I Made It: AJ Jacobs"creative process" to create bestseller books

Learn about AJ Jacobs' creative process in releasing four New York Times bestsellers, such as how he comes up with ideas or researches his own real-life adventures.

There's a healthy list of actors who practice staying at the same level on and off-camera when filming.

Even though it appears a little excessive to be so committed to never leaving and never leave, hard work pays off -- in salary as well as authenticity and awards at red-carpet shows.

The work by AJ Jacobs , an accomplished speaker, author, and editor of Esquire Magazine, isn't any different.

AJ does take his job -- and his role- very seriously.

Actually, for every one of his published six books, AJ assumed the role of his subject matter and took on a real-life quest as he wrote his books.

Staying in character paid off for AJ as well. He's earned the title of New York Times Best Seller for a total of 4 times in the past.

We had the pleasure of sitting down with AJ who shared with us his process of creation for writing his notable books.

Without further ado Let's get started.

How AJ comes up with book ideas

The primary way AJ goes into his brainstorming process is by taking ideas and inspiration from his own life.

That's the way he came up with the subject for his debut book, The Know-It-All: One Man's Humble Quest to become the most intelligent person on the Planet .

The idea came via his father, who has always was a reader and a seeker of knowledge. His father was reading his way through the family's encyclopedia collection and reached in the middle letter B. AJ decided to "finish his work and take this stale air from our family's heritage."

And voilà was born his initial book concept was born, a concept AJ attributes to his dad.

"I think that was an example of using your family members and the things all around you to inspire," He explains. "I could never considered that concept by myself . . . It was really something my dad would do."

Another approach AJ comes up with new ideas (pun intended) is to think of as many ideas as is possible, and then employing the elimination process.

As an example, when he came up with the idea for his second book, the author sat down and brainstormed ideas, but they were eventually dropped.

"I thought of a number of ideas for books, and I don't even remember them, but none of them came through," he divulges. "Either I didn't like them, or my publisher did, or my wife snubbed the idea because it was too much of a nightmare."

He was still deciding upon the idea of his next book the Year of Biblical Living: One Man's Humble Struggle in a bid to Follow the Bible in the most literal way possible , which was to lead a lifestyle that literally followed the bible throughout the year It was not easy for him to commit to it.

Because of the controversial nature of the topic, AJ had a difficult to decide whether to go through with it.

"It's extremely controversial," he explains. "That was very stressful, and I didn't know whether to go ahead and if I should."

AJ thought to himself "Do I really want to make this decision? It could be frowned upon by both the sides. There is no one who will be pleased trying to mix religion and humor."

It wasn't an easy option, ultimately it was AJ's choice to be one that resonated with his viewers.

However, he was aware of that, since AJ performs something that any artist should do frequently do.

He confirms the book's concept before going all-in. To be sure, for AJ He does this by speaking to anyone he can on his newest novel idea.

"One way I approach it is tell everyone I can about this idea," he explains. "I look in the eyes of my audience and observe whether they are glowing . . . I can tell if they're asking follow-up questions because sometimes they don't."

If their eyes don't "light up" AJ takes it as an indication to not to pursue the book idea.

In order to preserve his unique creativity, AJ changes the subject topic from book to, which lets him repeat the similar creative process across books.

"If you are able to take on tasks that require creativity and are totally different subject matter, then that allows you a little more flexibility to follow the same process." AJ coaches.

Speaking of his repeatable process Let's take a look at the next stage of AJ's work -- doing study.

What is the method by which AJ does his research for the book

AJ conducts his book research by soaking himself completely in the subject matter. Each book writing session is transformed into a fresh personal journey and adjusts his life in order to devote his time exclusively to researching and writing about his experiences in the book.

In the case of the book The Year of Living Biblically, AJ adhered to his book's promise and committed to the full length of a year to follow the Bible as closely as possible.

To record the events of his research, AJ keeps two journals that he uses for his private journal and the other for his project research -- a process that continues to this day.

"I always keep track of the events within my own life as well as things that are happening in my project," he shares.

Although it might seem a bit overwhelming to assume all the roles during his book research, AJ does it for an excellent reason. He calls it "steelmanning," a way to present an opposing perspective which you don't agree with more effectively than anyone else can.

"I like the concept of steelmanning, because I believe it makes this world a more beautiful place," the man thinks. "That's how we move forward."

And "move forward" is what he achieves by composing multiple bestselling works. Take a deep dive into AJ's creation procedure.

AJ's creative process

AJ is a fan of the two primary parts of his creative method the most. we've covered before the brainstorming process and researching.

"Coming up with the ideas is one of my favourite things," he pronounces. "Brainstorming . . . 100 books where 99 of them are bound to suck, but one of them hopefully will be a success."

"I enjoy researching topics," AJ continues as the author reflects on his research for his most recent work, Thank A Thousand: A Gratitude Travel . "Interviewing the creator of the lid for a coffee cup and traveling for a visit to Colombia, South America to meet farmers. It was amazing."

The last stage of this creative process -- the writing itself -is not his favorite due to its isolation and with a delayed audience reaction. "A significant portion is just . . . The feeling of being on your own and not receiving feedback immediately," AJ reflects.

"When I speak in public, it's a thing I am in love . . . seeing people's eyes or the laughter that they are interested," He says. "And in the case of a book that you're writing that's not gonna be released for the next year, it's very frustrating."

On top of that frustration Sometimes, the writing process is slowed down due to the nature of the topic like it was in his novel, It's All Relative: Adventures in and Down the Family Tree of the World .

"Partly the reason that this book was so lengthy because it dealt with this campaign to establish a world family tree which would link everyone on Earth to one family tree." AJ explains. "So, you, me, Barack Obama, Nicolas Cage, everyone."

As far as writing his novel, AJ starts writing with an overall idea of the direction he's heading, but, for the most part the writing he does is unplanned.

"When I'm writing, I make an outline that kind of hints at what I'm planning to write up," he shares. "But the majority of what I write is just improv. When I'm writing, my eyes wander off on little roads, but I do try to know the direction I'll end up."

When a writer presents the final product, there's one major step to take care of the editing.

Although it's an enormous task to take on however, the process of editing AJ's is easy. When editing, he simply asks his friends for feedback and then uses the sum of their answers as an indication for where to edit.

"I'll send it to 10 of my friends. I'll ask them, "What parts do you find amusing, and which parts do you find to be boring?" AJ divulges. "I'll use the median of those, then cut off the dull parts and make sure to keep those that are interesting."

Seems straightforward enough -- exactly like his view on luck and hard work.

What is the way AJ considers his work ethic as well as luck

If you want to be successful, AJ says that "hard effort and perseverance are essential."

"You won't achieve success without these," he warns. "But they're not enough."

AJ believes you also need a stroke of luck to enhance your efforts This is what AJ (luckily) had in his latest book published.

"You must also have luck and I do believe that . . . The same week in which my first bestseller hit the shelves it was possible that there were fifty books out that were equally great, if not better than mine," the author admits.

"But I was able to get some breaks," AJ gives credit. "I was able to contact the person in charge of the public relations at the publishing house. I was familiar with the person who runs "Good Morning America and I joined that. It seems like you should have both."

That's not all the tips AJ gives our readers this day. He has some more tips to pass on.

AJ's advice for fellow creators

AJ leaves us with gems of wisdom that contain a theme that is encapsulated in these two words: Be experimental.

Why? There are a few motives. First, you get from being stuck in a mind.

"The more experimental you are more adventurous, the better" AJ advises. "I consider that we all are prone to doing exactly the same thing, then we carve the . . . neural tracks, neuronal pathways which make us think the same way."

That will allow you to have more variety in life and, ultimately, will bring more happiness.

"The more that you are able to experiment -even if it's just something small that you do, such as making a change to your toothpaste or going to work a different way -- the better in terms of creativity and happiness," AJ urges.

If AJ hadn't taken himself as a guideline, he would not have written such amazing imaginative works and the quests -- the form of a book.

In my opinion, everyone can agree on, would've been a shame.