I would like to write a book but never did it;can anyone help?

Answer 1

What kind of help do you need? If you know what you want to say but don't have good grammar, spelling, etc. you can tell the story to a good writer (like me) and then have the person write your book. This is called ghostwriting. Another way you can do it is to write your book the best way you know how and send it off to a publisher.

Answer 2

Sit down and start typing. No matter how trite or cruel that answer may sound, until you put your ideas on paper you have nothing.

Don't have an idea? Here's a way to train yourself to see all the world around you as an idea or premise. Read very carefully The Writer's Journey by Christopher Vogler. Yes I know, it's mainly written for screenwriters. The ideas work for novelists too. Take notes. You will need them.

Take any good movie with a simplistic plot and only one to three main characters. Disney movies are excellent for this. Do not choose Lord of the Rings or The Matrix. Too many characters and a heavily woven plot. Watch your chosen movie with the remote in hand. Every scene change, write down what happened. "Hero gets a letter inviting him to a school of wizardry" is the basic first plot point behind "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone."

After the movie is over, go back and reword your notes to be more generic. "Hero gets a communication forcing a choice that changes everything." You must remove all hints of setting, genre, and characters. This is very important. Unless you do this, it is plaigiarism if you use those notes later. You must be left with a "bare bones" plot giving no hint of the original.

Do this with several of your favorite movies. Soon you will find yourself saying, "Oh, here comes the Black Moment. I wonder how the hero and heroine will get out of this fix?" Your friends will toss popcorn at you for spoiling their viewing experience, but you will know you have learned how to write well.

Good luck, and I hope to see you at my publishers someday.

Answer 3

Sit down every day, and just start writing. Come up with characters that are well-rounded and that the reader can really care about. You might find that if your characters are well developed, the story takes you in directions you never expected. There's no magic solution, you just have to start to write.

I would suggest working on your grammar every day, as well. Pick up a copy of "The Elements of Style" for help with that. These are some of my other favorite books on writing:

1) "On Writing Well" by William Zinsser-- This is an excellent reference for any kind of writing. It will make your emails, essays, stories, and other writing clearer. I recommend this to everyone who wants to improve their writing skills.

2) "Bird By Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life" by Anne Lamott-- This is slightly more geared towards fiction writing, but can be helpful when you are attacking ANY large project in your life. Definitely a must for creative writers, students, or people who are looking for an entertaining book on writing.

3) "Writing Down the Bones" by Natalie Goldberg. This definitely targets creative writing, and focuses on the practice of writing. I write a lot of poetry and am working on a novel, and this is incredibly motivational to me. Practicing your writing every day will help teach you how to put those ideas together.

As for websites that can offer help, my absolute favorite is http://www.hollylisle.com/fm/ for the terrific articles and advice that it provides. There is an article on almost any subject that you would need help on, so definitely start there!

Good luck!

Answer 4

The world is divided into two groups: those that intend to write a book, and those that actually do it.

The ONLY way to write a book is to find something worth saying, then sit down and put black on white until it's done. It is hard, long, lonely work. There is no no other way.

Answer 5

Evaluate your reasons why you want to write. Is it because you think its easy? You think its cool? You have a need to write that burns like a thousand suns? If you have a story in you, it has got to come out...quoting some person I can't remember...
I'm sorry man, but theres no such thing as writing for money. You love what you do, you get so caught up in it that you have to live in two worlds at once, you find passion, or you don't get published. Its one of those things..

Answer 6

I always recommend looking for ideas for a short story or book by writing down odd thoughts or observations that pass through your mind.

Tolkien started "The Lord of The Rings" while he was in trench in WWI, when the phrase ''Somewhere a Hobbit lives in a Hobbit hole" passed through his mind, and he decided to look into it further.

In a similar light, someone once pompously offered to pray for me, and I told them to Pray For Me At Your Own Risk. I developed my answer into a published short story, later developed the short story into a monologue in a stage play which was then produced, and then adapted the stage play into a screenplay which is scheduled for production by an independent film maker. Eventually, I'll turn my answer into a novel.

Answer 7

Hi! It helps to join a good writer forum. Many writers are great at encouraging each other.

I found such a group. It has helped. I've written five novels and two that I've submitted I got me contracts. My first novel will be on shelves next year.

You may wish to consider trying NaNo (national novel writers month). That commits you to getting the novel written. Their website is www.nanowrimo.org.

Answer 8

I'm trying to write some stuff and for me i find i just have to sit down and not stop writing until i have a page down. It doenst matter if its really bad, you can always edit it later; just write.

Answer 9

To get you started, below is the process that will show you how a story begins from idea to germination. Then, once you grasp this you can learn how to turn a seedling of a story into a rose bush.

To find a topic to tell a meaningful story, you must have something to say. There are two things that I believe are important to find what that something is:

1) Controlling Idea (another word for theme)
2) Premise

The controlling idea is the meaning of your story. The premise is what happens.

For example, when you ask someone who just watched or read "Lord of the Rings" what it's about, they'll probably say something like, "it's an epic story about a hobbit who is given a huge responsibility to take a magical ring into a mountain to destroy it and save the world and elves and men unite to....etc..". That's simply the premise. What the story is *really* about is "we are truly free when we risk and sacrifice ourselves." That is the controlling idea of the story. Of course, we can debate if that is the true controlling idea but I'm only giving you my interpretation and illustrating the difference between what a story is really about and what happens in a story.

Now you can apply this understanding to your own idea. But first you need to come up with a premise.

Finding a premise is accomplished through research and asking yourself "what if" for any situation. If you read the news, you can find many ideas if you simply ask yourself "what if" as you read through it.

For example, I randomly selected a news article on Yahoo News:
Survivors recall horror of flu pandemic

As I'm reading through each line, I'm thinking about story ideas and asking "what if". For example, I read this line:

>> The flu swept through the nation's capital, which had attracted thousands of soldiers and war workers.

Now I'm asking myself, 'what if someone built a virus and orchestrated a large event so they could infect everyone in it to inflict the most damage?'

That's a start, but sounds a bit cliche, but that's okay. Let your mind race and you'll then ask "what if" upon "what if". What if the person accidently released the virus and kept silent while everyone around them died? What if the event was organized by a force where people are called to gather in one location but everyone made excuses for going there without realizing they were being forced -- only a supernatural force could do that -- and the reason is the supernatural force wanted to end the human race? hehe...this gets into some horror or science-fiction if that's your bag. But you can see the magic "what if" at work.

Let's choose the supernatural 'what if' as the premise in this example. We still need the controlling idea. This is what is the heart of your story -- the story you need to tell. Fine stories have deep meaning and make people think.

The controlling idea is found within our story. It's not a single word; it's not going to be about "viruses" nor "aliens". A controlling idea generates itself from your story. As you try to discover your controlling idea, you will also begin to understand the story that you want to tell, that says, "life is like this!"

The controlling idea will be a sentence that tells us how and why life changes from one condition of existence to another. This change will show up in the climax of the last act of your story.

So, how do you know your controlling idea before you've even written your story?

This is where you want to think about what happens in your story and then work up to the last climax. It's going to be rough, but if it's satisfying, you can work with it and develop around it.

Using the premise that people are being supernaturally led to gather in one location, we need to come up with a protagonist. I'm going to use a "what if" and ask 'what if the protagonist is also under this supernatural spell?' That will make it more interesting because it will provide deeper conflict. Not only will he have to try to save the world but also get out the spell himself perhaps.

Some more questions: What is this spell? What is so attractive to force these people to gather without them even knowing they're being forced? Now this is starting to get rich. We know a lot of people do things they don't want because they're manipulated. Cults are famous for doing this. Charismatic leaders and propaganda are also effective. People are manipulated in many ways that many fail to see they're being manipulated. And those who best manipulate do it without you knowing. Life is like that! Now I'm starting to find my controlling idea.

So, how can my protagonist fit into this? My controlling idea is a sentence, it's not simply "manipulation". So, I start with something -- it's better than nothing: "Evil prevails when we fail to examine our conscious and instead follow others" or "Compassion prevails in humans only when we follow our conscious". Whichever we choose, it must be clear in the last-climax of the last act of your story.

As you build your story, you work to that last act. Many writers paste that controlling idea onto the computer monitor and filter everything they write through it. Your characters may go in different directions, but this controlling idea is your guide.

Concerning the setting, you can place this story in a different dimension, in a different time, or on a different planet. That will change the dynamics of the story but it won't change your controlling idea and that is where the power of your story exists.

We've now simply found your idea. Now we need to discuss how to flesh it out and make it into a novel so you don't stop it in the middle.

For the setting let's place this premise 50 years into the future on Earth. All stories are made up of beginnings, middles, and endings. Each scene is also made up of begginings, middles, and endings. Each scene provides conflict and change, and moves the story forward.

Almost every single story is based on a quest where your protagonist chases a desire. So, we need to think about your character's object of desire. In the premise that I've created, the supernatural force is manipulating people to gather in one location so it can infect them with a virus. Because I think this force is intelligent and sly, it's not going to be identical for every peson and is going to feed on the weakness of every individual. I think the best object of desire for the protagonist is going to be his pursuit of power within his sphere of influence. So, let's say he's an oceanographer (I pulled that out of nowhere). He would become famous and influential if he made an important discover -- perhaps a discovery that can save lives such as tsumani detection technology (but in 50 years in the future we could make a more futuristic device). This is what he wants -- power. The force provides him the opportunity to seek this object and eventually he's going to have to go to this one location where the force intends to infect him. Now we have a lot more what ifs' to ask. As you can see, we're starting a great outline of the story and fleshing it out.

But we need to get back to the controlling idea.

I like up-endings so I want him to become redeemed in the end. I think his pride is too great and his pursuit of power is evil. His idea of saving lives is a great idea, but his reasoning is not -- he's doing it to gain influence, not to help people -- this makes him conflicted and provides excellent dimension. This force is going to manipulate his desire. But I am also going to add a subconscious desire to this. I want it so that he really doesn't want power...he simply doesn't recognize that the work he does already helps to save lives by adding to the research of others who are trying to find effective tsunami detection devices. He'll end up realizing this in the end. And this matches my controlling idea: "Evil prevails when we fail to examine our conscious and instead follow others." His pursuit of power only leads him into trouble as he follows others in trying to please them. But we still have to deal with this supernatural force that is manipulating everyone. Do we make our protagonist one who defeats the force, or do we make him lose by it. Either way, we must know the controlling idea clearly at the end no matter what he does.

Although I went off in a science-fiction direction, the controlling idea I discovered can exist in any genre and any setting. So, do lots of "what ifs" and reflect upon your controlling idea and outline your story to flesh it out. I hope my illustration can help.

I believe all this information is related to finding your idea to tell a meaningful story and get you started.