Writer Blogs

Do you want to be a successful author/writer ? If the answer is yes, then I hope you will be benefitted from this post.
Before getting recognition and fame, you need to be great writer and before you write something, you need to be a great thinker, ie you have to plan what you will write on paper. Publishing is the last hurdle which a novice author should not focus on. Every authors’ dream is to get publishing contract by big publishing companies. But rarely they think of their writing content, quality. So here I am listing the following steps on how to write a book.

#1 Write a best selling content

Everyone wants to be best selling author but never focus on the content . I suggest write a best selling content that sells rather than thinking about your author status. Readers need strong content and if you write a content that sells, you will automatically become best selling author. So the basic quintessential step is write an amazing content.

#2 Know your genre

Not everyone is expert in all genres. Its difficult for one to be expert in all genres –fiction, fantasy, non fiction writer, memoir, biography.
Before writing the story, know your genre you are comfortable with and have mastery over your genre. Suppose you want to be fiction writer, you need to have that kind of imagination powers and concepts related to fantasy world building to write a fiction story which can set you apart from other authors writing the same genre. The same time you can look for your target audience. Just don’t jump into writing. Thus you can know your audience with the help of your genre which can be a game changer during your marketing and promotion of your book.

#3 Planning

Planning is very necessary before you write a book. You must set a goal that you will write a book and complete it by 3 months maximum for example. If you want to write novel, know your wordcount well ( average – 35k -90k words),epic novel (100k + wordcount), if it is novella ( 15k-30k words). So accordingly plan your action – whether you want to write novel or novella or epic novel and how long will it take to complete. Proper planning the writing process, sticking to discipline and finishing the first draft before an estimated date should be the goal of any author.

Once you start writing, you will see there will be so much distraction, hurdles coming your way. Basically the momentum of writing will not be same everyday. Some days you will not feel like writing, some days you will write several chapters at full momentum. The reason is that we humans can’t have motivation to write always, achieving writing targets everyday. You may be working full time, part time, busy mom, etc. But your determination is there to become author. Thus your writing goal and target should not be over ambitious. For eg, within a week you are targeting to complete your first draft. That’s a quite difficult task to achieve. What I suggest try giving time to your creative brainstorm process. You need to give time to your creativity if you are a fiction writer.

Fiction author writes through imagination and the creative juices just don’t come to your head easily. You got to brainstorm, get immersed in your land of writing thoughts and then you can pen down those thought processes in paper. Thus make a basic plan like writing minimum 500 words everyday. But if your creative juices are not flowing in any random day, just don’t write. Thus taking into account, in a week you may have a productive 5 days writing, 2 days unproductive . That’s absolutely fine and you maintain a draft where you keep track of your novel status. For example- how many chapters covered, how many chapters you plan to add and what will be the tentative deadline to finish your first draft.

#4 Title

This is probably one of the biggest criteria to start your writing. The title of the book must be very appealing .Think of such a title that has never been heard before or use a catching name or phrase to define your story title . Spend more time in thinking the title as this is the single most important thing that will sell. Imagine you enter a book store, when you look at any book , the first thing which catches your attention is the headline i.e the title of the book. If the title appeals you, you are tempted to have the book and go thorough the inside of the book . Buying or selling does not come into question.First thing is that readers will definitely sneak peak your book if you have a catchy headline.

#5 Plotline

The most important thing in writing a book is plotline. Take time in drafting the plotline. Don’t jump into writing chapters. First define your plot in your mind. Suppose you want to write a romantic fiction. You need to define your story plot in a rough paper. I am trying to define the plotline in a brief manner over here. Basically you need define the exposition , the story set up where exactly the story is starting , is it in beauty parlour, or stuck in escalator or in a museum , there can be thousand number of ways you can define the exposition. Then how the story builds up and most importantly you have to think of a clear ending of your story. You need to have overall story blurb in a succinct manner.

#6 Define your characters

Once you drafted your plotline, now pen down all the characters whatever you have in your plotline – protagonist, friends,uncle , parents, antagonist , places. Take time in naming your characters. Names are very important in character defining. JK Rowling’s Harry Potter got the world fame mostly because of the mind blowing fictional character and names. So writing a great name be it fictional name/ non fictional name can serve a boost to your audience and can help you increase your sales

#7 Write one chapter daily

How much busy you are throughout, try to write one chapter at least to keep you in track of your story.I know its tough if you are a working professional aspiring to be an author. If you want to achieve something in life , then definitely you need to push yourself even you have no energy . Thus even after a hectic day in office, I suggest take 1 hour of your time and pen down a chapter and you will really feel good once you pen down a creative chapter.

#8 Prepare a list of idiomatic phrases and hook words

This is an important part which most authors forget to pen down. I suggest make a list of idiomatic phrases, metaphors which you will be using in course of writing the book. These small stuffs spice up your writing skills. People gets bored when you are using the same adjectives over and over. So make sure to use these in your writing .Your writing will reach a new level and your readers will be glued to your book for sure.

Use lot of hook words when you write a book. Make your readers unaware of what’s happening next in your story line making them read page after page. One word of caution , don’t put too much hook words in your writing .Use minimal but effective ones. The ending of the story should be dramatic as it decides your fate of the book. Make sure to put all elements – emotion, drama, action depending on your plot. Remember the end part decides your story’s success.

#9 Revision

Revision should be done diligently. You must revise each and every word of your draft multiple times. It is certain that you will have several changes to your story. There can be spelling mistakes, omitted words, indentation error and may be some conceptual change required. Once you are done with revision, get a proof reader to read your story. I know to get a proof reader you have to spend some money. If you are unable to afford proofreading, simply ask a close friend who can read your entire novel and point out if any changes need to be made. Some word of advice: you should not ask any random friend, ask your best friend or your siblings or parents if they are book lovers. If nobody is willing to give any time, just read it yourself.

#10 Submission

Once ready with the manuscript, you are good to approach a publisher/literary agent. Keep submitting your manuscripts to publishers. Before submitting, always read the guidelines of the publishers from their websites. They may require a query letter or a synopsis of your book. Prepare the best synopsis and also sample excerpts of your book. I suggest keep everything ready before sending email to publisher. If they ask you to send the whole manuscript, then only send otherwise only the synopsis and sample chapters from your book is fine. Never feel disheartened or demotivated if your query letter and first draft/manuscript are not accepted by a publisher. Almost over 99% new authors fail to get noticed by their first draft. So relax and keep on submitting. One important tip here, never submit manuscript to multiple publishers simultaneously.

If a publisher rejects your draft, only then move on to the next publisher. Thus the biggest challenge is holding your patience. Have faith on your work and keep on submitting till you receive an acceptance email from a publisher. But if you have been trying for long time and still not getting any response from any editors/publishers, then go for self publishing. If you want your story to be read and heard, simply self publish. There are so many ways to self publish nowadays and there are plenty of articles in the internet regarding self publishing. Lot of authors are making good money through self publishing. Thus focus on your writing and you will be rewarded if you have the vision and patience.

Conclusion

Finally, want to say, writing a book is not a tough task as every person in the world has his/her own amazing story. The only thing is the discipline in your writing approach. You need to bear in mind that not everyone might like your story but definitely you must like your story before commencing on publishing your book. After all it’s your story, be confident and only your belief in your story can give you the success and readership.

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Topics for creative writing