I regularly urge authors to work separately on two forms of composition: “writing to think” and “writing to deliver.” Writing to think is journaling, stream-of-consciousness style, to surface and shape thoughts. It is part of “prewriting.” Writing to deliver is composing for publication, choosing the words that will go into print.

The quickest route to the best possible printed words is to do both—"writing to think” first. You can jump to writing for print directly, but you’re almost sure make wrong turns, take U-turns, and hit dead ends—and get stuck with fixing passages snarled with trial-and-error verbal traffic.

What should you “write to think” about? Below are a dozen questions. In answering them, engage in a debate as to which words and forms of expression work best. Test outlier ideas and dismiss unworkable ones. Insist on coming up with answers before writing to deliver.

• Goals: What are your goals in writing the book? Fame? Fortune? Spreading knowledge? Advancing new ideas? Creating a calling card? Securing a legacy?
• Passions: What insights are you not just interested in but passionate about sharing? What makes your mental engine go into overdrive?
• Readers: Who are your core readers (book buyers)? These are the people who would wait in line outside the theater for your message. Will they see you as the author they should listen to?
• Distinctions: What new distinctions have you drawn? Have you created a unique progression of insights, chapter by chapter?
• Metaphor: What metaphor(s) conveys your concept? Does it echo powerful universal themes?
• Simplification: If you were speaking to a loved one (mother, brother, son, daughter), how would you rephrase your message?
• Catchiness: What material in your book is most edgy? What will grab reader attention? Should you develop your book from there?
• Differentiation: Describe what your book is not. (It is not a how-to book; it is not a book just for technical people; it is not like John Doe’s book because...)
• Positioning: Would a different market positioning delight core readers? How will your book stand out from others on the same bookshelf?
• Platform: What marketing and sales channels do you control? A speaking circuit? Blog/newsletter? Twitter feed? Seminar series? How can you leverage these strengths for publicity and sales?
• Sales: If you went on a sales call to a bookstore with your publisher’s sales rep, what would you say to sell your book? You have 30 seconds.
• Zinger: What can you say in one or two sentences to make people hunger to read your book immediately?

Don’t make the mistake of daydreaming your way through these questions. Let your ideas rip—but keep a record of them. Handwrite or type you notes. When your fingers compose words, one word somehow seems to rub shoulders with another and nudge you out of old grooves.

The important thing about journaling is the attitude you bring to it: Think of it as a brainstorming adventure. Travel to the end of your introspective mind. Discard language that falls flat, won’t fit, or go the distance.

Another way to think about it is like trying out new lines in the shower. You can rework your bad notes. No one is listening! It’s totally unlike writing to deliver, when you’re singing lines onstage and everyone expects you to choose words like an expert. Everyone is hanging on your every word!

Writing to think first allows you to stay relaxed. You carry a much lighter burden of shoulder-hunching tension. And when you come to “writing to deliver,” you’re able to draw on your record of “writing to think” like a mother lode of phraseology.

Writing to think. Writing to deliver. First one, then the other. This one-two approach will not guarantee reader applause, of course. Still, it will set you up like no other book-development technique for a glittering performance.

[Revised January 2020. Originally published December 29, 2014]