So, You Want to Write a Book?
There’s the age-old saying that everyone has a book in them. But I’m not sure if that’s true.
There’s the age-old saying that everyone has a book in them. But, I’m not sure if that’s true.
Personally, I had at least seven books in me. And at the rate I’m going, churning out a book a year, I hope to knock out at least another fifty over the course of my life.
When I tell people that I’m an author, a question I’m frequently asked, is how do I get all my ideas? The layman generally tends to believe that the limitation to writing books is inspiration; sadly, my greatest limitation is not inspiration (I have so many ideas that I don’t know what to do with them all) but rather, time. Outside of my main fantasy series, The Archmage Saga, I have ideas for at least three completely new books. The cruel twist is that I don’t know when I’m finally going to be able to sit down an put each of them to paper.
For the last six years, I have religiously sat down every Friday and written. I’ve produced six manuscripts, with a seventh underway, and to date, published four novels. Every Friday isn’t committed exclusively to putting words on a page. Sometimes I have to edit. Sometimes I have to proofread. Occasionally I get to make cover art. And more often than I’d like, I have to market. But the average Friday is indeed me sitting down in front of my PC, clickity clacking away on my keyboard from about nine in the morning till seven in the evening.
Most people may think that’s a lot of dedication, especially given that after all this time, I’m only really just beginning to sell books in any significant numbers. I won’t lie, there are many Fridays where I just don’t feel like writing. Frequently, I have to force myself to start typing. But as difficult as it can be at times, I absolutely bloody love it!
Sure, often it’s a hard grind, but when I’m in the flow it is easy—perhaps a little too easy. When you get going, the words start pouring out and it is sacrilegious to break the flow. That’s why I normally finish at about seven in the evening, because, even though I spend about four hours procrastinating in the morning, and don’t really write anything useful until about two in the afternoon, when the flood gates open, there’s no holding back the tide.
Over the years, my average words per day has climbed steadily. I’m led to believe a typical author cranks out somewhere in the region of 1000 to 2000 words in a day. I’m probably sitting at an average of 3,500, but I have hit 5,000 a fair bit recently, and often in the past, when approaching the end of a project, I’ve been known to hit 10,000.
The difference between me and a typical author though, is that I only have Fridays on which to write. I’d love to be able to write fulltime, Monday to Friday, but unfortunately, as of yet, the books aren’t paying my mortgage, so I have to earn a living elsewhere. So, for now, I’m limited to just one day a week.
But even for those who do have the luxury of time and the financial freedom to commit wholly to a career as an author, surprise, surprise, writing a book start to finish is quite a lengthy process. Depending on the genre, a novel will usually fall within a word count range of 50,000 to 250,000 words, with a fair few epic fantasies surpassing that upper threshold quite considerably.
Depending on the project, a lot of time will be sunk into research and planning, even if you are what we in the biz call a pantser (someone who writes by the seat of their pants!) Some people are known for penning a lot of junk words on the page, only to go back and ruthlessly cull entire chapters before revising and rewriting almost everything in their first draft. Others, like me, spend a fair bit of time getting a sentence right the first time around (this particular sentence having been no exception!)
Now, so far in this post, I’ve spent a lot of time talking about me and my process, and how I go about writing books. The eagle-eyed reader will no doubt have noticed however, that the title of this blog post is, So YOU Want To Write A Book? The reason for this is not exclusively that I enjoy talking about myself, but rather, to give you an idea of what the process boils down to on a day-to-day basis. So, without further ado, let’s get into the meat and potatoes of the piece.
Start writing!
So, you want to write a book? Well, the first thing I’d like to do, is throw another question at you: Why haven’t you started already? The simple truth is, there is no good answer to that question. Any response is just an excuse. Just sit down and do it already! Funnily enough, if you want to write a book, you have to sit down and you know… actually write it!
This is the biggest reason why most people will never write a book, why being an author means being a member of an exclusive club. They say everyone has a book in them, but what does that even matter if only a tiny percentage of people will ever bother to write it? If you actually want to write a book, if its not just some romantic idea that you have no intention of fulfilling, then stop what you’re doing (preferably once you’ve finished reading this blog) and start putting words down on a page!
You’d think finishing a book is the hard part, but its not. I have no figures or statistics to back this up, but I bet you the ratio of people who finish writing a book after having started, is way higher than those who want to write one but never start.
It’s sounds so trivially obvious that it is almost insulting, but if you want to write a book, then for heavens sake, start writing one!
Make time
Not got enough time? Make time! When I first started writing I was studying Biomedical Science at university. I didn’t have the luxury of every Friday to sit down and write; instead, I stole an hour here or there after lectures and on weekends. Some weeks I’d get nothing written, other weeks I’d get down thousands of words. You have to find time wherever you can, even if it’s only ten minutes here and there to scribble out a few notes and ideas.
We’re all busy people living busy lives with loads of commitments, but if you want something done, ask a busy person. You’d be amazed how much extra time you can find in the day when you start searching for it, even if it means cutting things out, like those thirty minutes you just wasted scrolling through Instagram, or the hour you spent watching some trashy show on Netflix that you ultimately derived no satisfaction from.
Sometimes, you might genuinely struggle to squeeze in time to write, but you have to commit and make it a habit. Penning a book is a war of attrition, it is done chapter by chapter, page by page, sentence by sentence, word by word, goddamn letter by goddamn letter! The book will not be done until you have written every single one of those letters down, and so if you ever want to finish, you have to put in the time.
The ideas will come
A big complaint I get from people who claim they want to write a book is that they don’t really know where to start. They’re lacking in ideas and have no clue how to come up with a plot and characters for an entire book. This stems more really from a misconception. People seem to think that the process of writing is to first and foremost sit down and plan out the entire book before ever committing a single word to the page.
Maybe some authors do this, but I sure as hell don’t. I fall somewhere in the middle between a planner and a pantser. Sometimes I do let the writing take me to places I didn’t expect, but for the most part, I am always following a plan. It might only be a couple of bullet points guiding me, or some more detailed mapping might be required. But never have I ever begun a book with it already structured start to finish.
You only have to start with one idea. It might be a character. It might be a place. It might be a scene, or a concept. Whatever that idea, it doesn’t matter; that there is your starting point. Any ideas you have right now, start there. Come up with an opening scene and commit that to paper. You might finish chapter one and have to stop and think about where you’re going next, but the thing that no one ever tells aspiring authors, is that the actual process of writing spawns new ideas.
Once you’ve made a start, planning the next section is made easier. Characters really do speak for themselves. Plotlines really do emerge on their own. And the further into a book you get, the easier it gets to come up with the ideas for the remainder.
I normally start any book with an idea for the beginning, how I think I want the book to end (think being the keyword, because once you start making progress, you might find your original plans go out the window) and often a few vague ideas of things I want to happen in between.
The trick is to know somewhere you want to get to. You won’t know how to write yourself there, but you’ll figure it out by gradually taking steps in the right direction, sentence by sentence, paragraph by paragraph, until what do you know? You’ve arrived!
You’ll get better with practice!
Chances are, if you’re just starting out, you’re terrible at writing! I sure was. Unless you studied literature at university, you’re in all likelihood no Bill Shakespeare. But one day, you could be! Just like a professional athlete or a skilled artisan, you have to work at your craft. You’ll develop your skills through time committed to writing. Sure, you can take writing classes. I’d recommend reading as much as you can, both in your chosen genre and outside it. But above all, you won’t get better until you’ve put in the time.
Write your book. Then go back and rewrite it. Shelve it, because, in all probability, it is still terrible. Make a start on a new project. Rewrite that. Then, go back and look at your earlier work. Have a read of it; you’ll no doubt find you’ve come a long way. You are so much better now than you were, and guess what? You’ll only get better with time.
Now that you’ve spent some time away from your first book, perhaps its time to give it some more attention. Maybe when you’re done it’ll be good enough for publishing. Or, maybe it’ll need further revisions in the future. Either way, unless the first book you wrote happened to be titled To Kill A Mockingbird, it’s unlikely to be a success until you’ve developed your skills through writing other works.
Enjoy it!
This is the last point I’ll make, but it’s the most important. The reason I didn’t open with it though, is that you won’t know until you’ve put in the time.
You have to enjoy writing. It has to be a passion. The reason I sit down every Friday without fail, is because ultimately, I love it. I look forward to it all week. I love the process. I might despise editing, but I know it is a necessary evil. The greatest satisfaction I get in this life is listening to someone talk about one of my books after they’ve read it (you know… provided they actually enjoyed it.)
If you don’t enjoy writing, then sadly, writing a book isn’t for you. It’s a lonely process. You spend a lot of time by yourself, shut off from the world, immersed in a story that no one else has ever experienced. You’ll finish a day’s work, bursting at the seams, wanting to talk to someone about the awesome chapter you just wrote, but unless you are prepared to spoil the book, you can’t tell anyone about it! You have to wait. Wait until it’s done. Wait until they’ve read it.
It takes a very specific sort of person to write a book. Not everyone is cut out for it. For that reason, I’d like to cast doubt over the notion that everyone has a book in them; because even if they do, what they might not have in them, is what it takes to write 1it.