How to start writing a book? This is a question we receive frequently. That is why we have decided to write a blog with the 10 best tips about it. Writing and publishing a book is a long and difficult process. During this process, you will have many obstacles to overcome. There are many details to keep in mind when writing a book, and it’s very important to write in a well-structured way to avoid feeling overwhelmed. There are tricks you can use to start writing a book effectively. From good planning to maintaining motivation and enthusiasm. With this blog we will try to facilitate how to start writing a book with 10 simple tips:
- Set up a creative space
- always plan
- Develop the characters
- Attention to detail
- One project at a time
- Find your big idea
- word target
- clear your mind
1. Set up a creative space
If you are going to be writing for hours on end, it is imperative that you are in a place where you feel comfortable and allow you to be creative. Writing at a messy table or in a noisy environment will make you feel overwhelmed and make it difficult for you to finish your story. A good start is to tidy up your desk and sit in a comfortable chair. Having a clean table will also help you avoid distractions and stay focused.
Keep in mind that you don’t have to have a fixed writing space, it can benefit your creativity if you change your environment from time to time. You can write from home, in a library, or even in the park enjoying the sun. Changing where you write will help keep your mind busy and open to new inspiration. Once you have a comfortable creative space, it will be much easier to start writing.
2. Always plan
Writing without planning will result in a big mess, especially when writing longer books. Having a clear structure in your mind will allow you to write a framework for the story, which you can then alter as much as you want. When creating a plan, there are a few things to focus on:
Choose a genre:
There are many people who write a book without a clear genre in mind. On one hand, it’s great because you write exactly what you want, but problems arise trying to sell these books. This is because you cannot target a specific audience. If you don’t know what genre your book is, it cannot be categorized in the sales channels and you will have a very small niche of target audience if any. That’s why it’s important to try to be gender-specific before you start writing.
Choose a perspective:
A big part of how to start writing a book is choosing from what perspective you want to narrate it. We recommend picking one and sticking with it throughout the story so as not to confuse readers. Although it is possible to unite multiple perspectives, it must be done in a very clear and concise way.
3. Develop the characters
This step can be considered part of the planning stage, although due to its importance, it has its own section. Your characters will make or break your story, and having a deep understanding of them will be key to developing an intriguing story around them. There are several things you can do to create these characters before writing your story, and each of these tips will help you figure out the purpose you want these characters to serve.
Write a biography:
For the main characters you may want to write a biography about them, this does not have to be very long but it does have to answer several questions about the character such as:
- As it is called?
- When was born?
- Who are your parents?
- Do you have a partner?
- Do you belong to the rich, middle or poor class?
- How was your childhood?
- What are your dreams?
Answering questions like these will draw you a picture of your characters which will then help you create their motivations for certain actions in the story.
Understand their motivations:
Your characters have to have a certain purpose for what they do in your story. For example, you can’t write a book about a murderer without trying to explain how the character became the person he is today. Of course, you don’t have to disclose this explicitly in your book. But it is important that you, as an author, know it in order to have a logical story.
Understand the conflict:
Conflict is the most important thing in every story. It is important to understand what obstacles your characters have and what or who is preventing them from achieving their greatest goal. Once you have this developed you will have a better understanding of what has to happen in your story to get (or not) to that happy ending.
4. Attention to detail
This tip is for those who are writing a novel based on a certain historical timeline. When you create a completely new world or context, you have complete freedom to play with the background of your story and you can avoid having to do research on certain topics. However, if your story is based on the past, even if it’s a fictional story, you have to pay close attention to the details. Certain aspects of a historical novel, such as how events unfolded, what led up to the conflict, or even how different the uniforms were, are important details you’ll need to research. Getting historical details wrong (in terms of context) can look bad, unless you’re changing it on purpose.
5. One project at a time
This advice is very simple but important. Writing a book is a project that requires a lot of effort and occupies your mind for several weeks. If you try to write more than one book at the same time, you will end up getting caught up in the stories and overwhelmed, and it may be that in the end, you will not finish either of them. Writing just one book will already have you thinking about how to follow your story for a large part of the day and we recommend that you finish one before starting another.
The same goes for more projects outside of work that take up a lot of time. If you are offered more projects, no matter how exciting they are, don’t accept them until you finish your book. A project as big as starting to write a book is already a difficult enough task.
6. Find your big idea
If you’re going to write a book, you need that big idea, the one that’s going to take you far enough to write an entire novel that can be read without ever getting bored. You need to find something you are passionate about and stick with it. A lot of the time why people don’t finish a book, it’s because what seemed like that unique idea seemed wasn’t developed enough, or didn’t reach its full potential. They are very powerful examples but think about the ideas of Harry Potter or The Lord of the Rings, they are worlds where the story can grow every time you think of them, with the potential for unlimited stories. These concepts stick with your mind, and your story should try to do the same.
Ask people you trust, do they like the idea? Are they speechless? Want to hear more? Your true story has to be worthy of a book. Anything less than that can become an article, a story, or a short novel. When you have that idea you will know it, but first, you have to continue developing details until you find it. Once you have found it, it will be easier for you to create an intriguing story.
7. Target Words
Since writing a book is such a long process, one of the most difficult tasks is to keep writing and be consistent. There will be times when you don’t feel like writing and decide to leave it for another day. The more that happens to you, the more times you will put off writing, until at some point you decide to stop. That’s why a great tip is to set yourself a daily, weekly, or monthly word goal (depending on how much time you have to write). This goal doesn’t have to be huge, if not, it’s more of a way to make sure you’re going to keep writing. It can be something as small as 500 words a day (keeping in mind that it is a minimum).
However, we recommend that you set a weekly or monthly goal, since there are always days when it will be impossible for you to write, and it will feel bad for you to miss your goal. Choosing how many words to target is something personal since there are people who write novels in two or three months and others who take years. The important thing is not how many words, but to be consistent with the writing.
It’s also important not to set yourself an overly ambitious goal, as you don’t want your book writing to become something you have to do, rather than something you enjoy doing. Take the goal in stride and stay consistent as you write.
8. Clear your mind
Writer’s block is a real thing that happens to even the best authors. Don’t worry, there are many things you can do to get over it.
Exercise:
One way to overcome it that great authors recommend is to exercise. Getting out of your creative space and getting some fresh air always helps. Exercising is not only healthy but it will clear your mind during that time and helps keep you mentally sharp.
Morning Pages:
The artist’s way author Julia Cameron recommends the morning page exercise for writers who are stuck or suffer from writer’s block. It is an exercise that will help you recover your creativity. Cameron proposes that we write three pages by the hand of whatever comes to mind as soon as we get up. Morning pages are unedited and there is no wrong way to write them. It is simply an exercise to get rid of everything that worries you or distracts you in the morning, and thus clear your mind. It also proposes we do it in a state of semi-unconsciousness; the pages are not reread or thought about much, you just let yourself go. Cameron also explained that the morning pages are something very personal, and they serve as therapy. Some will like it and others will not, it is a matter of trying it.