So, you want to write a book... Let's Go!

So, you want to write a book. But you have no idea where to start… This is a wonderful and exciting place to be. The possibilities are endless, an ocean of potential and dreams and possibly falling off the edge into oblivion…

Okay, that’s a little dramatic, but hey, I’m a writer.

It is a little true, though.

Here’s what I like to do; Start with a single idea. A song with a good premise, a dream, a picture that inspires you—that draws something out of you. This is your homing beacon, the place to which you will always return. This is the cocoon from where all the butterflies of your world unfold. Hold fast to it or you will get lost.

At this point you may start to tread water a little. There’s A LOT of “writing advise” out there and I’ve come to the point where I throw most of it out. Everyone is going to write differently, think differently, feel differently.

I see my worlds in vivid moving pictures, like a movie.

A developing author I’m working with sees hers completely in concepts. Have you ever tried to describe the CONCEPT of a forest…?

Yeah. That’s where writing advise falls short. So I offer this; take what’s helpful and makes sense. Shove the rest where ever it belongs. Down the stairs or in a closet,  I don’t care.

Don’t write to trend—unless you want to.

Don’t play it safe—unless that’s how you roll.

Write the thing that makes you uncomfortable, because that where you’ll find pieces of yourself you didn’t recognize. Write the thing that makes you strange, that’s where you’ll find your tribe. Above all, stay true to your convictions. Don’t let anyone tell you just because it’s popular makes it right.

I’ll get off my soap box now. Moving on…

I like to start with world building. I want to have a decent idea of the working parts so I know how my characters will move about. I keep all this in my head. In folders upon folders of encyclopedic files. This works for me. All the images are in my head—like I said, a bunch of moving pictures. (Is it chaotic and loud in there? You better believe it.)

If you need visuals, I highly recommend World Anvil, created by the lovely and wonderful human, Janet Forbes, who has worked on so many amazing RPG and D&D campaigns I can’t even count. The site is too much for me, I have enough pictures in my brain, thank you very much. But for that concepts author friend I mentioned before? It’s been a life saver. World Anvil also does worldbuilding cons every year with guest speakers like Tracy Hickman and R.A. Salvatore. Great, great stuff…

Okay, spiel done.

Once I have the general layout of my world down, I usually get an idea of what the characters will be like. We are molded by our environments, after all. Remember that cocoon I mentioned earlier? Yeah, make sure you keep referencing that, it’ll keep all the little working parts together. This is also where I start making all the little tweaks and oddities that make a world interesting. Critters named after deserts, holographs that follow you around, magic that talks, hanging cities that ground stompers avoid at all costs, etc. Did I mention I write sci-fi and fantasy?

Now that you're into your world and you’re getting going, you’re probably going to hit a snag. A big snag. A snag I think all authors trip on. You’re going to think, “Wow. This sucks.” We all think that. You’re not alone. Now read this: It’s supposed to suck. That is the process of art. Just like drawing, and painting, and sculpting. There is an ugly stage—a “just go with it” stage.    

Remember this very important fact—a first draft’s job is to exist.

Take that in for a minute. Let it really sink in. Breathe in, breathe out.

A first draft’s job isn’t to be good, or well structured, or beautifully written. It’s a skeleton to hang muscle on. Then skin. Then features. Then clothes. Nothing more than an armature for detail.

Its first job is to suck.

I could go on, but I won’t. What I will do is address your sudden bout of imposter syndrome. Yes, I know you’re probably feeling it by now, everyone does. (Well, not me, but basically everyone else. I don’t have emotions, just like Gracie Hart doesn't have tear ducts.)

Stop it. Just stop. You are perfectly qualified to write YOUR story. Because no one else can write it. No one else has that ball of fire inside them quite like yours. No one can handle the heat of YOUR experiences and put them down on very flammable paper without it igniting. I truly believe that every person has a story inside them waiting to be written. No one but you can write it.

I’ll say it again, in case you need to hear it twice. No one but you can write it.

So just get out of your way and write it.

I hope you weren’t expecting a technical manual on how to write a story, because I’m pretty sure there isn’t one. Not one that actually works, anyway. Thought castles, and brain-mapping, find the cat (or lose the cat, whatever)… all just methods to the madness of trying to mechanize a process that is pure adrenaline, emotion, and gut.

It’s my sincere hope this unhelpful post was a push towards your first words (first stroke, first note, first pluck). Your first baby steps into this grand adventure that will take you farther than the second start to the right, and way beyond straight on to morning. You will never regret trying. And even if the story never leaves your desk, it will still exist as proof that you did a thing. A thing only you could do.