From index to draft: How to write a book without dying in the attempt (III)

Drafts, routines, and overcoming creative block

Oct 11, 2025

🏷️ Categories: Writing.

No one writes well on the first try. No one.

What exists at the beginning is the ugly draft.

You need to sit down and write without judging what you write. Just fill out, little by little, the outline you created following the keys from article 2 in this series. Make an ugly, messy draft — full of repetitions, unresolved questions, and nonsensical sentences. You might not like the result, but this is your shield against perfectionism.

Right now, the goal isn’t to write well. It’s simply to write.

You’ll edit later. You’ll clean it up later. But don’t mix the stages — they’re different processes.

2. How to Develop a Chapter

You’ve taken a high-potential idea from your articles, but that’s not enough.

Now you need to expand that idea into a full chapter. To do that, there are several tools you can use:

Contextualize: What theory or mental framework supports it? What’s the story behind it? Why is it the way it is, or why does it work?
Give examples: Add real or imagined examples that bring it to life.
Add expert insight: Mention an expert in the field and rely on their ideas, techniques, or story to strengthen your argument.
Include visuals: Use diagrams, images, maps, charts — anything that helps clarify the concept for the reader.
Anticipate common questions or mistakes: Address doubts before they arise, warn about common pitfalls, and provide a plan of action to avoid them.
Tell a personal story: If it adds emotional or practical value, include it.

The goal is simple: each chapter should clearly deliver on the promise made in its title.

If it does, you’re on the right track.

3. Build Your Writing System

Here comes the biggest enemy: inconsistency.
And the solution is simple: have a system.

You can’t rely on inspiration — if you do, you’ll write twice a month. Great artists don’t wait for the muse; they train her through routine. Here’s how you can do it:

High-focus blocks: Use the Pomodoro technique (50 minutes of deep work + 10 minutes of rest). If your schedule is tight, one block a day is enough if you’re consistent — but if you can do more, do more.
Session goal: Don’t write just to “see what comes out.” Decide before starting your focus block what you’ll work on today. Set a goal for the next 50 minutes, stick to it, and avoid all distractions.

If you want to dive deeper, Jardín Mental explores these ideas in great detail — here are two essential articles:

4. Stuck? Don’t Stop — Change the Goal

Getting stuck is normal, but when it happens, don’t stop.

Isaac Asimov, author of over 500 books, said this in an interview:

“If I got stuck on one project, I simply moved on to another. I always had several going. I never stopped. I don’t stare at blank pages. I leave one thing and start another — I always have multiple projects at hand.” — Isaac Asimov (1985)

Here are some useful tasks to keep you moving even on a bad day:

Write a different section of the book.
Rethink a chapter that’s still unclear.
Do more research for a chapter that lacks data.
Work on diagrams, images, or charts you’ll include later.

The key is to keep moving — make every day count.

5. How Do You Know When a Chapter Is Ready?

These three indicators give you a good idea:

It fulfills the promise of its title.
It communicates the idea clearly and completely.
It doesn’t repeat covered ideas or drag on unnecessarily.

Even so, it doesn’t need to be perfect — you’re still in the writing phase, not in deep revision. You don’t need perfect chapters, just good enough ones. Trust that you’ll improve them later, because now comes the real work…

6. The Real Writing: Rewriting

You’ve reached the end of the manuscript. You have a book — but it’s not ready yet.

Now it’s time to edit. You need to remove what doesn’t belong, add what’s missing, improve clarity, and include more visuals, charts, and sources. To avoid feeling overwhelmed and ensure you don’t miss anything, do thematic revisions:

First revision: Length and balance
- Are some chapters too long or too short?
- Are transitions missing? Any abrupt jumps?
Second revision: Clarity, style, and grammar
- Rewrite unnecessarily complex sentences.
- Shorten where possible — what’s brief is twice as good.
- Improve titles or paragraphs that lack impact.
Third revision: Technical details
- Are charts or examples well placed?
- Are your sources properly cited?
- Any typos, odd formats, or inconsistencies?

Tip: If you spot an error outside your current focus area, just mark it — don’t fix it yet. Each revision has its own moment. Do at least three full passes of each revision type before moving on.

This is how you turn a collection of ideas into a real book.

In the next article, we’ll explore how to turn that manuscript into a professional self-published book — the decisions to make, available options, pros and cons, and potential collaborators for the process.

✍️ Your turn: What chapter could you write today if your goal wasn’t to make it perfect, but simply to make it exist?
💭 Quote of the day: “The first chapter of this book is the most spectacular chapter ever written in the history of chapters. I’ve probably read it over 100 times. It’s absolute perfection.” — Markus Zusak, I Am the Messenger