How to Begin Your Book
As a writer you are probably thinking about starting a book. There are many reasons for writing a book and as many reasons for procrastinating. Here are a few ideas to help you get started.
Your Idea
Before you begin your book try to flesh out your idea by writing an outline. The outline will help you decide how the book is to progress and what is to happen in the book. The outline isn’t set in stone and it’s going to change over time as you write your book. The outline does give you something to go on and it can make writing the book a lot easier. The outline may contain:
- Major and minor character data sheets
- Major plot points
- Minor plot points
- Chapter outlines
These are just basic ideas. You can add and subtract things to the outline as much as you want. This is easier than starting at chapter one and having nothing on the page. The outline is your guide to beginning your book.
Writing
When writing your book don’t stop to fix grammar, make sentence adjustments, or to think about what’s right or wrong about the chapters you’re creating. What you want to do is draft the entire book in a short amount of time. The 1st draft will not take a long time to write if you have done enough with the outline. Just begin to write and don’t stop until the book is done. This is now your 1st very rough copy of the book. As you rewrite for the next draft the process will take more time and the book will begin to take shape.
A common mistake of most writers is to try and get everything perfect in the 1st draft. If you try to so this you’ll spend forever just writing one page because you simply won’t be satisfied with it. A 1st draft allows you to cut entire chapters if they don’t work for you or perhaps save them for other writing. So once you begin to write just keep going until the book is done.
Write Each Day
Try to set aside a bit of time each day to write even if this is just 500-1000 words on your book. Before you know it the entire book is going to be done. Don’t let your book sit there for months on end without writing just get the book done in as little time as possible and then worry about the edits. Take time each day to write and you’ll have your book done before you know it. Most writers will sit down and keep writing until the book is done and the prolific ones get the book done quickly.