Looking for the Secret Sauce for Writing a Book? I know where it is.

Looking for the Secret Sauce for Writing a Book? I know where it is.

The secret sauce for writing your book is in your refrigerator.

It’s whatever you like to drink to stay hydrated while you write. I’m assuming you keep it in the refrigerator.

If you were thinking I would share some magic recipe or a whispered secret about writing that you’ve never heard before, you were wrong because there is no secret sauce for that. If there were, we’d all be Stephen King, or Elizabeth Gilbert, or James Clear.

Need to hide your secret sauce from prying eyes?

At the moment, I’m drinking a soft drink in a plastic cup, with a straw. I avoid soft drinks, but today I had a craving. I also ate ice cream, which I don’t do very often. It’s one of those days where I have a lot swirling around in my brain, and if I don’t pause every few hours to treat myself to something nice, I’ll probably explode.

I want to talk about that secret sauce. It’s not something you drink or concoct in your basement, free of prying eyes lest they steal your recipe.

It’s a part of the act of writing a book. In a post on our blog in February of 2023, Tom wrote that writing a book feels like herding cats. You might want to go back and read it. It’s not about secret sauce per se, but it’s about how you are the one in charge of your book, secret sauce and all.

The secret sauce to writing your book and making it successful is in how you build a team to help you and then how you put word after word on the page. But, as you may surmise, it’s more than that, too.

This week I’ve been reading a Stephen King book. A book of short stories that aren’t at all like the horror stories we all know him for.

If you’re at all like me, you don’t just sit in a comfy chair or lounge on your bed, book propped open on your lap, and read without pause, even if the story is compelling. If you’re planning to write a book of your own, whether fiction or nonfiction, I trust you do more than ‘read’ as you turn page after page.

In fact, if you’re at all like me, you take the story apart, page by page, word by word, idea by idea. Because, contained within the books we read, is the real secret sauce for writing a book.

Stephen King’s Secret Sauce

In this book, King introduces each story with a page or a page and a half explaining why he wrote the story. I admit I did not need those introductory bits, though I did read them. I would have preferred to just read the stories.

However, in defense of King, one of my favorite writers, the stories in the book weren’t all the same – what I mean is, he used several different writing styles and tones to compose the stories, and he was being kind to the reader in sharing the reasons or ideas behind each one.

When I picked up the book, I expected a book of scary stories that would make me quiver, sigh, and maybe be reluctant to turn out the light before pulling the covers up over my head.

That did not happen in this book of short stories. These were not King’s usual fare, and while I was a little annoyed at first, after reading them, I realized I was seeing a whole new side of King. I read each of them, closed the book between each one, and drifted off to sleep without a worry.

Why am I telling you this? Because this book of short stories, which wasn’t what I expected, taught me that we can have more than one kind of secret sauce.

It taught me more about writing because I did what I usually do – I paid attention to the sentences, the words, and the dialogue. I wanted to know why King wrote them and what made them good.

I felt the flow of the words as a wave of water, washing over me, saying, “This paragraph works because…” Because the words used were more than ink on a piece of paper, they were an image in my mind, not just of the story, but of the writing – the act of writing.

I allowed myself to wonder, “Why did he say this? Why was that paragraph so much longer than the three before? Is it effective that way?” And I wondered, “Should I do that?” That answer is…maybe.

Writing is more than entertainment, and King knows that

In this book of short stories, which both entertained me and taught me something about writing — because everything I read teaches me about writing — I was treated to more than an evening or two of entertainment.

Despite my disappointment in not being given the willies by the content, reading the short stories was a valuable experience in finding my own secret sauce.

I do want you to understand that your secret sauce is not one and done. It’s not a bread recipe passed down to your children. It’s not a favorite dessert with one special ingredient only you know about.

It’s something you become familiar with as you write, and it might be different for every book you write. Just as the book of short stories from King was not what he usually writes, your work will evolve and change over time.

King treated me to a variety of writing styles and plots I wasn’t expecting. It wasn’t the King I was used to. His secret sauce served him well, even as he ventured, in this book, outside of the realm we associate him with.

When I put the book aside, I began to think about my own writing. About the story. About dialogue. About plot and narration. About all of the elements of a good book, fiction or nonfiction.

Story skills. Writing skill. Reading skill. Narrative skill. Critical review skill. Secret sauce.

Everyone wants the secret sauce, and they go searching for it in webinars, workshops, other books, and on LinkedIn, studying the gurus who write about writing.

All of that is commendable. You should do it. What I want you to do, as you study others and learn from the masters, is remember your secret sauce is yours alone. That’s why it’s a secret.

Each of us must be committed to studying the discipline of writing, to learn how to do it better, every day. If we are to be successful writers, if, as writers, we are to be taken seriously, we have to improve our narrative skills, our reading skills, our storytelling skills, and our critical review skills.

Each one of those skills must be part of the secret sauce for writing your book because each one contributes something different but important to the overall success of your book.

I thank Stephen King for writing his book of short stories and taking me out of the box I had created for him and his writing. I thank him for sharing his insights into each story.

You may also have an author whom you feel strongly about, one who inspires you not just because they are successful, but because you admire their writing. You may read this author regularly and think, “I wish I could write that well.”

You can. It’s all part of the secret sauce in your fingertips. Flowing from your brain. All you have to do is tap into your desire to share your story with the world, be diligent with your storytelling, and make sure you have a developmental editor on your team. Sometimes you need a little help to find that secret sauce, and your developmental editor is just the person to uncover it, as you write.

Does Stephen King have a developmental editor on his team? I think so. Not a professional one, like me, but he works with a team of editors and writers, and they all provide the kind of feedback and insight I do.

Did you think he just sat down and started writing? Take a few minutes to watch this video of his recent whodunit book, Never Flinch, available wherever you get your books, and you will understand that successful writers are always chasing the secret sauce, too.

Is trying to find your secret sauce holding you back from writing your book? I’d love to hear about it. DM me on LinkedIn.