I Made It: AJ Jacobs"creative process" in creating bestsellers

Explore AJ Jacobs' creative process for publishing the four New York Times bestsellers, which includes how he thinks up ideas as well as researches and composes his real-life quests.

There's a healthy list of actors who practice staying in character on- and off-camera during filming.

Although it may seem a little excessive to be so committed to never leaving but the work is paid off in terms of pay real, authentic, and prizes at the red-carpet events.

The writings of AJ Jacobs , successful author, speaker, and editor at Esquire Magazine, is no the same.

AJ also takes his work as well as his jobhighly seriously.

For each of his six novels, AJ assumed the role of his subject matter and took on a real-life quest as he wrote his books.

The character of the book has paid dividends for AJ as well. The actor has been named a New York Times Best Seller for a total of five times since his debut.

We had the pleasure of sitting down with AJ where he shared with us his creative process for writing his notable books.

With no further delay Let's get started.

How AJ comes up with book ideas

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

It was what he thought of when he decided to choose the subject for his debut book The Know-It-All Book: A Man's Humble Struggle to be the smartest person in the World .

He got the idea from his dad who always enjoyed reading and researching. The father of AJ was trying to read his way through the family's library of encyclopedias and came to in the middle letter B. AJ decided to "finish his work and take this stale air from our family's heritage."

And it was there was born his initial book concept was born an idea AJ is able to attribute to his father.

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

Another approach AJ brainstorms novel ideas (pun intended) is to think of numerous ideas as much as is possible, and then employing the method of elimination.

In the case of his first book, for instance, as he came up with the idea of his book's sequel, the author sat down and brainstormed ideas, but they were eventually dismissed.

"I had a lot of book ideas, and I'm not even able to recall any of them. However, none of them did the trick," he divulges. "Either I rejected them and my editor did, or my wife snubbed the idea because it was too much of a nightmare."

After he had landed on the concept of his second book, "The Year to Live Biblically: A Man's Humble Struggle for a Year to Follow the Bible As Literally as is Possible , which was to live a life which literally followed the bible for one year It was not easy in committing to this.

Given the uproarious nature of the topic, AJ had a difficult decision to make to pursue the issue.

"It's extremely unpopular," he explains. "That was stressful and I was unsure of whether to take it on to do it or not."

AJ thought to himself "Do I really wish to make this decision? I could get flak from both sides. Nobody will be thrilled when you try to combine religion and humor."

While it wasn't an easy decision, at the end it was AJ's choice to be a hit with the audience.

But, he kind of realized that by now, as AJ performs something that any creative should frequently, does.

He confirms the book's concept prior to committing fully. In the case of AJ the way he validates his book concept is through speaking with the most people he can on his newest novel idea.

"One thing I do is I just tell everyone I can about this idea," he explains. "I take a look at the eyes of my audience and observe how they react . . . It is my observation that they may ask additional questions, but often they don't."

If their eyes do not "light up" AJ takes it as a cue not to not explore the idea of a book.

To keep his creativity authentic, AJ changes the subject issue from book to book which lets him repeat the same creative process throughout books.

"If you're able to tackle tasks that require creativity and are totally distinct from the subject, it gives you more freedom to have the same experience," AJ coaches.

Speaking of his repeatable process We'll take a closer look at the next step AJ is taking of conducting studies.

What is the method by which AJ is able to conduct his book research

AJ is able to conduct his book research through a complete immersion into the subject. The author turns every book-writing session into a fresh personal journey and alters his routine in order to devote his time exclusively to researching and writing about his experiences in the book.

As an example, when he wrote The Year of Living Biblically AJ adhered to his book's pledge and decided to commit to a full year of following the Bible as closely as he could.

Then, to log the experiences he has had throughout his journey, AJ keeps two journals, one for his personal journal and the other for his project research -which is still in use today.

"I always keep track of the events in my life and also how it's affecting the study," he shares.

Although it might seem a bit overwhelming taking on all of his duties during the course of his research, AJ does it for a good reason. The term he uses is "steelmanning," a way to show a different perspective that you don't agree with superior to what the opposing side could.

"I am a fan of steelmanning because I think that it will make our world an even better place to live," he muses. "That's the way we can progress."

Then "move ahead" is what he achieves by composing multiple bestselling works. We'll take a look at AJ's complete creative method.

The process of creating AJ's work

AJ enjoys the first two aspects of his process the most, which we've covered before -- brainstorming and research.

"Coming up with the ideas is one of my most favorite things to do," he pronounces. "Brainstorming . . . 100 books in which 99 of the ideas are likely to fail, but one of them hopefully will be a success."

"I love researching the topics," AJ continues as he reminisces on researching his latest work Thanks for a Thousand: A Gratitude Journey . "Interviewing the designer of the lid for a coffee cup and traveling to Colombia, South America to meet farmers. That was awesome."

The third part of this process of creation -- the actual writing -which is the least preferred since it is a lonely process and also comes with a delayed audience reaction. "A large portion of it is just . . . Being alone, and not receiving feedback right away," AJ reflects.

"When I speak in public, it's a thing I enjoy . . . being able to see in people's eyes or the laughter in their faces that they're engaged," He adds. "And with a book you've written that won't be released for the next year, I find it extremely frustrating."

In addition to the frustration Sometimes, the writing process is slowed down due to the nature of the subject, as it did when he wrote his book It's All Relative: Journeys in and Down the World's Family Tree .

"Partly it was so lengthy because it was about a campaign to establish a world family tree which would link everyone on Earth into one large family tree," AJ explains. "So, you, me, Barack Obama, Nicolas Cage, everyone."

In terms of writing his novel, AJ starts writing with an overall idea of where he's headed, but generally his style of writing is improvised.

"When I'm writing, have a plan that kind of vaguely says what I'm planning to write with," he shares. "But the majority of what I write is improv. While I write, I go on these little side trails, but I always try to find out exactly where I'm going."

Prior to presenting his final project, there's an important procedure to be covered the editing.

Though it's an overwhelming task to undertake, AJ's editing process is straightforward. When editing, he simply seeks out feedback from friends and then uses the sum of their answers as an indication on where to make edits.

"I'll give it out to 10 of my friends. I'll ask them, "What components do you think are the most interesting, and which areas do you think are the to be boring?" AJ divulges. "I'll use the median of that, cut out the boring parts, and ensure that I keep those that are interesting."

Seems straightforward enough -- exactly like his view about 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 work and persistence are absolutely necessary."

"You will not achieve success without these," he warns. "But they are not sufficient."

AJ thinks you'll also need a stroke of luck to complement your hard work and that's what he (luckily) experienced the moment his most recent novel was released.

"You must also have luck and I believe in that . . . the same week that my debut bestseller was released, there were probably fifty other books out that were as great, if not better than mine." He acknowledges.

"But I got breaks" AJ gives credit. "I met the person who was in charge of the public relations at the editor. I had a connection with the man who runs the program Good Morning America and I got on that. I think you need both."

But that's not the only guidance AJ has for our readers this day. He imparts a few more words of wisdom to share.

The advice of AJ's fellow creators

AJ gives us the pearls of wisdom which have a theme nestled in these two words: Be open to experimentation.

Why? There are a few motives. One reason is that you break from a rut in your mind.

"The more adventurous you get more adventurous, the better" AJ advises. "I consider that we all have a tendency to do exactly the same thing, then we carve the . . . neural paths, neural ruts which make us think exactly the same way."

This will provide you with an array of choices in life, and, ultimately, will bring more happiness.

"The more possibilities you have to play -- even if it's a tiny thing that you do, such as testing a new toothpaste, or going to work a different way -- the better in terms of creativity and happiness," AJ urges.

If AJ didn't have heeded himself as a guideline, he would not be able to write such brilliant imaginative works and the quests -- written form.

In my opinion, that we all can agree would've been a shame.