An Interview with Book Clarity Coach Leslie Capps
How to Write a Book While Working Full Time
You’ve had the book idea for years. Maybe it lives in a notes app, a stack of journals, or the stories you tell at the dinner table. You keep waiting for a free weekend to sit down and start chapter one, and that weekend never comes.
If you work full time, the usual advice doesn’t help much. “Just start writing” sounds freeing, but book clarity coach Leslie Capps sees where it leads. Authors come to her with fifty thousand words and no idea what to do with them. They still have to go back to the beginning and figure out the structure.
I’ve given that same advice on this podcast, so this conversation changed how I talk about it. Writing a book alongside a full-time job is realistic. You just need to begin in a different place.
In This Episode
(00:39) How Leslie went from typing a book the old-fashioned way to writing one in 30 days by talking it out
(04:28) What really holds women back from writing a book: time, organizing ideas, and second-guessing our expertise
(07:59) Reverse engineering a book: starting with the reader’s journey instead of chapter one
(09:28) Setting a deadline and working backward so writing fits your schedule
(10:52) Turning blog posts, talks, and podcast episodes into chapters without getting overwhelmed
(13:00) How to decide which stories belong in your book
(15:15) Leslie’s voice-to-text process, from pacing the garage to an AI-cleaned first draft
(18:38) Bullet points or questions: how to prep before you record
(20:11) How much editing to expect, and why beta readers matter
(24:00) Why stepping away before you edit helps you see your draft with fresh eyes
(26:05) A realistic first step for a woman with a full-time job
(28:02) Why everybody has a story that matters
Start With Your Reader, Not Chapter One
Leslie reverse engineers a book. Before anyone writes a word, she works through three questions:
What do you want this book to do for you as the author?
What do you want it to do for your reader?
Where is your reader now, and where do you want her to end up?
Once those are clear, the middle fills in. Each chapter gets a job, and chapter one has to do its part so chapter two can do the next.
The same idea decides which stories make the cut. Leslie asks one question: is it important to the reader’s journey? A story can matter deeply to you and still belong in a different book. That single filter keeps years of notes from turning into an overwhelming pile.
Try this: On an index card or in your phone, finish two sentences. When she picks up my book, my reader is... and When she finishes, I want her to think, feel, or do... This is the first step Leslie recommends for a woman with a full-time job, and it fits in a lunch break.
Set a Deadline and Time One Chapter
“I don’t have time” is the reason Leslie hears most. She answers with a better question: time for what? Twenty minutes staring at a blank screen isn’t a good use of the time you do have.
Her approach works backward from a date:
Pick a finish date.
Count your chapters.
Time how long chapter one takes you.
Check whether the deadline fits your real calendar, and adjust the date, not your sleep.
A deadline also keeps the book from sliding to the bottom of your list. One of Leslie’s authors told her the deadline is why she’ll finish: two chapters left, two weeks to go.
You probably have more material than you think. Leslie keeps a Google Doc for each book idea and drops thoughts into it as they come. Blog posts, presentations, and podcast episodes can all become chapter drafts. For one collaboration book, she interviewed each woman and turned the interview into her chapter.
Talk It Out Instead of Typing
Leslie talks with her hands, and typing left her ideas stuck in her head. When she had 30 days to write a book, she switched to voice-to-text. She paces her garage, talks through one chapter, and then transcribes the recording. She used Otter for the transcript, then had AI clean it up into a first draft.
What makes this work is the prep. Before she hits record, she knows what that chapter needs to do. She works from bullet points, in any order, so a tangent still gets captured. One of her authors found questions worked better, so she wrote down the questions each chapter answers and talked through those.
Even if speaking your book doesn’t sound like you, it can still loosen things up. One woman who resisted the idea tried it, then sat down and wrote for two hours. Now she records a voice note whenever an idea shows up.
Try this: On your commute or an evening walk, record five minutes answering one question your book needs to answer. Don’t stop to fix anything.
Your First Step This Week
A book doesn’t need a free summer. It needs a clear reader, a deadline that fits your real schedule, and a way of getting words out that suits you.
When you do have a draft, step away for a couple of days before you edit, and ask a beta reader from your audience where she got lost. As Leslie puts it, “Don’t be wedded to your words. Be wedded to your message.”
For now, start with those two sentences about your reader. That’s enough for this week.
About Leslie Capps
Leslie Capps is a Book Clarity Coach, author, and podcast host who helps experts turn their ideas, stories, and expertise into the right book—one designed to build authority, create opportunities, and support their work. Using practical frameworks, voice-first processes, and AI-supported tools, she helps people get the words out of their heads and shape them into a book with purpose.
Resources Mentioned
Leslie’s complimentary 60-minute Book Breakthrough Session
Website: Authorin30.com
Free resource: What Could the Right Book Do for You?
Otter, the voice-to-text app Leslie used to draft her book
Google Docs, for collecting ideas by book as they come
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