When you get that first Aha! idea about writing a book, it usually thrills you with excitement. Maybe you're like we are and you run upstairs (or down) to share you wonderful idea with colleagues and friends.
"Wow! I just got this brainstorm of an idea about a new book...one that's never been done before!"
Ut-oh - "never been done before?" To be honest, there's no such thing. EVERYTHING HAS BEEN DONE BEFORE. There are no plot outlines left, they have all been plotted. Sorry.
Now, maybe your topic has been covered by other writers - but not in the same way you're planning to cover it. So, the "never been done before" should really be, "No one's approached it like this, before."
Great. That's a good start. Now, to support that assumption... you need to do some research and find out for sure whether or not your book idea has been done 'your' way before, is true. If it hasn't... well, get going. Start your book.
This is where a lot of new authors fall down.
"I don't know where to start," they whine.
"Should I write an introduction?" they ask, all wide-eyed.
"What if I start it and I can't finish it?" they wonder.
Well, here's the long and the short of it. Nothing was ever accomplished by talking about it. You will not get your book written by procrastinating with silly questions, which you already know the answer to.
The best advice probably comes from Lewis Carroll, writing in Alice in Wonderland. It was the Mad Hatter who said, "Begin at the beginning and go on until you come to the end; then stop."
For our purposes, let's consider writing a book as a process. The process involves being able to write, having a place to write, and having at least a good idea of what you're going to write.
We'll discuss the process of writing a book in more detail, in upcoming posts. But, if you can think of your book as a process: a creative endeavor that actually follows a method: research what you don't know; sit and write every day; don't get hung up on editing at first - let your editor guide you (you do have an editor, right?); create an outline that is at least close to the flow of your story (all writing is story writing, even non-fiction); and let the book evolve.
Now, begin...
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