How To Write The Perfect Pilates Book

By Karena Thek

“Do you have any advice for someone who wants to write the perfect Pilates book?”

Having written three Pilates books, it’s a question I get frequently. While my books are way less than perfect, here’s what I’ve learned along the way. And while the bullet points below might look like a joke, I assure you that these are not jokes.

How to Write the Perfect Pilates Book:

Write about something you know nothing about.
Develop a drinking habit.
Be harder on yourself.

Write about something you know nothing about.

Seriously. Write about a topic that you have a lot of experience with and a lot of passion for, and then learn five times that amount. Exactly five times that amount. When you are writing your book, you should be reading and studying about your topic five times more than you are writing about it.

You already have a lot of experience, now get the facts. Learn everything you can about your topic. Interview experts. Take a class. Travel. Do whatever it takes to educate yourself. Don’t leave your questions unanswered. When you reach the point where you realize that you knew almost nothing about your topic, then you are on the right path.

Develop a drinking habit.

Again, seriously. While some writers are notorious for being alcoholics, I’m recommending something more benign like coffee, tea or juice. Something that you can buy at a café, where you will then dedicate the next two hours to your book. No laundry, dogs, children, clients or phones. Absolutely no texting, Facebook, Instagram or Snapchat. You’ll catch yourself being drawn to all of these options. Stay disciplined; these things can wait.

Getting out of your own environment provides the most freedom you will be able to give yourself to dedicate and focus. For me, I can power-work and get a lot done in two hours. That’s mostly because I go armed with a checklist and I power through that checklist. Without a checklist or other source of organizing your time, you will be tempted by every diversion.

Have you ever talked to people who say they do their best work on an airplane? There’s a reason for that. They are trapped at 36,000 feet with very little distraction (unless there’s a four-year old kicking the back of their seat). In fact, that’s where this article is being written. In fact, I should re-name this article “Red-Eye to New Jersey”.

Be harder on yourself.

Do you know what I love about my clients? Their limitless self-confidence in their future selves. You know what I’m talking about. You’ve heard the excuse of, “I won’t do it today, but I’ll work out twice as hard tomorrow.” Or, I’ll eat better tomorrow, or in the New Year or after the holidays. This self-confidence they have in their future selves is the same self-confidence I fight when I am writing. So this bit of advice about being harder on yourself could also be re-titled: Stop being so darn self-confident.

It’s very easy to create a schedule for writing. It’s very difficult, on the other hand, to stick to it. I cannot emphasize enough that you need to be harder on yourself when it comes to sticking to the schedule you created if you are going to write a book. It’s not easy. Your friends and family won’t approve. Oh, sure, they’ll love the part where they can say, “Yeah, my best friend (wife, mom, Pilates instructor, mentor) wrote that book” but they will not like the part where you ditch them for your writing sessions. Turning a friend down for coffee? You won’t be winning any popularity contests, I assure you.

I recommend scheduling your writing sessions at a time of day when demands from family and friends are at their lowest. Avoid the enticing demands at all costs and only respond to emergencies when it comes to breaking your writing schedule. Those free mornings you have from teaching to get in a pedicure, a hike, or some “me” time … you’ll be doing less of that.

This third point is really what keeps 95% of people from finishing the book they were meant to write. You have to decide what is important. And be honest. The book you want to write might not be at the top of your priority list when it comes down to it. Be honest about that too. But if you decided when you started to write your book that it was a top priority, then beware of “self-confidence in your future self”, crack down, be harder on yourself and put in the work that needs to be done.

To wrap it all up.

I want to encourage you to write the book you were meant to write. If writing is something that you day-dream about, then there is a very good chance that a book is in your future. If you feel like a book is something you “should” do, like it’s something you “have” to do, then do something else. It’s a long process and if you aren’t in love with the process, it’s going to be very painful and I would question the potential strength of the end result. There are other paths to being heard, outside of writing a book.

However, if writing is in your future, write about something you know nothing about, get to know the baristas at your favorite coffee shop and have more confidence in your present self. Because the future never really comes, does it?

Karena Thek is a Pilates Instructor with a passion for managing pathologies in the Pilates setting as well as disseminating information for those who are ready to change. Her work has led her to author OsteoPilates, Increase Bone Density, Reduce Fracture Risk, Look and Feel Great! (2003) and Scolio-Pilates, Exercise for Scoliosis, A Pro-Active Guide (2011). In addition to her books, she has numerous webinars and free YouTube videos on the topics that she teaches. Karena is the host of a women’s health talk radio show, Alive & Well Radio on AM1220 KHTS. You can listen live from anywhere on the planet at www.hometownstation.com. She previously hosted Pilates for Healthy Bodies on PBS (2009-2011). And when she’s not teaching, writing or thinking about Pilates? You can find her on Facebook and Twitter posting pics of daily adventures with her partner John and their furry little child, Gus T. Basset Hound. Learn more at osteopilates.com