65: From IT Manager to 15 Books in Her 60s: Neera Mahajan's Unstoppable Writing Journey
Silence Your Inner Critic: How to Write and Publish a Book Fast
I was so excited to welcome Neera Mahajan, author, book coach, and founder of The Author Circle, to the podcast. We connected on Substack, and I was immediately drawn to her story.
Neera shared how a critical comment about her written English from her IT manager during a performance review became the catalyst for her incredible writing journey. That one comment prompted her to sign up for a writing course and stayed with her for years, eventually leading her to publish her first book at age 60.
Neera's writing journey is similar to learning to ride a bike—you keep going until one day, it just clicks, and all of a sudden, you're writing (or riding).
We talk about the importance of writing quickly to silence the inner critic, which she discovered after challenging herself to write and publish her first book in just seven days. These days, though, she gives herself 30 days to write the first draft of any book.
Neera also shared her highly effective writing routine: working in 15-minute increments to consistently hit her word count, and chronicling her day in a daily diary.
Her biggest message for you: Write books. A blog post lives for a day, a newsletter for a week, but a book lives forever.
Key Takeaways:
Your biggest challenge can be your catalyst to life-changing work.
Practice over talent: Neera persisted with life-story writing for years, proving that persistence is essential to developing a strong writing voice.
Writing the first draft quickly, often within 30 days, prevents the inner critic from having time to derail the process.
The power of a timer: Neera uses 15-minute intervals to make the most out of her focused writing time.
If you've been writing online, you probably have more than enough content to repurpose into a book.
One of my favorite parts of this interview was learning about her daily writing habits. She starts her day by writing one page in her daily diary to chronicle the previous day, a habit that helps her stay on track, followed by focused blocks of writing, editing, and business-related work.
Timestamps
00:00 Meet Neera
01:56 “I sucked at writing”
02:34 How Feedback From a Boss Sparked a Writing Journey
07:42 Bicycle Lesson Mindset
13:41 Owning Her Writing
17:32 Writing and Publishing The First Book in 7 Days
23:44 15-Minute Timer Method
28:29 C++ Crash Study
31:03 Book A Month Plan
32:37 Turning Blog Posts Into Books
34:37 Favorite Productivity Book
35:21 Travel And Memoir Experiments
39:57 Daily Writing Routine
44:01 Parting Advice for Writers
Meet Neera Mahajan
Neera Mahajan is an author, book coach, and founder of the Author Circle community. She helps creators, professionals, and experts write authority-building books and turn them into meaningful businesses. She has written multiple books (15 so far) and teaches professionals how a strategically written book can position them as an authority and attract clients for years.
Connect with Neera:
Author Circle, Substack publication and community:
Her most recent book, One Book To $100K
Additional Links from this episode:
These links are affiliate links. If you click a link and make a purchase, I may earn a small commission.
How to Write and Publish an eBook in One Week (Neera's first book)
Become a Productive Writer (Neera's favorite book)
My Life in a Hundred Objects (Neera's memoir)
