Three Mistakes That Keep You Stuck While Writing Your Manuscript

A free training on how to go from a vague idea to a finished manuscript — with a full-time job and a real life.

• Free

• About 60 minutes 

• Watch whenever it suits you

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You've had this idea for a long time...

Maybe you've been carrying a story for months. Maybe years. And you still haven't started.

Or you have started — several times. Different stories, different beginnings. But none of them ever became an actual finished manuscript.

You write when the inspiration is there. And then weeks go by where you don't touch it at all. You come home from work, eat something, sit on the couch, and think: I should be writing.

You keep rewriting the same chapter because you're not sure where the plot is going. You sit down and think "where do I even start today?" — and twenty minutes later you're scrolling Instagram instead.

You promise yourself: this weekend, I'm really going to write.

And then it's Sunday night again.

Maybe I'm just not someone who finishes books.

I thought that for years. I was wrong. And it wasn't because I found more discipline.

What we'll cover

In about an hour, I'll walk you through the three mistakes that keep aspiring novelists stuck. I made all three of them myself, for years.

1. You think you have a discipline problem You don't. You have a system problem — and once you see the difference, the guilt goes away with it.

2. You start with your plot This is why you've been going back and forth on your storyline for months. Your story doesn't start where you think it does.

3. You wait for your first draft to be good It won't be. Mine was embarrassing. That's not a problem — that's the job.

And then I'll show you the method I built to go from scattered notes to a finished 110,000-word manuscript. Next to a 9-to-5.

This isn't a collection of writing tips. It's the actual process I used.

I live in Amsterdam, and I recently finished my first novel. 110,000 words, nine drafts, two proofreaders. I'm querying literary agents now.

I wrote all of it next to a full-time job as a business analyst at the Dutch government. It took me one year and nine months.

I don't have a creative writing degree. I studied Information Science — I used to write code, not stories. I don't know anyone in publishing. None of my close friends are writers.

And for years before this book, I couldn't make it work. I'd start with so much energy, and somewhere around 30,000 words the story would go blurry. I'd open a new document, try a new outline, and hope clarity would show up. It didn't.

I read the craft books. I took the courses. Some of them were genuinely good. But I'd finish one and think: okay — but how do I actually write an entire book, from beginning to end?

What was missing wasn't information. It was a process.

So I built one. That's what this training is about.

This is probably not for you if...

1. You've already written several books and you're looking for advanced craft techniques.

2. What you really want is help with publishing, agents, or marketing. This is about the part that comes before all of that.

3. You want someone to tell you it's easy. It isn't. It's doable — that's a different thing.

How it works

1. You sign up, and the training lands in your inbox right away.

2. It's about an hour. Watch it in one go, or in pieces — whatever fits your week.

3. You have seven days of access.

4. It's free, and it's genuinely useful whether or not you ever buy anything from me.

Your book deserves to exist

The story you think about before you fall asleep. The one you daydream about on your commute. The one you've been carrying for months, or years.

You don't need more talent. You don't need more time.

You need a process. And I can show you mine.

Free. About 60 minutes. Watch whenever it suits you.