How to write a Spiritual book

How to write your Spiritual book.

Do you work in the Spiritual field or have experiences you want to share?

Have you been thinking about writing a book but find the entire process a Little daunting? Maybe you don’t have an agent, a publisher or any author friends to help. All you have is an idea for a book.  If so this blog post may be of help.

I had so many incredible experiences with Spirit and my work as a full-time Medium, I wanted to recall each memory and to share with others. So, I began to write. My aim was never to be a best seller but instead to share with anyone who I felt may benefit.

First, I had little idea how to write a book and secondly, I had no idea how publish.

But, I learnt. I spent endless hours learning everything I could on the subject and today I want to pay it forward to others who also want to write a book but don’t know where to start..

I am sure there are many things that may have an easier or better alternative to the way I do it. I am no expert on writing and publishing. I can only share what worked for me.

  • Writing.

First you need to write, write and then write. I use Microsoft word for all my writing because it is what I find easiest. Scrivener is also popular with authors and I have tried this and although it appears amazing I still preferred word. You can also use google docs, notepads, or good old pen and paper to start with. The important thing is to write and get your thoughts onto paper.

Work out what kind of spiritual book you are writing and what is important to you that you get onto paper. Is it a self-help book? Do you have a message you want to share? Do you have experience you think may benefit others? Is the book intended to run aside your Spiritual business?

I had three important aspects I wanted to share.

  • 1 My early childhood and growing up as a Medium.
  • 2 My knowledge of the Afterlife and Spirit.
  • 3 My experiences with Spirits.

These were my three main points I wanted to write about so I cut my book into three parts.

  • 1 The Place this talked about my life as a child Medium.
  • 2 In Between Worlds this talked about my knowledge of Spirit and the Afterlife.
  • 3 Their Stories this shared my experiences with Spirit.

Now I had my book divided into three parts I began to write random chapters based on my memories and my journals.

Each chapter I temporary named and once finished I began a next, in no particular order.

If you are using Microsoft word here world be a great time to learn how to use headings and subtitles as you can write random chapters, have your navigation bar on and see the chapters in a list at the side of your writing. You can then click on a chapter and move it up or down the navigation bar and this will place it where you want in your book. It saves a lot of scrolling up and down and a lot of copy and paste later.

This is how I wrote my book, random chapters as my memories fell whilst keeping in mind the three main points I wanted to share.

Writing a nonfiction Spiritual book and more so about my own life was like taking my clothes off in a slow striptease, knowing soon I would be stepping out naked. I hadn’t realised this at first until halfway through the book. But I had to be me and it was time I didn’t care what opinions others may have of me. I was doing this because it was important to share my message more than to worry about others personal opinions of me.

I worked with Spirit throughout the entire process of writing. I felt Spirit beside me as I hit the keyboard and my words flowed. Those days I did not feel any Spirit connection I didn’t write. I allowed Spirit to guide me.

I have to admit sometimes whilst writing I would wonder what a certain friend or family member would think about me if they read the book. Although everyone knew what work I did I don’t feel many knew how deep my Spirit communications were. I wondered if my life experiences would make me seem like I was crazy or delusional.  But I continued to trust in my truth and the Spirits around me.

Looking back, writing my first book was the best thing I ever did as it forced me forward and to look in the mirror and decide if I was going to live my life to the fullest or hide behind the fear of being judged. At the time I met others who also wanted to write books along the same as mine. Many still want to, as for whatever reasons (fear, lack of time, lack of support, etc) they never got around to writing their book. I have since wrote two more and my third Spiritual book is almost finished. If you feel you want to write, then go for it. Don’t let your story hide away. Ask Spirit to guide you. Meditate on your book topic. Contact authors of the same or follow them on social media to help inspire you to write your story.  Picture your finished product in your hands, hear the people talking about how the book helped them in your mind. Visualise the success of your book.

Once you write that first line, you are no longer wanting to write a book. You are now writing a book. Keep it up. 

Let’s get back to work.

How long should a book be? This was a question I kept asking as I typed and the answer is however long it takes to tell the story. But my book stopped around 70 thousand words. (the word count is at the bottom left of Microsoft word)

How long it takes to write obviously depends on the time you spend and how fast your typing is. But if like me you work full-time with your Spiritual business you may only be able to write a few pages a day. That is fine. A little each day adds up. Keep at it.

Once I had written the book. It was then time for me to go through the book and add or remove chapters I felt were not adding to the story I wanted to tell, (my three main points) or I was able to add more by placing several similar stories together.  Don’t be afraid to cut chapters or text, it may not add to your book but keep it on a separate document as it may be something to add in a future book.

Once I was happy with this I then returned to each story of the book that included another person and I either contacted them and asked them for permission to use their story by sending them a copy of that particular page, or as my book covered my lifetime, there were many people I was unable to contact as I no longer had their contact information or maybe never had. In this case I changed all names of those involved and any details without changing the story.

Then I concentrated on chapter names. All three parts of my book had many chapters and I wanted to name each one so I could use them in a future reference when in conversation with others, like, my chapter, A single yellow rose talks about such a thing, or my chapter, Spirits at home explains such a thing in more detail. I knew I would be using my book in many future conversations. Not all books have chapter names, just a number is sufficient for some authors. I wanted chapter names so I included them.

The next point was my own editing. The nightmare for me because, well let’s say I didn’t do very well with schooling. Microsoft word has a spellcheck that is basic but it is a start. Note- the Word spellcheck sometimes likes to confuse me with certain words and many of the suggestions I did not change. Also, decide at the beginning if you want your book spell checked in UK English or American English as many words are different and it is a good idea to stick with one or the other throughout.

You can also download a free version of Grammarly. Although, like the Microsoft spellchecker it may sometimes have you doing a Google search to see if the change is needed, however it is still good at catching a lot of mistakes.

Once the spellcheck and grammar check was done and I had read about myself so many times I was fed up with me, it was then time to show my book to others for checks and general feedback. First, I gave a copy to my mother, who was immediately my number one fan and my only fan. She found no errors in the book and thought it was perfect.

I then gave a copy to my aunt Linda who is a school teacher, she was on holiday but agreed to take a quick read. She loved the book but found a ton of errors.

I corrected those errors and then it was time for an editor. I can’t stress enough how important this step is. Do not skip on an editor. I have now found Jill from Little Red Lines, you can find her on Facebook. I hadn’t met her for my first book but she is my current editor and she is fantastic.

Naming my first book took a while and at the time I knew nothing about search engines and keywords. I named my book Always by your side as it was a something I had Spirit say to me many times. Always by your side has no keywords in the title. This means that someone searching for a Psychic Medium book would not find it through a search based on the title.

I did however name my subtitle, True stories from the life of a Psychic Medium.

I hadn’t realised at the time that Psychic and Medium were actually my two best keywords and would come up in searches.

On my blurb (the description at the back of the book) I also had words like seeing Spirit and Spirit messages. This apparently helped my keywords also. Note- keywords for searches are changing all the time but a quick up to date Google search should help you here.

Now, before we get into book covers, formatting and marketing. Now is the time to think about what kind of publishing you are going to take. Are you going to try a publishing company or self-publish?

Read my post how to self-publish a Spiritual book to read how I did it.

Happy writing.