10 tips on how to start writing a book
How to start writing a book? This is a question we receive frequently. That’s why we 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 you need to take into account when writing a book, and it is 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 make it easier for you to start writing a book with 10 simple tips:
- Establish 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
- What you should avoid
- Write!
- Publish your book
1. Establish 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 that allows you to be creative. Writing on a messy table or in a noisy environment will make you feel overwhelmed and make it difficult 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 from will help you keep your mind busy and open to new inspirations. 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 Non Fiction Ghostwriter longer books. Having a clear structure mentally 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 you should focus on:
Choose a genre:
There are many people who write a book without a clear genre in mind. On the one hand it’s great because you write exactly what you want, but problems arise when 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 sales channels and you will have a very small niche target audience, if you have one. That’s why it’s important to try to have a specific genre before you start writing.
Choose a perspective:
A big part of starting to write a book is choosing what perspective you want to tell it from. We recommend choosing one and sticking with it throughout the entire story so as not to confuse readers. Although it is possible to bring together multiple perspectives, it must be done in a very clear and concise way. In our blog on “10 Questions to Ask Yourself Before Publishing,” we give you a brief summary of the narrator perspectives you can use and what they entail.
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 when 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 should answer several questions about the character such as:
- What’s it called?
- When was born?
- Who are your parents?
- Do you have a partner?
- Do you belong to the rich, middle or poor class?
- What was your childhood like?
- What are your dreams?
Answering questions like these will paint you a picture of your characters that 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 reveal this explicitly in your book. But it is important that you, as an author, know it 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 reach (or not) that happy ending.
4. Attention to detail
This advice is aimed at 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 can avoid having to research certain topics. However, if your story is based on the past, regardless of whether it is 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 to the conflict, or even how different the uniforms were, areimportant details that you will need to research. Getting historical details wrong (in terms of context) can look bad, unless you’re changing them on purpose.
5. One project at a time
This tip 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 mixed up between the stories and getting overwhelmed, and in the end you may not finish either of them. Writing just one book will 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 time-consuming projects outside of work. If you are offered more projects, no matter how exciting, don’t accept them until you finish your book. A project as big as starting to write a book is a difficult enough task.
6. Find your big idea
If you are going to write a book, you need that big idea, the one that will take you far enough to write an entire novel that you can read without ever getting bored. You need to find something you are passionate about and stick to it. Many of the times why people don’t finish a book is because what seemed to be that unique idea was not developed enough, or did not 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 about them, with potential for unlimited stories. These concepts stick in your mind, and your story should try to do the same.
Ask people you trust, do they like the idea? Are they left speechless? Do you want to hear more? Your true story has to be worthy of a book. Something less than that can become an article, a story or a short novel. When you have that idea you will know, 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. Word Target
Since writing a book is such a long process, one of the most difficult tasks is to keep writing and be consistent. There are going to be times when you don’t feel like writing and decide to leave it for another day. The more this 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 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 this is a minimum).
However, we recommend setting a weekly or monthly goal, since there are always days when it will be impossible for you to write, and it will make you feel bad if you skip your goal. Choosing how many words you set as a goal is already 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 rather being consistent with the writing.
It’s also important not to set a goal that is too ambitious, since you don’t want writing your book to become something you have to do, instead of something you enjoy doing. Take it easy 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 overcome 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 help you stay mentally sharp.
Morning pages:
The author of The Artist’s way, Julia Cameron recommends the morning pages’ exercise for writers who are stuck or suffering from writer’s block. It is an exercise that will help you recover your creativity. Cameron suggests we write three pages by hand of anything that comes to mind as soon as you wake up. Morning pages are not edited and there is no wrong way to write them. It is simply an exercise to get rid of everything that worries or distracts you in the morning, and thus clear your mind. She also suggests that we do it in a state of semi-consciousness, the pages are not reread or thought about much, you simply let yourself go. Cameron also explained that the morning pages are something very personal, and serve as therapy. Some will like it and others won’t, it’s a matter of trying it.
If you’re still stuck and don’t know how to start writing a book, we’ve dedicated an entire blog to how to overcome writer’s block.
9. What you should avoid
The story starts very slowly
The first chapter of your book is what will decide whether the reader will read the entire book or not. Many authors will spend the entire first chapter describing and introducing. Of course, it’s important to make sure the reader knows what’s happening, but they have to have some tension and excitement. Once you have written a couple of chapters you can begin to describe in detail what you need, since you have hooked the readers.
Write in too much detail
This tip is related to the previous one. It may sound counterintuitive but it happens a lot with novice authors. At first, thinking that you have to write around 50,000 words or more may sound inconceivable, so you start describing everything in great detail in the hopes that you will reach that number of words more quickly. However, as you write, you will notice that (if your idea is good) you will need those 50,000 words to tell your entire story. There are people who consult with very experienced authors and they explain to them that they could have told the same story in 20,000 fewer words. You have to provide details when necessary, but be careful not to bore the reader. If your idea and structure are good, you will be able to write the necessary number of words,
10. Let’s write!
The last tip on how to start writing a book is: Write, write, write! You’re going to make mistakes, and you’re going to have to do a lot of editing, but it’s all part of the process. The best way to get your best version of the book out is to keep writing until you are truly satisfied. An entire novel sounds like an impossible task, but take it word by word, sentence by sentence, and chapter by chapter, and before you know it you will be halfway through the book and still have much more to tell.
11. Print and publish your book
Even if you think there is still a long way to go for this step, it doesn’t hurt to take into account the printing and publication of your book while you write it. Did you know that, thanks to Print On Demand, with eBook Ghostwriting Services you can print your book from a single copy in hardcover and softcover? This is very useful, among other things, to make corrections on the paper before publishing your book, see how it would look once printed, and feel the excitement and pride of having your own story in your hands. Doing it is very simple, and the platform will also help you create a cover with the exact measurements so that you don’t have to worry. You can check how much it would cost to print your book in our pricing calculator.
You can also publish your book (that is, put it on sale) in our online store and network of bookstores so that anyone can buy it. Publishing your book does not require any initial investment and will allow you to sell your book around the world. Every time your book is sold, we will print it and send it to the client, and we will pay you the royalties.