Four Steps to Write Your Book!

One random night I had a dream that I was an author. I know, I know. Most people have dreams about climbing Mount Everest or winning the lottery, not me!

After that night, I started writing. It took about three years, after my author dream, to actually publish my first book, just because I had no true direction on what to do and what to write.

With nearly 10 publications, I have learned a thing or two about writing and the writing process. Here are a few tips that have helped me successfully write and publish.

1. Pick a book topic.

What do you want to write about? I suggest making a list of topics you are well-versed in, topics you enjoy and are very passionate about, and topics you want to know more about, which will require research on your end. After making this list, narrow your options to ONE topic.

It can get overwhelming when there are so many ideas and topics you want to explore. Focus on one idea at a time! If your initial idea didn't go as planned, there's an entire list to choose from.

2. Choose a genre.

You have completed the first step by choosing a book topic, congratulations!

Now let’s figure out what genre we want to write in. There are an infinite array of genres to choose from. Fiction, non-fiction, drama, thriller, sci-fi, history, mystery, and the list literally goes on.

Once the genre is chosen take some time to do research on the fundamentals of that genre!

3. Select your audience.

Knowing your audience is important for many reasons. Your audience informs you, as the writer, how long the book is going to be, what words and sentence structure will be used, and helps with marketing your book to the right people.

4. Write.

You must write!

I often found myself overthinking, over analyzing, and just plain out making excuses to why I wasn’t writing. Then, I realized I had to start somewhere. The best thing about writing is that it can be changed, you can start over, or even alter the manuscript if you choose. But you MUST WRITE!

Here is an example of what this process may look like.

• Pick a topic: I am passionate about psychology, bullying, and music. My topic of choice will be bullying .

• Pick a genre: I chose to write a fiction book about bullying.

• Choose audience: The audience I am choosing is children in grades 3-5. I know that my sentence structure will be pretty simple, not to long, with a combination of familiar and unfamiliar words. I also know that when it comes to marketing my book, I am marketing to their parents and possibly to schools and teachers.

• Write: I start creating the storyline which includes the characters, setting, conflict, climax, resolution, etc. In addition, I commit to writing one page a day.

I really hope this blog was helpful to you! Please remember there are infinite ways to writing, this is just one. Take any information that is beneficial and cultivate your own personalized way of writing!

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Happy writing,

Publack Library!