I want to write a book...?

Question

I dont really have a concrete idea. Ive always been interested in writing and I want to actually compose a book and have it published. I care nothing about making money off it, I just want to write it. I have a few ideas but Im looking for something more to expand off of. I know where to go once I have an idea, I dont need people telling me to brainstorm, I have some ideas, I just want an outside opinion that I can run with.. anything will help, I can run with a small idea or add onto a larger idea.

Answer 1

Topsy,

Take the hint from Persiphone and do what you can for yourself. I hate to admit that what she says is very true. What I mean is that: critics, editors, publishers, literary agents will be a lot harsher than she is. Believe me, I know. Critics have been there to tear apart great authors such as King, Patterson, Rowling, and many others.

I'm impressed that you want to write a book. I don't have any words to beat you up with, I just would like folks like yourself to try a bit harder to fend for yourself. You must have some great ideas from movies and books, no?

Here's the advice I got from other writers.

"Write short stories first, PJ. Then look up some magazines and anthologies that are looking for your kind of story."

I did this and finally after a year or so, I wrote my first novel. It took me about a year and a half, six months in research and a year to finish what I researched.

Get a few books on how to go about writing. Dialogue, point of view, grammar... that sort of thing. You can do this on your own, believe me.

If you decide to do it, I wish you all the best.

PJ M

Answer 2

First of all, just about every writer/author out there is not in it for the money. If you don't want people telling you to brainstorm then why are you here? you obviously have your ideas as you have stated but are looking for an outside opinion you can run with?
If you don't have concrete ideas, your readers, should you have any, will know right off the bat and won't consider turning the page.
Ask yourself, are you wanting to write because you've got a cool idea and think it will make an interesting book or are you wanting to write because it is something that drives you, something that makes you work all hours of the day or night to polish it to perfection and then try to sell it to the world?
If you want to expand off of something, I'm sure there are plenty of things out there that will satiate your desire to just write. It's called fan-fiction. Now, if you are very adamant about writing and just HAVE to do it, come up with your own ideas and opinions to write off of, don't ask other people for their views. The only view that will count in writing will be your own. Again, if you don't have something concrete you may not even get published whether you care about the money or not.
I'm not trying to be mean and nasty but everyone thinks they have a good story, yet ask everyone here to give them the ideas and opinions that they can work off of. Work off of your own intellect and insterests. Work off of your own imagination and your own creativity. Put yourself into your story or book or idea and make it something that comes from *you*. THAT is what writing a book is about.

Answer 3

Learn how to write a story. Many writers know how to write a story subconsciously because they read a lot and have picked up the storytelling form. Maybe you can do this. If you could, then you wouldn't be posting here and therefore you'll probably be writing in circles with scenes that go nowhere. But there's still hope. Academia used to explicitly teach storytelling to students before the 1960s. Unfortunately, creative writing classes no longer teach storytelling so don't bother taking any unless you need discipline to write. But there are still resources available that will bring you up to speed. With a little talent you can increase your craft and write a story.

Check out "Story" by Robert McKee. It's used at the top film schools to teach the students simply how to tell a story.

There are lots of other resources but that book will give you a very firm foundation.

Answer 4

I judge a good book, just like I would judge a good movie. My number one rule is, if it makes me cry, it's passed my test. I like books that make me feel as though the characters and their situations are real. I want to forget that I'm even reading. A good book is one that keeps you up into the early hours of the morning. You find yourself crying, shaking in fear or excitement. Those are the books that are "skin breaking" in my opinion. So some people may love Twilight, other's hate it. As long as it made someone, somewhere get those chills and goosebumps, it's considered a good book in my head. Well-written doesn't neccessarily mean it has to have huge vocab and so many details you don't even know what's happening, to me it just means that the writer knows what he or she is doing with their story. Oh well, I'm rambling, so I'll stop. But basically, a good book has to grab you by the hair and throw you into a world you never knew existed and leave you awe-struck and at a loss for words when it's over.

Answer 5

Nobody can really tell you what to write about other than to tell you to write about what you know. You do need people to tell you to brainstorm - because ideas are a dime a dozen. What you need is to brainstorm one of those ideas into something concrete. There is no shortcut. There is no magic answer that suddenly makes you an author and gets you published. People literally struggle for years trying to do that. And yet day in and day out, people come to Yahoo Answers thinking they can just get an idea and run with it - turning it into a published novel.

Ask Stephen King how many rejections he got before he got published and how long it took him to write his first book. Ask James Patterson about his 20 or 30 rejections. A very smart author once said that the way to write a book was to sit down and open a vein. That is exactly the way it is. YOU have to open a vein. Nobody can do it for you. Nothing in life works that way.

The best thing I can say to you is that if you don't have a concrete idea, you aren't ready to write a book. How many short stories have you written? What have you done to hone your craft and get training? In other words, how have you paid your dues?

When I hear someone asking for someone to give them something they can expand off of, I think of a parasite. Isn't that exactly what a parasite does? Lives off someone else? You are asking someone to sacrifice their personal intellectual property to a total stranger when they could just use their ideas themselves and write. Who would do that? Why would you expect someone to do that?

Quite honestly I cannot understand questions like this one. It's like saying you want to play major league baseball but you lack the skills so you want Alex Rodriguez to do it for you and send you the paycheck. That would be really nice, wouldn't it? But it isn't going to happen. Nobody in this world should give up their skills and talents to someone they don't even know.

You need to get down off your high horse and start brainstorming if you expect to write a book. Unfortunately you have to do it like everybody else does. And if you think for one minute anyone believes you care nothing about making money from it, then I have a bridge for sale.

Remember this. Before you can dance, you have to pay the piper. And THAT my friend, is the best advice you will ever get. And you got it gratis.

Pax - C

Answer 6

Try keeping a dream journal. When you wake up each morning, try to remember what you dreamt, and write it down. Then go back a week or so later and see if it still seems interesting, or if it sparks an idea.

After you get a few such ideas, come back to them again and see which one or ones you are still excited about. The idea that you are most keen on is the one to write as a novel.

Answer 7

I Really know what you mean Ive started a book yet it is Totally by accident You know there is always science fiction Create something Like A man a crossed the universe that has been alive for five thousand years yet he is sentenced for a term of lives in poisoned and these people never die wouldn't that suck Then he escapes

Answer 8

Do you know the essentials of a story? The exposition, resolution, climax, and so forth?

Assuming you do then get into the habit of writing and see if it propels you forward. Lot of my story ideas begin with, wouldn't that concept or scene be cool. Then it builds out from there. I also take my dreams and turn them into story ideas as well.

Also, I wouldn't say you need to write about something you have experienced. Develop a unique set of characters and then put them in scenes and see how they react. Doesn't matter if you've never seen a murder, as long as people will believe your characters' reactions.

Answer 9

I think you should consider what the answerers before me wrote, but to comply with your question, I will try to give you some ideas.

A crew aboard a spaceship has to deliver a cargo they know nothing about.

The mosquito was carrying a radioactive disease it acquired when flying over a plant.

A boy was lost in the woods.

Someone hid up in the branches of a tree. There was a message carved into it.

The photographer couldn't capture his ideal sunset photo.

Her homework was due the next day, but she had forgotten all about it until a friend called her up.

The chair broke, and the child was upset.

The singer has to do a private gig on Sunday, but isn't feeling very up to it.

The girl screamed as the car ran over her glasses. The boy felt very guilty.

Jenny wondered why the boy always looked out his window with a sad face.

The lights broke. What on earth happened?

Finally, the tears rose up and fell out.

Nobody could make it last longer.

Hurry... hurry! Hurry! If you don't make it on time, then...

Why, of all times, now?

As she was occupied with her discordant thoughts, her head suddenly hurt, for she had walked into a telephone poll.

Listen. Can't you hear it? The world is weeping.

It burned. The fire took with it all the memories of a charred childhood.

Oi. Wake up. Don't you need to be somewhere?

I can't... why won't this work? Work, goddamnit! I need you to WORK!! No... please.

It was given to him by his grandmother.

The scar had a story to it he did not like to talk about.

"Hello", she said with a smile as bright as the sun. "My name is Jenny. I'll be your new teacher."

Answer 10

My advice is to take something from your life. If you grew up a high school jock with a loveable young sweetheart, you can write about that. If you grew up in the inner city of New Orleans and got busted by the cops with some of your friends, write about that, if you served in the military, write about that, if you worked as a dishwasher for five years you could probably write a book about that.