Writing Tips

Green monster

Are You Battling The Author Excuse Monster?

writing| author
August 01, 2024•1 min read

One of the biggest hindrances to creating a book – or any good writing, for that matter – is our willingness to find excuses not to write.

Dating back to our childhood, most of us can – and will – find any excuse at all to avoid completing a writing assignment.

When I help business owners and leaders tell their story in a book that generates leads and referrals and positions them as an expert in their field, I see this problem crop up often.

Writing seems harder than it is. When I work with authors, I use a five-step process, my POWER Process, which I have honed with hundreds of college students and scores of business owners.

This process works because we plan more than we write. We think so when we put pen to paper or fingers to keyboard, it’s with complete knowledge of what we are writing.

Knowing what you are writing by planning is the first key to avoiding the Excuse Monster.

blog author image

Bob Graham

Bob Graham is the founder and CEO of SpearPoint, which helps business people write books using his POWER Process to generate new clients and business. A trained journalist with years of experience in marketing/public relations, business and teaching, he harnesses the lessons he uses each day to write to make writing easier and quicker for people who want to be authors of business books. He has written for newspapers and magazines, and his words have been used on countless websites, in brochures and speeches, and in business plans and marketing campaigns. He wrote The Renegade Way, and he co-authored The 55 Soft Skills That Guide Employee and Organizational Success and The Insider's Guide to Baltimore. He also has taught English, journalism, marketing and communications at various colleges and universities, including Johns Hopkins University, Towson University and Goucher College. In addition to coaching business people on how to write their business book, he also serves as a business coach, helping mostly small business owners find new strategies to scale their businesses. His clients have ranged from startups to established businesses been in a wide range of industries, including insurance, law, lumber, financial services, technology, energy, apparel and automotive. He graduated from Towson University with a Bachelor's degree in Mass Communication with a Journalism concentration, and holds a Master's degree from The American University in Communications with a concentration on Journalism and Public Affairs.

Back to Blog