Write a GREAT Book! 27 vously wrote and carefully stored in a transparent plastic binder. Your book has to be perfect, doesn’t it? No, it doesn’t. In fact, you shouldn’t even try for per- fection—because if you do, you’re much more likely to get nothing at all. With this in mind, I’m now going to reveal the one question you should always be asking yourself in order to avoid perfectionism and get what’s in your mind onto the paper in front of you. 吀栀e question is, What are you trying to say? To show you exactly why that seemingly innocent question is so powerful and important, let me dramatize it for you. Picture sitting at your computer, contemplating what you’re going to write. Or imagine you’re revising—for the 昀椀fth time—what you’ve written so far. At that moment, your best friend calls, and before long, the conversation turns to the trouble you’re having with your book. “I just can’t seem to get it right,” you explain. “I know what I want to get on the page, but I can’t 昀椀nd the correct words for saying it.” At that point your friend asks a logical question: “What are you trying to say?” So you explain what you’re trying to say—and then, when the phone conversation is over, you’re back to trying to say it. But what if, when your friend asked, “What are you trying to say?” you had just gone ahead and written down your answer? What if you just stopped trying and started