Aha! is one letter off from a joke.

A collaborative process for writing a book is more than someone helping you choose your font and margin sizes. Your book is an extension of you and many writers make this endeavor because they want to control the narrative. This is especially true for athletes and entertainers who are typically on the receiving end of messages about them. Whomever you are, it is your story and it should be written in your voice and through your lens. But what do you want your readers to hear and see?

Writing your book will feel a lot like a mining expedition to find the gold tucked in your story. The tricky part is it’s easy to miss what your Aha! is because of how close you are to your story. In prospecting, this is called “fools gold” and it looks a lot like real gold. Many books are written about the “fool’s gold” and the authors get a rude awakening when they publish it.

This doesn’t mean that inexperienced writers can’t pinpoint an Aha! that is truly valuable. It also doesn’t mean that publishers are 100% correct either. Yet, your goal should be to give yourself the best opportunity to succeed and that means to test your story andget opinions on it’s message before putting it out there for the world to see.

Your Aha! is hiding in your everything. It’s that “light bulb moment.” It’s the “Aha!” you want to convey to your readers. It may not be one “Aha!” but the pairing down of the everything to those transferrable “Aha’s!” must be a focus of your writing.

What is your Aha! ? If you don’t know it right off the bat, again this is where collaboration is key. Often what authors think is their Aha! isn’t. It may be interesting, but it’s not what readers and their audience will cling to in your book. That’s ok. It’s perfectly normal, however, it’s something that needs to be ironed out prior to hitting “enter” on your new book’s printer.

Clarity is the enemy of the shiny object syndrome. Shiny objects are fun to look at and they’re everywhere. For creatives and entrepreneurs, many of the shiny objects are in our brain. Or we can create one out of thin air. It’s what causes innovation to occur, but it’s also what causes Apple to move in “18 different directions” and stream of consciousness writing to go on and on. In the end, does the reader get the “Aha!” you desired?

You can write one thing and your reader reads another. Since there’s one of you and hopefully millions of readers—let’s make sure what they hear is your “Aha!.”

So how do you get it out? How do you remove your one thing from your everything? It’s creating with a team of professionals who’s sole purpose on earth (at least during working hours) is to help authors craft messages and write books that make an impact.

You may have it already figured out. If so, that definitely simplifies things but dig deeper. Do what Steve Jobs did and lay out all of the great ideas that Apple was pursuing at the time and write them on a whiteboard. Then, systematically, start getting rid of great ideas in an effort to gain clarity and focus and collaborate with your team to make sure your readers arrive at the same destination.

Happy Writing!