If you are a lover of reading, surely you have wondered how to write a book. Maybe you have been thinking about different ideas to write a story for several years just like your favorite writers. You may even have several notebooks and diaries full of interesting stories that you don’t dare to publish.
Although writing a book is not easy, this does not mean that it is impossible. Moreover, if you have the determination and commitment to get to the level of JK Rowling, we are sure that learning how to write a book will be a more bearable process for you.
As if that were not enough, you will also find a list of the most common mistakes made by writers when writing their first book in the final section of this note. So, after reviewing them, you’ll be ready to write a successful book.
So, stop procrastinating on your talent, it’s time to get started!
Why writes a book?
The reasons to learn how to write a book are innumerable. In fact, these vary depending on each writer, since the mind of every artist is different. However, one of the main reasons to start writing a book is to share some idea, story or philosophy with other people, just as a singer does with music.
Now, if you’re here to figure out how to write your first book, it’s normal to have fears and insecurities before you start. Nerves are part of the way, because even the most famous writers had to fight them in their beginnings.
To deal with those limitations, the key is to put aside excuses and venture to write a book with the following reasons in mind:
- Writing a book is your legacy to the world
- People love discovering new writers with amazing stories.
- Elevate your personal brand and position yourself for better opportunities
- You will learn new things along the way
- You will discover what you are most passionate about: writing
As you can see, from the creative journey that writing a book means, you can discover your passions, connect with yourself and also with the people who share your hobbies.
With all this, we hope that you are encouraged and ready to make a best seller after learning how to write a book with the tips that you will see later. Let’s keep going!
Tips for writing your first book
Now that you know why writing a book is a very good idea for any book lover, it’s time for you to learn some guidelines to learn how to write a book step by step.
To do this, we will share with you 10 tips for writing a book that you must internalize very well before grabbing your notebook and starting to write. Rest assured that if you follow these steps to write a book, this creative experience will be much more enjoyable.
1. Find the right place to create
Let’s start with one of the tips that many writers don’t comment on, however, it is essential to understand how to write a book from scratch.
Especially early on, finding yourself in a place free of distractions will not only stimulate your creativity, but also prevent you from losing track of ideas when developing the plot of the story. Remember that when writing a book, you must ensure that all parts are consistent with each other.
Once you have more experience, or have clearly defined each part of your story, we are sure that you will be able to write a book from anywhere.
2. Choose a genre that you know widely
The second tip for learning how to write a book is important for two reasons.
The first is that, during the process of writing a book, it will be easier for you to advance if you know the genre you want to do, since you will have an idea of its structure and the elements that make it up.
Also, knowledge in a particular genre is very helpful, since having read other books, you know where you can get inspiration and references. Without a doubt, with this tip for writing a book, you will be able to save time and feel more comfortable with what you write in your drafts.
The second reason is that the more you know about a particular genre of book, the greater your knowledge about the reading public. But does that really help? Of course! In fact, understanding the audience is key to starting to write a book.
Remember that copies of your books will go to the big fans of that genre. Therefore, knowing what the public likes will help you a lot during the process of writing a successful book.
3. Brainstorm to find the perfect theme
Formulating ideas to write a book is very challenging. Hence, the third tip on how to write a book.
According to the American writer Jerry Jenkins , the idea you choose to write a book should be one that you are passionate about. In this way, you will not lack motivation to move forward with your literary project every day.
Precisely, one of the main reasons why people do not finish writing a book is because the idea they chose was not the right one to build several pages of it.
Now, how can you tell if the ideas for a book that are going through your mind are the best? First of all, we recommend brainstorming to assess the value of each theme, so that by choosing the right one to write a book, you will be sure that the plot will be successful.
Also, we advise you to ask the closest people if that idea seems incredible to them. In the same way, you can do the following exercise: imagine which characters are born from that idea and how each of them develops. If you notice that you have material to elaborate that story, you have found the ideal topic to start writing your book!
4. Make an outline of your book
The fourth tip in our guide will go a long way in guiding you through the process of how to write a book. Therefore, pay attention to the following lines.
Before writing a book, it is essential that you have defined what your story will be about, that is, it is not only necessary that you decide what the genre of the book will be, you must also keep in mind the central points of the plot and the history of the characters.
The following questions will help you define the outline for writing a book:
- Who are the protagonists?
- What are the characteristics of the characters and what is their personality like?
- What is the goal of each character in the story?
- What do you want to tell?
- How will you tell the story?
- What will be the conflict in the story?
- What will be the end of your protagonists?
- What lesson do you want to give your readers?
In short, making an outline of the most important information in the story will help you organize your ideas so you don’t lose track of the plot and understand how to write a book more easily.
5. Divide the process of writing a book into small tasks
When a person perceives that the road to meet their goals is long and requires a lot of patience, they will most likely give up if they do not know how to organize themselves. This scenario also applies to writing a book, since the process is not easy and does not happen immediately.
Therefore, if you want to finish writing your book and not give up along the way, you must understand that human beings love small achievements, as this dynamic is crucial in order not to fall into demotivation.
But, how to write a book without getting overwhelmed with the passage of time? Very simple: organize yourself so that you can create small tasks to move forward with the process of writing a book on a daily basis.
To do this, define how many pages the book should have, set small daily, weekly or fortnightly goals. For example, the most popular book writing technique among some writers is to set an approximate number of words to write per day.
Do not forget that you must be responsible with the commitment you make with yourself to write a book. Download this schedule of personal activities to fulfill your project on how to write a book in the most agile and efficient way.
6. Set a deadline to finish writing a book
Another tip that will help you answer the question of how to write a book is to put a start and end date on your project. Sometimes, by looking for perfectionism when writing a book, you can make the mistake of extending the time to finish it.
Therefore, when it comes to starting to write a book it is important to get organized, with the help of a calendar, and set a realistic date when you plan to finish. With this, you will be demanding yourself to meet the agreed delivery day and bring your masterpiece to life.
Also, if later on you want to publish a book with a publisher, you should know that deadlines can be very cruel if you are not disciplined with your times. So, this will be a previous exercise to get used to the demands of the market.
7. Ask for the opinion of your friends, family or acquaintances
To learn how to write a successful book, it is important to get feedback from people before you finish your work. Following this recommendation to write a book is essential to know the strengths and weaknesses of the story.
According to Jeff Goins, an American writer, if you want to write a book that tells an entertaining and consistent story, it is essential that you seek opinions that help you discern between what is worth keeping in the plot and what does not generate value.
This is a trick to write a book in which any of your acquaintances can help you, whether they are friends, family or a specialized editor. Of course, you have to be sure that each of them will give you honest feedback. Otherwise, this process will not be effective.
8. Craft an amazing start
Well, as part of the sixth tip for how to write a book, you must answer the following question: do you want your readers to read your book and finish it until the end? The path to achieve this may be a little more complicated than it seems, but in reality, it all depends on your first steps.
In other words, if you want to be successful when you start writing a book, make sure that the opening is impressive, so that your audience is instantly hooked. It is important that you are direct and clear with what you want to convey. For example, you can start your story with a surprising event like a murder, a grand robbery, or a sudden death.
Another technique for writing a book that can engage your audience is to tell the end of the story from the beginning. Then, throughout the book, you can guide the reader to figure out what happened to get to that ending. Many books and movies have achieved great success with this strategy.
But no matter what attraction strategy you use to write a book, remember that the goal is for readers to connect with your great work. To do this, I recommend you read the best books for writers in training that you can consult during your literary writing process.
9. Create a writing habit
As people, we find it difficult to create good habits in our lives. But, as we mentioned before, if you aspire to be a successful writer, a very important quality is discipline.
So, one of the answers to the question of how to write a book is a lot of discipline and perseverance.
Now, how do you develop a writing habit? To do this, I leave you some ideas that you can put into practice every day to start writing a book.
- Write every day at the same time
- Keep your writing space defined
- Put aside email and social networks
- Exercise against writer’s block
We know that creating a habit can be challenging, however, if one of your biggest goals right now is to start writing a successful book, rest assured that investing a few hours in this process will be worth it.
10. Use a program to write books
Finally, you should know that it will be easier for you to write a book with a writing program. Although Word helps a lot to write or edit books, this program does not offer as many tools as other software.
Against this, there are programs that offer you interesting features that will be useful when writing a book.
Therefore, if you want to be more organized and publish a successful book in the future, you need to work with specialized programs for writing books. Also, you will look like a great writer in front of many publishers.
So how do you write a book just like a best seller? Simple: with one of these applications to write books , among which you can choose the one that best suits your needs. Take advantage of these tools to write a book from today.
