Writing a book of any significant size, I liken to those giant zig saw puzzles you used to do at the beach when you were a kid. Except there’s not just one zig saw – there’s four of them, scrambled together like four dozen eggs.

Where do you start? You start by turning them all over. Then gathering together all the edge pieces. Then sorting the edge pieces into similar colors. Then starting on the frame. Then a small interesting-looking area with distinctive colors. Then another small interesting-looking area. Gradually the join. The picture starts to take shape.

So start by organizing your thoughts. I mean really organizing them. The more detailed the framework to begin with, the better.

Consider the use of a mind map – a great way to cluster together relevant subject matter in a sequential fashion. Have a look here (link to decent mind map site) .