The Book Idea: Begin Writing a Book with a Brain Dump

Award-winning writer Kathy Widenhouse has helped hundreds of nonprofits and writers produce successful content and has gained 600K+ views for her writing tutorials. She is the author of 9 books. See more of Kathy’s content here.

An online devotional for writers

A Word From The Word

This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: Write down for the record everything I have said to you. (Jeremiah 30:2, NLT)

A Word For Writers

If you struggle to begin writing a book, you’re not alone. Plenty of writers have a book in their heads.

There’s a simple way to get it out of your brain and onto paper: dump it out, one idea at a time.

What’s blocking the way is all the information accumulated in your brain, says productivity consultant David Allen (b. 1945) in his flagship work, Getting Things Done. 

The human temptation is to treat your brain as a storage unit. Yet your brain works best when creating ideas, rather than trying to remember them. As you accumulate ideas, data, and information in your gray matter, things get clogged. 

You end up with a massive cranial traffic jam.

That’s why Allen recommends a mind sweep – sometimes called a “brain dump” – to get your ideas out of your brain and onto paper.

The principle is simple: unload all of that accumulated information about your book topic by writing it down, item by item. The release helps you organize your ideas in black and white so you can proceed with the book. And it clears your mind. Once you get your ideas down on paper, you needn’t fear you’ll forget them. 

God told Jeremiah to conduct a mind sweep: “Write down for the record everything I have said to you” (Jeremiah 30:2, NLT). Documenting God’s promises of a new covenant prepared the Jewish people for redemption.

Begin writing a book with a mind sweep. Get all your ideas out of your brain and onto paper.

A Wise Word

Do a mind sweep to begin writing a book.

A Word To Pray

Loving Father,

Thank You for wiring our brains to be creative. Mine is jammed with information. Guide me as I record it so I can free up my gray matter for other creative work.

In Jesus’s name, Amen.

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