How To Start Writing A Book— By Someone Who Has Done It 73 Times

Actually it’s 77 if you count the ones I didn’t publish

Yesterday I shared a post about something I had learned from publishing 73 fiction books on KDP. If that seems like a lot, don’t be intimidated. I wrote them over the course of ten years.

The books varied in content, from a 90,000 word novel, to a 3,000 word short story, to everything in between.

Some were chick-lit, some were adult fairy tales, some were erotic romance, some were bizarro fiction. Yes, that’s a thing. If you haven’t heard, please do Google it. My bizarro attempts included a story about a jam donut who falls in love with a chocolate eclair and one about a homicidal omelette who runs amok in a kitchen murdering all the breakfast foods. It was pretty dark.

I could give you all sorts of technical tips and advice, but the truth is, the advice I give would change for each individual and each genre. We all have different lives and experience levels.

We all want to write different types of books — some of you are thinking non-fiction would be better than fiction or maybe you want to write a quiz book rather than a novel. Some of you want traditional publishing while some want to self-publish.

All paths are valid. All I can do is give you advice based on what I feel is universal to everyone who wants to write a book.

Find a hater

No seriously. Find a hater. Find someone who doesn’t think you can do it. Make sure it’s someone you’ll see regularly, who will try to quash your dreams every chance they get. Now visualise, on a daily basis, wiping that smug grin off their face. Imagine them shutting up when you post an Instagram story of you unboxing your books. Hear them whispering “How did he/she manage that?” to someone behind your back.

You ready to write that book? Good.

Make sure you have a ton of ideas

You might already have an idea for a story, but don’t settle on it yet. Sit down one weekend, make sure you have two or three hours to spare, and daydream. Just let your mind go anywhere it wants. Write down every single possible title, plot, character backstory and setting that comes into your mind. Trust me when I say, they won’t all be diamonds, and you don’t want them to be. You just want to get your creative brain going.

If you can’t sit still and think of anything, go out. Get a train, or a bus, or a ferry somewhere and take a notebook and pen with you. In your mind, write the backstory of a random passenger. Then once they’re out of sight, write it in your notebook.

Once you’ve settled on an idea, figure out a realistic schedule

The main thing is to write every day. This is a personal project at this point, not a business model. You deserve to carve out time for yourself, to do something you want to do, every single day. Do you have three hours to spare? Good for you! Do you have five minutes while you’re sitting on the toilet taking a poo? Sometimes that’s all we have. Take your notebook into the toilet with you and write.

Ideally though, and joking aside, a realistic schedule is something like 250 words a day. If you’re like me and you are a prolific writer, 1,000 is a good target to aim for. Often, you’ll exceed your expectations. That’s great. But don’t rely on exceeding them.

Whatever your bar is, lower it to half what you think you can do, because nothing will kill your enthusiasm more effectively than disappointing yourself. I can comfortably write 2,000 but I lower it to 1,000 because I know how flaky I can be and some days, I lower it further still to 100.

Be prepared to be patient

It’s fine if it takes a year or two years to write a book. It’s a project, not a job. Even for writers like me, it’s not my whole job. I blog, I do social media and I mystery shop. I’m also still studying and I’m a carer for a disabled person. Most of my royalties come from books I wrote years ago that are still trickling money in.

The fact of the matter is, writing fiction is hard. It’s physically taxing to sit at a desk for hours on end and gives you all sorts of back problems. It’s mentally exhausting to create entire worlds, stay focused on the task and reserve the energy to see mistakes when you’re proofreading. It’s emotionally challenging because you’re living the life of each character. If they cry, you should cry while you’re writing.

If you’re not welling up with emotion when your character is going through hell, re-write it.

Your book will take months or years to create but once it’s written and published, you will ALWAYS be a writer.

Ditch the imposter syndrome

Seriously. We all have it. Even when you publish dozens of books, it’s still there, like a menacing cloud over your self-esteem.

If you think your writing is poor, that’s not a problem. All first drafts are a little sketchy. That’s where editors come in. If you can’t afford a professional editor, why not liaise with some other writers and edit each other’s books?

If you think you simply don’t have the talent, just keep going. Even if you write a bad book, you will still have written a book. It’s a huge achievement in itself and should never be belittled because of the hours of creativity, dedication and grit the writer puts in.

Remember that hater

Are you bored? Is it too hard? Do you not have the time for this?

Remember the hater. Lower your expected daily word count, but don’t stand still. Even if you lower it to fifty words per day for a few weeks, keep moving. Keep writing. That hater loves that you think you can’t do this. They think you’re a dreamer and they know better.

They don’t.

And anyway, where’s their book? Oh, that’s right. They don’t have one because they think it’s unrealistic.

But you will, if you just keep moving.