Want to write a book? You can. You start writing, and you keep going. At around 80,000 words, you've got yourself a book. Now what? You sell the book to a major publisher, hit the bestseller lists, and order your new cherry-red Ferrari.
Clear your life of other distractions. You probably have a day job that you can't quit just yet, but for the next 100 days put off everything else you can. Don't plan a vacation or a party or spring-cleaning. You don't want to lose your momentum once you get started. Make an outline. Decide on chapter titles and a logical sequence of information. It's more efficient to think this through ahead of time than to go back and re-write later. Decide how long your book will be, then divide the task into 80 smaller units. This gives you a little leeway, and also time for one day off per week. At 3-4 pages a day, you can produce a book of 240 to 320 pages. Don't plan to write a 500 page textbook in this limited amount of time. It simply will not work.
If you're looking to write fiction, get the general storyline in your head and just start. No doubt the story will take twists and turns along the way, so don't worry too much at the beginning if you don't know where you're headed - just get at it. Don't worry about perfection. Just keep writing. You will need to do some re-writing no matter how perfect you think your writing is. It doesn't matter if you're a member of Mensa, you and every other writer should count on the need for at least minor revisions. You may not believe this at first, but when you finally complete your manuscript and put it aside for a few weeks, you'll find you've written things that require clarification, or abridging, or re-structuring. Passages of conversation that once seemed natural to you may later feel stilted. But don't worry about this while you're writing. Just keep going.
Let's imagine that you've read a Harry Potter novel, and you're so enthusiastic that you're inspired to write your own children's novel. The words pour out of you; you're on fire. You write and write and write, and the pages pile up on your computer's hard drive.This is great. While you're writing, ask yourself: "In a bookstore, where would this book of mine be shelved?"If you're not sure, go to a bookstore and wander around the shelves. Is your book in the nonfiction section? In the children's section? In the romance novel or mystery section?
Reward yourself when you're done. You need to put your manuscript aside for a few weeks, anyway. Even Stephen King follows this practice. So have a party or take a vacation. Refresh yourself before the real work, the re-writing, begins.
Once I've got a reasonable collection of material, which might take days, weeks, or months to accumulate, I'll then go through it and start to put it in order. I'll use the list of questions I've written to help guide me in this and then I'll use the sorted piles of information to help me come up with chapter headings. This might take me a day, but by the end of that day I'll have a complete, detailed outline of my book - plus all the associated background information which will help me write it.Then I can start writing. To do this I often go away from home. In the past I used to hire a holiday cottage somewhere idyllic. Nowadays I go to my own holiday home down near Bognor Regis. But it means I can write without the distractions of the office. If you have a book of, say 30,000 words to write, that's only 5,000 words a day for six days. That's one chapter in the morning and one in the afternoon. Or, put it another way, you need to write around 750 words an hour - or one word every five seconds. Now that's not many is it?
Learn More About [How to Write a Book & Become a Published Author - Brian Tracy]
Clear your life of other distractions. You probably have a day job that you can't quit just yet, but for the next 100 days put off everything else you can. Don't plan a vacation or a party or spring-cleaning. You don't want to lose your momentum once you get started. Make an outline. Decide on chapter titles and a logical sequence of information. It's more efficient to think this through ahead of time than to go back and re-write later. Decide how long your book will be, then divide the task into 80 smaller units. This gives you a little leeway, and also time for one day off per week. At 3-4 pages a day, you can produce a book of 240 to 320 pages. Don't plan to write a 500 page textbook in this limited amount of time. It simply will not work.
If you're looking to write fiction, get the general storyline in your head and just start. No doubt the story will take twists and turns along the way, so don't worry too much at the beginning if you don't know where you're headed - just get at it. Don't worry about perfection. Just keep writing. You will need to do some re-writing no matter how perfect you think your writing is. It doesn't matter if you're a member of Mensa, you and every other writer should count on the need for at least minor revisions. You may not believe this at first, but when you finally complete your manuscript and put it aside for a few weeks, you'll find you've written things that require clarification, or abridging, or re-structuring. Passages of conversation that once seemed natural to you may later feel stilted. But don't worry about this while you're writing. Just keep going.
Let's imagine that you've read a Harry Potter novel, and you're so enthusiastic that you're inspired to write your own children's novel. The words pour out of you; you're on fire. You write and write and write, and the pages pile up on your computer's hard drive.This is great. While you're writing, ask yourself: "In a bookstore, where would this book of mine be shelved?"If you're not sure, go to a bookstore and wander around the shelves. Is your book in the nonfiction section? In the children's section? In the romance novel or mystery section?
Reward yourself when you're done. You need to put your manuscript aside for a few weeks, anyway. Even Stephen King follows this practice. So have a party or take a vacation. Refresh yourself before the real work, the re-writing, begins.
Once I've got a reasonable collection of material, which might take days, weeks, or months to accumulate, I'll then go through it and start to put it in order. I'll use the list of questions I've written to help guide me in this and then I'll use the sorted piles of information to help me come up with chapter headings. This might take me a day, but by the end of that day I'll have a complete, detailed outline of my book - plus all the associated background information which will help me write it.Then I can start writing. To do this I often go away from home. In the past I used to hire a holiday cottage somewhere idyllic. Nowadays I go to my own holiday home down near Bognor Regis. But it means I can write without the distractions of the office. If you have a book of, say 30,000 words to write, that's only 5,000 words a day for six days. That's one chapter in the morning and one in the afternoon. Or, put it another way, you need to write around 750 words an hour - or one word every five seconds. Now that's not many is it?
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