Before I wrote a single chapter, I started building a story bank. Here’s why that might be one of the most important parts of writing a business book.

So You Want To Write A Business Book: Week 4

If you’ve been following this questionable experiment, you’ll be delighted to know that I stuck to the plan this week.

Last week, what with the bank holiday and beautiful weather, the time available was compressed and no progress was made.

So this week, I’d blocked out some time, sat down, and did the work.

Yay, me.

I even made progress. I mean, it might look like it on the outside, but what might surprise you is that I still haven’t written a bloody word of the book.

I know.

Four weeks into writing a business book and there isn’t a single chapter sitting there waiting to wow the publishing industry.

If you’re imagining me hunched over a laptop in a frenzy of creativity, hammering out Chapter One whilst inspirational music plays in the background, I’m afraid reality is considerably less cinematic.

People often assume that writing a book starts with writing: open a Word doc, type ‘chapter one’, become an author. Overnight global success. The end. But that’s not how I work with my business book clients and, because I know this method works, it’s not how I work with myself either.

A Business Book Needs A Job

One of the things I spend a lot of time helping clients understand is that a good business book doesn’t exist in isolation.

It has to fit into the wider marketing ecosystem of the business.

Just like when you share a content post, send an email, or publish a blog, your business book has a job to do, too.

I worked out what mine was back in Week 2.

The challenge now is figuring out how the book will do what I want it to do in my business.

Which brings us to this week’s task.

Building A Story Bank

I’m a storyteller.

Stories are how I remember things and how I teach. They’re how I sell and how I help people connect the dots. Instead of trying to cram random anecdotes into chapters later and hoping for the best, I worked on building the foundations of my business book by starting a story bank: a collection of moments, memories, lessons, disasters, mistakes, customer interactions, business experiences, and random observations gathered over more than twenty years of running businesses.

Some came to mind immediately. Others were buried in old blogs, emails, and social posts.

I even went rummaging through my content bank looking for nuggets I’d shared years ago, all sitting there gathering digital dust.

It turns out I’ve been collecting material for this book for years. Many writers and marketers, including people like Ann Handley, advocate capturing observations, stories, and ideas as they occur rather than waiting for inspiration to strike when you’re staring at a blank page.

Progress Doesn’t Always Look Like Writing

You might be sitting there thinking: Week 4?! No words have been written. How the hell can this be a business? How the hell can this woman help people write business books when she hasn’t written a bloody word of her own? But this highlights one of the biggest misconceptions people have about writing a business book.

They assume the process starts with words.

Sometimes it doesn’t.

Sometimes it starts with collecting the stories, examples, experiences, and lessons that eventually become the words.

That’s what I was doing this week: Giving Future Jo something useful to work with when she finally sits down to write the thing.

Week 4 Progress Report: Using a Story Bank

So, in conclusion for Week 4:

Word count: a proud yet fucking impressive zero.

Story bank status: an epic mess of business-book gold.

Time block for next week: safely locked in the diary.

Panic/overwhelm levels: moderate yet manageable.

That’ll do for now.

Need Help Writing Your Business Book?

If you’ve got a business book idea rattling around your brain but aren’t sure where to start, sometimes it helps to talk it through with somebody who understands both books and business.

Book a free chat and let’s see whether there’s a book hiding in your ideas, stories, and experiences too.