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When I started writing my book, I took some great webinars. Some of the advice was good and some could have been better. 

One tip was after you have your chapter outline, write the easiest chapter first, then the next easiest and so on. The assumption was that by the time you got it the hardest chapter, you would have momentum built up and the antipaction of finishing to carry you through.

Well, I found that I wrote most of the book very quickly with this advice. But the last two sub chapters that I knew would be the hardest, I saved until last. These sections on Old Horney and on the (non-new-age) virtues Precious Stone beads required more research. I had plenty of practical knowledge in these areas, but not the scholarly support.

Now of course, the academic research was out there. But if I hadn’t already run into it in myearlier extensive  studies of witchcraft–well that means it was harder to find material outside of my beaten track.

This meant only about ten pages of material took me months of trial and failure to finally find the material I needed. I got pretty depressed, I read four promising books on Horned Gods and Lucifer and Satanism that provided none of what I was specifically seeking. After all this disappointment I reached out and friends helped me research. I borrowed half a dozen books and got great recommendations from my peers.

What I will do differently next time? I will make that chapter outline and write the easiest chapters first. But I will be researching my dreaded final chapters all along the way and taking regular notes for them so they will be a breeze when I finally get there rather than a drag out.

I am handwriting my Traditional Witchcraft from Scratch manuscript. Handwriting is a powerful way to limit distractions, stay focused and slow down and really think about what you are communicating. Unless you do shorthand, no one writes as fast as they can think, but some folks can type faster than they can think, which means ideas can get rushed over without being fully explained. Tapping away can lead to quantity over quality. 

When I got back into handwriting blog posts, I did it because my attention was terrible. Anytime I had to write my patheos article, it was like pulling teeth. I would open google docs, then before I even had an idea of what to write about picked I had tumblr open for “inspiration” an hour or more later I had nothing written, my deadline was looming, and I was progressively more burnt out. 
Research shows that multi-taskers work faster, but produce less. Deliberate, steady paced, focused work is more successful. Since I got away from the penultimate multitask tempter, the computer, I have written my best work ever and am just half a dozen pages from a full manuscript now.
Putting things down in a notebook didn’t go perfectly immediately. I had a lot of false starts, pretty often what I start writing is great, but not for the project that’s due. I try to get the jist of stray ideas down and then leave a couple blank pages in the notebook to write them in later. I had to learn how many pages translated into how many words for an article, and relearn it when I ran out of college ruled notebooks and switched to legal or wide ruled. I also had to deal with hand cramps. Sometimes poor posture and using pencil led me to lose days writing my book because I had hurt my hand badly. I got smart and switched to pen and then even smarter and switched to fat pens that are ergonomic.
One of the advantages to having my manuscript in notebooks is that I have an extra back up of the computer version is compromised. When I transcribe I have written it’s another level of review where I can rephrase things, add to what I have down and cut crap. 
After the rough draft is typed up, I print it and put it in a binder for marking up. I find several advantages to having a physical print out. First I see a tanglible pile of papers, it’s an early copy of my book. The sense of accomplishment and confidence just tapping my fingers on the pages is wonderful. 
Second, editing by hand this way continues to slow down my thinking. I make notes throughout of where I need to expand. When I edit while typing I jump right into filling things in and that means I don’t spend enough time organizing my thoughts. 
After I have identified all the ideas I need to unpack, I write them all into a notebook giving a few pages for each. Next I go through and start writing the easiest section first. Next I go about planning what sections will require research and gathering needed resources for them.
My current issues I work through with handwriting my book is that I run out of paper in my little one subject notebooks and have had to fill half a dozen so far. Next book I will buy a five subject college ruled notebook. And my other issue is misplacing my notebooks and ergonomic pens. Next time I will buy a bunch of extra pens, will always keep my notebook in my office, and will transcribe new pages more often.

There are a number of reasons witches write books.

Most well known are the yellow paperback sensationalist rags of the 60’s-90’s with red tinted photos of sexy naked witches standing on pentagrams. Obviously these authors write for attention and money. Most pagan authors even popular ones do not have these kind of sales and are supported by a day job or their life partners. So why do they write?

1-For credibility so they can establish respect for their tradition, or as teachers. A number of small traditions share introductory material to show their chops.

2-Because they are sought after as teachers and cannot teach all those interested. So in service of those who seek witchcraft they provide education in the form of books.

3-To help witches who don’t/ cannot practice with covens or study in traditions due to circumstance or location so they can practice on their own.

4-A mystery tradition hoping to grow may put out a book to seek out high quality students. Interested readers will follow up by writing letters or otherwise getting in contact with the authors to pursue study.

5-To cast a spell on the world to make an impact upon it. Many witches right for causes that are close to their hearts and their souls’ purposes. These might be books on magic and the environment for example.

Ultimately the main reason a witch writes a book is because they love writing sometimes they love-hate writing, as its a challenge they are passionate about.

I had to get disciplined. Even though I blogged about witchcraft for 12 years and had a great platform, I hadn’t written a book yet or even had an essay in a witchcraft book. Time to get tough with myself. 
A couple half started works in progress on advanced occult topics sat in my folders. There was a reason I hadn’t finished them yet. I didn’t know how to. Why? Because I hadn’t written an easier magic book first.
Just as with any new skill, you need to start with the basics. For writing a book, of course, you have to be able to write, but this series assumes that like me you are a seasoned witch blogger and know how to write. As a blogger maybe you only know how to write very short articles, but long writings start out as short ones, right?!

Book writing involves key skills that a blogger does not entirely require: outlining, explaining occult jargon, avoiding distractions, keeping to a narrow set of topics, anticipating questions and concerns rather than relying on community interaction, and following a long logical progression.

A witchcraft blogger can write about whatever occult, pagan, magic, or mystical thing they want from day to day or hour to hour. They can even go personal and political if they like. A book is a much more grounded and centered form.

Within your archive of blog posts you very well could have the skeleton of a book with which to add in the muscle, fat, connective tissue and eventually cover in skin, hair and clothes. Yeah, even maybe an appendix.

I assembled my 50 page rough draft in a month. Then I spent another month expanding my witchcraft manuscript to a full length first draft. In this blog series I will share my four week strategy to putting together your rough draft witchcraft book manuscript.