writing a book?

Question

I have been thinking about writing a book. How do i get started?

like what to write about, how to get it published, etc. etc. etc.

Answer 1

Again, if you cannot come up with any ideas on your own then you have NO IMAGINATION and I would suggest another pursuit. Writing a book (a REAL book not the little fake books you kids all claim to write and then "publish" - chuckle - on line) is very hard work and takes great skill. Also imagination and an ability to work independently. You don't seem to possess these traits. And the guy above who claims to have published a couple of novels (I wonder what the titles are) and now does those on-line books that NOBODY reads - or buys - except for his family and friends, well, like I said those on line sites and on line publishing is not considered ACTUAL REAL publishing. On line publishing consists of sites that publish ANYTHING, and you usually pay a fee, and then try and sell your book for $5.00 to anyone dumb enough to buy (download) a copy. Or, you get some other vanity press to do it (key work here is "vanity") and pay a ton of money and end up with copies of something no one wants! Don't get sucked into that nonsense, either. Again, REAL writing is hard work that takes years of experience to master. All you kids say "I wanna write a book" and you have absolutely NO clue as to what you are doing. Apparently you believe that REAL writing is easy. It is not and I imagine most of you give up fairly quickly.

Answer 2

I'm assuming this is a novel? If not ignore the following. If so...

You should do Nanowrimo (National Novel Writing Month) in November - then people all over the world will be trying to write a book at the same time and you will have an instant online support network.

Without that deadline though, just sitting down and writing you are likely to come a cropper fairly soon. It is common to get stuck in the early chapters because you are worried too much about getting the wording right and not moving the story forward.

Before you start, do a bit of creative brainstorming. Work on your characters - describing them and putting them in different situations. Work on your setting, and the different stories / characters / situations that it lends itself to. Identify the themes you are trying to write about and write ideas for how they could be expressed through different characters, stories and situations.

A lot of stuff will need to be thrown out but that's okay. It is important not to lock anything in too early (eg it will end with a dramatic show-down between the hero and the villain, OR: I need to use this really cool line I came up with). What you're doing to begin with is identifying possibilities and options for when you do sit down and start writing.

Above all - work on it, for at least a little time, every day. If you have no ideas for the book, then do a writing exercise to work on your skills. Don't expect it to happen quickly, or to go smoothly, or to not feel like tearing your hair out at some points. Writing is hard work and like any skill takes a lot of practice to get it right. Good luck.

Answer 3

Strap butt to chair.

Write.

Optional but useful: Read a lot. Research topics related to what you want to write. Read more. Obtain copy of Strunk & White's 'Elements of Style.' Read books.

But mostly - strap rump to chair and write.

--Choosing what to write: Figure out your own interests and what YOU want to talk about and stop polling the internet. We cannot tell you what to write, only offer advice on how.

If you don't feel some sort of passion for the topic or story you have chosen, you will either fail or have a great career as a writer of books 'novelised from a major motion picture.'

--For publication purposes, acquire a copy of Writer's Market; it's an annual publication sold at major bookstores that cover what the industry is presently like, major trends, and has a listing of every major and many minor publishers, what they specialise in, and how to contact them.

You will likely want to choose your project and finish it/get close to finishing it first; very few publishers are going to toss money to someone with no finished product to show them.

Answer 4

What kinds of books do you like? Have you ever read one and thought, "I bet I can do better than that!"? I don't suggest plagiarism, of course, but you can develop your writing style from there. A good thing to do is record your daydreams in something similar to a journal, I've taken elements from mine and turned them into a story.

As for publishing, ask your local library for the current edition of "Writer's Market." It lists publishers and what they're looking for and tips on getting published.

Answer 5

I've published two novels, one ebook and along with many other projects. Write what you know. Don't be afraid to do research both on the topic and on writers who are successful in the same genre.

As for the pubishers--be very careful. Do your research and contact some of their authors. Their is also a site called Editors and Prediators. They have warnings about publishers, editors and distributers who have ethics problems. it's easier to get into a contract than it is to get out. If you would like to see what I do, go to my site at www.theresachaze.com

Answer 6

I am only 13 right now but I have already written 2 short novels about random things that go on in my life (for ex. I have a cochlear implant on my left ear so I wrote a book about a girl who had to get one and how it changed her life in good and bad ways) Or another thing you could do is i get a pen and paper, and then just write one sentence . Just write whatever comes to your mind like for ex. if the first thing coming to my mind is swimming than i would build on that and write a story about a person who is a pro swimmer or maybe get really creative and make it about a person who got injured or in a really bad accident and couldn't swim anymore but they couldn't give it up they just kept swimming .. i dunno just do something like that!

Answer 7

you pick up your pencil then you write what is in your brain.
And that is all.

Answer 8

that is so funny, i was just going to ask that exact same question....if you find out let me know:)

Answer 9

First, learn about how to tell a story. Then write it. Then revise it a few times and then start asking about how to get published. Those are two completely separate events and thinking about getting published will do you no good to learn how to tell a good story.

You asked a common question in this category. Essentially, you need to tell a story that says "life is like that!". Below is what I've written before and developed here on Yahoo Answers to the many exact questions identical to what you just asked. If you have any questions about it or want clarification, post it in your additional details or e-mail me.

There is a form to storytelling, but no formula. You either understand the form or you don't. If you don't, whether consciously or subconsciously, then you will not be able to write a story. But you can learn and maximize your talent by discovering what the form is. Some have absolutely no talent and are not able to understand what storytelling is even when it's spelled out for them. Only you can decide where you stand -- no gimmicks will help you otherwise.

Stories are a metaphor for life. Before you even begin to write you must have something to say or else your characters go from scene to scene without any meaning. There are three things that I believe are important and these three things are often confused with each other. Learning about these I think will help you to move your story:

1) Premise
2) Setting
3) Theme

Let me illustrate the difference so you can easily find the theme and understand its difference from the setting and premise. By seeing how a writer creates stories, you can see it from his or her point of view and clearly find the theme, create a premise and setting and learn to do it yourself.

The controlling idea is the meaning of your story. It is another word for "theme". The premise is what happens. The setting is the place and time where it's set.

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.." Or they may answer "It's about Middle Earth". These are not themes. The first is simply the premise. The latter is the setting. What the story is *really* about is: "Freedom is attained when we risk and sacrifice ourselves." That is the controlling idea (the theme) of the story. Of course, we can debate if that is the true controlling idea but I'm only giving you my interpretation.

Harry Potter's premise contains magic, and the setting is in a fantasy land, but the theme is not about magic nor fantasy. The theme of Harry Potter might be: "Happiness prevails when we are confident of our own gifts and individuality." Discuss. =)

Now you can apply this understanding as I'll explain below with a story to any story you read.

First, I'll explain the premise. This way you'll see the difference.

A writer finds a premise through research and asking "what if" for any situation. If you read the news, one 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. Now we're going to start thinking of the controlling idea. This is what is the heart of your story -- the story you need to tell and what the story is *truly* about.

The controlling idea is not a single word; it's not going to be about "viruses" nor "aliens" nor "Civil War". The Controlling Idea tells us, "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 (again, theme and controlling idea are the same -- I prefer to use controlling idea). This change will show up in the climax of the last act of your story. That's where you will find the controlling idea.

Concerning how I came up with Harry Potter's controlling idea, I looked at the last acts' endings of every Harry Potter story. What value changed? Harry went from being unconfident to confident and therefore was happy whereas each story opens with him in a situation and the world crumbling around him and constantly being challenged. Look at the last act's value change.

Fine writers filter everything they write through the controlling idea and then work up to the last climax -- look at the value that exists throughout the story because there will be themes that come and go. For example in Harry Potter he often seeks to befriend those who try to do him harm so we learn that "Trust is earned when we love our enemy" -- or because that didn't always work we could say, "Evil prevails when we try to love our enemies" but either of these is not the controlling idea of the entire story.

Going back to my story, by following the writer's work and 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 I will ask myself and we're going to come to the controlling idea of the story I created: 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.

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 a writer develops the story, they 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 the writer's 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 the controlling idea and that is where the power of the story exists -- it gives it meaning.

For the setting let's place this premise 50 years into the future on Earth.

The character will have an 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 discovery -- 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 for himself, not to help people -- this makes him conflicted and provides excellent dimension to his character. 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 of the last climax 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 whether this is based during the time of the Civil War, the present, or on Mars.

Although I wrote a lot, I hope leading you through the writer's process will help you to see clearer how stories are developed and make it easier to find the theme and your premise and then things will begin to fall into place.