I don’t mess around. Here’s the short answer: Start a personal book by meeting it, not by meticulous planning and outlining. Before you plot chapters, spend time finding out what the book is really about, who you are inside it, and where it wants to begin. Write in any order. The structure shows up once you have material to work with.
There's a blue folder in your Google Drive called "Book."
In it, there are separate docs — false starts, book ideas, notes.
One file might have a working title.
Maybe a paragraph you wrote at 11 p.m. after an inspiring networking dinner.
Maybe there's an inspiration file with a list of book angles you could write.
Those files haven't been touched since you created them. Except maybe that one time you said, "I'm doing it," popped it open and scrolled around for fifteen minutes before closing it. "What even is this?"
It's like an invisible force field. You can't get near it. Because … what if it's bad?
But what if it's not bad, and then you have to keep going?
You've been thinking about this book for years. In the car, on walks, in the shower, and in the middle of a client call, when you heard yourself tell that story again and thought, I really need to write this down.
Yes, you do. You know that.
You wonder why you still haven't been able to write this damn thing. For fuck's sake — you've built a business, led teams, bounced back after epic failures, and made decisions that kept you up at night. You know how to do hard things.
So why can't you start this one?
The blue folder
That blue Google Drive folder? That was mine. It had lists of book ideas, even a document with some semblance of a book, that started at a writing retreat I arranged with a friend in Chicago.
Every time I looked at those ideas and half-baked drafts, I didn't know what they were. What did they want to be?
I started, but I didn't spend time with it.
I started from the wrong place — my brain, not my heart.
What not starting costs
Here's what that costs:
The book "makes sense" but can't keep your attention
Another January comes, and you put "write the book" on your goals list. Again.
Someone with half your experience announces their book launch, and you clap in the comments while your breath gets caught in your throat
You buy another book about writing books. You read the first three chapters. (It's on your nightstand. I know.)
And the story hasn't gone anywhere. It just gets heavier to carry. A story you haven't told (but need to) follows you. It shows up everywhere because it wants out.
The longer you carry it alone, the more it starts to feel like proof of something. That you're not disciplined enough. That you're not a real writer. That maybe your story isn't enough after all.
All bullshit. None of that is true.
Why can't I start writing my book?
Here's what nobody tells you. It's not you. (It wasn't me, either.)
It's just that no one ever showed you where a book like yours begins.
Most book advice is built for the "makes sense" kind of book. Pick your niche, define your reader, position, promise, outline thirteen chapters, write 1,000 words a day, subsisting on black coffee and adrenaline.
That works if you're writing a business card with a spine.
But you're not. You're writing something personal, a story that's a part of who you are and the work you do. It has a story that’s integral to the lessons.
And when you try to force that kind of book into an outline before you fully feel it, it collects digital dust in a blue folder.
So you sit down, open the doc, stare at it, sigh, and close it.
Listen — I’ve been there. More than once. I even finished book drafts that felt so meh that, by the time I was done, I couldn't do anything with them. They sat for a YEAR.
How to start writing your book: meet it first
Here's what I know now, after four published books …
You don't start a book by writing it. You start by meeting it.
I know it sounds passive, maybe even lazy, but it's not. Stay with me.
Before you can write a personal book — even if it's a business book with a big personal side — you need to know a few things an outline can't tell you. What it's really about, which is usually not what you think. Who you are inside it. Where it actually wants to begin, which is rarely chapter one.
Now, when I work with first-time authors, we start here. Then we write completely ignoring any order. The structure shows itself once there's some material to work with.
That idea, the story you've been rolling around in your brain, finally starts to feel like something you can sink your teeth into. You’re even looking forward to spending time with it tomorrow morning.
You can't wait to pour your coffee and sit at your kitchen table with your laptop.
Try this now. Set a timer for ten minutes and finish this sentence, over and over, without stopping to fix anything. Writing is different from editing. Write like you don't have a delete button. Write fast without slowing down to fix typos, grammar, or stray commas.
"The part of my story I keep circling is…"
Just notice what keeps coming up. That's your book — telling you what to do.
If those ten minutes cracked something open, I made something for you.
Meet Your Book is the full hour-long session where I walk you through this process, step by step. It's a guided audio plus a workbook with every prompt, so you can do it at your own pace. On a quiet morning with your coffee, or a free Sunday afternoon, or the Tuesday evening you finally carved out for yourself.
By the end, you'll have met your book: a clearer sense of what it's about, an opening line, and the first thing you're writing next. Not after a 30-day challenge. After an hour.
There might be some surprises.
It's only $27 through Wednesday, October 21, then it goes up to $37.
You've carried this story long enough. Come meet it.
xx Jacqueline
P.S. Some people meet their book and want company writing it. That's what The Studio and one-on-one mentoring are for.
Questions about starting a book
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Instead of starting with an outline, start with a short, timed writing session where you finish one sentence over and over, like "The part of my story I keep circling is…"
Notice what keeps coming up. That's usually the heart of the book — you can build around that.
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Not for a memoir or a business book with personal stories. Start writing in any order.
Once you have some substance, the structure will start to emerge, and you can outline from there.
This will save you a lot of time and frustration!
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Yes! In fact — please do. Many of the best business books weave in the author’s personal journey.
Your stories make the advice stick and give your book soul. Readers need this kind of book in a time when AI can generate a book with a few keystrokes.
Start with the stories, then build the lessons around them.
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Start with short bursts of time — shorter than you think. Twenty minutes totally counts, and ten counts on a hard day.
A length you can keep up during your busiest week matters more than a big word count.
Give yourself permission to dial it up when the words are flowing.
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Usually not. Most personal books want to begin somewhere in the middle. Write the part that has the most energy for you, and find the opening later.
Many writers get stuck here because they try to write the book in a straight line. Our brains just don’t work like that!
About the author
Jacqueline Fisch is a writing mentor, four-time author, and founder of The Intuitive Writing School. She hosts the How Women Write podcast and helps business owners and first-time authors write books that sound like them — and that they’re extremely proud of.
