I start? Do I just start formatting, outlining and writing or do I approach publishers first to see if there is interest? so...yeah any help would be great if you know of any
I would write down all of your ideas first. An outline is a good thing to have. I would start off with the introduction with telling a story about you and your experience. That is just my idea
I think each person is different. The best way for what you're writing though that I could think of... I'd suggest outlining the overall idea. Get a feel for where you want it to go, what you want it to mean, what message you most want to convey. Once you've gotten a feel for exactly what you want start thinking about the best way to express it. From there you'll just need to kind of build a template for it so you have a general guide which might help if you feel writer's block because it'll give you a sense of direction ^.^ Me personally though, I'm an avid fan of the 'wing-it' method. I tend to write out what I want to write. Then ( at least when I was in college ) I'd print out the rough draft, and re-write it all over again using the first draft as a guide. Then I'd repeat that process a few times until I couldn't find anything to complain about. I wish I had a printer still. It would help with my stories if I could print them out. I like writing from a position of 'scratch' lol
I'd suggest writing an outline, and then doing a rough draft, and go from there. I don't have much experience with the academic/self-help publishing world, but I'd say have as concise an idea as possible, and try to emphasize what sets your book apart, and makes your methods so effective. One more or less has to 'sell' the central idea to the publisher. You may even want to look at publishers in the self help field, and see which ones seem like the best 'fit'. I'd also be very curious to see this. I also suffer from anxiety, and what is called 'sensory processing disorder', especially in terms of touch/balance/sounds. CBT has yielded very limited results; I even did all these written exercises developed by Albert Ellis, but somehow, I was still just as anxious. I think because many of the basic 'needs' on Maslow's Pyramid are very, very shaky, this makes it harder to address things...a lot of my anxiety is just basic survival, let alone finding a meaningful career, and feeling OK most of the time. So I'd be curious to see if this would involve your Jungian perspective, as once, when I had a Jungian therapist, that seemed to help me the most. Sadly, he moved away, and I can't afford any of the ones here now. But I digress. There's certainly a demand for such books...too reiterate, I'd suggest ways to make yours stand out from the pack. Good Luck, Anxiety Pup
Since you're writing non-fiction, I'd definitely recommend an outline. You want to make sure you've got your research laid out, know what direction you're planning to take it in and how you want to dive in, etc. If you were writing fiction, I'd say an outline's optional. It's really just to keep things consistent and plan out your directions. As you get closer to publishing, figure out who you want to try submitting to and see what they want in terms of formatting. Usually, most publishers have a standard format they like following, which I think is 1-inch margins and double spaced Times New Roman or Courier font.
I might go against the grain here, but I think it is more important to write each day, say 2000 words a day, and to do it consistently than to start at any one particular point, such as an outline. The process is more circular, so that you can find yourself joining that circle at any point; you will eventually get to outline because you will need to. Put up a year-long calendar on a wall and cross-off each day you have written. Notice I didn't say it has to be good every day, it's just more important to just write every day. The process of writing itself will tell you when you need an outline and when you will need to get detailed or focussed on one particular topic.
