How To Author a Book
The “Ah-Ha” Moment
So you have an idea for a book and you don’t know where to start. Take time to think this through as some authors spend years writing their first novel. Read your favorite books, think of the things you love most in life. If you’re a big sports fan, you may want to write a fictional story about a boy and his magic bat or a football player with superhuman strength. If you love hiking, you may want to write a story of a man or woman and her travels, much like Jon Krakauer’s ‘Into the Wild’. There is really no one way to go about, you really just need to let the author come out from within.
Once you’ve thought your idea through, you may come up with the “Ah-Ha” moment, where your idea just comes to you and feels right. This is when it’s time to get the pen to the paper.
Outlining the Story and Characters
Before you start writing the novel in full, put together a detailed outline of how you feel the story should go. Take each of the main characters through the path of the story and be sure to outline each of their personal stories and complex issues they’ll face in relationship to the other characters. This helps you to be sure that all your characters are well thought through and the intricacies of each personal character plot fits well into the main storyline.
One of my favorite examples of well thought stories is Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight series. Through four books, twenty plus characters and over 2500 pages of text, Stephanie was able to bring back her characters in each book without any loss of character integrity. Each character follows a path and never divulges from it. This means you never really say, “I thought Character X did this in the first book, but now he can’t”. It’s just a safe way to go about writing, even if your story is nonfiction.
Coping with Writers Block
You’ve started your novel and you have all your outlines put together, but now you’re stuck on page 25 and can’t think of what to say next. While your outline provides some guidance into the overall path, it does not write the book for you and every good author has faced this problem on a regular basis.
One of the best ways to cope with writers block is to get away from the book altogether. Get out of the room, go out with friends, take a few days off and eventually you’ll find yourself saying “That’s it, I know what’s next”. If this doesn’t work, give yourself more time and maybe review your outline a few times – the next piece of your novel is sure to come to fruition sooner or later.
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