10 Musts for Writing a Book - WritersLife.org

 

10 Musts for Writing a Book - WritersLife.org

 

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Hi I'm Jody from WritersLife.org and

today we'll be talking about ten musts

for writing a book number one take one

fabulous idea it's impossible to

overstate the importance of your concept

in terms of how successful your book

becomes Stephenie Meyer writes perfectly

good competent prose but her story idea

ordinary girl falls for hot vampire

turns her book into a cultural

phenomenon dan Brown

Stieg Larsson Stephen King are all

similar decent writers blessed with

stunning ideas agents know this and no

matter what your genre a strong premise

is essential to selling a book giving

any to broadly similar manuscripts

agents will almost always pick the one

with the strongest central concepts

build yourself a blistering plot the

next huge essential for any novelist is

a story that simply forces the reader to

keep turning pages unfortunately there

are definite rules about how to achieve

this the two crucial rules are a give

the protagonist a major life challenge

early in the book and don't resolve

things until the very ends be if a

particular chapter doesn't advance the

story in a specific way you have to

delete that chapter it sounds simple

well actually the principles aren't that

hard to understand

although executing the advice can be a

bit tricky number three next ingredient

an unforgettable character or two long

after a reader has forgotten the details

of a plot the chances are they'll

remember the character who impelled it

the two things you absolutely have to

bear in mind when constructing your

characters are a make sure the character

and the story bounce off of each other

in interesting ways

so if to take a stupid example your

character has a big fear of spiders the

chances are that your story will have to

force your character to confront those

fears you have to bring your character

into their zone of greatest discomfort

be make sure that you really really know

your character after all it's Alton the

big things that make a character sizzle

with life it's the little things that

make her seem human amy has a passion

for Manhattan

winter she fell off a horse when she was

12 she collects a shell from every beach

she's ever visited one more thing that

matters is where you place your camera

do you write in the first person the

third person do you have one point view

- or 10 number four don't forget to give

your character some inner life one of

the most common problems we see when a

character does and says all the right

stuff but the reader never really knows

what he or she thinks or feels one of

the most common problems we see is when

a character does and says all the right

stuff but the reader never really knows

what the character thinks or feels and

this is one of the very simplest things

for a novelist to do you just need to

remember that your protagonist has a

rich inner world and you need to tell us

about it

not just the bland everyday things

either Mike felt hungry so he sat down

to eat but the things that make him

different and unique dramatized

dramatized dramatized your job as a

novelist is to show the action unfolding

on the page readers don't just want a

third-hand report of what just happened

that means you need to tell them moment

by moments as though you were witnessing

the events number 6 right well okay we

know this sounds obvious but it's no

good having a fabulous idea and a

brilliant plot if you can't write good

clear English your book is made up of

sentences and as those sentences don't

convey your meaning successfully and

clearly your book just won't work

fortunately almost everyone has the

capacity to write well enough you just

have to focus on the challenge in

particular do you think about the three

building blocks of good writing a

clarity you need to express your meaning

clearly be economy never use ten words

when eight would do si precision be as

precise as possible and that normally

means you have to see the scene clearly

in your head before you can describe it

clearly to a reader D that your novel

boasts a lovely sense of place e that

your dialogue sparkles quite easy to

achieve actually and it really

strengthens the book and that your

manuscript is well presented

no row apostrophes please number seven

what if I'm writing for children most of

the same rules apply no matter what age

group you're writing for you write

clearly if your style isn't clear kids

won't have the patience to stay with you

if in doubt keep it simple you write

economically same thing here if you

waste words if a chapter doesn't

immediately drive the story forward

you'll lose readers keep it Tops you

write warmly children flops to Harry

Potter for JK Rowling's ideas and

inventiveness but they stayed with her

because of her warmth you write with

humor and a bit of mischief kids want

humor and they want books to break rules

that they wouldn't dream of breaking in

real life think of your favorite

children's book and you'll almost

certainly smile number eight reached the

final full stop congratulations you're

almost halfway there

Hemingway once said the first draft if

anything is crap and he's right

nearly all first drafts will have

problems some of them quite profound and

that's okay the first draft is really

just your opportunity to get stuck in on

the real business which is refining and

perfecting the story you've just told

yourself the chances are that you have

not properly succeeded in the following

rules above so now it's a pretty good

time to go back over these and check

that you've made full use of their

wisdom you'll find that a lot of these

things are circular you'll use the same

advice over and over again but make more

profound use of it each time around

number nine get help writing a book is

hard work it's lonely those around you

are seldom equipped to offer expert

feedback and advice and of course this

is a difficult road most first novels do

not get published so please don't try to

go it alone if you finished your novel

however then the most direct route to

improving it is to get detailed

editorial advice on what's working

what's not yet working and what to do to

fix it this kind of feedback is the gold

standard way to improve your writing and

number ten get a literary agent and a

book deal literary agents only take

about one book in a thousand so before

you take this final step we do suggest

that you've completed

one through number nine properly that

said if you're not was good enough you

will find it easy enough to secure

representation just follow these steps a

select your target agents be choose

about eight to twelve names you're

looking for agents who are keen to take

on new writers who are active in your

area if they happen to represent authors

you love then so much the better

see write a fabulous cover letter d

write a good clear synopsis a process

that terrifies most writers but which is

easier than you might think

e get your stuff out there and good luck

don't forget if you're having a hard

time writing or finishing your book

check out our free writers toolkit it

can help you overcome procrastination

get organized stay focused and get your

book published just head to

http://www.writerslife.org/toolkit  to get your free

 

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