Home Add to Favorite Contact Submit  
             28 March, 2024
 

    
Category:  Articles » Writing & Speaking » Writing

 

How To Write A Book

Popularity:
         Views: 1836
2007-07-15 18:12:40     
Article by Brian Vogt

Many people dream of writing their own book. The sad fact is that for every 500 people who want to write a book, there might be only 1 or 2 who actually do it. Somehow, we get it stuck in our minds that we "can never do that" and that writing "should be left to the professionals". Nothing could be further from the truth! I am 100% convinced that anyone ... even YOU, can write a book successfully if they just understand a couple of basic principles. In this article, I'm going to cover the exact steps that anyone can use to write a book, essay, or article of any length.

Step 1 - Collect

Collect what? Collect everything. If you are writing nonfiction you will collect information about your topic. You might collect magazine clippings, newspaper articles, along with various notes and quotes from any variety of sources. You might also collect things like sights, sounds (record audio), and smell (take notes about how things smell). If you're writing a novel the things you collect will be differ a little from this. Instead you'll collect thoughts, ideas, character ideas, and scene ideas, along with any information (similar to the above) that involves research for your novel. If you're writing a crime novel you might collect information above the criminal justice system. If you're writing a romance you might collect notes and ideas from relationship books, dating websites, and your own relationships and experience. The important thing to do is to collect, and to do nothing but collect at this phase. Don't analyze stuff; don't try to figure out the order of things too early. Just collect!

Step 2 - Categorize

In this step, you are free to unleash your inner control freak. Organize, categorize, analyze, criticize, hypothesize... I think you get the point. The whole purpose of this stage is to take what you collected in the previous stage and organize it into an order that makes sense. Read the articles and books, sift your notes down to the finest details, and sort it all out into related areas that make sense together. Once you have the related areas grouped together, put those "categories" into an order from first to last. If you have a ton of notes and other collected stuff, don't stress about trying to tackle the whole pile at once. Just take part of it, and work on ONLY that part until you have it organized and sorted. Then grab some more notes and do the same thing with those. You can add to either if you need to later. Once you have everything analyzed, described, and sorted you can then move on to the third step in the process.

Step 3 - Communicate

This is the fun part! This is simply the act of actually communicating everything that you've put together from the first two steps. In other words, write it down! The sorted, organized collection that you have from steps one and two is now your outline. All you have to do is follow your notes in order and write about each note and topic in turn. If you have your notes broken in to sub-categories, treat each one as a book in itself. This allows you to focus on just one small part at a time rather than trying to tackle an entire book all at once. Just get through one section, and then, move on to the next.

If you have done this right, by step 3 your book is practically written for you.

"What about grammar?" Here's a little secret about grammar and punctuation: 90% of your grammar and punctuation problems will go away if you will keep your writing (and by writing, I mean your sentences) short, concise, and to the point. Keep it short. Keep it simple. The best writers aren't the ones who have sentences three paragraphs long. The best writers are those who can get the same information across in just a few words-no matter how complex the topic might be. As for novels, if you can "move" people with 5 words as opposed to 50, you are doing a great thing.

Knowing and applying these simple steps can be the difference between having a dream of writing a book and having a stack of books that you've written. I have written five books so far using this method. One of the books describes this method in detail and is available for free online (How To Write Almost Anything).

You've just learned one of the easiest systems of writing in existence. Whether you're 40 years old or 10 years old you can use these steps to accomplish just about any writing task that is set before you. Go ahead and try it and you'll see. Your new writing career starts now!

Brian Vogt is a Programmer, Author and creator of Text Block Author, the writing software designed specifically for use with this method of writing. To learn more about Text Block Author, visit this link: Great Software For Writers

Specialized in: Write - Book
URL: http://textblockauthor.net
Print article      Bookmark this page
Related Articles 
Key Features and Benefits of Epublishing Plans (Popularity: ): Nowadays, many publishers are opting for e-publishing plans. These have a lot of benefits and key features which are not available on print media. First of all, e-publishing allows global distribution and thus allows one to reach as many customers as possible. All you have to do is sell your subscriptions online to your audience. In order to do so, you can place a URL or an image of your ...
How To Enjoy Life As A Freelance Writer (Popularity: ): Being a freelance writer has its ups and downs. Just like working in any other role or industry, freelancers have to take the rough with the smooth. If, however, you focus on all of the positive aspects of this type of work, you should really be able to enjoy your working life. This, of course, is certainly benefited significantly if you have a passion for writing itself.As a freelance writer ...
Improve You Custom Essays And Research Paper Topic With Tremendous Professionalism (Popularity: ): For writing essays and other important articles of academic interest you need to be very efficient and have a good understanding of the subject of your interest. It doesn’t come very easily. There are many online sites today that help you out with your research paper topics with systematic views and ideas. This can help in getting a boost in marks.Essay writings require a flow in all the paragraphs and ...
7 Effective Quality Article Writing Tips (Popularity: ): When it comes to the content of your site, it is necessary that it will meet the expectations of your visitors so it is really necessary that you know about some of the best and most effective quality article writing. As you already know, you cannot just post something that is just satisfactory if you want to maintain the loyalty of your readers. If you want them to constantly visit ...
Bhai Parmanand Vidya Mandir Surya Niketan (Popularity: ): BNPS , Best School in Delhi, Delhi School, CBSE School, Top School, India School, School In India, Senior Secondary School, Admission in School, CBSE Result, School in Delhi, School in India, School in NCR, School in East Delhi, Delhi School Directory, School Directory, School List, Play School, Prep School, Primary School, CBSE, Delhi Public School, Delhi, Public School, ICSE Board, CBSE Board, Child, Baby, Kids name, Baby Name, Activities, Student ...


Related Business 
Charm Write E-Book Publishing (Popularity: ): E-book sales, author promotion, entertainment and marketing.
Write Ways to Win Writing Contests (Popularity: ): Offers authors and contestants valuable advice extracted from the editor's own book, "Write Ways to Win Writing Contests", and provides links to two major booksellers.
Allex Indexing Services (Popularity: ): Wendy Allex and Kevin Allex write back-of-the-book and journal indexes for publishers, book packagers, and authors. Indexes are written to the client's specifications, and delivered on time.
Get It. Write! (Popularity: ): A concise, 32-page book that simplifies grammar and writing skills.
Writing Novels That Sell (Popularity: ): How to Write a Novel that Sells: featuring fiction writing resources, publishing tips, story critiques, online writing workshops, the business of writing, and advice on how to become an author. If you want book editors to buy your novels, you have to write colorful characters that move readers emotionally. Even speechless infants and intrepid cow ponies can be turned into distinctive personalities if you know the secrets to developing complex ...
The Church of the Grey (Popularity: ): Welcome to disorganised religion - where you decide what you believe and you write your own holy book telling yourself what to do.
The Write Stuff (Popularity: ): Online journal of book reviews, interviews, articles, short stories and poetry from Australia and elsewhere.
Write Fem! (Popularity: ): Mary's weblog while waiting for the big book deal to kick in for her loopy murder mysteries.
Write Right India (Popularity: ): Write Right, is an institute of handwriting technology that offers solutions to any and every possible problem related to handwriting that you may think of. Write Right offers unique conceptual programs that provide all handwriting solutions as we analyze, repair, add speed and style to handwriting.
Santaville (Popularity: ): Write a letter to Santa, and he will write back to you. You can also check out the weather at the North Pole.