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How to Write a Book And Survive: Your Complete Guide
Today is the day you start your very special journey without even leaving your place. Though daunting, the task of writing a book is not insurmountable. All it takes is a little persistence and the knowledge that even the tallest mountains are conquered one step at a time, just like making your way to the kitchen.
Both novices and established authors should consider important things to ask before starting the work:
- Can you devote enough time and thought to creating a book?
- Are you ready to master self-editing and rewriting/paraphrasing?
- Do you understand your genre, major characters, plot, or topic?
Mind that you risk giving up writing your story when you run out of ideas, you get distracted, or become overwhelmed by the sheer scope of the task. Also, you should not get bored.
If you’re sure you are ready to master this art and give it a try, this guide will help you move step-by-step, offering vivid ideas and real-life examples.
Put Your Workspace in Order
This is one of the most fundamental aspects of our guide. Decide on the circumstances under which you are most at ease. Do you prefer when there is a lot of activity going on all around you or, on the other hand, when you are in a separate room, sitting in a comfy chair all alone? Make sure that you have a space to work, whether it be your apartment or a cafe that you attend on a regular basis.
Even details that seem insignificant matter. For instance, best study playlists suit the process of writing a book as well. It should not be rock or pop music. Experts recommend the following genres:
- Meditation music
- Isochronic tones
- Binaural beats
- Instrumentals or classical music
Nature and rain sounds will also help relax and concentrate at the same time.
“If you want to keep your brain engaged throughout the aging process, listening to or playing music is a great way,” says an otolaryngologist at Johns Hopkins.
Now, that is just one example. Keep in mind that you will be sitting in front of the computer (or typewriter); therefore, it is essential that you take care of your back and neck, particularly if you have any health concerns. In addition, think about acquiring a variety of auxiliary equipment, such as a notepad for making notes, a board for creating visual structures, stickers, and other items, so that you won’t be distracted by insignificant matters while you are working.
Come Up with the “Big Idea” And a Plan
Crafting the “big idea” is crucial for authors, both aspiring and established. One common challenge they encounter is determining the subject matter for their book. A valuable tip here is to ensure that your work revolves around a broad and encompassing concept.
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In today’s publishing landscape, narrow ideas often struggle to capture attention. If you have a smaller yet compelling idea, consider publishing it as a blog post or submitting it to external platforms. Aim for grander scopes: in fiction, aspire towards epics like “Harry Potter” or “The Lord of the Rings,” and in non-fiction, aim for impactful works like Allen Carr’s “How to Quit Smoking.”
If you’ve experienced creative blockages around page 20-30 of your writing journey, it’s likely because the initial idea lacked expansiveness. To avoid this, engage in discussions about your book with friends. If in a conversation with them you go deeper each time and don’t repeat yourself, it’s probably just the right thing to do. Thus, you may move to the plan.
Top ideas for your book:
- Your family story (check your family history book)
- Your hometown’s history (maybe, some famous founders of your city?)
- Travel stories (why did you enjoy that trip to Japan?)
- Special events (perhaps, you wanna describe over 20 Bon Jovi gigs you’ve visited)
- Experiment outcomes (do something for the specific period of time and document it)
- Biggest failure (remember that difficult episode and describe how you used to cope with it)
- Something epic you’re proud of (e.g., raising $50,000 for cancer research)
- Educational photo book (your most impressive photographs with interesting captions)
- A series of letters (make up a story based on your correspondence with grandpa)
- Interview book (you may recall your interviews with celebrities or interview people around regarding some issues)
- A series of blog posts (maybe, you have prepared some, so it’s time to share them all in one book)
- Create love letters (it’s not necessary to publish your own messages)
- Cookbook (culinary receipts from different cuisines is always relevant as there is always a room for new tastes)
- A new city as your home (the ups and downs of that transition)
- 10 best & worst date stories (provide recommendations for young couples)
- Intuitive eating (nutrition is quite a popular topic nowadays; describe your approach to healthy eating and food)
- Gift book to inspire (collect your favorite quotes and accompany them with unique illustrations)
- Religious study (you may share the divine wisdom and traditions)
- My diet (describe your 2-month specific vegetarian diet)
- Research summary (a guidebook with training tips)
- Trends forecast (as a demonstrated expert, discuss political or cultural trends)
- Business story ( how you managed to cover your loan)
- New business (explain how to launch and run a new business)
- Classroom curriculum (design a perfect curriculum based on your experience)
- Interior design guide book (put your creative instincts in print)
You may also check 100 bestselling books of all time to get inspired.
Crafting a book demands a plan, regardless of whether you thrive on spontaneity within the narrative or if you prefer a more structured approach. Even for those who prioritize character and story development over plotting, having a loose framework can be invaluable.
Need a detailed book outline? Looking for help with your writing? Here we go!
For aspiring authors, agents typically request a comprehensive synopsis upfront, which means there’s no way to skip thorough preparation. This is especially true for non-fiction projects, where a detailed structure, research foundation, and insights garnered from reading are often prerequisites.
Here’s an example of a step-by-step guide to help you create a comprehensive plan:
- Start by clearly defining your book idea. What is the central theme or message you want to convey? What genre does it fall into?
- Summarize your idea in a sentence or two. This will serve as your guiding principle throughout the planning process.
- Who are you writing for? Define your target audience demographics and interests. Understanding your potential readers will help tailor your content and style to better resonate with them.
- Create a rough outline of your book’s structure. Divide it into sections, chapters, and subchapters.
- Each chapter should cover a specific aspect or topic related to your main idea.
- Consider the flow of your book. Ensure a logical progression of ideas.
- Include information such as their background, motivations, and character arcs.
- For non-fiction, consider the key personas or case studies you’ll use to illustrate your points.
- Depending on the topic of your book, you may need to conduct research to gather relevant information and data.
- Note down the sources you’ll use and how they will support your narrative or arguments.
- Determine a realistic timeline for completing your book. Break down your writing goals into manageable tasks, such as writing a certain number of words or pages each day or week.
- Establish deadlines for completing each chapter or section of your book.
- Allocate specific times for writing in your schedule.
- Consider factors such as your most productive times of day and any other responsibilities you need to balance.
- Choose the writing tools and software that work best for you. Whether you prefer writing by hand, using AI, or specialized writing software, ensure you have everything you need to get started.
- Begin writing according to your outline. Don’t worry about perfecting each sentence at this stage—focus on getting your ideas down on paper.
- Once you’ve completed a draft of your book, set it aside for a while before revising. This will give you a fresh perspective when you come back to it.
- Review your work critically, considering aspects such as structure, pacing, clarity, and coherence.
- Revise and edit your manuscript as needed, seeking feedback from trusted readers or professionals if possible.
- Once you’re satisfied with the quality of your book, finalize it for publication. This may involve formatting, proofreading, and preparing any supplementary materials.
- Decide on your publishing method—whether traditional publishing, self-publishing, or hybrid publishing—and take the necessary steps to bring your book to market.
Estimate How Much Time You May Need
New authors usually don’t have deadlines set by publishers. Thus, you have more than enough time to make sure your “child” is ready. Still, how should you estimate the time needed to finish your book?
Determine the total number of pages you plan to compose. Whatever number it is—200, 500, or over 1,000—there is one common rule. Before you decide how many days (or hours) you can and will probably spend on this project, divide the pages count by that number. A work-per-time unit is the resultant number. During that time, it may undergo certain modifications. Alter your strategy if you’re having trouble finishing 10 pages in a day (and end up finishing only 4 or 5).
Interestingly, while discussing his writing routine, Stephen King mentioned that he typically writes around 2,000 words (or six full pages) every workday. Charles Dickens and Anne Rice used to handle roughly the same amount.
From book templates to editing and proofreading services, you can always count on our helping hand
Whether it’s their own work or a publisher’s, the majority of authors miss deadlines. That is not a big deal, but being able to handle it will set you apart from the rest.
Set aside some time to pen your book. In most cases, this requires giving up some leisure time, so you might have to cut back on things like going to the movie theaters or attending gigs. Your eagerness to complete the task before the deadline is a direct result of your ambitions.
Conduct Research
By mistake, most authors believe they only have to do research when dealing with non-fiction. For non-fiction, this is self-explanatory – you need facts from articles or other credible works to refer to and cite. Also, you need to show that you have sorted out everything available in this field of knowledge and created something of your own on this ground.
However, for fictional writing, research is just as important. If you don’t go into detail about time period, locale, or scientific facts, readers may notice inconsistencies. Details add meaning and value to the story, and your book needs to inspire confidence. Still, research is not a goal, but rather a tool to help unfold the story. Whether a plot is set in a historical era, a specific geolocation, or involves certain traditions, research makes it possible to come up with a convincing backdrop for narratives. Say, J. R. R. Tolkien got inspired by the real weapons and wardrobes when working on his bestseller to create a medieval atmosphere.
Another example: There was certainly a historical prototype of d’Artagnan. Such a musketeer is a real person, but most of the episodes from Memoirs of Mr. d’Artagnan were still invented by Courtil de Sandra. The author had to study historical events in-depth to establish authenticity.
Write a Compelling Intro And Headings
The chances of an author getting their work published is between 1% – 2%. A powerful introduction is one of the leading factors.
You won’t write lines more important than the first few. They set the tone for the entire book. Usually, it’s a dramatic statement or something shocking to catch an eye. It could also be a philosophical introduction or even a verse by another author. Remember the fourth episode of Star Wars? We were immediately thrown into the thick of events, as if through a teleporter.
How about the beginning of the book 1984 by George Orwell? Just to remind you…
“It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen. Winston Smith, his chin nuzzled into his breast in an effort to escape the vile wind, slipped quickly through the glass doors of Victory Mansions, though not quickly enough to prevent a swirl of gritty dust from entering along with him.”
Don’t think about the editor, the critics, buddies who will read the book or its parts somehow. Think about the reader in general (your target audience). That’s why it’s important for the first lines to be catchy. You can learn from the yellow press, which uses simple journalistic formulas for headlines, subheadings, and the first paragraph (lead).
Examples of powerful headings:
- The Power of Habit
- Anna Karenina to Olive Kitteridge via Circe
- A Smile in the Mind
- Brutal Simplicity of Thought
- Do No Harm, Bring Me Back, No Way Out, No Mercy
- The Silent Patient
- Men are from Mars Women are from Venus
- The Power of Now
- Go Tell It on the Mountain
- Things Fall Apart
Create Suspense And Conflict
Non-fiction and fiction both need suspense and conflict. Maybe the story ends because the characters find a compromise a few pages back?
In real life, it’s a pleasure to chat with people about nothing in particular, wish them a good day, etc. However, there’s nothing more boring than such a sequence of events in books. You need to insert conflict where it’s appropriate. Even in a simple conversation about a sunny day, characters can argue. The reader will then wonder, “Where did this come from, and what does it mean for this character?” – and continue flipping through the pages in search of an answer. Your goal is to maintain the tension on each of them, giving reasons to keep reading.
As for non-fiction, it’s not necessary to turn the conflict into a war or battle. Here, the conflict simplifies to the formula “promise – fulfillment.” When authors write books with recipes for success, the first chapters are aimed at convincing the reader that after reading, they will receive these solutions.
Let’s consider recommendations based on real-life examples.
Lee Child, the author of the Jack Reacher series of books, compares suspense to making a cake: there are hundreds of ways to do it, but how do you make it taste good?
Don’t feed your guests all day so they get hungry enough once the dessert is served.
Do the same with the intrigue of your story. Build it up for as long as possible, teasing your audience with new questions and answers, making them hungry for more. As early as possible, gently mention part of your suspense arc. Then make them anticipate each individual ingredient while agonizing over the final product.
Foreshadowing is an easy way to point out something important, even if the reader doesn’t know why. Some foreshadowing does not become obvious until the very end of the book, such as the railroad accident at the beginning of Anna Karenina.
Strong foreshadowing techniques include:
- Introducing a significant object or character that returns later in the story.
- Revealing a secret but ignoring context or other key details.
- Inserting unusually vague or cryptic speech patterns.
Memories are a great way to intensify tension, whether it’s an isolated memory showing something shocking or a series of memories leading to the final revelation. Some novels even consist of half contemporary storytelling, half memories to achieve maximum dramatic impact. Jodi Picoult and Gillian Flynn are big proponents of this technique.
However, regardless of how you use memories, they must be meaningful. You can include a distracting maneuver as part of the memories, but it all can’t just be a distraction. Otherwise, your reader will feel tricked. This applies to both content and tone – flashback scenes should be as vivid and intriguing as contemporary narration and should not distract but rather enhance the plot.
Placing your characters in a dangerous situation is the best recipe for sudden anticipation (remember Stephen King’s Misery?) This is especially useful as you approach the climax of your mysterious arc of uncertainty and need to intensify it with brief episodes of terrifying anticipation.
This method only works if you have readers who genuinely care about your characters, so wait to use it until the end of your narrative. Also, make sure the threat is realistic and constantly looming over the characters, whether they (or the audience) are aware of it or not.
For example, at the end of The Girl on the Train (spoilers ahead!), the mysterious tension is resolved when we learn that Megan was killed by the narrator’s ex-husband. This plot twist suddenly turns the mysterious into the horrifying as the narrator comes face-to-face with her former murderer, unexpectedly putting her life in danger when she didn’t even realize he was a threat.
Don’t Give Up Running a Marathon
When running a marathon, don’t stop halfway through. At some point in the midst of writing anything, it gets extremely tough. You should approach it as if you were writing for just one reader. Let your mind go to a boat that is still unfinished. Conflict, dialogue, and characters are the particulars of fiction. Sticking to the denouement, which dictates the flow of your thoughts in the book, is necessary in both fiction and non-fiction, albeit the former has a smaller set and less basic research and an original structure.
Keep the strategy in place even if you feel like you’re straying from the path you had planned if you’re running a marathon. Neither the book nor the plan needs to be changed.
A marathon’s worst flaw is that, even when we start with a fantastic idea, we usually wind up wasting 100 or 200 pages trying to get from point A to point B. Not only must you “survive” those pages, but you must also bloom; the reader will be scared away if the plot is too dense. Moving between chapters will give you a shock and allow you to develop the plot with greater excitement, which will fix the problem.
Write an Ending That Hooks
Everyone wants a vibrant ending, like the finale after a long drama on stage. With applause, flowers, and an admiring crowd. Even in non-fiction, you need to make it memorable for the reader. Just give it a little more attention than other chapters. Don’t rush to the finish as if it doesn’t matter.
If you have multiple ideas, choose the most emotional one as the reader is more likely to remember it. Also, be an aggressive skeptic and editor once you’re done.
The last and most important point. You must polish the work to a shine. Of course, the work will then go to the agent and editors, but when they skim through the manuscript, they spend no more than two minutes on it. To fully convince them that the text is really good, it must sound perfectly from your point of view. Otherwise, they may not see the huge potential behind your book.
Below, you can learn more about various types of book endings.
In the resolved ending, all questions are answered, and all threads are tied up. There is no room for continuation, as everything is already made clear to the reader.
This is perhaps the most common ending in literature. It is often seen in fairy tales, which usually end with the words “and they lived happily ever after.”
The Twilight Saga has an exaggerated version of this type of ending. All of Bella’s problems are solved and she returns home to a happy family. Despite several battles throughout the series, none of the main characters die.
Unresolved endings leave viewers with more questions than answers. There is some degree of resolution, but viewers mostly want to know more about the story.
The most popular version is the cliffhanger. Book series tend to approach this ending, as it motivates readers to continue reading in the next book.
The Harry Potter series often uses this kind of ending. The Half-Blood Prince is perhaps the most significant. After the battle that killed Dumbledore, Harry discovers that the chorkrux they found is a fake taken by an unknown Death Eater.
An extended ending, also known as an epilogue, depicts a scene that goes beyond the events of the story itself. Often it jumps ahead in time, explaining what happens to the main characters years later.
Authors use it to make a final comment. Sometimes it’s an answer to a question that couldn’t be answered in the main plotline. For example, whether the main character’s seriously ill daughter will survive and graduate from college.
Markus Zusak’s The Book Thief is a great example. An air raid kills everyone in the book except young Liesel. Years later, she dies an old woman surrounded by family and friends. Death comes to claim her soul, and they have a brief conversation about the nature of humanity.
An unexpected ending is one that catches your audience off guard. Some are subtle and clever, while others will make you pound your fist on the pages. The important thing is that it’s something they never suspected.
Twist endings are good for playing with your audience’s emotions, but they also come with significant risk. People will appreciate the effort it took to conceal the ending while still leaving enough clues in the plot to justify it, but it could also just ruin the story for them.
Ian McEwan’s Redemption is a perfect example. You get into the story of two lovers, separated by mistake, who finally get a chance to be together. In fact, they die without ever seeing each other again. It turns out that the entire book was written by the person responsible for their separation.
An ambiguous ending simply suggests how the story might end. It leaves enough details for readers to imagine what happens after the final scene.
There’s no right or wrong answer, as readers can come to different conclusions. It all depends on how they choose to interpret the information. Thus, they can ponder what might have happened long after they’ve put the book down.
This is how Under the Glass Hood by Sylvia Plath ends. Esther undergoes shock therapy to cure her depression. The book ends when she enters a room with her doctors who will decide if she is ready to be discharged. The last line simply states, “I entered the room.”
A tied ending is one that completes the full circle, ending where it originally began. In simpler terms, it reveals the ending before filling in the details of how it happened. Authors can declare it outright or conceal the revelation until the last moment.
This appears in Arthur C. Clarke’s short fiction The Star. The game begins with a group of space explorers researching a wrecked planet with the remains of an advanced civilization. Among them is a priest in a faith crisis. It is revealed that his religious crisis is caused by the fact that the star that destroyed the planet also announced Jesus’ birth.
This is how Under the Glass Hood by Sylvia Plath ends. Esther undergoes shock therapy to cure her depression. The book ends when she enters a room with her doctors who will decide if she is ready to be discharged. The last line simply states, “I entered the room.”
Final Thoughts
With any luck, this guide should be more than enough to get you started and see your work through to completion. However, writing a book is merely the beginning.
After you’ve decided whether to self-publish or use a professional publishing house, the next step is to get your book published.
Avoid being a person who writes 80% of a book and suddenly stops. Sure, you may hire a ghostwriter, but be ready that it will end not the way you expect. Never forget that your book has the potential to educate a lot of people. You owe it to yourself and your readers to finish writing the book and release it.
Put your expertise into writing and share it with the world. Make people hear you with our all-in-one writing service!
Don’t pass by these reading materials on how to write a great book!
- On Writing by Stephen King
- Still Writing by Dani Shapiro
- The Forest for the Trees by Betsy Lerner
- How To Write a Novel by Harry Bingham
- Write. Publish. Repeat by Johnny B Truant and Sean Platt
- Aspects of the Novel by E M Forster
- How Fiction Works by James Wood
- The Elements of Style William Strunk Jr.
- Reading like a Writer by Francine Prose
- Plot & Structure by James Scott Bell
- The Writer’s Journey by Christopher Vogler
- Outlining your Novel by KM Weiland
- Nail Your Novel by Roz Morris
- The Creative Habit by Twyla Tharp
- Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott
- Hemingway on Writing by Ernest Hemingway