Who am I to tell you this?My Name is John Marszalkowski and I'm the no-award-winning first-time author of the self-no-help book...
I live in Milwaukee, WI with my wife and daughter. Half of the time i'm parenting. The other half of the time i'm trying to be creative.
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I am a jack of many trades, but a master of none. Or at least I thought that was the case, until recently when I realized while writing my book that I am a master of at least ONE THING. An expert. An authority. And while it's different for everyone, it is also the same. And we can all write about it.
I'd like to talk you today about the kind of expert you are, and why you should write your book.
I'd like to talk you today about the kind of expert you are, and why you should write your book.
What is your journey to writing?
In first grade I figured out a secret that none of the other kids seemed to realize: Our teacher was not checking our work. We would do our class work as a group and when we finished, we would pass the papers forword and the teacher collected them. Being a very AHDH child, I would often look out the window during the times the class would be collectively working on learning to read and write new words. The first incident where it was time to pass forward our worksheet, I looked down in horror to see that I had not filled out a single answer. Rather than pass forward a blank page, I stuffed it into my desk. The days passed and my missing work was never brought up. So I tried it again and again and again. Nothing happened. I cracked the code to being able to sit there and day dream while all the other suckers did boring assignments. I passed 1st grade along with everyone else. Only I didn't do any assignments, I didn't take any tests, and the only thing I learned was how to be lazy.
This obviously didn't work out well for me, and to make a very long story as short as I can, I graduated high school with what I assume is a grade school level education. When I enrolled in college, my placement tests were so bad, that I had to take several highschool level courses before I could take college level classes. I failed those, and then dropped out of college.
I have spent the majority of my life believing that I am an idiot. When my friends would tell me that I was smart, I believed they were just being nice or they were mistaken. And while I always dreamed of writing a book, I convinced myself that I had no right.
I've always been creative and I've always liked to MAKE things. I always had a lot of ideas and I loved to TALK about those ideas with everyone who would listen. Almost the perfect recipe for writing a nonfiction book. The only missing ingredient: expertise.
Flash forward to 2017, where it has become obvious that we live in a world of reality-tv, youtube personalities, podcasts, bloggers, instagram celebrities, and an endless list of content creators. It feels like almost everyone is either making content for the masses, or for almost no one at all. But even a tweet or a status update is content creation, and the people who care about what you have to say are listening. Now is the time to MAKE things. Now, more than ever before, it is easy to consume content from anyone, anywhere, no matter how qualified they are. That that's just the kind of motivation a guy like me needed to say "Screw it! Qualified or not, i'm writing my damn book!"
Regardless of where your journey started, where it needs to be is self-confident in what you have to say.
This obviously didn't work out well for me, and to make a very long story as short as I can, I graduated high school with what I assume is a grade school level education. When I enrolled in college, my placement tests were so bad, that I had to take several highschool level courses before I could take college level classes. I failed those, and then dropped out of college.
I have spent the majority of my life believing that I am an idiot. When my friends would tell me that I was smart, I believed they were just being nice or they were mistaken. And while I always dreamed of writing a book, I convinced myself that I had no right.
I've always been creative and I've always liked to MAKE things. I always had a lot of ideas and I loved to TALK about those ideas with everyone who would listen. Almost the perfect recipe for writing a nonfiction book. The only missing ingredient: expertise.
Flash forward to 2017, where it has become obvious that we live in a world of reality-tv, youtube personalities, podcasts, bloggers, instagram celebrities, and an endless list of content creators. It feels like almost everyone is either making content for the masses, or for almost no one at all. But even a tweet or a status update is content creation, and the people who care about what you have to say are listening. Now is the time to MAKE things. Now, more than ever before, it is easy to consume content from anyone, anywhere, no matter how qualified they are. That that's just the kind of motivation a guy like me needed to say "Screw it! Qualified or not, i'm writing my damn book!"
Regardless of where your journey started, where it needs to be is self-confident in what you have to say.
Where are you considered the expert?
You are the leading authority of your own experiences. You are the master of your perspective. You are the expert on your own history. NO ONE IS MORE QUALIFIED to write about you than you are. So if you don't have the confidence to write about a particular subject, please give yourself at least the confidence to write about yourself.
It's not narcissism to say "here is my take on it." You're not self-absorbed if you think people might want to hear what you have to say.
It's not narcissism to say "here is my take on it." You're not self-absorbed if you think people might want to hear what you have to say.
How can you start?
Start with a throw-away chapter. This is something you might keep in the book or you might ditch it. But write a chapter about why you want to write this book. Introduce yourself. Explain your interests. Explain your background. Just talk to the reader and tell them why you might be doing this. When I did this, halfway through the chapter it all came together for me. My vision for everything just fell into place after letting myself "be natural" in writing, rather than forcing myself to fit into a mold.
When will it be finished?
I have two opposite opinions on the amount of time it should take to write a book. On one hand, what's the rush? Don't force it. Write as much as you want whenever you feel like it, and when it's done it's done. On the other hand, MOST people that start writing a book never finish it, so it's important to have some structor. A statistic I googled says that only 1 out of 30 people who start will finish writing their book. Of those that finish it, only 1 will publish it. That gives you a 1 out of 150th of a chance of beating the odds. So I can't in good conscious suggest you relax about it. I suggest you give yourself a timeline of about 11-month. Here is what worked for me:
- 4 months to write. Just let it out. Don't judge what you're writing yet.
- 3 months for revisions, editing, and proofreading. Get judgey. Get a team of close friends to help you.
- 1 month for design. Hire a book interior designer and a cover designer. This is the most important part if you want to sell books. People judge books by their covers.
- If you're just doing an ebook, you should be done by now. If you're getting books printed, give yourself 3 more months to order proofs and make adjustments. You can also crank out an audiobook in these 3 months if you want.
Why should you be motivated?
People, both friends and strangers, care about your stories and perspectives more than you realize. I've been a videographer of an international storytelling company for the last 7 years. What i've learned from that is that we can consistently sell out shows where all that is offered is ordinary people telling personal stories to a room full of strangers. They aren't guaranteed to be amazing stories, but the room is always full no matter what. Some stories are told by people who are great at it, but most are told my just ordinary folks. There is a demand for storytelling, but not the kind we thought. Not big budget Hollywood film stories or best selling author stories... but just a different perspective. A walk in the shoes of someone else. It's refreshing. It's wonderful when presented well. It's still good even when underperformed.
Regardless of your own opinions of your experiences, i'm here to tell you that your stories are worth a damn.
Regardless of your own opinions of your experiences, i'm here to tell you that your stories are worth a damn.
It took the birth of my child and the death of friends to start to realize what our legacies really are to those that we love. When our brains eventually quit, our loved ones will carry with them the memory of what those brains did. The easiest way to remind them is to write down your thoughts. Things you're sure about. Things you have no idea about. Options. Perspectives. Reading a journal is watching a brain work. If you're not motivated to write a memoir for selfish reasons, consider what it would mean to those that love you.