Today we
give you some advice from professional authors on how you can write a book. To
get Garrett Pierson’s book on writing and full writing system, visit
http://howtowriteabookasap.com.
Carl Zimmer
Author of A Planet of Viruses, The Tangled Bank, and Brain Cuttings
Author of A Planet of Viruses, The Tangled Bank, and Brain Cuttings
- Do as much research as possible away from the Internet — with living people, in real places.
- Be ready to organize vast amounts of data. Use a wall, or software like Scrivener.
- Be ready to amputate entire chapters. It will be painful.
David Shenk
Author of The Forgetting and The Genius in All of Us
Author of The Forgetting and The Genius in All of Us
- Make it great, no matter how long it takes. There’s no such thing as too many drafts. There’s no such thing as too much time spent. A great book can last forever. A great book can change a person’s life. A mediocre book is just commerce.
- Get feedback — oodles of it. Along the way, show pieces of your book to lots of people — different types of people. Ply them with wine and beg them for candor. Find out what’s missing, what’s being misinterpreted, what isn’t convincing, what’s falling flat. This doesn’t mean you take every suggestion or write the book by committee. But this process will allow marrying your necessarily-precious vision with how people will actually react. I find that invaluable.
- Let some of you come through. You’re obviously not writing a memoir here, but this book is still partly about you — the world you see, the way you think, the experiences you have with people. Readers are interested in who you are. So don’t be afraid to let bits and pieces of your personality and even life details seep into the text
Cory Doctorow
Author of With a Little Help, For the Win, Makers, and Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom
Author of With a Little Help, For the Win, Makers, and Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom
- Write every day. Anything you do every day gets easier. If you’re insanely busy, make the amount that you write every day small but do it every day.
- Write even when the mood isn’t right. Sometimes you can’t tell if what you’re writing is good or bad while you’re writing it.
- Write when you think the book sucks and it isn’t going anywhere. Just keep writing. Your conscious is having a panic attack because it doesn’t believe your subconscious knows what it’s doing.
- Stop in the middle of a sentence, leaving a rough edge for you to start from the next day — that way, you can write three or five words without being “creative” and before you know it, you’re writing.
There are other recommendations that
can help you learn how you can write a book.
Ask an author in your area about his or
her suggestions. Most writers, like these mentioned above, love to share tales
of their journey from want-to-be author to author.
Get Garrett Pierson, author of How to Write a Book ASAP to coach you. He
has a book and an entire program that will take you step-by-step through the
challenges of authorship.
Write. It is only by doing that we
learn how to do. It is only by consistent practice and dedication to the art of
writing that we can become a respected author.