writing the books

How to Write a Book From Start to Finish: A Proven Guide

So you want to write a book. Becoming an author can change your life—not to mention give you the ability to impact thousands, even millions, of people.

But writing a book isn’t easy. As a 21-time New York Times bestselling author, I can tell you: It’s far easier to quit than to finish.

You’re going to be tempted to give up writing your book when you run out of ideas, when your own message bores you, when you get distracted, or when you become overwhelmed by the sheer scope of the task.

But what if you knew exactly:

• Where to start…
• What each step entails…
• How to overcome fear, procrastination, a nd writer’s block …
• And how to keep from feeling overwhelmed?

You can write a book—and more quickly than you might think, because these days you have access to more writing tools than ever. 

The key is to follow a proven, straightforward, step-by-step plan .

My goal here is to offer you that book-writing plan.

I’ve used the techniques I outline below to write more than 200 books (including the Left Behind series) over the past 50 years. Yes, I realize writing over four books per year on average is more than you may have thought humanly possible. 

But trust me—with a reliable blueprint, you can get unstuck and finally write your book .

This is my personal approach on how to write a book. I’m confident you’ll find something here that can change the game for you. So, let’s jump in.

• How to Write a Book From Start to Finish

Part 1: Before You Begin Writing Your Book

• Establish your writing space.
• Assemble your writing tools.

Part 2: How to Start Writing a Book

• Break the project into small pieces.
• Settle on your BIG idea.
• Construct your outline.
• Set a firm writing schedule.
• Establish a sacred deadline.
• Embrace procrastination (really!).
• Eliminate distractions.
• Conduct your research.
• Start calling yourself a writer.

Part 3: The Book-Writing Itself

• Think reader-first.
• Find your writing voice.
• Write a compelling opener.
• Fill your story with conflict and tension.
• Turn off your internal editor while writing the first draft.
• Persevere through The Marathon of the Middle.
• Write a resounding ending.

Part 4: Editing Your Book

• Become a ferocious self-editor.
• Find a mentor.
• Part 5: Publishing Your Book
• Decide on your publishing avenue.
• Properly format your manuscript.
• Set up and grow your author platform.
• Pursue a Literary Agent
• Writing Your Query Letter
• Part One: Before You Begin Writing Your Book

You’ll never regret—in fact, you’ll thank yourself later—for investing the time necessary to prepare for such a monumental task.

You wouldn’t set out to cut down a huge grove of trees with just an axe. You’d need a chain saw, perhaps more than one. Something to keep them sharp. Enough fuel to keep them running.

You get the picture. Don’t shortcut this foundational part of the process.

Step 1. Establish your writing space.

To write your book, you don’t need a sanctuary. In fact, I started my career o n my couch facing a typewriter perched on a plank of wood suspended by two kitchen chairs.

What were you saying about your setup again? We do what we have to do.

And those early days on that sagging couch were among the most productive of my career.

Naturally, the nicer and more comfortable and private you can make your writing lair (I call mine my cave), the better.

Real writers can write anywhere .

Some authors write their books in restaurants and coffee shops. My first full time job was at a newspaper where 40 of us clacked away on manual typewriters in one big room—no cubicles, no partitions, conversations hollered over the din, most of my colleagues smoking, teletype machines clattering.

Cut your writing teeth in an environment like that, and anywhere else seems glorious.

Step 2. Assemble your writing tools.

In the newspaper business, there was no time to hand write our stuff and then type it for the layout guys. So I have always written at a keyboard and still write my books that way.

Most authors do, though some hand write their first drafts and then keyboard them onto a computer or pay someone to do that.

No publisher I know would even consider a typewritten manuscript, let alone one submitted in handwriting.

The publishing industry runs on Microsoft Word, so you’ll need to submit Word document files. Whether you prefer a Mac or a PC, both will produce the kinds of files you need.

And if you’re looking for a musclebound electronic organizing system, you can’t do better than Scrivener . It works well on both PCs and Macs, and it nicely interacts with Word files.

Just remember, Scrivener has a steep learning curve, so familiarize yourself with it before you start writing.

Scrivener users know that taking the time to learn the basics is well worth it.

Tons of other book-writing tools exist to help you. I’ve included some of the most well-known in my blog po st on book writing software and my writing tools page fo r your reference.

So, what else do you need?

If you are one who handwrites your first drafts, don’t scrimp on paper, pencils, or erasers.

Don’t shortchange yourself on a computer either. Even if someone else is keyboarding for you, you’ll need a computer for research and for communicating with potential agents , edi tors, publishers.

Get the best computer you can afford, the latest, the one with the most capacity and speed.

Try to imagine everything you’re going to need in addition to your desk or table, so you can equip yourself in advance and don’t have to keep interrupting your work to find things like:

• Paper clips
• Pencil holders
• Pencil sharpeners
• Printing paper
• Paperweight
• Tape dispensers
• Cork or bulletin boards
• Reference works
• Space heaters
• Beverage mugs
• You name it
• Last, but most crucial, get the best, most ergonomic chair you can afford.

If I were to start my career again with that typewriter on a plank, I would not sit on that couch. I’d grab another straight-backed kitchen chair or something similar and be proactive about my posture and maintaining a healthy spine.

There’s nothing worse than trying to be creative and immerse yourself in writing while you’re in agony . The chair I work in today cost more than my first car!

If you’ve never used some of the items I listed above and can’t imagine needing them, fine. But make a list of everything you know you’ll need so when the actual writing begins, you’re already equipped.

As you grow as a writer and actually start making money at it, you can keep upgrading your writing space.

Where I work now is light years from where I started. But the point is, I didn’t wait to start writing until I could have a great spot in which to do it.

• Part Two: How to Start Writing a Book

Step 1. Break your book into small pieces.

Writing a book feels like a colossal project, because it is! Bu t your manuscript w ill be made up of many small parts.

An old adage says that the way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time .

Try to get your mind off your book as a 400-or-so-page monstrosity.

It can’t be written all at once any more than that proverbial elephant could be eaten in a single sitting.

See your book for what it is: a manuscript made up of sentences, paragraphs, pages. Those pages will begin to add up, and though after a week you may have barely accumulated double digits, a few months down the road you’ll be into your second hundred pages.

So keep it simple.

Start by distilling you r big book idea from a page or so to a single sentence—your premise. The more specific that one-sentence premise, the more it will keep you focused while you’re writing.

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Before you can turn your big idea into one sentence, which can then b e expanded to an outline , you have to settle on exactly what that big idea is.

Step 2. Settle on your BIG idea.

To be book-worthy, your idea has to be killer.

You need to write something about which you’re passionate , something that gets you up in the morning, draws you to the keyboard, and keeps you there. It should excite not only you, but also anyone you tell about it.

I can’t overstate the importance of this.

If you’ve tried and failed to finish your book before—maybe more than once—it could be that the basic premise was flawed. Maybe it was worth a blog post or an article but couldn’t carry an entire book.

Think The Hunger Games , Harry Potter , or How to Win Friends and Influence People . The market is crowded, the competition fierce. There’s no more room for run-of-the-mill ideas. Your premise alone should make readers salivate.

Go for the big concept book.

How do you know you’ve got a winner? Does it have legs? In other words, does it stay in your mind, growing and developing every time you think of it?

Run it past loved ones and others you trust.

Does it raise eyebrows? Elicit Wows? Or does it result in awkward silences?

The right concept simply works, and you’ll know it when you land on it. Most importantly, your idea must capture you in such a way that you’re compelled to write it . Otherwise you will lose interest halfway through and never finish.

Step 3. Construct your outline.

Writing your book without a clear vision of where you’re going usually ends in disaster.

Even if you ’re writing a fiction book an d consider yourself a Pantser* as opposed to an Outliner, you need at least a basic structure .

[*Those of us who write by the seat of our pants and, as Stephen King advises, pu t interesting characters i n difficult situations and write to find out what happens]

You don’t have to call it an outline if that offends your sensibilities. But fashion some sort of a directional document that provides structure for your book and also serves as a safety net.

If you get out on that Pantser highwire and lose your balance, you’ll thank me for advising you to have this in place.

Now if you’re writing a nonfiction book, there’s no substitute for an outline .

Potential agents or publishers require this in your proposal . T hey want to know where you’re going, and they want to know that you know. What do you want your reader to learn from your book, and how will you ensure they learn it?

Fiction or nonfiction, if you commonly lose interest in your book somewhere in what I call the Marathon of the Middle, you likely didn’t start with enough exciting ideas .

That’s why and outline (or a basic framework) is essential. Don’t even start writing until you’re confident your structure will hold up through the end.

You may recognize this novel structure illustration.

Did you know it holds up—with only slight adaptations—for nonfiction books too? It’s self-explanatory for novelists; they list their plot twists and developments and arrange them in an order that best serves to increase tension .

What separates great nonfiction from mediocre? The same structure!

Arrange your points and evidence in the same way so you’re setting your reader up for a huge payoff, and then make sure you deliver.

If your nonfiction book is a memoir , an autobiography , or a biography, structure it like a novel and you can’t go wrong.

But even if it’s a straightforward how-to book, stay as close to this structure as possible, and you’ll see your manuscript come alive.

Make promises early, triggering your reader to anticipate fresh ideas, secrets, inside information, something major that will make him thrilled with the finished product.

While a nonfiction book may not have as much action or dialogue or character development as a novel, you can inject tension by showing where people have failed before and how your reader can succeed.

You can even make the how-to project look impossible until you pay off that setup with your unique solution.

Keep your outline to a single page for now. But make sure every major point is represented, so you’ll always know where you’re going.

And don’t worry if you’ve forgotten the basics of classic outlining or have never felt comfortable with the concept.

Your outline must serve you. If that means Roman numerals and capital and lowercase letters and then Arabic numerals, you can certainly fashion it that way. But if you just want a list of sentences that synopsize your idea, that’s fine too.

Simply start with your working title, then your premise, then—for fiction, list all the major scenes that fit into the rough structure above.

For nonfiction, try to come up with chapter titles and a sentence or two of what each chapter will cover.

Once you have your one-page outline, remember it is a fluid document meant to serve you and your book. Expand it, change it, play with it as you see fit—even during the writing process .

Step 4. Set a firm writing schedule.

Ideally, you want to schedule at least six hours per week to write your book.

That may consist of three sessions of two hours each, two sessions of three hours, or six one-hour sessions—whatever works for you.

I recommend a regular pattern (same times, same days) that can most easily become a habit. But if that’s impossible, just make sure you carve out at least six hours so you can see real progress.

Having trouble finding the time to write a book? News flash—you won’t find the time. You have to make it.

I used the phrase carve out above for a reason. That’s what it takes.

Something in your calendar will likely have to be sacrificed in the interest of writing time . 

Make sure it’s not your family—they should always be your top priority. Never sacrifice your family on the altar of your writing career.

But beyond that, the truth is that we all find time for what we really want to do.

Many writers insist they have no time to write, but they always seem to catch the latest Netflix original series, or go to the next big Hollywood feature. They enjoy concerts, parties, ball games, whatever.

How important is it to you to finally write your book? What will you cut from your calendar each week to ensure you give it the time it deserves?

• A favorite TV show?
• An hour of sleep per night? (Be careful with this one; rest is crucial to a writer.)

Successful writers make time to write.

When writing becomes a habit, you’ll be on your way.

Step 5. Establish a sacred deadline.

Without deadlines, I rarely get anything done. I need that motivation.

Admittedly, my deadlines are now established in my contracts from publishers.

If you’re writing your first book, you probably don’t have a contract yet. To ensure you finish your book, set your own deadline—then consider it sacred .

Tell your spouse or loved one or trusted friend. Ask that they hold you accountable.

Now determine—and enter in your calendar—the number of pages you need to produce per writing session to meet your deadline. If it proves unrealistic, change the deadline now.

If you have no idea how many pages or words you typically produce per session, you may have to experiment before you finalize those figures.

Say you want to finish a 400-page manuscript by this time next year.

Divide 400 by 50 weeks (accounting for two off-weeks), and you get eight pages per week. 

Divide that by your typical number of writing sessions per week and you’ll know how many pages you should finish per session.

Now is the time to adjust these numbers, while setting your deadline and determining your pages per session.

Maybe you’d rather schedule four off weeks over the next year. Or you know your book will be unusually long.

Change the numbers to make it realistic and doable, and then lock it in. Remember, your deadline is sacred.

Step 6. Embrace procrastination (really!).

You read that right. Don’t fight it; embrace it.

You wouldn’t guess it from my 200+ published books, but I’m the king of procrastinators .

Don’t be. So many authors are procrastinators that I’ve come to wonder if it’s a prerequisite.

The secret is to accept it and, in fact, schedule it.

I quit fretting and losing sleep over procrastinating when I realized it was inevitable and predictable, and also that it was productive.

Sound like rationalization?

Maybe it was at first. But I learned that while I’m putting off the writing, my subconscious is working on my book. It’s a part of the process. When you do start writing again, you’ll enjoy the surprises your subconscious reveals to you.

So, knowing procrastination is coming, book it on your calendar .

Take it into account when you’re determining your page quotas. If you have to go back in and increase the number of pages you need to produce per session, do that (I still do it all the time).

But—and here’s the key—you must never let things get to where that number of pages per day exceeds your capacity.

It’s one thing to ratchet up your output from two pages per session to three. But if you let it get out of hand, you’ve violated the sacredness of your deadline.

How can I procrastinate and still meet more than 190 deadlines?

Because I keep the deadlines sacred.

Step 7. Eliminate distractions to stay focused.

Are you as easily distracted as I am?

Have you found yourself writing a sentence and then checking your email? Writing another and checking Facebook? Getting caught up in the pictures of 10 Sea Monsters You Wouldn’t Believe Actually Exist?

Then you just have to check out that precious video from a talk show where the dad surprises the family by returning from the war.

That leads to more and more of the same. Once I’m in, my writing is forgotten, and all of a sudden the day has gotten away from me.

The answer to these insidious timewasters?

Look into these apps that allow you to block your email, social media, browsers, game apps, whatever you wish during the hours you want to write. Some carry a modest fee, others are free.

• Freedom app
• FocusWriter

Step 8. Conduct your research.

Yes, research is a vital part of the process, whether you’re writing fiction or nonfict i on .

Fiction means more than just making up a story .

Your details and logic and technical and historical details must be right for your novel to be believable.

And for nonfiction, even if you’re writing about a subject in which you’re an expert—as I’m doing here—getting all the facts right will polish your finished product.

In fact, you’d be surprised at how many times I’ve researched a fact or two while writing this blog post alone.

The last thing you want is even a small mistake due to your lack of proper research .

Regardless the detail, trust me, you’ll hear from readers about it.

Your credibility as an author and an expert hinges on creating trust with your reader. That dissolves in a hurry if you commit an error.

My favorite research resources:

• World Almanacs : These alone list almost everything you need for accurate prose: facts, data, government information, and more. For my novels, I often use these to come up with ethnically accurate character names .
• The Merriam-Webster Thesaurus : The online version is great, because it’s lightning fast. You couldn’t turn the pages of a hard copy as quickly as you can get where you want to onscreen. One caution: Never let it be obvious you’ve consulted a thesaurus. You’re not looking for the exotic word that jumps off the page. You’re looking for that common word that’s on the tip of your tongue.
• WorldAtlas.com : Here you’ll find nearly limitless information about any continent, country, region, city, town, or village. Names, monetary units, weather patterns, tourism info, and even facts you wouldn’t have thought to search for. I get ideas when I’m digging here, for both my novels and my nonfiction books.

Step 9. Start calling yourself a writer.

Your inner voice may tell you, “You’re no writer and you never will be. Who do you think you are, trying to write a book?”

That may be why you’ve stalled at writing your book in the past .

But if you’re working at writing, studying writing, practicing writing, that makes you a writer. Don’t wait till you reach some artificial level of accomplishment before calling yourself a writer.

A cop in uniform and on duty is a cop whether he’s actively enforced the law yet or not. A carpenter is a carpenter whether he’s ever built a house.

Self-identify as a writer now and you’ll silence that inner critic —who, of course, is really you. 

Talk back to yourself if you must. It may sound silly, but acknowledging yourself as a writer can give you the confidence to keep going and finish your book.

Are you a writer? Say so.

• Part Three: The Book-Writing Itself

Step 1. Think reader-first.

This is so important that that you should write it on a sticky note and affix it to your monitor so you’re reminded of it every time you write.

Every decision you make about your manuscript must be run through this filter.

Not you-first, not book-first, not editor-, agent-, or publisher-first. Certainly not your inner circle- or critics-first.

Reader-first, last, and always .

If every decision is based on the idea of reader-first, all those others benefit anyway.

When fans tell me they were moved by one of my books, I think back to this adage and am grateful I maintained that posture during the writing.

Does a scene bore you? If you’re thinking reader-first, it gets overhauled or deleted.

Where to go, what to say, what to write next? Decide based on the reader as your priority.

Whatever your gut tells you your reader would prefer, that’s your answer.

Whatever will intrigue him, move him, keep him reading, those are your marching orders.

So, naturally, you need to know your reader. Rough age? General interests? Loves? Hates? Attention span?

When in doubt, look in the mirror . 

The surest way to please your reader is to please yourself. Write what you would want to read and trust there is a broad readership out there that agrees.

Step 2. Find your writing voice.

Discovering your voice is nowhere near as complicated as some make it out to be.

You can find yours by answering these quick questions :

• What’s the coolest thing that ever happened to you?
• Who’s the most important person you told about it?
• What did you sound like when you did?
• That’s your writing voice. It should read the way you sound at your most engaged.

That’s all there is to it.

If you write fiction and the narrator of your book isn’t you, go through the three-question exercise on the narrator’s behalf—and you’ll quickly master the voice.

Here’s a blog I posted that’ll walk you through the process .

Step 3. Write a compelling opener.

If you’re stuck because of the pressure of crafting the perfect opening line for your book, you’re not alone.

And neither is your angst misplaced.

This is not something you should put off and come back to once you’ve started on the rest of the first chapter.

Oh, it can still change if the story dictates that . But settling on a good one will really get you off and running.

It’s unlikely you’ll write a more important sentence than your first one , whether you’re writing fiction or nonfiction. Make sure you’re thrilled with it and then watch how your confidence—and momentum—soars.

Most great first lines fall into one of these categories:

1. Surprising

Fiction : “It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.” —George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four

Nonfiction : “By the time Eustace Conway was seven years old, he could throw a knife accurately enough to nail a chipmunk to a tree.” —Elizabeth Gilbert, The Last American Man

2. Dramatic Statement

Fiction : “They shoot the white girl first.” —Toni Morrison, Paradise

Nonfiction : “I was five years old the first time I ever set foot in prison.” —Jimmy Santiago Baca, A Place to Stand

3. Philosophical

Fiction : “Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” —Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina

Nonfiction : “It’s not about you.” —Rick Warren, The Purpose Driven Life

Fiction : “When I finally caught up with Abraham Trahearne, he was drinking beer with an alcoholic bulldog named Fireball Roberts in a ramshackle joint just outside of Sonoma, California, drinking the heart right out of a fine spring afternoon. —James Crumley, The Last Good Kiss

Nonfiction : “The village of Holcomb stands on the high wheat plains of western Kansas, a lonesome area that other Kansans call ‘out there.’” —Truman Capote, In Cold Blood

Great opening lines from other classics may give you ideas for yours. Here’s a list of famous openers .

Step 4. Fill your story with conflict and tension.

Your reader craves conflict, and yes, this applies to nonfiction readers as well.

In a novel, if everything is going well and everyone is agreeing, your reader will soon lose interest and find something else to do.

Are two of your characters talking at the dinner table? Have one say something that makes the other storm out.

Some deep-seeded rift in their relationship has surfaced—just a misunderstanding, or an injustice?

Thrust people into conflict with each other . 

That’ll keep your reader’s attention.

Certain nonfiction genres won’t lend themselves to that kind of conflict, of course, but you can still inject tension by setting up your reader for a payoff in later chapters. Check out some of the current bestselling nonfiction works to see how writers accomplish this.

Somehow they keep you turning those pages, even in a simple how-to title.

Tension is the secret sauce that will propel your reader through to the end . 

And sometimes that’s as simple as implying something to come.

Step 5. Turn off your internal editor while writing the first draft.

Many of us perfectionists find it hard to write a first draft—fiction or nonfiction—without feeling compelled to make every sentence exactly the way we want it.

That voice in your head that questions every word, every phrase, every sentence, and makes you worry you’re being redundant or have allowed cliches to creep in—well, that’s just your editor alter ego.

He or she needs to be told to shut up .

This is not easy.

Deep as I am into a long career, I still have to remind myself of this every writing day. I cannot be both creator and editor at the same time. That slows me to a crawl, and my first draft of even one brief chapter could take days.

Our job when writing that first draft is to get down the story or the message or the teaching—depending on your genre.

It helps me to view that rough draft as a slab of meat I will carve tomorrow .

I can’t both produce that hunk and trim it at the same time.

A cliche, a redundancy, a hackneyed phrase comes tumbling out of my keyboard, and I start wondering whether I’ve forgotten to engage the reader’s senses or aimed for his emotions.

That’s when I have to chastise myself and say, “No! Don’t worry about that now! First thing tomorrow you get to tear this thing up and put it back together again to your heart’s content!”

Imagine yourself wearing different hats for different tasks , if that helps—whatever works to keep you rolling on that rough draft. You don’t need to show it to your worst enemy or even your dearest love. This chore is about creating. Don’t let anything slow you down.

Some like to write their entire first draft before attacking the revision. As I say, whatever works.

Doing it that way would make me worry I’ve missed something major early that will cause a complete rewrite when I discover it months later. I alternate creating and revising.

The first thing I do every morning is a heavy edit and rewrite of whatever I wrote the day before. If that’s ten pages, so be it. I put my perfectionist hat on and grab my paring knife and trim that slab of meat until I’m happy with every word.

Then I switch hats, tell Perfectionist Me to take the rest of the day off, and I start producing rough pages again.

So, for me, when I’ve finished the entire first draft, it’s actually a second draft because I have already revised and polished it in chunks every day.

THEN I go back through the entire manuscript one more time, scouring it for anything I missed or omitted, being sure to engage the reader’s senses and heart, and making sure the whole thing holds together.

I do not submit anything I’m not entirely thrilled with .

I know there’s still an editing process it will go through at the publisher, but my goal is to make my manuscript the absolute best I can before they see it.

Compartmentalize your writing vs. your revising and you’ll find that frees you to create much more quickly.

Step 6. Persevere through The Marathon of the Middle.

Most who fail at writing a book tell me they give up somewhere in what I like to call The Marathon of the Middle.

That’s a particularly rough stretch for novelists who have a great concept, a stunning opener, and they can’t wait to get to the dramatic ending. But they bail when they realize they don’t have enough cool stuff to fill the middle.

They start padding, trying to add scenes just for the sake of bulk, but they’re soon bored and know readers will be too.

This actually happens to nonfiction writers too.

The solution there is in the outlining stage , being sure your middle points and chapters are every bit as valuable and magnetic as the first and last.

If you strategize the progression of your points or steps in a process—depending on nonfiction genre—you should be able to eliminate the strain in the middle chapters.

For novelists, know that every book becomes a challenge a few chapters in. The shine wears off, keeping the pace and tension gets harder, and it’s easy to run out of steam.

But that’s not the time to quit. Force yourself back to your structure, come up with a subplot if necessary, but do whatever you need to so your reader stays engaged.

Fiction writer or nonfiction author, The Marathon of the Middle is when you must remember why you started this journey in the first place.

It isn’t just that you want to be an author. You have something to say. You want to reach the masses with your message.

Yes, it’s hard. It still is for me—every time. But don’t panic or do anything rash, like surrendering. Embrace the challenge of the middle as part of the process. If it were easy, anyone could do it.

Step 7. Write a resounding ending.

This is just as important for your nonfiction book as your novel. It may not be as dramatic or emotional, but it could be—especially if you’re writing a memoir.

But even a how-to or self-help book needs to close with a resounding thud, the way a Broadway theater curtain meets the floor .

How do you ensure your ending doesn’t fizzle ?

• Don’t rush it . Give readers the payoff they’ve been promised. They’ve invested in you and your book the whole way. Take the time to make it satisfying.
• Never settle for close enough just because you’re eager to be finished. Wait till you’re thrilled with every word, and keep revising until you are.
• If it’s unpredictable, it had better be fair and logical so your reader doesn’t feel cheated. You want him to be delighted with the surprise, not tricked.
• If you have multiple ideas for how your book should end, go for the heart rather than the head, even in nonfiction. Readers most remember what moves them.
• Part Four: Rewriting Your Book

Step 1. Become a ferocious self-editor.

Agents and editors can tell within the first two pages whether your manuscript is worthy of consideration. That sounds unfair, and maybe it is. But it’s also reality, so we writers need to face it.

How can they often decide that quickly on something you’ve devoted months, maybe years, to?

Because they can almost immediately envision how much editing would be required to make those first couple of pages publishable. If they decide the investment wouldn’t make economic sense for a 300-400-page manuscript, end of story.

Your best bet to keep an agent or editor reading your manuscript?

You must become a ferocious self-editor. That means:

• Omit needless words
• Choose the simple word over one that requires a dictionary
• Avoid subtle redundancies , like “He thought in his mind…” (Where else would someone think?)
• Avoid hedging verbs like almost frowned, sort of jumped, etc.
• Generally remove the word that —use it only when absolutely necessary for clarity
• Give the reader credit and resist the urge to explain , as in, “She walked through the open door.” (Did we need to be told it was open?)
• Avoid too much stage direction (what every character is doing with every limb and digit)
• Avoid excessive adjectives
• Show, don’t tell
• And many more

For my full list and how to use them, click here . (It’s free.)

When do you know you’re finished revising? When you’ve gone from making your writing better to merely making it different. That’s not always easy to determine, but it’s what makes you an author. 

Step 2. Find a mentor.

Get help from someone who’s been where you want to be.

Imagine engaging a mentor who can help you sidestep all the amateur pitfalls and shave years of painful trial-and-error off your learning curve.

Just make sure it’s someone who really knows the writing and publishing world. Many masquerade as mentors and coaches but have never really succeeded themselves.

Look for someone widely-published who knows how to work with agents, editors, and publishers .

There are many helpful mentors online . I teach writers through this free site, as well as in my members-only Writers Guild .

Step 1. Decide on your publishing avenue.

In simple terms, you have two options when it comes to publishing your book:

1. Traditional publishing

Traditional publishers take all the risks. They pay for everything from editing, proofreading, typesetting, printing, binding, cover art and design, promotion, advertising, warehousing, shipping, billing, and paying author royalties.

2. Self-publishing

Everything is on you. You are the publisher, the financier, the decision-maker. Everything listed above falls to you. You decide who does it, you approve or reject it, and you pay for it. The term self-publishing is a bit of a misnomer, however, because what you’re paying for is not publishing, but printing. 

Both avenues are great options under certain circumstances. 

Not sure which direction you want to take? Click here to read my in-depth guide to publishing a book . It’ll show you the pros and cons of each, what each involves, and my ultimate recommendation.

Step 2: Properly format your manuscript.

Regardless whether you traditionally or self-publish your book, proper formatting is critical.

Because poor formatting makes you look like an amateur .

Readers and agents expect a certain format for book manuscripts, and if you don’t follow their guidelines, you set yourself up for failure.

Best practices when formatting your book:

• Use 12-point type
• Use a serif font; the most common is Times Roman
• Double space your manuscript
• No extra space between paragraphs
• Only one space between sentences
• Indent each paragraph half an inch (setting a tab, not using several spaces)
• Text should be flush left and ragged right, not justified
• If you choose to add a line between paragraphs to indicate a change of location or passage of time, center a typographical dingbat (like ***) on the line
• Black text on a white background only
• One-inch margins on the top, bottom, and sides (the default in Word)
• Create a header with the title followed by your last name and the page number. The header should appear on each page other than the title page.

If you need help implementing these formatting guidelines, click here to read my in-depth post on formatting your manuscript .

Step 3. Set up your author website and grow your platform.

All serious authors need a website. Period.

Because here’s the reality of publishing today…

You need an audience to succeed.

If you want to traditionally publish, agents and publishers will Google your name to see if you have a website and a following.

If you want to self-publish, you need a fan base.

And your author website serves as a hub for your writing, where agents, publishers, readers, and fans can learn about your work.

Don’t have an author website yet? Click here to read my tutorial on setting this up.

Step 4. Pursue a Literary Agent.

There remain a few traditional publishers (those who pay you and take the entire financial risk of publishing your book rather than the other way around) who accept unsolicited submissions, but I do NOT recommend going that route. 

Your submission will likely wind up in what is known in the business as the slush pile. That means some junior staff member will be assigned to get to it when convenient and determine whether to reject it out of hand (which includes the vast majority of the submissions they see) or suggest the publisher’s editorial board consider it.

While I am clearly on record urging you to exhaust all your efforts to traditionally publish before resorting to self-publishing (in other words, paying to be printed), as I say, I do not recommend submitting unsolicited material even to those publishers who say they accept such efforts.

Even I don’t try to navigate the publishing world by myself, despite having been an author, an editor, a publisher, and a writing coach over the last 50 years.

That’s why I have an agent and you need one too.

Many beginning writers naturally wonder why they should share any of their potential income with an agent (traditionally 15%). First, they don’t see any of that income unless you’re getting your 85% at the same time. And second, everyone I know in the business is happy to have someone in their corner, making an agent a real bargain.

I don’t want to have to personally represent myself and my work. I want to stay in my creative lane and let a professional negotiate every clause of the contract and win me the best advance and rights deal possible.

Once under contract, I work directly with the publishing house’s editor and proofreader, but I leave the financial business to my agent.

Ultimately, an agent’s job is to protect your rights and make you money. They profit only when you do.

That said, landing an agent can be as difficult and painstaking as landing a publisher. They know the market, they know the editors, they know what publishers want, and they can advise you how to put your best foot forward.

But how do you know who to trust? Credible, trustworthy agents welcome scrutiny. If you read a book in your genre that you like, check the Acknowledgments page for the agent’s name. If the author thinks enough of that person to mention them glowingly, that’s a great endorsement.

If you’re writing in the inspirational market, peruse agents listed in The Christian Writer’s Market Guide . If you’re writing for the general market, try The Writer’s Market . If you know any published authors, ask about their agents.

The guides that list agents also include what they’re looking for, what they specialize in, and sometimes even what they’re not interested in. Study these to determine potential agents who ply their trade in your genre. Visit their websites for their submission guidelines, and follow these to a T.

They may ask for a query letter, a synopsis, a proposal, or even sample chapters. Be sure not to send more or less than they suggest. 

The best, and most logical place to start is by sending them a query letter. Query simply means question, and in essence the question your letter asks is whether you may send them more.

Step 5: Writing Your Query Letter.

It’s time to move from author to salesperson.

Your query letter will determine whether a literary agent asks to see more, sends you a cordial form letter to let you down easy, or simply doesn’t respond.

Sadly, many agents stipulate on their websites that if you hear nothing after a certain number of weeks, you should take that as an indication that they’re not interested. Frankly, to me, this is frustrating to the writer and lazy on the part of the agent. Surely, in this technological age, it should be easy to hit one button and send a note to someone who might otherwise wonder if the query reached the agent at all.

But that’s the reality we deal with.

So, the job of your one-page single-spaced email letter is to win a response—best case scenario: an invitation to send more: a proposal or even the manuscript. 

Basically, you’re selling yourself and your work. Write a poor query letter and an agent will assume your book is also poorly written.

Without being gimmicky or cute, your letter must intrigue an agent. 

Your query letter should:

• Be addressed to a specific person (not to the staff of the agency or “To Whom It May Concern”)*
• Present your book idea simply
• Evidence your style
• Show you know who your readers are
• Clarify your qualifications
• Exhibit flexibility and professionalism

*If you see a list of agents in a firm, choose one from the middle or bottom of the list. It could be that they get less personal mail than the person whose name is on the door. Who knows? That you single them out may make them see your query in a more favorable light.

For some great advice on writing a query letter, check this out: https://janefriedman.com/query-letters/  

• You Have What It Takes to Write a Book

Writing a book is a herculean task, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be done.

You can do this .

Take it one step at a time and vow to stay focused. And who knows, maybe by this time next year you’ll be holding a published copy of your book. :)

I’ve created an exclusive writing guide called How to Maximize Your Writing Time that will help you stay on track and finish writing your book.

Get your FREE copy by clicking the button below.

Are You Making This #1 Amateur Writing Mistake?

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Before you go, be sure to grab my FREE guide:

How to Write a Book: Everything You Need to Know in 20 Steps

Just tell me where to send it:

Enter your email to instantly access the free PDF version of How to Write a Book: Everything You Need to Know in 20 Steps .

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How to maximize your writing time.

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• Writing Novels

How to Write a Book

Last Updated: May 8, 2024 Fact Checked

This article was co-authored by Grant Faulkner, MA and by wikiHow staff writer, Christopher M. Osborne, PhD . Grant Faulkner is the Executive Director of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) and the co-founder of 100 Word Story, a literary magazine. Grant has published two books on writing and has been published in The New York Times and Writer’s Digest. He co-hosts Write-minded, a weekly podcast on writing and publishing, and has a M.A. in Creative Writing from San Francisco State University.  There are 9 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page. This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources. This article has been viewed 2,832,014 times.

Anyone with a story to tell can write a book, either for their own enjoyment or to publish for all to see. Getting started is often the hardest part, so set up a good workspace, create a regular writing schedule , and stay motivated to keep writing something every day. Focus on developing a “big idea” that drives your narrative, as well as at least one unforgettable character and realistic conflicts. Once you’ve written and revised your manuscript, consider your publishing options to get it into readers’ hands.

Staying Focused and Productive

• Writing a book is both a vocation and an avocation—that is, both a job and a passion. Figure out why you need to write, and why you want to write.
• Keep your goal or goals in mind as motivation. Just remember to keep them realistic. You probably won't become the next J.K. Rowling by your first novel.

• While moving from a cafe to a park bench to the library may work for you, consider setting up a single workspace that you always—and only—use for writing.
• Set up your writing space so you have any supplies or references that you’ll need close at hand. That way, you won’t lose your focus looking for a pen, ink cartridge, or thesaurus.
• Pick a sturdy, supportive chair —it’s easy to lose focus if your back aches!

• The average book writer should probably look to set aside 30 minutes to 2 hours for writing, at least 5 days per week—and ideally every day.
• Block out a time when you tend to be most alert and prolific—for instance, 10:30-11:45 AM every day.
• Scheduling in writing time may mean scheduling out other things in your life. It's up to you to decide if it's worth it or not.

• For instance, if you’ve given yourself a 1-year deadline for writing a complete first draft of a 100,000-word novel, you’ll need to write about 300 words (about 1 typed page) every day.
• Or, if you are required to turn in a doctoral dissertation draft that’s about 350 pages long in 1 year, you’ll likewise need to write about 1 page per day.

• You’re nearly always going to spend at least as much time editing a book as you will initially writing it, so worry about the editing part later. Just focus on getting something down on paper that will need to be edited. Don’t worry about spelling mistakes!
• If you simply can’t help but edit some as you write, set aside a specific, small amount of time at the end of each writing session for editing. For instance, you might use the last 15 minutes of your daily 90-minute writing time to do some light editing of that day’s work.

• Depending on your circumstances, you might be working with an editor, have committee members you can hand over chapter drafts to, or have a group of fellow writers who share their works-in-progress back and forth. Alternatively, show a friend or family member.
• You’ll go through many rounds of feedback and revisions before your book is published. Don’t get discouraged—it’s all part of the process of writing the best book you can!

Creating a Great Story

• Start with the “big picture” first, and worry about filling in the finer details later on.
• Brainstorm themes, scenarios, or ideas that intrigue you. Write them down, think about them for a while, and figure out which one you’re most passionate about.
• For instance: “What if a man journeyed to a land where the people were tiny and he was a giant, and then to another land where the people were giants and he was tiny?”

• For instance, a sci-fi adventure set in space will be more effective if the technology draws at least a small degree from reality.
• Or, if you’re writing a crime drama, you might do research into how the police typically investigate crimes of the type you’re depicting.

• For instance, instead of waking up thinking “I need to write about the Civil War,” you might tell yourself, “I’m going to write about General Grant’s military strategy today.”
• These “manageable pieces” may end up being your book’s chapters, but not necessarily so.

Lucy V. Hay

Look at breakdowns of movie plots for insights into common successful story structures. There are many good sources, like Script Lab or TV Tropes, to find plot breakdowns of popular movies. Read these summaries and watch the movies, then think about how you can plot your story in a way that is similar to the movies you really like.

• Think about some of your favorite characters from books you love. Write down some of their character traits and use these to help build your own unique characters.
• If you’re writing nonfiction, dig deep into the complexities and all-too-human qualities of the real figures you’re writing about. Bring them to life for your readers.

• The main conflict—for instance, Captain Ahab’s obsession with the white whale in Moby Dick —can be an entry point for a range of other external and internal conflicts.
• Don’t downplay conflicts and tension in nonfiction works—they help to ground your writing in reality.

• Your goal is to never give your readers a reason to lose interest. Keep them engaged and turning those pages!
• This doesn’t mean you can’t use long sentences, descriptive writing, or even asides that deviate from the main storyline. Just make sure that these components serve the larger narrative.

Find continuous ways to engage the reader. "I end each chapter with a cliffhanger, resolution, a turn, a reveal, a new wrinkle ... something that will make you want to read the next chapter of that character."

Publishing Your Book

• Seeking publication can feel a bit like losing control over your manuscript, after all the time you’ve spent working and re-working it. Keep reminding yourself that your book deserves to be seen and read!
• If necessary, impose a deadline on yourself: “I’m going to submit this to publishers by January 15, one way or the other!”

• Evaluate potential agents and look for the best fit for you and your manuscript. If you know any published authors, ask them for tips and leads on agents.
• Typically, you’ll submit excerpts or even your entire manuscript to an agent, and they’ll decide whether to take you on as a client. Make sure you’re clear on their submission guidelines before proceeding.

• You can self-publish copies on your own, which may save you money but will take up a lot of time. You’ll be responsible for everything from obtaining a copyright to designing the cover to getting the actual pages printed.
• You can work through self-publishing companies, but you’ll often end up paying more to get your book published than you’ll ever make back from selling it.
• Self-publishing an e-book may be a viable option since the publishing costs are low and your book immediately becomes accessible to a wide audience. Evaluate different e-book publishers carefully before choosing the right one for you.

Sample Book Excerpts

Write Your First Book with this Expert Series

Expert Q&A

Reader Videos

Share a quick video tip and help bring articles to life with your friendly advice. Your insights could make a real difference and help millions of people!

• Keep your notebook and pen beside your bed, and keep a journal of your dreams. You never know when a dream of yours could give you inspiration or a story to write about! Thanks Helpful 35 Not Helpful 5
• If you want to add a true fact in your story, do some research on it first. Thanks Helpful 27 Not Helpful 4
• Ask some other authors for some tips and write them down. Thanks Helpful 21 Not Helpful 4

• Avoid plagiarizing (copying another author's work). Even if you do it as artfully as possible, eventually someone will track down and piece together all the copied parts. Thanks Helpful 36 Not Helpful 3

You Might Also Like

Expert Interview

Thanks for reading our article! If you'd like to learn more about writing a book, check out our in-depth interview with Gerald Posner .

• ↑ https://thewritepractice.com/write-a-book-now/
• ↑ https://jerryjenkins.com/how-to-write-a-book/
• ↑ https://academicguides.waldenu.edu/writingcenter/writingprocess/goalsetting/why
• ↑ https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2018/08/how-to-write-a-book-without-losing-your-mind/566462/
• ↑ https://writingcenter.unc.edu/tips-and-tools/getting-feedback/
• ↑ https://jerichowriters.com/how-to-write-a-book/
• ↑ https://www.creative-writing-now.com/how-to-write-fiction.html
• ↑ https://blog.reedsy.com/how-to-revise-a-novel/
• ↑ https://www.janefriedman.com/find-literary-agent/

About This Article

To write a book, first think of an idea that you’re excited to write about. It could be anything – a memoir about your life, a fantasy tale, or if you're an expert on a topic, a non-fiction book. Once you’ve come up with an idea, you'll want to cultivate good writing habits to bring your book to life. First, make writing into a routine rather than an activity you need to fit into your busy schedule. Try to consistently write at the same time and place every day. Second, set a daily word or page goal so that you know exactly when you are finished writing each day. Last, don’t feel pressured to create a perfect first draft because it's much easier to edit perfectly than it is to write it perfectly the first time around. Focus on producing and writing as much as you can. Then, go back and spend time editing on another day. Once you have written and edited a draft that you like, seek feedback from your family, peers or mentors. If you want to self-publish, research how to do so online. You could also consider hiring an editor to help you through both editing and the publishing process. If you want to know more about how to write a non-fiction book, keep reading! Did this summary help you? Yes No

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How to Write a Book: The Ultimate Guide (with Free Book Idea Worksheet!)

by Joe Bunting | 0 comments

Want to Become a Published Author? In 100 Day Book, you’ll finish your book guaranteed. Learn more and sign up here.

You want to write a book. Maybe you have a great story idea. Maybe you have a big idea you want to share with the world. Maybe people have told you, “Your life should be made into a book!” But first, you have to learn how to write a book.

The problem for the first-time author is figuring out how to get started. What are the writing habits you need to finish the actual writing for an entire book? And what comes next for your writing goals: traditional publishing? Self-publishing? Becoming a New York Times bestselling book? A long and illustrious writing career?

Because after coaching thousands of writers to write and finish their books, and also writing fifteen books of my own, I know exactly how much hard work it takes to finish a book.

It's not enough to want to write, you need to know how to write a book.

You need to have the right process. The write process, you might say (sorry, I had to!).

In this guide, we're going to learn everything about how to write a nonfiction book, from how to defeat procrastination and find writing time, all the way to revising and the editing process—and even to the publishing process.

If you've ever wanted to write a book, whether a memoir, a big idea book, or a self help book, you're in the right place.

If, on the other hand, you're a fiction writer and have a main character who you know is going to take the world by storm, we have a complete guide on novel writing here . For you nonfiction writers, though, read on for all our best writing tips.

And that free book idea worksheet ? Here's your FREE download: Book Idea Worksheet

Quick Tip: The Best Tool to Write a Book

Before we get started, here's a quick tip for writing a book, Microsoft Word just doesn't cut it.

My favorite writing tool is Scrivener, a book writing software used by the most successful writers. Scrivener helps you stay organized, set word count goals, and keep better track of your writing sessions. Check out our full review of Scrivener here.

How to Fail Writing a Book

In 2011, I had one of the best years of my life. That year, I wrote my first book, became a full-time writer, got my first book published , became a bestselling author, and had 80,000 people read my writing.

But it didn't happen overnight. I had dreamed about and had been working toward those goals for eight years before that: eight years of failure, of trying to write books and not being able to finish them, eight years of wanting to be a writer but not knowing how to actually do it .

Since then, I've written fifteen books, including one book that recently hit the Wall Street Journal bestsellers list.

You might be thinking, “That's cool, Joe. But you're clearly a talented writer. Writing is hard work for me.”

To be honest, it doesn't come easy to me. In fact, if I told my high school English teachers I'm a writer, they would probably be shocked.

The difference is that I found the right process. It's a step-by-step process that works every time, and it will work for you too.

In this guide, I'm going to share the process that I've used to write fifteen books, become a professional writer, and hit the bestsellers list.

But it's not just me. I've also trained thousands of people in our 100 Day Book program to finish books using this process, too.

It works, and it will work for you, if you follow it.

That being said, if you're still not sure you can actually do this alone, or if you just want some extra help along the way, check out 100 Day Book . In this program, we've helped thousands of aspiring writers turned authors to accomplish their dream of writing a book, and we'd love to help you, too. Click to learn more about 100 Day Book here.

How to Write a Book: 12 Steps to Writing a Book

Here's the process I finally learned after that decade of trying to learn how to write a book and failing, the same twelve steps that have helped me write fifteen books.

1. Come Up With a Great Book Idea

If you're here, you probably have a book idea already. Maybe you have several ideas.

And if that's true, great! Pat yourself on the back. You've made it to step one.

Here's what to do next: forget any sense accomplishment you have.

Yes, I'm serious.

Here's what George R.R. Martin said:

“Ideas are useless. Execution is everything.”

Because the thing is, an idea alone, even a great idea, is just the small step to write your book.

There are a lot more steps, and all of them are more difficult than coming up with your initial idea. (I'm sorry if that's discouraging!)

You have an idea. Great! Next, it's time to learn how to execute the way successful authors do. Let's get started with step 2.

(Don't have an idea yet? Check out this article: How to Write When You Don't Have Ideas .)

2. Write Your Book Idea In the Form of a 1-Sentence Premise

The next step to taking your idea and turning it into a book is to summarize your idea into a single-sentence premise.

But wait, what's a premise ?

A premise distills your entire book idea down to a single sentence. This sentence becomes the foundation of all your writing efforts and will be helpful even into publishing process.

Your premise is also the most important part of a book proposal, so a good premise can actually help you get published.

Here’s an example of a nonfiction premise from my book The Write Structure , which got half a dozen responses from agents.

The Write Structure utilizes The Write Practice’s (thewritepractice.com) award-winning methodology to show creative writers how to write their best novels, memoirs, short stories, or screenplays by following story structure principles used and taught by writers for hundreds of years.

Each nonfiction book premise should contain the following three elements:

• A problem . The problem the book aims to solve (in this case, how to write a good novel, memoir, short story, or screenplay)
• A person . Who is the person sharing the solution to that problem, e.g. you
• A solution . What is your unique process to solve that problem

By simplifying your book down to a single sentence, you create a strong, achievable foundation to your entire book. Not only will this simple step help you during the writing process, it will also help you throughout the publishing process, too, which we'll talk about more in a bit.

Ready to write your premise? To make it easier we have a free worksheet template that will guide you through writing a publishable premise: Download the worksheet here.

Or get a copy of our Write Plan Planner , and have a physical tool to guide you through the writing process. Check out the planner here.

3. Choose Your Publishing Path

When you're writing nonfiction, you have to choose your publishing path earlier than creative writers because most nonfiction books are picked up by publishers before they're written.

In fact, it's a red flag in the eyes of traditional publishers and literary agents if you've finished your book before you pitch them. They want to see a book proposal first, and have a hand in the shaping of the book.

That means, if you're writing nonfiction, and you want to get traditionally published, before you go write your own book, you must write a book proposal.

However, if you're writing a memoir, you may need to finish writing the book before you seek publishing. Memoir exists in something of a gray area in the publishing world, with more self-help focused memoirs requiring a proposal, and more creative memoirs acting more like a novel, where the writer would finish them first.

Which publishing path is right for you? Here are the two main requirements for traditional publishing for nonfiction books:

• Platform . Do you have authority within this topic? Do you have a following, via social media, speaking, podcast, YouTube, an email list, or some other platform of at least 10,000 people?
• A tested idea with mass market appeal . Does your idea line up with your platform? Does it have mass market appeal?

If you can't answer “yes” to both of these questions, then you might consider self-publishing, working with a small press, or hybrid press after you complete your book. Or taking a break from your book to build your platform and target audience, perhaps by building an author website and starting a blog. (For more on this, check out this guide on how to build a platform via a blog .)

You might be wondering, at this point too, how do you write a book proposal?

Book proposals vary across writers and publishers, but here are some of the major components:

• 1-Sentence Premise (see above)
• 2-4 paragraph synopsis
• Outline (Table of Contents)
• Tone and Writing Style
• Platform Description and Marketing Info
• 2-3 Sample Chapters

For more on this, check out Jane Friedman's excellent guide on how to write a book proposal .

Now, once you've chosen your publishing path and you're ready to begin writing a whole book, how do you actually finish it? The next steps will all but guarantee you reach The End of your book.

4. Outline Your Book

Even you if you don't decide to traditionally publish, I still recommend working through most of the elements of a book proposal listed above, especially the book outline because it will make the writing process so much easier.

Your book's outline will vary widely depending on your genre, your writing style, your book's topic, and your method.

However, there are some tried and true structures that exist in nonfiction books. Here are some suggested structures you can use:

Introduction . Most nonfiction books include a short (2,000 to 3,000 words) introduction. They usually outline the main problem you will be focusing on in the book. They may also introduce you as the author and your authority, and outline the unique solution you will be guiding readers through in your book.

8-10 Chapters . Nonfiction book chapters dive deeper into the problem and give principles or steps to solve that problem. Chapters can have a variety of different structures, but here is my personal favorite, used frequently by Malcolm Gladwell:

• Opening story
• Analysis of the story
• Universal principle
• Closing story (may be the conclusion of the opening story)

Conclusion . Conclusions usually restate the problem and show how you solved that problem, often ending with a concluding story and a call to action to encourage the reader to go out and put the ideas you've shared to use.

Easy right? Not exactly, but creating this outline will make the rest of the writing process so much easier. Even if it changes, you'll have a resource to help you get unstuck when the writing gets hard.

If you want a template for your outline, as well as a step-by-step guide through the book writing process, get a copy of our Write Plan Planner . This is the exact process that I have used to write fifteen books, and that thousands of other authors in our community have used to finish their book all in a beautiful, daily planner . Check out the planner here.

5. Set a Deadline

This one might surprise you. Because most people think that once you've got your idea ready to go, you should just start writing and not worry about the period of time it takes.

Nope. Not even close.

The next step is to set a deadline for when you're going to finish the first rough draft of your book. But you might be wondering, how long does it take to write a book in the first place?

How long should you set your deadline for?

Some people use NaNoWriMo, or National Novel Writing Month, to set their deadline for them, writing 50,000 words of book in the thirty days of November. That being said, it's very challenging for most people to finish a book in thirty days.

Stephen King, on the other hand, said the first draft of a book should take no more than a season, so three months. With all due respect to Stephen King, I think that's a little fast for most people.

We give people 100 days , which seems to be just long enough to write a first draft without getting distracted by everything else the world wants you to focus on (looking at you, social media).

So for you, give yourself a week or two to prepare, then set your deadline for about 100 days after that.

There you go! You now have a deadline to finish your book!

6. Break Your Deadline Into Weekly and Daily Word Counts

You can't pull an all-nighter and finish writing a book. Trust me, I've tried!

Instead, you have to break up your deadline into smaller, weekly, and daily deadlines so you can make measured progress over your writing period. This step breaks the work into manageable pieces.

This step also requires a bit of math. Here's how to do it so you can actually stay on track:

• Figure out your book's ideal target word count goal (check out our word count guide )
• Figure out how many weeks until your deadline (e.g. 100 days = 14.5 weeks)
• Divide your book's total word count by the number of weeks (e.g. 45,000 ÷ 14.5 = 3,103 words per week)
• Next, figure out how many days per week you're going to write (e.g. 5 days a week)
• Finally, divide your weekly word count goal by the number of days you'll write to get your daily word count goal (e.g. 3,103 ÷ 5. = 621 words per day)

If you can hit all of your weekly and daily deadlines, you know you’ll make your final deadline at the end.

P.S. You're much more likely to actually meet your deadlines if you take a stand and set a consequence, which I”ll talk about next.

7. Take a Stand

Deadlines are nice, but it can be too easy to follow Douglas Adams' advice:

I love deadlines. I love the whooshing sound they make as they go by.

There are two tricks that will help you actually meet your deadline, and it's essential to do these before you start writing or you'll never finish your book.

The first one is a little scary, but will make a huge difference.

Once you've set your deadline, go tell everyone you know. Post your deadline on social media, saying something like this:

Here. We'll even make it easy for you. Just click the share button below to tweet this and fill in the blank with your deadline:

Don't have social media? That's okay. Just email five friends. These friends will become your accountability partners to ensure you finish your book.

Important: I don't recommend talking about your book idea. Talking about the idea can actually remove some of the motivation to actually work on your book.

But I highly recommend talking about your book's deadline because humans naturally avoid letting each other down. When you make a public promise to do something, you're much more likely to do it!

So go ahead. Share your deadline. You can do this right now. Don't worry, we'll be here when you get back.

Then, move on to the next trick to keep your deadline.

8. Set a Consequence

You might think, “Setting a deadline is fine, but how do I actually hit my deadline?”

The answer is you need to create a consequence. A consequence is a bad thing that happens if you don't hit your deadline.

Maybe you write a check to a charity you hate, like the society for the euthanasia of puppies, you give it to a friend, and you say, “You have to send this check if I don't hit my deadline.”

Or maybe you say you're going to give up a guilty pleasure if you don't hit your deadline, like ice cream or wine or TV or your favorite phone game.

Set a really tough consequence for your final deadline, and then set a couple of less severe consequences for your weekly deadlines.

Whatever you choose, make it really hard to not hit your deadline.

Why? Because writing is hard! If you want to write a book, you need to make not writing harder than writing.

By creating a consequence, you make not writing harder than the actual writing, and this simple trick will make you much more likely to finish.

9. Set an Intention

This is the last step before you start writing, but secretly one of the most helpful.

Set an intention.

Studies have shown that when you have a goal, like working out more or writing a book, and you imagine where , when , and how much you're going to do something, you're much more likely to actually do it.

So do this with me:

• Close your eyes, and imagine your ideal writing space , the place you're going to spend your writing time. Maybe it's a coffee shop or your home office or a chair beside your favorite window.
• Next, imagine what time it is . Is it the morning? Afternoon? Late at night after everyone's gone to bed?
• Finally, picture yourself writing, and watch yourself reach your daily word count goal . Imagine how it feels to accomplish your goal. Great? A relief?
• Then, write all of that down, locking your intention in place . Now that you have a set writing schedule, follow it!

Notice that this is the tenth step.

Most people start here, but without the groundwork you've laid in the previous nine steps, you're setting yourself up for failure.

Don't skip the first nine steps!

Once you do begin writing, keep this in mind:

First drafts are universally bad .

Don't try to write perfect sentences. Don't go back and edit endlessly.

No, instead write as fast as you're able. Get to “the end” as quickly as you can. Use writing sprints .

Try to write as imperfectly as you can, not because you want to write a bad book, but because this is how writing always is: you write a bad first draft and then revise it into a better second draft—and finally, three or five drafts later, you've written a good book.

The difference between aspiring writers and published authors is that published authors know you can't do good writing until you write a bad draft first. Get through it as quickly as you can!

If you're not a natural writer , consider dictating your book into a recorder, and transcribing it afterward. There's no reason you have to physically type out your book. Transcribing it is a perfectly viable way to create a good first draft.

11. Revise, Rewrite, and Edit

After you finish your first draft comes the real hard part.

I know what you're thinking. The first ten steps weren't hard enough?

Yes, of course they were hard. But for some reason, second drafts can be just as hard, if not harder, than first drafts. I've had some of my biggest mental and emotional breakdowns in my life while working on the second draft of a book. There's just something about second drafts that are much more mentally challenging than first drafts.

Here, it's a good idea to get an editor who can give you feedback. (Need an editor recommendation? We have a team of editors we work with here at The Write Practice. Check out our process and get a quote here .)

Once you've finished your second draft, I also recommend getting beta readers, people who can read your book and give you feedback. For more on this, check out our guide on how to find beta readers and use their feedback effectively here .

Depending on your topic, you might also consider recruiting some sensitivity readers to read your book, too.

After you've done all of this, I have one last writing tip for you to ensure you actually finish writing your book—and it might be the most important of all.

12. Don't Stop

Most people want to write a book. I hear from people all the time that think they have a book in them, who believe that they have a story that needs to be shared.

I very rarely talk to people who have finished a book.

Writing a book is hard.

It's SO easy to quit. You get a new idea. Or you read your writing and think, “This is terrible.” Or you decide, “I'd rather be catching up on Netflix, not spending my nights writing.”

Because of this, you quit.

Here's the thing though: the only way to fail at writing a book is to quit .

If you don't quit, if you just keep writing, keep following this process we've outlined above, you will finish a book.

It might not be a good book (yet). But that's what editing is for.

It will be a first draft, and a finished draft at that . You can't write a second draft and start to make your book actually good, actually publishable, until you write the first draft.

So write. Don't stop. Don't quit. If you follow these steps and don't stop, you'll finish.

We'll be here supporting you along the way.

More Resources on How to Write a Book

Still feeling stuck? Have more questions about how to write a book? We've put together a library of book-writing resources. Take a look at the articles below.

Book Writing Tools and Programs

• 100 Day Book . Get a mentor, 100+ writing lessons, deadlines, and accountability and write your book in a program that works. Thousands of authors have finished their books in 100 Day Book, and we'd love to help you too. Click to sign up for 100 Day Book here.
• The Write Plan Planner. Containing everything we've learned about how to write a book over the last 10+ years, this step-by-step guide will walk you through our proven book writing process. Click to get your daily book writing planner.
• Best Book Writing Software . A variety of the best tools for writing, publishing, formatting, and marketing your book.

How to Write a Book Fast Articles

I shared above why I believe that first drafts should be written quickly, in just a few weeks. Still not sure? In the articles below, dozens of other writers share how they wrote fast first drafts, plus you'll get all the tips and strategies they learned along the way.

• How to Write a Book in 100 Days: 10 Steps
• How to Write a Book FAST
• How to Write a Book in 100 Days
• How to Write a Novel in 6 Months
• The First 10 Steps to Write Your Book in 2020
• How to Right a Book in Nine (Not So) Easy Steps
• How to Finish a Novel With a Swim Buddy
• How to Write a Book Using Microsoft Word

How to Write a Book by Genre

Every genre comes with specific expectations that must be fulfilled. Here's how to craft an amazing story in your genre.

• How to Write a Novel
• How to Write a Memoir
• How to Write a Mystery Novel
• How to Write a Suspense Novel
• How to Write a Thriller Novel
• How to Write a Romance Novel
• How to Write an Adventure Book
• How to Write a Coming of Age Novel
• How to Write a Young Adult Novel
• How to Write a Self-Help Book
• How to Write a Book That's Based on a True Story
• How to Write a Book Like Stephen King
• 20 Sci-Fi Creative Writing Prompts and Story Ideas

Okay, no, Stephen King isn't a genre. But he's well worth learning from!

How to Write a Book When Writing Is Hard

Let's face it: writing is hard . Every single writer struggles at some point in their book. The important thing is not to quit . In the following articles, writers share how they persevered through the hard parts, and how you can too.

• How to Write a Book While Working Full Time
• How to Write a Book When You Don't Have Ideas
• How to Write a Book When You’ve Got Writer’s Block
• I Never Thought I Would Write a Book. Here's How I Did It Anyway
• How to Write a Book: The Everest Method
• 10 Obstacles to Writing a Book and How to Conquer Them

How to Write a Book With a Specific Style

Your book comes with its own unique quirks and challenges, especially if the story you're telling is a series, or is told from multiple perspectives. Here's how other writers have navigated these choices.

• How to Write a Book from Multiple Perspectives
• How to Write a Book Series Without Messing Things Up
• How to Write a Novel That Readers Can't Put Down

How to Write a Book and Publish It

Writing is meant to be shared! In these articles, writers break down the publishing process so you can finish your book and share it with the world.

• How to Write and Publish a Book for Free
• How to Write a Book Description That Will Captivate Readers (And Sell Books!)

Publishing Resources

Once you've finished writing a book, how do you get it published. Here are some resources to help.

• Amazon KDP. Self-publish your book on Kindle to the world's biggest book marketplace.
• Book Cover Design . Find a book cover designer among our favorite designers.

Commit to the Book Writing Process, Not Your Feelings

Are you ready to commit to finishing your book?

I don't want you to commit to a book idea. Ideas are seductive, but then you get a fresh idea and the idea you've been working on becomes much less interesting.

You probably have had inspiring moments of writing, when everything feels like it's flowing. But I don't want you to commit to a feeling. Feelings are fickle. They change by the hour.

No, instead commit to the process.

If you follow these steps, you will finish a book. It won't be easy. It will still be a challenge. But you'll do it.

Can you imagine how great it will feel to write “The End” on your own book? Think about the people you will touch because you finished that book. Let's get to it together.

Are you going to commit to writing a book? Let me know in the comments !

The first part of Step Three is to create a 1-sentence premise of your book.

Spend fifteen minutes today to rewrite your book idea into a single-sentence premise. Then, share your premise in the Pro Practice Workshop here.  (and if you’re not a member yet, you can join here ).

Finally, after you share, make sure to give feedback to three other writers.

Happy writing!

Join 100 Day Book

Enrollment closes May 14 at midnight!

Joe Bunting

Joe Bunting is an author and the leader of The Write Practice community. He is also the author of the new book Crowdsourcing Paris , a real life adventure story set in France. It was a #1 New Release on Amazon. Follow him on Instagram (@jhbunting).

Want best-seller coaching? Book Joe here.

Trackbacks/Pingbacks

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How to Write a Book in 12 Simple Steps [Free Book Template]

POSTED ON Nov 28, 2023

Written by Justin Champion

You're ready to learn how to write a book…

And as a first-time author, you're nervous about this new journey because you want first-time success (who doesn't?).

But today's publishing industry has become noisy . There is endless information out there on how to write a book, and with the rise of self-publishing , it can be overwhelming, to say the least.

If you’re ready to take the leap, become an author , and learn how to write a book the right way, start with this resource to get your wheels in motion.

As a first-time bestselling author, I can tell you that writing my first book was one of the most rewarding and challenging experiences of my life.

I experienced a lot of growth and pushed through many hurdles, and being able to learn how to publish is something I am truly proud of.

And I'm ready to share the steps of how to write a book with you, so that you can go on to write a book of your own, and find success as a first-time author.

Ready to learn how to write a book? Let's get to it!

Need A Nonfiction Book Outline?

Here's how to write a book in 12 steps:

• Develop a writer’s mindset a. Hold yourself accountable to writing your book b. Give yourself permission to be a writer c. Announce your intention to write a book
• Create a book writing space
• Choose your book writing software a. Google Drive b. Grammarly c. Evernote d. A notebook & pen
• Determine your book's topic a. Identify your target reader b. Write about something that intrigues you c. Research potential topics d. Choose a topic you can write about quickly
• Create a book outline a. Create a mindmap b. Write a purpose statement c. Create a working title d. Write an elevator pitch for your book e. Draft a working outline for your book f. Fill in the gaps with more research g. Frameworks on how to write your book
• Finish writing your manuscript a. Break your book writing into small chunks b. Build the momentum to finish writing your book c. Collaborate with others
• Include front & back matter a. Preface or introduction b. Foreward c. Testimonials d. Author Bio e. Glossary f. Notes g. Images
• Edit your book a. Self-edit your book b. Hire a professional book editor c. Re-write sections of your book's draft using your editor's feedback d. Finalize your book title
• Choose a compelling book cover
• Format your book
• Prepare to launch your book a. Build your book's launch team b. Develop a marketing mindset c. Create a book launch strategy
• Publish your book
• How To Write A Book: FAQs

In this article, we'll start with the basics. While the steps in this phase may seem to be unrelated to actually learning how to write a book , they are very important.

In fact, setting yourself up for success will help you build the foundation needed to start writing a book .

We'll talk about developing a writer's mindset to get you in a frame of mind that's conducive to writing. Then, we'll discuss how to create a writing space that will boost your writing productivity, and how to choose the best book-writing software for your needs.

Here are some tips for success as you write a book:

• Develop a writer's mindset . This is all about embracing a mentality that will inspire you to start (and finish) writing your book.
• Create a writing space . This is all about how to set up the ideal writing environment that fits your routine.
• Use a tool to write your book . This is all about deciding on what you will use to write your book.
• Get support . A strong support network, a community of peers, and a book-writing coach could be the difference between a published book and an unfinished manuscript.
• Use templates where you can. We provide you with a proven book outline template in this post. But there are templates for cover layouts, formatting, and more. Don't recreate the wheel! Use these and build upon them to make them your own.

1. Develop a Writer’s Mindset

Learning how to write a book takes time, work, and dedication. It’s easy to romanticize becoming a bestseller like J.K. Rowling or Octavia Butler. However, every author has a story on how they started out and overcame adversity to get where they are today.

For example, Rowling, who had no job and was on welfare at the time, would take her children to a coffee shop and write.

Butler, who was a dishwasher and potato chip inspector at the time, would wake up at two or three in the morning to write and wrote herself mantras to keep her focused on her goals.

The first steps in learning how to write a book are overcoming mindset blocks, dealing with self-doubt as a writer , and developing a healthy frame of mind that will help you with your writing goals .

Let’s review three things you can do to circumvent roadblocks and crush challenges to keep you focused on your goal.

Hold yourself accountable to writing your book

It’s not good enough to write only when inspiration strikes. There will be days when writing is the last thing you want to be doing.

But you have to treat your writing as if it were a job, or a duty. This means holding yourself accountable, taking action, and showing up every day.

Here's how to hold yourself accountable to writing:

• Set a writing goal. If you don't have a goal, procrastination will get the best of you. Determine a writing goal, including how many days a week you intend to set aside time to write, and set a deadline or due date for when you'd like to have parts of your book.
• Block off chunks of time to write every week.  If you’re looking for a place to start, consider one to two hours per day five days per week. The more often you write, the more you’ll develop a habit for it, and making time for writing won't be that much of a struggle.
• Set a daily word count goal.  Consider how many words you want to write each week. Use this Word Count Calculator to determine the goal you should aim for, depending on the type of book you are writing. For example, if your goal is 3,000 words per week and you have five chunks of time blocked off to write per week, then you’d need to write 600 words per day to achieve your weekly goal.

I write early in the morning before I do anything else for 1-2 hours. I find that as I go throughout the day and work on other projects my mind isn’t as fresh or sharp by the end of the day. However, sometimes I have ideas throughout the day that I jot down in Evernote to jump-start the next morning with a working outline.

Give yourself permission to be a writer

This might sound silly, but it's true: in order to learn how to write a book, you need to give yourself permission to be a writer. Many aspiring authors get stuck in their mindset, which prevents them from initiating and completing their writing projects.

Even successful authors feel like they aren't good enough. Acknowledge your feelings, but then shake them off, and move on with your day.

Hear this : You don't have to be an expert to learn how to write a book. You don't have to feel 100% confident to be a good writer. You don't even have to be all-knowing to teach others about your experiences or knowledge.

Here's how to give yourself permission to be a writer:

• Get inspiration from other writers . When you're just starting to learn how to write a book, you might feel alone in your journey. But take comfort in the fact that other successful writers all started at the bottom, just like you. Many of them overcame seemingly impossible hurdles, but persisted with their writing dreams, anyway. Research some of your favorite authors, and read up on their stories to discover the issues they overcame to find success.
• Accept where you are . Acknowledge your feelings of self-doubt, and then release them. It's okay to experience moments of feeling discouraged, but it's important that you don't let those feelings hold you back. Accept that you are beginning your journey and that this is a learning process.
• Use positive affirmations . Your thoughts have a huge influence on your abilities. What you think starts to become your reality, so make your thoughts good. Use positive affirmations about yourself and your writing abilities to pump yourself up. You can even read inspirational writing quotes from famous authors for motivation.
• Overcome imposter syndrome . Even expert authors and writers feel like imposters every now and again. While it's okay to experience feeling inferior, you have to eventually get over those thoughts and push on towards your goals. Connect with other aspiring writers, get yourself a mentor, and join writers conferences or writing communities.

Announce your intention to write a book

The best way to hold yourself accountable for your work is to let others know your goals. Is there someone you trust or a group of people in your network you can appoint to check in on your progress?

Perhaps there is someone who is a seasoned writer who can serve as a mentor. If so, try to have regular check-ins with this person.

One way to keep these meetings consistent is to schedule a lunch or coffee date. Talk about your progress and perhaps any challenges you’re facing. They may be able to bring a fresh perspective.

I told my wife, Ariele, and several of my closest teammates from work about my intentions to write my first book. We had regular check-ins to talk about progress. Everyone helped keep me motivated and had different feedback for me. Without them, it would have been a lot more difficult to write Inbound Content in the timeframe I did.

2. Create a Book Writing Space

The second step in how to write a book has to do with your environment. Where you choose to write will have a major impact on your writing productivity.

Find creative spaces where you can produce your best writing.

Sure, some might argue that they can write anywhere as long as they have the tools to write. But where we choose to write plays a huge role in our writing motivation and focus.

Questions to think about: Where do you work best? What surroundings inspire you most? Identify them and make it a best practice to work there consistently.

Here are creative writing spaces to write your book:

• Coffee shops (classic)
• Beautiful park or somewhere in nature
• A dedicated writing nook at home

My main writing location is the dinette in my Airstream. I do my best work when traveling; I wrote the manuscript for my book in six weeks as I traveled the U.S. and worked full time from the road.

3. Choose your Book-Writing Software

The next step in how to write a book has to do with writing tools.

In 1882, Mark Twain sent to a publisher the first manuscript to be written on a piece of technology that would transform the writing industry: the typewriter.

Nowadays, we have computers with word processing and the internet where you can find an endless assortment of useful book-writing software and apps that are meant to help you be an efficient and effective writer. If you're writing a novel, check out this guide to novel-writing software .

You may be tempted to overload on apps because you think it’ll help elevate your writing. But honestly, less is more . The truth is that the right tools and even self-publishing companies make writing and publishing easier and more enjoyable.

Instead of overwhelming you with all the possible apps in existence, below is a list of three tools I recommend adding to your writing toolkit today (and they’re free).

Google Drive

Google Drive is one of the most versatile cloud storage services available today. But Google Drive is so much more than cloud storage. Here’s a list of ways you can use Google Drive to help you write your book:

• You can organize all aspects of your project in folders (research, outline, manuscript drafts, etc.)
• You can host files for your projects like images, photos, etc.
• You can use Google Docs as a word processor. And we have a book writing template , specifically for Google Docs.
• You can enable offline access and work on your files even when you don’t have an internet connection, such as when you’re traveling.
• You can collaborate easily with others, avoiding version control issues.
• You can access it from just about any device (laptop, smartphone, tablet, you name it).

Plus, Google will give you 15GB of free storage just for signing up.

If you’re new to Google Drive, here’s a list of resources that can turn you into a pro. (FYI, if you have a Gmail account, you have a Google Drive account.)

Grammarly is an editing tool that helps you identify grammatical errors, typos, and incorrect sentence structure in your writing.

Download the web extension and Grammarly will edit most anything you type in a web browser (yes, it will work with Google Docs).

You can check out this Grammarly review if you're on the fence about this one.

Inspiration can strike at any time. Capture those thoughts and ideas as they happen in Evernote . You can even sync Google Drive and Evernote. I recommend doing this, especially on your mobile device.

A Notebook & Pen

Don't underestimate the power of good ole' fashioned pen and paper when it comes to learning how to write a book, which is arguably the only essential writing tool out there.

Even if you write your entire manuscript on a trusty writing software program, you'll still want to have a dedicated notebook available for the times when inspiration strikes and you can't access a computer.

Every writer should have a notebook handy for random ideas and thoughts. You can jot these down in your notebook, then revisit them and digitally store them in your book-writing software when you're back at the computer.

4. Determine Your Book Topic

Now we'll move on to how to actually start writing a book. This is the part that seems simple, but can be more difficult than you realize.

However, once you get through the process of actually writing your book, you will gain momentum to finish it, and eventually publish it.

Learning how to write a book starts with an idea. Shat's your book idea ?

Maybe you already know exactly what you want to write about. Or maybe you have a million ideas floating on in your head, but you don't know exactly where to start.

One of the most common pieces of advice for aspiring first-time authors is: “Write what you know.” A simple phrase that’s meant to be helpful, yet it begs so many questions.

If you're struggling with a book idea, try jumpstarting your creativity by experimenting with these writing prompts .

Whether you’re writing a non-fiction how-to guide or a fictional post-apocalyptic thriller, you need to form a connection with your audience — and you can do that through emotion. The best way to create emotion with your reader is to understand them.

Here's how to determine what you want to write about and how to write it in a meaningful way.  

Identify your target reader

The key to producing meaningful content is understanding your reader. You can do this by creating a reader persona — a semi-fictional representation of your ideal audience.

To get started with your reader persona, consider answering the following questions:

• What’s the reader’s age? Are you writing a self-help book geared towards mature adults, or are you writing a guide for teenagers? The age of your reader will set the tone for your writing and book's context.
• What’s the reader’s education level? Are you writing a book for PhD candidates, or for recent high school graduates? Depending on the answer, your writing style, verbiage, and word choice will vary.
• Does the reader prefer visuals? Think about your book's potential topic and if visuals like charts, graphs, tables, illustrations , screenshots, or photographs will be expected.
• What is this reader interested in? When you write a book, it's less about what you want to say, and more about what your reader needs to know. As you start to brainstorm a topic and write your book, always have a reader-centric approach.

The more you know about your reader, the better experience you can create for them.

When you start learning how to write a book, you have to make your book about the reader. What do they need to know in order to learn what you have to say?

My main audience is marketers and business owners at small-to-medium-sized businesses. They’re strapped for time and don’t need another theoretical resource. They value real-world examples to help visualize what tips and strategies look like in action.

Write about something that intrigues you

You need to write about something that spikes your curiosity, something that keeps you coming back day after day. Something that lights you up and that you're invested in.

I can’t stress the importance of this enough. If you choose a topic to write about for the wrong reason, don’t expect to create something that people will love.

You need to be able to stick with it through dry spells and bouts of non-inspiration. Your own desire to hear the story will be what drives you through learning how to write a book.

Research potential topics

In our digital age, we can conveniently research topics from the comfort of our own homes.

Google makes it easy to research just about any topic.

Here’s a list of ways to research your book concept on Google:

• What content already exists? Are there already books written on this topic? If so, which ones performed well? Why did they perform well? Is there anything interesting about their content that enhances the reader’s experience? Is the market over-saturated on this topic?
• What influencers exist on the subject? Are there well-known authors on this topic? Who are they? What can you learn from them?
• What do you need to learn? Are there specific things you need to learn to create a rich, meaningful narrative (ex. geography, culture, time period, etc.)?

I performed extensive research before writing the manuscript for Inbound Content. It was important for me to understand what content was already out there, which content was performing well, and most importantly, how could I make my book unique. This is exactly why I included homework after each chapter to help my readers build an action plan that they could implement immediately, something I noticed wasn’t typical in other marketing books.

Choose a topic you can write about quickly

Writing your first book is invaluable because it's a serious learning experience. The process of actually writing a book and completing it will make this book a personal success for you, because of how much you will learn about yourself and your craft in the process.

Don't get hung up on a topic. If you're struggling with deciding what to write about first, go with the topic that you know best. Choose a topic or experience that you can write about quickly, with limited resources.

Here's how to find a topic you can write about quickly:

• Write what you can teach right now. If you had to teach a lesson on something right at this second, what could you confidently teach? This is a topic you know well, that requires limited additional research, and what you can quickly create content for.
• Write about a powerful experience. Each individual is unique in their experiences. Everyone has gone through something that changed them. Reflect on your life and think about one experience that sticks out about your life.
• Write about a life lesson. What has life taught you? What unique observations have you made about the world? You can use this information to learn how to write a memoir .

5. Write A Book Outline

Once you know what you want to write about, you’re probably eager to start writing. But you need a writing guide first.

Let’s review what you can do to create a clear book outline for your book that you can use as a roadmap.

Create a mindmap

You have an idea, now it's time to hone in on just exactly what that idea is. With a mindmap , you can drill your topic down into sub-topics. It will help you get all of your ideas out and onto paper.

Here are the steps to mindmap your book's topic:

• Get a blank piece of paper and pen.
• Set a timer for 10 minutes.
• Write your topic in the middle of the page.
• Jot down all of your ideas related to your book's topic.
• Do not stop writing until the timer goes off.

Once you have mindmapped your idea, you should have a full page of brainstormed thoughts, ideas, and concepts. You can then review what you've written, and begin to organize them. This will come in handy when it comes time to actually start plugging in content for your book outline.

Write a purpose statement

In one sentence describe the purpose of your book. A strong purpose statement will explain to readers why they should consider reading your book. For me, I was writing a book to grow my business .

This will also help you stay focused as you begin drafting your outline and writing your book. When you have trouble solidifying what your book is about , review your purpose statement.

Inbound Content‘s purpose statement: People who read this book will learn a step-by-step process on how to do content marketing the inbound way.

Create a working title

A working title is a temporary title used during the production of your book. Identifying your book by giving it a name can help set the direction.

Once you finish your work you can revisit the title and update accordingly. Don't get too hung up on this step; think of the title as a placeholder. It isn't permanent, but it will be helpful to begin with one in mind.

If you need help thinking of a working title, use our Book Title Generator .

Write an elevator pitch for your book

An effective elevator pitch should last no longer than a short elevator ride of 30 seconds. For context, 30 seconds equals about 65-70 words.

Having a prepared elevator pitch will come in handy throughout your book-writing process. It will help you nail your book's purpose and topic, and it will help the concept become crystal clear not only for yourself as the writer, but for your potential readers, too.

As you ask family and friends to hold you accountable to writing, and as you connect with fellow writers, authors, and mentors, you will be asked about your book. Having a prepared elevator pitch will help you nail the answer without hesitation, each and every time.

Draft a working outline for your book

The next step in learning how to write a book is drafting a working book outline. Just like the working title you created, this outline is a work in progress. The outline can change throughout your writing process, and that's okay!

However, it's super helpful to start with an outline so that you know where to begin, and have a general roadmap for where to go as you start writing.

Use the related concepts and sub-topics you organized in your mindmap, and start plugging in some content into your outline.

Your outline will do wonders for you once you start writing. It can help you avoid writer's block , and increase your writing momentum and productivity. Instead of wondering what to write about in the next chapter of your book, you'll already have an idea of where to start with your book's outline.

Fill in the gaps with more research

After your working outline is completed, it's important to do further research on your topic so that you can fill in any areas that you missed or forgot to include in your original outline.

Do not get too caught up in your research that it prevents you from writing your book. Take some time to research, but set a limit. Always go back to writing.

Here's how to research when writing a book:

• Use online resources by doing a Google search on your topic.
• Read other books that have been written about your topic.
• Listen to expert interviews, podcasts, and audiobooks related to your topic.
• Read scholarly articles and academic journals within the subject or industry.
• Search archives, collections, historical journals, data records, and newspaper clippings to get clear on events, dates, and facts about your topic, especially if you're writing about the past.

Frameworks on how to write your book

If your book can follow a framework, this will make it easier to keep your writing organized and relevant.

By choosing a format or structure for your book's topic, you'll be able to align your outline in a way that will be helpful when you start to write each chapter.

Most nonfiction books can fall into a specific framework, or a blend of frameworks. It's better to start with a specific framework, then tweak it as needed as you continue writing.

Here are common nonfiction book frameworks to consider when writing a book:

• Modular: Use this framework if you have a lot of information or concepts that can be grouped into similar topics, but don't need to be presented in a specific order.
• Reference: Use this framework if your book will be used as a reference that makes it easy for readers to quickly find the information they need.
• Three Act Structure: Use this framework if you plan to use storytelling in your book, where you have three main parts like a Set Up, Rising Action, and Resolution.
• Sequential: Use this framework if your book reads like a “how to” with a specific set of steps.
• Compare & Contrast: Use this framework if you need to show your reader how two or more ideas or concepts are similar to or different from one another.
• Problem & Solution: Use this framework if readers need to be able to clearly identify a problem and understand the solution.
• Chronological: Use this framework if each main section of your book represents a specific time or order of events.
• Combination: If your book will fall under two or more of the above frameworks, then you will need to use a combination framework that's adjusted to your book's specific topic.

6. Finish Writing Your Book Draft

For many, the hard part isn't getting started with how to write a book… it's in actually finishing it!

Commit to finishing your rough draft , and you're already succeeding!

Here are our top tips to keep the momentum going as you start taking action after learning exactly how to write a book.

Break your book writing into small chunks

Now that you have your book's outline and framework, it's time to get started with writing.

Like a marathon, your manuscript is essentially a puzzle made up of many smaller like-themed pieces. Your finished book may be 262 pages long, but it’s written one word or thought at a time. Pace yourself and stick to your consistent writing schedule.

If you approach your book writing by focusing too much on the larger picture, you can get overwhelmed. Write chapter-by-chapter.

Start with baby steps by chunking your writing into small pieces. Set milestones, and celebrate the small wins.

Here are some tips for breaking your writing into small pieces:

• Write one chapter at a time . Focus on one piece at a time, not the entire puzzle!
• Set deadlines to complete each chunk of writing . Break your goal down into smaller sections, then set individual deadlines for each section.
• Structure your writing time. Follow a routine for writing that includes time for research (if needed) and review. For example, if you dedicate two hours each day towards your book, set 30 minutes aside to review your outline so you know what you're writing about, then 30 minutes to research anything that you need to clarify, then one hour to actually write.
• Celebrate small goals. As you accomplish milestones towards your end goal, schedule and celebrate your small accomplishments. It can be something as simple as going out to dinner, buying yourself a small gift, or doing a little dance.

Build the momentum to finish writing your book

Learning how to write a book can be difficult.

When you're in the weeds with writing your book, there will be days you want to give it all up.

There will also be times when you have writer's block, and even though you know what you should be writing about, it all sounds wrong as you re-read what you've written in your head.

Here's how to fight writer's block and increase your writing momentum:

• Don't edit as you write. Writing and editing require your brain to work in two very different ways, so don't do it! It'll slow you down, and keep you at a standstill. Keep writing, and save the editing for later.
• Switch up your scenery. If you usually write at home in your own writing space, maybe it's time to freshen up your writing environment. Try writing in a public park, or at a coffee shop or library on the days when writing is the last thing you feel like doing.
• Take a break. It's okay if you're too mentally worn-out to write. Take a small break, and then get back to it. When we say small break, we mean take a day or two off from writing (not a month or two!).
• Get creative inspiration elsewhere. Binge-watch an exciting new show, read a novel, take a walk in nature, go to an art gallery, or be around people you love. While you aren't writing when you do these things, it can help your brain reset and recharge so you can return to your book.
• Write about something else. Sometimes, when we're so engulfed in our book's topic, it can be self-limited. If you're feeling less excited about writing when it comes to your book, maybe it's time to flex your writing muscles in a different way. Try doing some creative writing exercises, journal, or write a poem.
• Supercharge your writing with AI . AI tools, such as ChatGPT , are here to empower your writing journey. They can help you generate ideas, overcome writer's block, and streamline your writing process. By integrating AI into your writing workflow, you can access instant feedback and suggestions, helping you build momentum and stay focused on completing your book.

Related: I Wrote A Book! Now What?

Collaborate with others

There's strength in numbers when it comes to accomplishing a huge task.

And, more importantly, it can help you feel less isolated in what can be a very solitary act. Writing a book can be lonely!

Let’s review three things you can do to collaborate with others when writing your book.  

Connect with your original accountability partner or group

A great example of finding accountability partners is through a group or self-publishing company much like what Self-Publishing School does with their Mastermind Community on Facebook.

Attend a writer's conference

Sharing space and networking with other writers can do wonders for your own writing habits and momentum. By attending writer's conferences, you'll be in a room full of people just like you.

Not only will you be able to network with and learn from expert authors who have been where you are, but you'll also be able to meet fellow aspiring writers going through the same process as you.

Collaborate with thought leaders on your subject

Ideal for nonfiction writers, this collaboration could mean asking well-known people in your industry to write a quote that brings value to your content.

Pro tip: When promoting your book launch on social media, consider creating a buzzworthy piece of content like an engaging blog article and have your audience share it.

7. Include Front & Back Matter

Now it's time to put on your marketing pants and spread the word about your book!

There are elements outside of your book’s content that you’ll need to write, such as a preface, foreword, notes, etc. I suggest waiting until after you’ve written your book. This way, not only can you better connect them to your story, but you won’t waste time editing them in case you make changes to your manuscript.

Let’s review eight final touches you may or may not need to wrap up your book.

Preface or Introduction

Draw in your readers with a compelling story. This could be a personal anecdote related to your topic. Tell them what the book is about and why it is relevant to them (think of your reader persona from earlier).

A foreword is typically written by another author or thought leader of your particular industry. Getting someone credible to write this can add a lot of value to your readers.

Testimonials

Just like with the foreword, try and find respected, well-known people in your space and have them write a review about your book. The best way to promote yourself is to have someone else speak on your behalf.  

How do you want to be portrayed to your audience? Readers love knowing personal details of an author’s life, such as your hobbies, where you live, or what inspired you to write this book.

Pro tip: The author bio on the flap of your book might be one of the first things people read when deciding whether or not to read our book. Keep it short, but make sure it packs a punch (just like your elevator pitch).

A glossary is an alphabetical list of terms or words relating to a specific subject, text, or dialect with corresponding explanations. If you are writing nonfiction, especially a topic that uses a lot of lingo or uncommon words, make sure to include a glossary to create a better experience for your readers.

If you are writing nonfiction, keep track of your sources as you research and write. A clear bibliography will only add to your value and credibility.

Being nonfiction that was based on a lot of research and experiments, I made sure to include a notes section in Inbound Content. It included citations, stats, image sources, etc.

Using images is a nice addition to your content. Images can create a more engaging experience for the reader while improving the communication of hard-to-grasp concepts.

8. Edit Your Book

The next step in learning how to write a book is editing. This involves self-editing first, then having a thorough professional edit done.

The success of your book will depend on its quality, and a thoroughly edited book is a solid way to increase your book's quality.

Even the best writers require editing, so don't feel discouraged by this process. In the end, you'll be glad you followed the editing process, and will have a completed, error-free book that you can be proud of.

Self-edit your book

Remember when we told you not to edit your book as you wrote? Well, now's your time to shine in the editing department.

Once your book is written, it's time to go through and read it line-by-line.

We recommend printing your entire manuscript out on paper, then going through each page and making edits. This will make it easy to spot errors, and will help you easily implement these changes into your manuscript.

There's a specific strategy to self-editing; if you start this process blindly, it can be overwhelming, so make sure you understand how it works before diving in.

Here are some tips to self-edit your book successfully:

• Read your manuscript aloud as you edit.
• Start with one chapter at a time.
• First, go through and edit the chapter for structure revisions.
• Second, find opportunities for improving the book's readability.
• Third, make edits for grammar and word choice.

Once you complete your self-edit, you can make your revisions on your manuscript, then get ready for the next round of edits.

Hire a professional book editor

The next step in learning how to write a book is handing your book off to a professional book editor .

As meticulous as you may be, there are bound to be some grammatical or spelling errors that get overlooked. Also, a professional editor should be able to give you feedback on the structure of your writing so you can feel confident in your final published draft.

There are many different types of editing , so think carefully to determine who you should hire.

Re-write sections of your book's draft using your editor's feedback

Now it's time to improve your book using your editor's feedback. Don't be discouraged when you get your manuscript back full of edits, comments, and identified errors.

Think of these edits as opportunities to improve your book. You want to give your reader a polished, well-written book, and to do this, you need to edit and re-write.

This doesn't mean you have to re-write your entire book. You simply have to go through your editor's feedback, and make any revisions you think are necessary.

If there is something you don't agree with your editor on, that's okay. In the end, it is your book, and you are in control of what you want to add or take out of the manuscript.

Just be sure your revisions are coming from a place of sound reasoning, and not pride.

Finalize your book title

If you haven't done so already, it's time to revisit the working title you created for your book earlier in the process.

You need to finalize your book's title before you move on to the next steps!

If you need help deciding on a title, cast a vote with your target readers and mentors in your author network. Send an email out, post a social media announcement , or reach out through text with people that are considered your book's ideal reader.

Get feedback on your title by asking people to vote for their favorite. Include the top three choices, then use the crowdsourced results to narrow it down even more.

Once you have a title selected, don't worry too much if you're not 100 percent sold on it yet. Even if the title turns out to not be effective, you can always change the title depending on the publishing platform you select.

9. Choose a Compelling Book Cover

Don’t judge a book by its cover? Please.  People are definitely judging your book by its cover. 

The book cover design is generally the first thing that will pique a reader’s interest.

You can find freelance graphic designers to create a compelling book cover for you on many online marketplace sites like Upwork, Reedsy , and Snappa . You can even check with a local graphic design artist for a more hands-on approach.

Tips for creating an effective book cover:

• Whitespace is your friend.  Make it a best practice to choose a design that pops, but doesn’t distract.
• Make it creative (non-fiction) or emotional (fiction).  Do your best to connect the art to the story or use it to enhance the title.
• Consider a subtitle.  Think if this as a one-sentence descriptor on what this book is about.
• Test two or three designs.  Send a few designs to your trusted accountability group to get their honest first impressions and feedback.

Keeping these best practices in mind, I chose a cover for Inbound Content that was simple but made the title pop and let the subtitle provide the promise to the reader.

10. Format Your Book

Now that you’ve written your manuscript, it’s time to format it so you can visualize the final product — your book!

Formatting your book is an important step in learning how to write a book, because it has to do with how your book will appear to the reader. A successfully formatted book will not cut off text, incorrect indentations, or typeset errors when printed or displayed on a digital device.

If you've already decided to go with self-publishing vs traditional publishing , this is all on you. But if you're not tech-savvy and don't have the time to learn how to format your own book, you can hire a professional to do this part for you.

If you know how to format a book correctly and to fit your book distributor's specifications, you can do so in Word or Google Docs. You can also use a program like Vellum Software or Atticus .

Otherwise, we recommend hiring someone to do this professionally, as it's one of the most important aspects to get right. Check out Formatted Books if that's the case for you.

11. Prepare to Launch Your Book

Before you hit “Publish” it's time to do the groundwork to start prepping for your book's launch, and your ongoing book launch and book marketing strategy.

There are a few steps involved in this process, which we'll outline below.

Build your book's launch team

This is an ongoing step that you can start doing when you are finished with your rough draft. As you send your book to the editor, designer, and formatter, you can organize a launch team in the meantime.

Your book's launch team is essentially a group of individuals who are considered your target readers. They will help you promote your book, and will be actively involved in the launch process of your book.

Develop a marketing mindset

It's time to start shifting your mindset from writing to book marketing . Think about your strengths and areas of growth when it comes to sales and marketing.

Acknowledge any fears or self-limiting thoughts you have, then push past them by remembering your book's purpose. Know that the power of sharing your knowledge and experience through your book is stronger than any fear that might hold you back.

It's important to understand in the marketing phase that your mindset has a huge role in the success of your book. You can write the best book in the world, but if you don't channel some energy towards marketing, no one will know it exists.

Here are six ways to market your book:

• Paid advertisements
• Free advertisement opportunities
• Local or in-person events
• Content marketing on Google and Amazon
• Be a guest on podcasts and websites
• Speaker opportunities

Create a book launch strategy

There are a lot of moving parts when it comes to your launch strategy, so it's important to draft up a plan before you publish your book.

Your launch strategy is basically how you plan to create momentum with your book. Think of it like a business launch. There's always a big celebration to announce the launch of the business. It's the same for your book.

12. Publish Your Book

The self-publishing process steps will vary on whether you are publishing your book as an eBook only, or whether you plan to publish it as a print book .

It will also vary depending on which self-publishing companies you plan to work with. There are many self-publishing platforms to choose from, including KDP on Amazon and IngramSpark .

If you plan to work with a different book publisher , you'll want to follow their guidelines. You should also learn how to copyright a book to protect yourself against plagiarism.

Once you've hit publish on your platform, you can start implementing your launch strategies and marketing strategies, which we'll cover in the next section.

FAQs: How To Write A Book

If you read through this guide and have specific questions on how to write a book, here are some other questions we get often.

How long does it take to write a book?

How long it takes to write a book depends on a number of factors. on average, it takes self-published authors anywhere from 3-6 months, but that can be shorter or longer depending on your writing habits, work ethic, time available, and much more.

How much do authors make?

There is no set amount that an author can make. It depends on many factors, such as the book genre , topic, author's readership and following, and marketing success.

For a full report on this, please read our report on Author Salary

Writing a book is not a get-rich-quick strategy by any means. While learning how to write a book can help you grow your business through techniques like a book funnel , unless you sell hundreds of thousands of copies of books, you likely will not earn six figures from book sales alone.

How much money does an author make per book?

The money an author makes per book sold is calculated by the royalty rate. The royalty rate varies depending on the publishing medium, and company.

Use this Book Royalty Calculator to get a better idea of your potential earnings.

How much does it cost to write and publish a book?

With Amazon self-publishing and other self-publishing platforms, the cost to publish is actually free. However, it costs money to hire professionals that actually produce a high-quality book that you will be proud of.

For full details, read this guide on Self-Publishing Costs .

Can anyone write a book?

Yes, anyone can learn how to write a book. And thanks to the rise of technology and self-publishing, anyone can publish a book as well!

Traditional publishers used to serve as the gatekeepers to publishing, holding the power to determine which books would be published. This prevented many stories from being shared, and many talented authors from being recognized.

Thankfully, this antiquated system is no longer the only option. This also means that because anyone can technically publish a book, it is extremely important that you create a quality, professional book that's of the highest standard.

You Wrote A Book!

And that’s it! Those are the steps to take to learn how to write a book from start to finish.

You can and will write your first book if you put forth the effort. You’re going to crush this!

Trust the process, create a consistent writing schedule, and use this practical guide to help you through the journey of learning how to write a book.

Are you ready to write your book?

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How to Write a Book: Writing a Book 101

Sarah Oakley

Table of Contents

How do you write a book, processes for writing a book, 9 tips for how to successfully write a book, how prowritingaid can help you write a book, conclusion on how to write a book.

Writing a book from start to finish can be a daunting task if you’ve never done it before. There’s so much that goes into a novel that it’s hard to know where to even start.

Luckily, there are some successful writers who have written books on how to achieve the goal of seeing a novel through to fruition. Following guides is a great way to keep yourself on track and take each step of the process one at a time.

Writing a book is an achievement. Once it’s complete, you can look into publishing options to share your story with readers. It’s fun to imagine your name on the cover of a book others will read and enjoy.

In this article, we’ll explore how to write a book using process steps and writing tips. We’ve also provided some advice on how to improve your creative writing so it’s ready to send off to an editor, agent, or publisher.

Writing a book is sitting down and writing a section every day over and over until you’ve written the entire book. However, it’s rarely as simple as that, and there’s a lot more that actually goes into it.

Before you write a book, you need to be aware of the basic elements that go into a novel. All novels feature characters, settings, and a plot, so it’s best to have these in mind when you write a novel.

Character : a character is a person in your novel. They’re the people who experience the conflict and events of the story. Most novels feature a whole range of characters. Your main character is usually the person who changes and develops the most throughout your story. However, there are examples of stories where the story events don’t change the character.

Setting : your setting is where the story takes place. This could include a geographical location, a time, and a specific space, such as a coffee shop or office. Novels can feature several settings where scenes take place.

Plot : the plot of a novel is the main storyline your main characters follow. Your plot should feature several events that challenge your characters. Your plot can be the driving force of your story, where the characters are along for the ride, or the plot can be character driven, where the events happen because of a character’s decisions.

If you’re writing a book that isn’t a novel, such as a creative nonfiction book, you can substitute these elements for subject, context, and the theory or point you will maintain throughout your book.

What Do You Need to Write a Book?

Before you dive into the planning and drafting, there are three things you need to write a book:

A writing space

Something to write on

Your dedicated writing space is the place where you feel the most comfortable when writing. Every writer’s ideal creative area is different because it’s unique to that person. Most people think you need a quiet room, a tidy desk, and a comfortable chair, but that doesn’t suit everyone.

The best writing space for you might change depending on the book you’re writing. For example, if you’re writing a police procedural crime novel, you might need to be surrounded by books and notes for reference. Trying out different setups is the best way to find out what works for you.

When considering what you’re going to write on, you have several options. You can opt for typing your book into a piece of software or handwriting it on a physical notebook. You could also go old-school and use a typewriter, in which case, kudos to you.

There are several software programs you can use when typing up your manuscript, such as Microsoft Word, Google Docs, and Apple Pages, which are simple word processing programs. There are also book writing software programs that will store all of your plans for your novels too, such as Scrivener, Campfire, and LivingWriter.

Acceptance is the ability to let go of predetermined standards and create a realistic idea of what your book will be. It’s important to accept yourself and what you can realistically achieve before you plan your book, because it’s so easy for writers to set their expectations too high. 

Several things can prevent you from feeling like you can finish writing your book, including a fear of failing to hit self-imposed standards.

While acceptance of yourself and any failures is important, you also need to accept the changes that need to be made to your story. The initial book idea isn’t always the same as the finished book.

Do You Need a Writing Habit?

Many writers believe that motivation and determination will get them through the tough times of writing a book, like when writer’s block strikes, but an actual writing habit is more important.

Motivation is your reason for wanting to write a book. You can remind yourself of the reason every time you sit down to write, but you might find your motivation changes.

Determination is the willpower you have to achieve the goal of writing a book. Unfortunately, your emotions can directly affect your willpower, and if you’re not feeling like writing, that book won’t write itself.

If you develop a writing habit, it won’t matter if you’re lacking motivation or your determination has temporarily disappeared; you’ll still be able to write something.

You can build your writing habit by regularly sitting down for a writing session. It doesn’t matter what you’re writing; you just need to build some mental writing muscles. It’s like if you’re training for a marathon, you might not run every day, but you need to do some exercise to keep your body ready for those days when you run.

While we may all dream of the perfect writing habit, where we’re able to sit down every day and write at least 500 words, it isn’t a realistic expectation for everyone. What if you cannot fit writing in on certain days?

For those days when you can’t fit in a writing session, make sure you have a notebook with you in case you find five minutes in your day to jot down any ideas related to your project.

Alternatively, try listening to audiobooks while you’re doing other tasks or chores. Reading and listening to audiobooks are still ways to support your writing habit.

Your habit should work for you, not someone else. Researchers say it can take around 66 days to make a new habit stick, so check your schedule, find those ideal writing times, and aim to stick to it for the next ten weeks or so. Develop your own writing schedule, and you’ll probably find more success in your writing sessions.

Any novel writer would tell you the fundamental process of writing a book is actually sitting and writing it. However, there are also process steps you can follow before you start writing, and some steps for after you finish writing the first draft.

You can find many methods for writing a book online and in reference books. However, if you’re itching to get started, and you don’t have time to go looking for those methods, we’ve condensed as much information as we can into the following five steps:

Finding Inspiration and Ideas for Your Book

If you want to write a book but you don’t have a book idea, there are several things you can do to inspire your creative mind. The first thing you should aim to establish is what your book is about because everything else will revolve around that.

One of the first places to look for inspiration is in your own life experiences. Many people believe their life is too ordinary to write about, but that’s not always true. Even the smallest detail about your life can be rich in inspiration fuel.

If you don’t fancy self-reflection as a source of inspiration, try people watching, and make up things about the strangers you see. Coffee shops in city centers are great places to do this. It’s better if they have a second story with windows looking out over the streets so you can look out of the windows and watch people without them noticing you.

Are You a Plotter, a Pantser, or a Plantser?

There are three types of writers: the plotter, the pantser, and the plantser. These writer types are determined by the level of planning the person does before writing a book.

A plotter is someone who likes to plan everything they can before they start the first draft of their novel. If you like to know exactly where the story is going, and you want to develop your characters before you put them into a narrative, this might be the best option for you.

A pantser is someone who plans very little before writing. The point of pantsing is to write “from the seat of your pants.” If you have a powerful urge to write and love getting the words down when you’re in flow, you might be a pantser.

You might guess what a plantser is. They’re writers who are part plotters and part pantsers. Plantser writers like to plan, but they don’t go into as much detail as a plotter. If you like planning, but you also just want to write, you could be a plantser.

How much time you spend planning is likely to be unique to you and the book you’re writing. Some books need planning regardless of what type of writer you are. For example, unless you’re an expert in 19th century history, you will need to do some planning before you write a novel set in 1820.

Breaking Your Book Down to Manageable Pieces

Before you begin writing your book, think about how you’ll be able to write 50,000 words or more. Whether you’ve planned all the details or you simply know what the book is about, actually writing the book can be daunting.

Desmond Tutu once said, "There is only one way to eat an elephant: a bite at a time.” You can use this advice for your book writing process.

Try breaking your book down into sections you can complete in each of your writing sessions. If you’re writing a novel, you can break it into chapters or you could go smaller and focus on scenes. For a reference or nonfiction book, you can break it down into sections and chapters.

Including Fundamental Novel Elements in Your First Draft

As you’re working through your first draft and developing your writing habit, there are several things you can do to ensure you’re writing a solid foundation draft before you move on to the editing stage.

Remember to add lots of conflict

For genre novels, use genre-specific vocabulary and tropes

Let your characters speak naturally and authentically

Avoid unnecessary sections or scenes

Conflict is a disagreement, a struggle, or a clash, and it’s one of the most important parts of a novel because it helps drive the narrative forward. You can usually find conflict in the relationships between your characters. Alternatively, any obstacles you put in your main character’s way can create internal conflict as well as external conflict.

If you’re writing a genre novel, remember to use the common vocabulary and tropes used by other novels within the genre you’re writing. Tropes are common themes and narrative devices, which are usually used to create familiarity for readers within a genre. For example, haunted houses, cursed antiques, and summoning demons are all tropes of horror writing.

Writing great dialogue is an art form, but it’s not impossible to write good dialogue in your first draft. Authentic dialogue is natural sounding, which means it’s informal and reveals more about the character. If you’re writing a contemporary romance and your lead couple speaks like they’ve just stepped out of a Jane Austen classic, your dialogue might be too formal.

In a first draft, you might want to include every single scene in order to reach the word count you’re aiming for. However, you’re better off leaving out any scenes that aren’t directly relevant to your story. You can always add them at the end if you realize they’re needed, but you’re better off focusing on finishing the novel.

Remember, you’re the only one who will read the first version of your novel. If you don’t follow these tips, don’t worry, as you can always fix things in the editing stage.

Editing Your Book

You can try editing your first draft as you write, but most writers find it takes longer to complete the draft and doesn’t save much time in the overall process. It can be better to avoid editing as you focus on getting the story out of your mind and onto the page.

Once the first draft is complete, some writers like to let the book rest for a while before jumping into the editing process. Leaving the first draft alone allows you time to get some distance from your writing so you can come back to it with fresh eyes. In the meantime, you could work on a smaller project to keep up your writing habit.

When you’re ready to edit, you need to decide which type of editing you want to do first.

There are four main types of editing you can do:

Developmental editing

Structural editing

Copyediting

Proofreading

Most writers start with the developmental editing stage, which focuses on the biggest details of your novel. You’ll need to review the book as a whole, paying attention to the key elements like characterization, plot, pacing, and settings. You might realize the setting for a key plot point doesn’t work, so you’ll change it at this stage before moving on to the next editing stage. 

Once you’re happy with the bigger pieces, you can move on to a structural edit, which is sometimes called line editing. A structural edit focuses on features of language such as tone, style, and the overall flow of the book. You might identify a scene where the tone of your writing doesn’t match the actions of the scene, so you would edit your language to ensure the tone and actions match. 

When you get to copyediting, you’ll be working at a sentence level, checking each one for grammar, spelling, consistency, and language. It’s best to leave this edit until you’re completely satisfied with your developmental and structural edits, otherwise you might end up having to repeat this stage several times.

If you get to the copyediting stage and feel you could use some help, try using an editing software, such as ProWritingAid. The ProWritingAid Realtime checker will analyze your writing for grammatical, spelling, and stylistic errors so you can get to work on making improvements straight away.

Proofreading is the last type of edit writers complete. It involves going through your manuscript with a fine-toothed comb to ensure there are no errors that have somehow slipped through all the other editing stages.

If you are writing a historical novel, or you simply want to check the facts of your novel, you could include another editing stage for fact-checking. You could include fact-checking after either the developmental or structural editing stages.

There’s so much more to editing than this overview, and if you’re not sure where to start with each stage, you can check out the ProWritingAid blog for more articles about editing novels.

There are many points during the writing process where you might find yourself stuck and needing more advice. We’ve compiled a list of nine tips to help you overcome any issues you encounter while writing a book. If you follow these tips, your goal should be more achievable.

Read a Lot of Books

If you’ve ever asked a writer how to write a book, they will probably start by telling you to read a lot of books. It’s easy to forget to read more when you’re excited about getting your own novel written, but there are several things reading can help you with.

Here are some reasons you should read more books:

Reading helps with inspiration

Reading improves your vocabulary

Reading gives you insight into your reader’s expectations

Reading helps you identify genre-specific tropes

Identify Your Writing Motivation

Before you write your book, it’s important to know why you’re writing it—also known as your writing motivation. You can remind yourself of your motivation each time you sit down to write as you’re developing your writing habits.

Your reason for writing books could be a personal goal or something you do for enjoyment as a hobby. Writing for yourself can be liberating, as you might not feel as pressured to achieve a publishing standard, so you can focus more on the fun of writing anything you want.

Alternatively, your writing motivation could be commercial if you want to develop a professional writing career as a published author. If you’re writing with traditional or self-publishing in mind, read some bestsellers and look for information on what readers want to see in novels. Learn what publishers and readers love, so you can work on ensuring your novel is of the same caliber.

Your motivation might also be to share your thoughts and feelings about a specific subject or theme. Many writers write their own book because they want to add their voice to the discussion on issues that affect the world.

Your motivation to write fiction can change as you work through each stage of the process, so it’s important to allow yourself to be flexible and accept any new motivations.

Familiarize Yourself With Plot Outlines and Templates

Whether you’re just thinking about writing a book, or you’ve already finished the initial draft, you can take advantage of the many outlines and templates available to structure your novel. You don’t have to follow an outline, but most templates are based on bestsellers and narrative structures that readers are familiar with.

There are three classic narrative templates:

The hero’s journey

The three-act structure

The seven-point story structure

The hero’s journey is a story involving the protagonist being called to an adventure where they face challenges and go through a transformation. You’ll see the hero’s journey used in a variety of genres because it’s one of the most famous and commonly used structures. Novels featuring the hero’s journey include The Lord of the Rings and Alice's Adventures in Wonderland . 

The three-act structure involves the story being told over three phases, including the beginning (act 1), the middle (act 2), and the end (act 3). Act 1 and act 3 are usually smaller sections because the emphasis is on act 2 where the protagonist goes through most of their development arc. The Wizard of Oz and The Hunger Games both feature the three-act structure.

The seven-point story structure includes seven moments in the narrative where your key events should happen. The seven points include the hook, plot point one, pinch point one, midpoint, pinch point two, plot point two, and the resolution. Pinch points are key moments when the antagonist is increasing pressure on the protagonist. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone features the seven-point story structure.

The classic narrative structures are similar and overlap with each other, but ultimately they are the main basic outlines for writers to follow, so you’ll see them a lot in classic novels. However, contemporary narrative templates give writers more specific guidance on how to structure novels and where certain beats should occur in your stories to suit modern readers’ tastes.

Here are three contemporary narrative templates:

Save the Cat by Jessica Brody

The Snowflake Method by Randy Ingermanson

Inside Outline by Jennie Nash

The Save the Cat outline includes 15 narrative beats that fit into a three-act structure. Save the Cat has become increasingly popular in modern novels because it appears to apply to almost all published novels. It’s easy to follow, so it’s great for new novel writers.

The snowflake method is likely to be more beneficial if you are in the planning stage, as you’ll start with the core point of your novel. Then you build out until you have a fully fleshed-out outline for your book. You could still use this template after you’ve finished your first draft to check the structure of your novel and make sure it’s organized around the core message.

The inside outline focuses on making sure every plot moment and scene has a point and develops the story further. At each plot point, you’ll need to combine “what happens” and “how the characters feel about what happened.” The resulting actions should move the story on to the next point, where you do the same equation over again.

Try Fast Drafting

If you’re worried about how long it might take to write your first draft, you can try using a fast drafting technique. Fast drafting includes planning details of your novel and then writing as much as you can over the course of 6 to 12 weeks, depending on what you’re aiming for.

The National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) challenge is a great way to practice fast drafting, as you have a writing goal of 50,000 words in one month. The main NaNoWriMo competition happens in November each year, but you can also take part in their summer versions called Camp NaNoWriMo, where you can edit the word count goal in your project settings to create your own personal challenge.

Jessica Brody designed one of the best fast drafting methods, and you can access a course on fast drafting on the Writing Mastery website. Using the steps outlined in the course, you’ll be able to plan all the resources you’ll need to reference when you get into the writing stage.

Fast drafting is intense and involves writing a minimum number of words each day if you want to hit your writing targets. If you don’t fancy writing under that kind of pressure, fast drafting might not be for you, and that’s fine. All writers make progress at their own pace.

Remember to Use Literary Devices

Literary devices are great for improving your writing and keeping your reader engaged with the story you’re telling. There are so many literary devices you could use in your writing.

Here are five literary devices to get you started:

Cliff-hanger

Juxtaposition

A metaphor is figurative language used to describe something as though it’s something else. For example, if you wanted to write about someone who never felt love and treated people horribly, you could say they have a heart of stone. They don’t literally have a heart of stone, but it’s a metaphor for an unloving, mean person.

A plot twist is a narrative event that changes the course of the plot unexpectedly. For example, if your main character is a detective solving a case, and the suspect they’ve been following is murdered, it twists the story as they have to investigate who the actual killer is.

A cliff-hanger is a dramatic event that leaves your reader wanting to find out what happens next. Cliff-hangers appear at the end of a chapter.

Juxtaposition is the technique of putting two items together that contrast each other to emphasize their differences. You can juxtapose two distinct characters, which can create a lot of conflict. You can also juxtapose the genres you use. For example, John Dies at the End by Jason Pargin is a horror comedy, and the opposing genres pair well.

Irony is when something happens that isn’t expected based on the reality of a situation. For example, it’s ironic if a fire station burns down. While the main types of irony used in writing are verbal, situational, and dramatic, there are many types of irony you can use. If you want to include irony in your story, be sure to read up on how to use each type in your writing.

Show, Don’t Tell

One of the most famous rules in writing is “show, don’t tell,” and it means your writing should include concrete, sensory details to tell your story instead of relying on exposition or “telling.”

If you include more sensory descriptions in your first draft, you will reduce the amount of detail you’ll need to add in your editing stage. You can use the ProWritingAid Sensory report to identify places where you’ve used sensory descriptions in your writing, so you can decide if you’ve added enough detail.

You can include some exposition and background details so your readers can connect with your characters, but avoid overwhelming them with too much information. Aim to use exposition sparingly, and reveal background details a little at a time or at specific moments to increase tension and conflict.

Celebrate Your First Draft

Completing a first draft of a novel is a massive achievement for a writer, so be proud when you hit that goal. Reward yourself for successfully overcoming one of the biggest hurdles to finishing your book.

Don’t underestimate the importance of celebrating your achievement, as it can build your confidence in completing big writing projects. If you mentally associate finishing your novel with happiness and rewards, it can help you feel motivated to complete the next steps.

You can celebrate on your own, or you can share the news with your friends and family. Writing can be a lonely activity, but there are probably many people around you who would be interested in your progress. Building a support network can help you through any tough times, like when you’re experiencing writer’s block.

Learn to Love Editing

Editing your novel can take a long time, possibly even longer than writing the first draft. Having a love for editing can make the writing journey a lot easier.

Going through the editing process will bring up a variety of issues, which can be a blow to your self-esteem and assurance. Have faith in yourself because everyone needs to edit their work.

Many writers mistake editing for a process of trying to make your novel perfect, but that’s not what it’s about. There’s no such thing as the perfect novel because writing is a subjective art. Your writing could be ideal in the eyes of one person, but another might spot mistakes you haven’t thought of.

If you want to enjoy editing, use it as a learning process for how to improve your writing. The next time you write a first draft, your writing will be better, so you’ll need to do less editing.

Join a Writing Group

Writing is something you do alone because it makes it easier to focus, but it doesn’t mean you have to be a lonely writer. Joining a writing group is a great way to connect with other writers who are all going through the same process as you.

The amazing thing about writing groups is being able to befriend other people who share a passion for writing and to talk about the wonderful world of writing fiction. If you’re struggling to find writing friends in your day-to-day life, try joining a writing group and building some supportive relationships in an environment dedicated to forming writing friendships.

You can bounce ideas off other writers and get advice for overcoming writer’s block or other writing problems.

If you’re worried about sharing ideas with writers who might take them from you, don’t share everything about your stories. Only share what you feel comfortable sharing, but you’ll find most writers care a lot about this, so you won’t be the only one being considerate about what you reveal about your work in progress.

Some writing groups run workshops, such as writing sprints (for writing first drafts) and critiques (for the editing stage). Sprints are a great way to make progress, as it can feel motivational knowing there are other writers also being creative with you. Critiques are perfect for getting some feedback on sections of your writing.

ProWritingAid is an editing software that can help you edit as you write your book.

You can use the ProWritingAid Realtime checker as a second pair of eyes on your writing because it’ll pick up spelling and grammatical errors you can fix quickly. The checker also highlights any passive writing and suggests stylistic improvements to enhance the readability of your writing.

The Realtime checker is in all of ProWritingAid’s integrations, which means you can use it in most of the places you write your novel, such as Google Docs, Microsoft Word, Notion, Atticus, and Scrivener.

Write like a bestselling author

Love writing? ProWritingAid will help you improve the style, strength, and clarity of your stories.

If you don’t want to edit as you write, you can use any of the 20+ ProWritingAid reports to analyze your writing after you’ve finished your first draft. The most popular reports for novelists are Grammar, Style, Cliché, Sensory, and Thesaurus.

The Grammar report is a perfect starting point for some quick wins because you can quickly fix any key errors. You can then use the Style report to see suggested improvements that are optional but will probably improve things like readability and use of adverbs.

The Cliché, Sensory, and Thesaurus reports are great to use together if you want to check that your writing contains enough concrete detail. You can use the Thesaurus report to highlight the types of words you’ve used. The Cliché report will show you any vague or abstract words you’ve used. The Sensory report will underline all examples of sensory details.

Editing your writing isn’t the only thing you can do with ProWritingAid. You can also join the ProWritingAid Community, which is a great place to meet other writers and make some new friends. If you’re not sure about how to write or edit a part of your novel, you can always ask the members of the ProWritingAid Community.

You can also attend one of the ProWritingAid Writers’ Weeks to learn more about writing and gain some inspiration for your work in progress. Whether you write fantasy, romance, crime, science fiction, or any other genre, there’s plenty of information you can take away from the events.

Writing a book is a process of many parts, but if you take them at a pace that suits you, you can achieve your goal. Take the time to learn about what goes into a novel and what your readers will expect so you don’t need to spend a long time figuring it out during the editing stage.

Remember, the best part of writing an entire book is the fun you can have as you weave intricate stories and develop memorable characters. You can live vicariously through your characters, so writing a book can be cathartic if you’re struggling through a problem your characters have to deal with as well.

Now you know the basics of writing a book and how ProWritingAid can help you. Why don’t you get started on that idea you’ve been thinking about writing? You might have a bestseller in you. All you have to do is write the book.

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31 Ridiculously Simple Tips For Writing Your Next Book

What are the best tips for writing a book? We have you covered.

Maybe you have a book idea , and you’re thinking it would make a great book.

The problem? You’ve never written a book before. And with all the information out there on the steps to writing a book, you’re feeling a bit overwhelmed.

Or maybe you have written a book, and you’ve learned a few things from it, but you’re also a bit embarrassed by the mistakes you made. You want this new book to be something you’ll be proud to share and to talk about with others.

You’re ready for a clear and simple guide on how to write a book. And you’ve just found one. For this article, we’ve curated the best book writing tips you’re likely to find in books and on the web.

So, grab a cup of something you like, and read on.

• Why Learning to Write Better Is Such an Important Skill

Learning to write better has so many real-life applications, and it’s a tragedy that so few leave school (and yes, I’m including college) with a solid understanding of what makes for good writing.

As someone who wants to write a book, you already know you can make your editor’s (as well as your reader’s) life a lot easier if you know how to write well. And you learn by doing.

You learn to write by writing. You also learn by imitating exceptional writers. Benjamin Franklin taught himself to write by copying (by hand) other people’s work.

Think about that for a second. Someday, because you put in the work, your own readers might learn to write better because of something you wrote.

All the more reason to learn the tips that follow.

31 Tips for Writing a Book

1. write something (anything) every day., 2. establish a writing space and time., 3. assemble your writing tools., 4. map out your book idea., 5. write in smaller chunks., 6. treat writing like interval training., 7. summarize your book — and break it into smaller pieces., 8. break your book into smaller pieces., 9. use an app like evernote to store your ideas., 10. stop each day when the going is good., 11. get early feedback., 12. set weekly targets., 13. sketch it out., 14. write from a character’s perspective., 15. single or series, 16. get a fantastic book cover., 17. pencil in some procrastination., 18. turn off your inner editor (while writing your first draft)., 19. give your story a strong opening., 20. give your story plenty of conflict., 21. think like a reader., 22. find beta readers who read your genre., 23. commit to a “shipping” date., 24. cut yourself some slack., 25. create a plan for your book launch and marketing., 26. write the book you wish existed before you knew what you know now., 27. do your research., 28. keep it simple. keep it clear., 29. start with something short., 30. eliminate filler words and redundancies to tighten your writing., 31. call yourself a writer, tips for writing a book for beginners.

Every writer starts somewhere. Book writing tips for beginners should take nothing for granted, other than your love of words and your interest in writing a book.

It’s important that you develop the habit of writing every single day. It can help to subscribe to an email list that provides daily writing tips not only to remind you of your daily writing commitment but to help you improve your writing along the way.

Time and space are critical elements in forming a daily writing habit. If you develop the habit of writing in a specific spot at a specific, scheduled time, you associate that spot and that time of day with writing — and vice versa.

Make a point of scheduling a time to write each day, and keep it sacred. If you’re going to write a book, daily writing deserves a place on your schedule.

You’ll need a reliable computer with a word processing program, at least to create your final draft. The publishing world uses Microsoft Word, so stick with this or a program that allows you to export your work as a Word document.

Other tools might include the following:

• Pens and a notebook
• Sticky notes
• Index cards
• Paper clips
• Highlighter pen/s
• A planner or planning pages (unless you do your planning on your computer)

There’s more than one way to do this:

• Sketch out a mind map on a large piece of paper.
• Write notes about each scene or idea on a sticky note and arrange them on a planning wall or whiteboard.
• Fill out an index card for every idea you want to include in your book and rearrange them in an order that makes sense.

However you map out your book, it helps to not only see your project as a whole made up of smaller pieces but also to see how all the scenes and ideas relate to each other and join to form a cohesive whole.

One of these most useful writing tips and tricks is learning how to chunk down your writing into shorter time segments.

A timer — like this Pomodoro app — is helpful with this. If you write for smaller chunks of time (25 minutes each) and take small breaks (5 minutes) between them, you’ll return to each writing session better-prepared to focus your creative energy on writing for the next 25 minutes.

If you try to write for an hour at a time every time, not only are your eyes likely to dry out and tire more quickly, you’re also more likely to get distracted by one thing or another, even if it’s just your own thoughts getting in the way.

Do yourself and your writing project a favor and commit to at least a short break between writing sprints to rest your eyes, stretch your legs, drink a glass of water, etc.

It helps to start by summarizing your book. Just write to yourself about what your book is about, who would benefit from reading it (if it’s nonfiction), what problem would it solve, etc.

To make your book project less overwhelming and to help you keep moving from one step to the next, break the whole thing down into smaller, more manageable pieces.

And focus on one piece at a time.

It helps to have a reservoir of inspiring ideas, and apps like Evernote make it easy to store those ideas when they strike or when you take a few minutes out of your day to brainstorm a list .

Evernote also gives you a place to flesh out and organize your ideas — whether for a book, a blog post, a work of fiction, or something else.

If you stop at the end of one chapter, take a moment to plan what you’ll start with for the following chapter. Type a few bullet point ideas to help you get the words flowing when you sit down to write the next day.

Lay the groundwork, so you’ll know exactly where you left off and are excited about what you’ll write next.

Find someone whose judgment you trust — not only as a person but as a writer and someone who knows about the book market — to appraise your book idea and what you’ve written for it so far.

Consult more than one such person, if you can. Invite them out for coffee (or lunch) and a quick read. Consider it an investment in your book’s success.

Deadlines are important. Not only do they motivate you to keep moving toward your goal, but they also give you a target to celebrate once you reach it.

You need both short-term and long-term targets when writing a book. Short-term targets are the ones you set for each day or for each smaller piece of your project.

Long-term targets have more to do with the bigger picture — in regard to your book and to other meaningful goals.

Novel Writing Tips

Fiction writing tips apply to novels, novellas, and short stories. Generally, the longer your story, the more complex it tends to be and the more important it is to get all your story elements sorted.

Apply the following novel tips, then, to give yourself the best chance of finishing your story and making it a bestseller.

Create at least a rough outline of your story. It doesn’t have to look like the outlines you had to create in school. Simple bulleted lists work fine.

• Write about scenes you want in your story.
• Write what the story is about, who the main character is, and what he/she wants and stands to lose.
• Write about each pivotal character’s arc and what events in the story contribute to each one’s development.
• Write about how your story will end — and whether your main character will get what he or she wants.
• Write about possible opening scenes for your story.

Voice journaling is a great way to beat writer’s block by helping you see more clearly what your character wants and why — and what direction the story should take.

Write from any character’s perspective – the protagonist, the antagonist, or a minor character with at least a casual interest in what happens.

If your readers enjoy this first book, they’ll want to read the next one, too (if there is one) — which will help you sell more copies the next time around.

On the other hand, if your main character dies at the end, you’re probably not planning on a Book Two. And that’s okay.

If you are writing a series, though, you’ll want your cover to include a reference to the series title — which brings us to the next tip.

Having a beautiful cover for your book might just be the best motivation to write it. In any case, it’s visible proof of your commitment to finishing your book.

With fiction, it’s particularly important to have a stunning book cover , and some genres (like fantasy) require more artistry than others. If your book’s cover looks like a DIY project, most of your ideal readers will cringe and move on.

Rather than procrastinating during your scheduled writing times, why not just add some procrastination to your weekly book writing schedule?

While you’re taking a break from your novel, your mind is still working on it. And when you return to the book after your scheduled procrastination, you can

incorporate the content your mind has generated during the break.

There’s a time to let the words flow and a time to edit them. Finish your story before you edit it, and you’ll be better able to do both.

Books like this one can help you do a thorough and balanced self-edit when the time comes.

Stiff competition isn’t the only reason you’ll want to hook your reader right from the beginning of your story. A great opening makes your book instantly memorable and sets it apart from the legions of books with weak beginnings.

A great cover can only do so much to earn your book an honored place on someone’s shelf. Hook them quickly with your words, and then hold on tight.

This is how you hold onto your reader’s attention. Keep them guessing. Keep them on the edge of their seats — wondering, fearing, anticipating. Give them a reason to keep reading.

You don’t do this by describing in minute detail a group of best friends enjoying their wine and chips on the beach while everyone gets along splendidly and all the couples are blissfully in love and never argue.

It’s when the stakes are high that your reader is compelled to wonder “What will happen next?”

Just as your readers won’t stick around for long stretches of self-indulgent introspection (in agonizing detail), you probably wouldn’t either.

And as picturesque as a beach can be, does anyone really want to read five pages about a piece of driftwood and its origin story?

Probably not.

Sometimes we writers get stuck trying to make our writing more “literary” and profound.

Do what the reader does: focus on the story.

It’s a good idea to find willing beta readers (who love your book idea) before you’ve even finished your book.

Please do not cheat yourself of the opportunity to receive helpful feedback from these gems of the writing universe. Some of these will be writers, too, so you can return the favor when they need beta readers for their books.

Once you have an idea of how many words a day you can realistically commit to writing and roughly how many words your book will have, you’ll have a better idea of how long it will take you to finish the first draft if you’re working consistently toward that goal.

So, set a date and allow yourself to imagine how excited you’ll feel when you’ve reached it.

Your book is never going to be perfect. No author’s book is. Don’t let unrealistic expectations stop you from publishing or submitting your work.

Join the ranks of the imperfect but published authors. Own your less-than-perfectness and get those words out of you and onto the page. Only then can you make them better.

It’s not too early to think about your book launch and about how you’ll market your book afterward.

What will you do during the launch to get the word out about your book’s promotion? What will you do after launch — every week — to get the eyes of your ideal readers on your book?

Knowing this now can help you lay the foundation for a successful launch and an effective marketing plan.

Tips for Writing a Nonfiction Book

A nonfiction book is different from anything in the fiction universe. But if you’re comfortable writing blog posts, journalistic pieces, or other works of nonfiction, this is in the same neighborhood. It might just take a bit longer to finish.

Read on for the best tips for writing a nonfiction book.

Your big idea should be something that excites you. Write the kind of book you were looking for before you learned what you needed to know along the way. Or write about something that meets a real and significant need in your ideal reader.

Write a book that will make someone’s life better than it is now.

You want your book to add value, and you don’t do that by making assumptions based on what you think you know and treating them as facts. Nothing destroys your credibility more quickly than factual errors in your book.

You add value by asking questions, finding the best answers to those questions, and sharing those answers with others who are likely to care.

Your readers’ experience should be as enjoyable as possible. You don’t want any of them struggling to understand what you’re trying to say.

To that end, do your best to avoid the following:

• Long, rambling sentences
• Overly long paragraphs
• Stream-of-consciousness writing (with a thousand tangents and no filter)
• Unnecessary jargon
• Unnecessarily ornate language
• Analogies that don’t work

Get experience writing a complete book — finishing, editing, and publishing it — so you can learn from it and make your next book even better.

Amazon’s Kindle Short Reads could be just the place for your new book; Amazon sorts these by their estimated reading time, with the longest not exceeding 100 pages (about two hours of reading time).

If you write short stories, consider submitting one to the Kindle Singles program, which pays 70% royalties for any story accepted by their team of editors.

Once you know what filler words to look out for, you can avoid them even while writing your first draft. Don’t beat yourself up, though, if some slip through the cracks. They’re sneaky.

• Unnecessary adverbs (very, really, mostly, actually, usually, hopefully, etc.)
• And then…

It’s important to note, here, that not all of these filler words deserve the ax. If your editor agrees that a sentence sounds fine the way it is, go with it.

Writers write. Professional writers write every day.

If you’re writing a book, you’re not an “aspiring writer.” You are a writer. There is no “aspiring.” You are doing it. And by doing it, you are also being it.

So, if anyone asks what you do — for a living, for fun, for the good of humanity, whatever — tell them that, among other things, you are a writer.

Because if you’re showing up and doing the work, that’s what you are. Own it.

More Related Articles:

25 Of The Best Books On Writing

35 Of The Best Short Story Ideas To Grab Your Readers

How to Become a Better Writer

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Did you enjoy these tips on writing a book and find them helpful? Would you like to help fellow writers begin and finish their own book writing projects?

Where will you be a year from now? How many books do you want to see on Amazon with your name on them? And what tips do you think will play the biggest role in getting you there?

If you’ve found them here, this article has fulfilled its purpose. We hope you enjoyed it enough to share it.

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The Complete Guide to the Book Writing Process

Writing your book doesn’t have to be a difficult, complex process..

There’s no magic formula for how to write a book. Different authors have taken different paths to success, and you’ll need to adapt this guide to your own needs and strengths. But you can break down the book-writing process into six rough stages, and this guide takes you through them.

The guide covers everything you need to know, from your first glimmer of an idea to the moment you can finally hold your book in your hands. Whether you’re a writing beginner or a pro ready to take on a new project, you can use it to map your journey.

Take the advice of a top-tier publishing company. It’s time to put pen to paper and start writing that book you’ve imagined for years.

Set Yourself up for Success

Figuring out how to write a book — your particular book — is hard. You need to find the space in your world and the resources that will help you stay on track .

Find Your Workspace

When you think about the physical act of writing, what do you envision? What does your ideal office look like, and what tools do you need?

Carve out a writing space for yourself. Some people do their best work among others, and other writers require absolute privacy. You might work at a home desk, a kitchen table, or the corner booth at the local coffee shop. Find a clear, clean space where you can slip into writing mode.

You should also pick out a word processor and any other writing tools you need. Take an hour or two to explore your options. Sometimes the right platform can make a huge difference.

Find Your Practice

There is exactly one quality that makes someone a writer. They write. It’s easy to think about writing, but you need to create the habit of writing to make real progress.

It is crucial for the book writing process to settle on the right schedule for you to consistently write. Assign yourself blocks of writing time, and pencil them into your schedule. Treat them with the respect you’d give any other commitment.

Frequency matters as much as duration. It isn’t easy to finish a book when you only work in fits and starts. If you have a busy schedule, try to write for fifteen minutes at the same time every day. You’ll still need to find larger blocks of time but stay in touch with your project between them.

Find Your Community

Writing can be lonely. Your best sources of support and feedback are other writers. Join a writing group , and find beta readers, cheerleaders, and people to whom you can talk about your book and any challenges that arise.

Check out local libraries, schools, and community centers to find groups in your area. There are also many online writing resources and communities available.

NaNoWriMo deserves particular mention. In addition to the month-long writing marathon in November, the organization has community message boards, which are a great place to find groups.

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Develop the Idea

What’s your book about? If you have more than one idea, start with the one you feel most prepared to write. Once you know how to write a book, you can take advantage of your momentum and move on to other projects.

Let Yourself Brainstorm

Give yourself some space to think and jot down notes. Draw mind maps for nonfiction topics or detail fictional settings and characters. You could also try freewriting. Set a timer and write without stopping or editing a word. Ramble away and see what emerges.

Craft a Rough Logline or Pitch

Loglines are one-or-two-sentence summaries of novels, movies, or television shows. A compelling logline can make your book, and you should workshop yours until it’s perfect. It’s the tagline that readers will use to decide whether to read the jacket copy, let alone the book.

Why start this early in the process? As the book evolves, so will the logline. Two reasons to do so are:

• It’s good to practice talking about your book. Give yourself a quick blurb that you can pass on to writing groups, friends, etc.
• By distilling the conflict or concept of your book, you sharpen your focus for the actual writing process.

The same goes for a nonfiction book pitch.

Do the Research

Even fiction books require levels of research . These allow you to write convincingly, to make your characters and world feel real. And nonfiction books often require even more substantial research.

Develop a note-taking system that allows you to find the information you need at will. You don’t want to waste time repeating your research.

Don’t wait until the research is complete to begin writing the book. You’ll discover new questions in the process of writing and need to research as they come up. Research can also become a bottomless hole into which you disappear. There will always be something else that you could read. Start writing anyway.

There are days that you’ll feel inspired. There are days that you won’t. As said, writers write. There’s no substitute. You have to string those sentences together on bad days as well as good.

Write Your Zero Draft

Intimidated by the idea of a first draft? You’re not alone. Free yourself from the expectations that accompany a completed draft. Write a zero draft first.

The zero draft matters because it’s meant to teach yourself how to write the book. You start telling yourself the story or articulating your ideas. You experiment. You write pages that could appear in your book but probably won’t.

The zero draft can go from beginning to end, or it can be more of a hodgepodge. It’ll be a mess, and you never have to show it to another soul.

Write Your Outline

You may be a “pantser”, a writer who prefers not to plan, flying by the seat of their pants. You may write your outline after the first draft, using it to tweak the narrative of draft two. That’s fine.

But at some point, you’re going to want to sit down and plan out your book. You want your story or argument to unfold logically and at the right speed.

Even if you have a solid grasp of the book’s structure, templates can come in handy. Use a novel template to chart out story beats or a nonfiction outline that lays out popular book arcs. By mapping your book onto these, you get a valuable new perspective and can see potential trouble areas.

Write Your First Draft

Time to write something that looks a lot like a book.

Your writing process may not be linear. Some writers prefer to jump around in early drafts. Others start with the opening line. However you get there, the first draft should be a complete version of the book.

Remember that it’s supposed to be a rough draft . It won’t be a polished final product, and that’s all right.

Don’t Stop Writing

Writing is hard. You’ll need to power through the obstacles to writing a book . Life happens and steals your time and energy. Stories go off track. Essays bog down. You’ll have to endure crises of confidence and periods of frustration.

Just keep going.

Once you have the first draft, you switch your target from “done” to “good.” Turn that draft into a polished piece you’re proud to claim.

Let yourself take a short break between drafts. Doing so allows you to come back with fresher eyes. Set a date for restarting to make sure that you get back to work when you’re ready.

Rethink Your Title

Working titles can be anything. You can label that document with a theme, a character’s name, or even “My Book.”

But eventually, you’ll need a strong title — one that grabs readers’ attention and gives them some idea of what to expect. Pay attention to common titling conventions , particularly if you’re writing nonfiction.

Revise Your Manuscript

Revision should be what the word suggests — a new vision for your book. Most final drafts look different than first drafts. Your first idea isn’t always your best, and the book may go through any number of drafts before it’s done.

Edit yourself first. Be honest, as you ask yourself:

• What’s not working yet?
• What characters or themes need more attention?
• Where does the story lag or race?
• Do you have more research to do?
• Are you presenting your ideas or narrating your novel from the best viewpoint?

Give yourself some room to play and try out different things.

Incorporate Critique

Once you’ve solved any problems you can handle on your own, you need to get input from others. This is where your beta readers and writing workshops can be most helpful. In addition to giving you advice on the trouble areas you’ve identified, they can tell you where they struggle with the book.

Learning how to give and receive feedback is a crucial part of learning how to write a book. Pay extra attention to any notes you receive from more than one source.

Don’t get defensive and stay open-minded. Even if you disagree with a comment, it still might trigger a realization on your part. On the other hand, don’t try to incorporate every single opinion you receive either. You’re the authority when it comes to your project, and your vision drives it.

Consider hiring an editor at some point in the process. Expert editors can elevate your book, identifying impactful changes to strengthen your manuscript.

Polish Your Manuscript

When you’re done with the more dramatic changes, you still need to polish the final product. You can:

• Edit at the level of the line.
• Tighten your prose, cutting unnecessary words and fixing awkward sentences.
• Check for inconsistencies. If your heroine is wearing a sundress, don’t have her slip a note into the pocket of her blue jeans.
• Perfect the grammar and fix typos.

Nothing makes a text look more amateurish than poor copyediting. Even if you’re an English teacher, you might want to hire a copyeditor. When rereading your own work, your eyes are more likely to skim past errors.

Turn Your Manuscript Into a Book

It may not seem like it now, but you will eventually finish the manuscript. Congratulations! You’ve done the hardest part.

You’re not done quite yet. After all, your goal was to write a book, not a manuscript. You could try to go the traditional publishing route and find an agent, but more and more authors are turning toward self-publishing.

Format and Design the Book

Technically, you can convert a text document into an ebook on your own, but a professional book design gives your book an edge. Palmetto’s book interior formatting ensures the best reading experience for all your soon-to-be fans.

Add any necessary images to the book. You might also use a professional illustrator to add a special touch to high-impact areas such as the book title page.

Get a Professional Cover

Covers matter — amateurish designs can deter readers from investing their time and money in your book. Take pride in your work and give your manuscript the book cover design it deserves.

Share It With the World

You’re ready to send your baby out into the world. Self-publishing can be a nerve-wracking process, but there are things you can do to increase your chances of success.

Publish With Palmetto

Self-publishing with Palmetto gives you access to an incredible array of professional services. We require our authors to use our interior formatting and cover design, ensuring high-quality, appealing books.

Publishing with Palmetto also gives you access to our on-demand book printing . Order only the copies you want for yourself, and then let us handle printing needs as they arise.

Launch Your Book

If you want people to love your book, you have to let them know it exists first. Palmetto’s book marketing packages prepare you for a successful launch. We can handle:

• Marketing copy
• A press release and distribution
• Your website
• Promotional products

Get your book noticed with a targeted marketing strategy appropriate to your genre and audience.

Continue to Market It

Successful authors do more than writing. They also engage fellow writers and readers. As an author, you should:

• Cultivate opportunities for promotion
• Write a blog
• Develop your social media accounts
• Talk to local libraries and bookstores

Find a level of engagement that you can sustain and commit to it.

You’ll also need to solicit reviews. Ask readers to review your work on Amazon and Goodreads. Contact book bloggers and influencers. Reviews increase your exposure on seller platforms and convince potential readers to give your book a try.

You Know How To Write a Book — Now Do It

Writing may be easier said than done, but Palmetto’s editing and self-publishing services can demystify the process and give your work a professional finish.

The most important part of writing a book is fully committing to it. So make the decision to start. Clear the necessary room in your house and your life, and then go for it. Writing a book isn’t easy, but there are a few things more rewarding.

At Palmetto Publishing, we believe in you and your manuscript. Contact us , and let’s discuss how to make your book a reality.

Start Your Publishing Journey

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It's National Novel Writing Month. Here's how to finally write that book

Petra Mayer

Explore Life Kit

This story comes from Life Kit , NPR's podcast with tools to help you get it together. To listen to this episode, play the audio at the top of the page or find it here .

It's kind of a truism that everyone has a book in them, right? We all have some kind of story to tell. But it's equally true that a lot of us have those crummy little inner voices telling us it's never gonna happen. That we're not Real Writers. That no one cares what we have to say, or that we could never write an entire book. (Or, y'know, that we've only ever written fanfiction.)

November is National Novel Writing Month , or NaNoWriMo, so I decided to talk to some people who've both been there and done that, about how to shut those little voices up and get started on your book. Because the one thing I found out while talking to people for this story is that all you have to do to be a Real Writer is ... write. That's all. Just write. So here are six tips that'll help you set pen to paper (or finger to keyboard) and get going on your book.

1. Carve out some time to write, and then start writing.

Now, I bet a lot of you out there have said to yourselves, I'm gonna write my book someday .

"And someday tends not to happen in life," says Grant Faulkner . He's the executive director of NaNoWriMo. "And so you have to create the conditions to write."

I'm also betting most of you don't have, y'know, a perfect sunny nook where you can settle in with a cup of coffee, your favorite pen and your lucky troll doll and spend a few hours cranking out a chapter of the next great American novel. But what almost everyone has is what Faulkner calls "time confetti."

Time confetti is those little absent-minded moments, the little blanks in your day when you're not doing anything. If you use that time to write, "you can actually get a lot done," Faulkner says. He also, of course, recommends that you sign up for NaNoWriMo .

"One of the things that makes NaNoWriMo so successful for people in general is that we lower the bar of writing. So many people operate with a sense of perfectionism, and they let their inner editor get in the way of their words on the page. And NaNoWriMo is all about setting a goal and a deadline ... And that helps open the gates to your creativity, and lets you get the words out without trying to make them all perfect."

One way to do that? Try a word sprint. You get a prompt, and that prompt could be anything — a favorite family picture, a phrase, even just a single word. NaNoWriMo actually has a Twitter account devoted to word sprints that offers prompts like "something unreal" or "waited too long." And then, you just write — for five, 10, 15 minutes, you banish that inner editor, keep your hands on the keys or your pen on the page and let the words come.

Elizabeth Acevedo is one of the writers who found inspiration in NaNoWriMo — you might know her name; she won the National Book Award in 2018 for her young adult novel in verse The Poet X , and her new book is Clap When You Land .

She says she'll sit down at her computer, set a timer, and "for this hour you're just writing, so it's almost like a sprint." Then she might get up and take a walk, have a snack, sit back down and see how far she can get in another 30 minutes or so. "Here I am, I have to just get through this and it doesn't matter if it's good or not," she says. "I don't revise as I'm writing and I don't go back and reread pages. I kind of just plow ahead."

Just plow ahead. Words of wisdom!

2. Know that there's not one "right" way to write your book.

We Need Art Right Now. Here's How To Get Into Poetry

But I hear you asking — how do I plow ahead? In which direction should I point this metaphorical plow? Should I have every plot point mapped out? Should I know every nuance of every character? Should I know how it's all going to work? Spoiler alert: No.

Grant Faulkner says some NaNoWriMo participants are planners. "They'll meticulously outline their novels ahead of time. And other people are pantsers. They just jump in and wing it. We also have a term that is very unique to NaNoWriMo, plantsers, and those are people who are in-between planning and pantsing."

But here's the thing — are you a planner? Are you a pantser? Are you somewhere in between? Who knows! Certainly, you don't have to know when you're starting out. Just try something and see what works for you.

But no matter how you go about it, says Acevedo, creating isn't easy. Maybe you missed your goal yesterday, and you've got double the work today. "And those days suck," she says. "But also, I think it's important to recognize that sometimes, like — you can't ghost your characters. You have to show up for them, or they won't show up for you."

That's it. Show up for your characters. Doesn't matter how you do it, as long as you do it.

3. Find your people.

Author Interviews

Writers illustrated: q&a with jeff vandermeer, author of 'wonderbook'.

No matter how romantic it seems, you're not up in the garret by candlelight, scribbling away, alone in your genius. I mean, maybe you are — but in that case, maybe you're already beyond what we're trying to do here.

I called up my former NPR colleague Kat Chow , who wrote a memoir about grief and identity called Seeing Ghosts . She says it was a hard book to write. "It's nonfiction. But it's also about my family. It's about grief. But sometimes there are just so many distractions."

And when she was really stuck, if walking the dog or organizing the closet didn't help, Chow says she'd call up a friend with a different way of thinking. "Or I would talk to another friend who's writing a book. And it would kind of help me reset, or have to think through the issue with my book."

Book Reviews

'seeing ghosts' navigates the melancholia of loss — of people, places and identities.

You don't just have to stick to your friends. Chow recommends that you reach out to other writers, "whether they're potential friends or people whose work you admire, and try and form your own community so that you can have a writers group of people who can kind of talk through any issues that you're having with your book."

One way to find those people? Chow says that if she's just read something really great, she'll flip to the acknowledgements. "And I just love reading who these writers are thanking because oftentimes it's really thoughtful people, or it's books that have inspired them or helped them be better writers, or fellowships or writing centers that have provided support."

NaNoWriMo is also a good place to start looking for a community — they have a lot of local groups that meet every month. Or check with your local library to see what kind of writing events they host.

4. Read, read, and then read some more.

How To Read More Books

I spend a lot of my day editing the freelance writers who review books for NPR.org — and when I'm working with someone new, there's one thing I always tell them. (Apart from no dang passive voice! ) And that's read . Reading helps you figure out what you like, and it helps you refine your own voice on the page.

But sometimes I get a little pushback — I'll hear something like, "I don't want to read other writers, because what if it influences me?"

"Influence doesn't mean that you're a copier," says K. Tempest Bradford . She's a sci-fi and fantasy author, and a writing teacher. "Influence doesn't mean that you're not you, you're not uniquely you — no matter what you do, you're always influenced by something, right? Because that's how culture works."

Your voice is always your own, because it's coming from you . But reading good writers can help you make your own voice better.

5. You will screw up, so learn to take criticism gracefully.

Code Switch

Commentary: cultural appropriation is, in fact, indefensible.

Beyond just keeping you on your deadlines, having a writing group or an accountability partner is helpful in another really important way — they can provide perspectives that aren't your own, and tell you when you've gotten something wrong.

And you will get something wrong, because you are a squishy human being and not a perfect, novel-producing artificial intelligence. Maybe your prose is clunky, maybe your character depictions are kinda cardboard, or stereotypical, even a little bit racist, and you didn't do the work to make them real people.

Which is something to think about, especially now.

The publishing industry has always had a serious diversity problem — but things have really been blowing up recently over issues of cultural appropriation, of white writers profiting off the stories of other cultures.

And that leads to the huffy, bordering-on-bad-faith flounce that you see in some corners of social media: Well I'm white, so I guess I can't write about anything .

"It's not that people are going to yell at you or be mad if you write characters who are outside of your culture, outside of your race or other major identity trait," says K. Tempest Bradford. "What people yell about and what starts causing fights is when writers do it badly."

Bradford teaches workshops through Writing the Other , aimed at helping people not do it badly. The first thing to do, she says, is ask yourself why you want to include a particular character in this story. Is it because you want more representation? That's fine."But sometimes the impetus is, 'I want to have this character of color because I heard that they're trendy.' And that's ... let's not do that."

It's not that you should never write outside your own experience, Bradford says — but you should know why you're doing it. And you should make sure people from whatever group you're writing about have had a chance to tell their own stories for themselves before you jump in.

And once you've written something, she says, "get some sensitivity readers and some other people who are from that group to talk to you about it." Writing the other is a collaborative process, Bradford says — it involves research, discussion, bringing other people into your work. And despite all that, you might still get something wrong. We all make mistakes.

So, learning to accept criticism with grace and humility — whether it's from your writing group or, god forbid, angry folks on Twitter — is an important part of the writing life, and one people don't often think about.

6. Believe that you are a Real Writer.

Making Art Is Good For Your Health. Here's How To Start A Habit

I wanna go back to something I was thinking about earlier — that dumb, depressing and persistent thought: I could never write a whole book. I can't crank out 2,000 words a day. I'm not a Real Writer. I asked my guests to weigh in on that.

"I think that someone who's storytelling from a place of urgency and is attempting an original way of documenting the human experience, I think that's a writer," says Elizabeth Acevedo.

"If you write, you're a real writer," says Grant Faulkner. "And I think you need to embrace the term 'being a real writer,' and call yourself a real writer, and believe in that, because that will give you power on the page."

Still don't believe me?

"Anytime some guy's like, well, you're not a real writer unless you [do] X, I'm going to say that they're full of hooey," says Tempest Bradford. "Unless they're saying, well, you're not a real writer unless you write."

Whether it's poetry, fanfiction, letters to yourself, even a description of two squirrels fighting in the yard — if you write, if you tell a story, you are a Real Writer. That's all you gotta do. Just write. And you'll find yourself, little by little, writing your book.

Camp NaNoWriMo

NaNoWriMo's word sprints

NaNoWriMo monthly groups

Writing the Other

K. Tempest Bradford recommends:

Writing the Other , Nisi Shawl and Cynthia Ward

Steering the Craft , Ursula K. Le Guin

The Wonderbook , Jeff VanderMeer

Kat Chow recommends:

Writing Tools , by Roy Peter Clark

Bird by Bird , Anne Lamott

If you have a life hack you'd love to share, give us a call at 202-216-9823, or email us at [email protected] . Your tip could appear in an upcoming episode.

If you want more Life Kit , subscribe to our newsletter .

The audio portion of this story was produced by Andee Tagle

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Paul Lynch: ‘When you win the Booker, you are told you won’t write for a year’

The Irish novelist on navigating success shortly after a cancer diagnosis and a marriage breakdown, the renaissance in Irish writing, and how his ‘tragic worldview’ fits the times

P aul Lynch is the author of five novels. Born in 1977, he grew up in Malin Head, the most northerly point on the Irish coast. His latest novel, Prophet Song , depicts a nightmarish vision of Ireland sliding into an authoritarian regime. Written in long, poetic sentences – without speech marks and few paragraph breaks – the novel pulls the reader into the claustrophobic world of a city under siege. Described by Lit Hub as a “300-page panic-attack”, Prophet Song , just published in paperback, won the Booker prize last year. Lynch has been compared to Cormac McCarthy and William Faulkner.

How has it been since you won the Booker? I no longer measure time in weeks and months. I measure it by interviews. At Christmas, I’d passed the 100 mark. I’m at about 170 now. It still seems improbable, miraculous even, that the Booker prize came my way, though my eight-year-old daughter is unimpressed. She announced recently: “I am sick and tired of people stopping you on the street and saying ‘congratulations’.” The disdain with which she said that word would strip the skin.

One year ago to the day that you discovered you were on the Booker shortlist, you were on the operating table, having been diagnosed with cancer. Your son was born in 2018 and your marriage recently ended. How would you describe the past few years for you? There is a photo of me taken seconds after winning the Booker. My editor, Juliet Mabey, puts her arms around me while my agent Simon Trewin leaps to his feet applauding. But I have my hands to my face. That is the photo of a man who can no longer process reality, who was met with a cancer diagnosis and major surgery 15 months prior and who saw his marriage end unexpectedly while in recovery. Ten seconds after that photo was taken, I was on my feet meeting the moment. I have been fortunate to get preventive immunotherapy and have been told the illness is very unlikely to recur. I cannot tell you how happy I am to be getting on with the rest of my life.

For many months you were working on ‘the wrong novel’. How did you change to get on track with the right one? I was writing the wrong novel for about six months, just drilling through granite and getting nowhere. And then one Friday afternoon I thought: “This isn’t a novel, I’m done.” The following Monday I returned calmly to my desk with no idea what to do. I created a new document and waited. And then the opening page of Prophet Song arrived and I knew it had the juice, that ineffable substance you hope to find in your writing. In life, I am big proponent of the swerve. If Satan, when being cast out of heaven, had swerved, where might he have landed? I love that idea. We should all swerve now and again.

Reading the novel today, it is impossible not to be reminded of the war in Ukraine and the Israel-Gaza conflict. But you started writing in the autumn of 2018. I was definitely trying to see into the modern chaos writing this book, though I was hardly surprised when I saw Mariupol being levelled or Gaza pounded to dust. I’ve been told I’ve written a zeitgeist novel, but to me this is a novel about what has been, what continues to be and what will always be. There is a wretchedness built into the human condition. There is no biblical end-of-days. We destroy the world again and again and again and you watch it on the news.

There were four Irish writers on the Booker longlist last year . While Irish fiction is always in a class of its own, it seems to be dominating at the moment. Why? Ireland is in the midst of a social revolution and it’s having a profound impact on our art. Where once we lived in the shadow of the cross, we are now cosmopolitan Europeans creating a post-Catholic society, exploring and re-identifying what it means to be Irish in a globalised world. Our art has exploded with ferocious energy to meet this moment. Prophet Song seems to me a global novel, but it is indisputably Irish.

Were you a good student? When I was 12, a teacher pounded me with his fists over a maths problem and that did it for me with school. In fourth year at secondary school, my English teacher kicked me out of honours English. We did not get on and I thought he was a fool. I sat in pass English for a few weeks and then found myself reinstated. My mother told me years later that some teachers were aghast, and along with my parents, went to the headmaster. How lucky I am for that. The writers that I devoured over the next two years – Hardy, Eliot, Shakespeare, Manley Hopkins – went into my DNA and made me what I am.

Are you back in your writing shed yet? I am tinkering with something on the days when I don’t have interviews or travel, but in truth, I have so little bandwidth. When you win the Booker, you are told you won’t write for a year. I’ve met a few recent winners on the road who have each confided that it may take much longer than that. The impact on one’s psyche of winning a prize of this scale is not to be underestimated.

What do you do when you aren’t writing? I spend a weird amount of time in supermarkets. I cook a lot and tend to make most meals from scratch. There really should be a limit to how many times a week one is allowed to enter Lidl. When I have downtime, or don’t have the kids, I play jazz LPs, watch classic cinema, read and mooch about. I tend not to watch TV. That latest show you want to discuss on your favourite streamer? Sorry, but I mostly haven’t got a clue, though I am a fan of The Bear .

You have described your world view as tragic. Do you feel there is any hope for us ? Dostoevsky wanted to know how much human being is in a human being. I consider that my project. All five of my books belong to the tragic worldview. In other words, they are unashamedly metaphysical and concerned with the inevitability of suffering and loss within our impermanent world. Such notions might sound quaint, but we would do well to reflect on them in our mindless modern moment. The Oedipus plays and King Lear endure for good reason.

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Gender Queer was the last book an Australian council tried to ban. It’s still being appealed in federal court

Senior Lecturer, School of Communication, Monash University

Disclosure statement

Penni Russon does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

Monash University provides funding as a founding partner of The Conversation AU.

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Gender Queer, a graphic-novel memoir of coming out as non-binary, was at the centre of Australia’s perhaps highest-profile book banning furore in recent years – that is, before western Sydney’s Cumberland City Council banned books on same-sex parenting .

And Gender Queer’s status is still threatened: Bernard Gaynor, the conservative Catholic activist who led the call to ban it is taking the Minister for Communication and the Australian Classification Review Board to the Federal Court of Australia. The decision will come later this year.

Researcher Nicole Moore told The Book Show’s Sarah L'Estrange yesterday that, contrary to what many of us think, this wave of book bannings is not copied from the US.

Australia has a long history of book banning and before Gough Whitlam’s government in the 1970s, was “one of the most censorious countries in the English-speaking world”. For example, in 1932, Aldous Huxley’s A Brave New World (now a standard school text) was banned in Australia .

“We have a long history of Christian associations and churches organising to ban books,” Moore said, particularly citing sex, sexuality and gender as reasons. The Gender Queer ban, she said, provoked “concerns about some models of Christian understanding that are perhaps narrow in their models of how people should live and how books should express the ideas of gender identity and sexual expression”.

Sexually explicit illustrations, including of a sexual fantasy inspired by Plato’s symposium, are often cited (and taken out of context) by those looking to ban the book. But American author Maia Kobabe (who uses e/em/eir pronouns) told The Book Show that’s not why the book is so embattled. Rather, it’s the title, its comic form, its several major literary awards and that it’s a “happy” coming-out story “where I face no negative consequences from coming out”.

The book – which began life as “a well-received but minor debut book from a new author” – has become a story of censorship, culture wars, and of the way young trans lives have been caught up in ideology wars.

A journey towards awakening

In the US, Gender Queer has been the nation’s most challenged book for the last three years in a row. Initially published and marketed to adult readers, in 2020, it won the Alex award , given by the Young Adult Library Services Association to ten books written for adults that have special appeal to young adults. This led to the book selling out its next three print runs.

It’s the story of Maia Kobabe. Maia likes snakes, running barefoot in the fields, and playing with eir best friend Galen. Maia’s parents are both long-haired folksy types, who enjoy nature, crafts, hiking and music. In Maia’s early life, girls and boys aren’t radically differentiated from each other. When the best friends start attending school in grade one, Maia and Galen are delineated, separated by gender. Boys play in treehouses, girls have cooties. At school, Maia is inducted into a world where everyone seems to be in on secret information about girlhood.

Maia is aware from a young age that e doesn’t feel like a girl. But e doesn’t feel like a boy either. Maia recounts the trauma experienced in each gendered milestone like first period, first bra and first pap-smear. Kobabe also depicts Maia’s journey towards sexual awakening, exploring masturbation and first sexual encounters while also navigating a body that doesn’t fit the normative “penis in vagina” narrative in sex-ed classes.

Eventually Maia comes to acquire a language to describe eir gender identity as non-binary, including the Spivak pronouns e now uses.

Like others before em, Kobabe realised ey could use comics as a medium of self-expression to convey this journey of identity. Comics can represent embodied experiences by bringing “insides” into contact with “outsides”. Thoughts and sensations are made manifest on the page. Comics can also show the way various social and cultural forces take root in the body. Kobabe began publishing eir comics on Instagram. The feedback was, says Kobabe , “immediate and so positive and so generous and warm and supportive”.

Australia and Gender Queer

In March 2023, Gaynor lodged an official complaint with the Queensland Police about Gender Queer and four other titles at Logan City Council’s library. He claimed the books breached the criminal code in relation to child exploitation material and exposing children to sexually explicit material. The police referred the matter to the Department of Communications and Arts.

Sydney bookstore Kinokuniya received an email from the Australian Classification Board calling in Gender Queer for classification. The bookstore faced three options: ask the international publisher to submit the book for classification, remove the book from sale, or classify the book themselves at a cost of $560. Kinokuniya chose to classify the book themselves.

In April, Kinokuniya received the Classification Certificate, stating that Gender Queer can be sold unrestricted, with a recommendation of M for mature readers (not recommended for readers under 15 years).

In May 2023, the decision by the Classification Board to allow Gender Queer: A Memoir to be sold unrestricted was appealed and a review of this decision was announced. The board received more than 500 submissions from the public. In July, the Classification Review Board upheld the original decision by the Classification Board.

Young adult writer Lydia Schofield notes an alarming trend of low-key censorship in Australia, where books quietly disappear from bookshops or libraries, without an official ban in place. She likens the practice to “shadowbanning” on social media, in which content is concealed or deprioritised by algorithms.

The Logan library service took Gender Queer off the shelf , so it would only be available to those who asked for it.

Gender Queer may have disappeared off Australian shelves altogether if Kinokuniya hadn’t paid the classification fee. Schofield points out quiet censorship can occur pre-publication, where publishers in a small market like Australia might not feel emboldened to take risks.

In 2019, Gender Queer was picked up by Lion Forge Comics (Lion Forge has since merged with Oni Press). Lion Forge’s yound adult imprint, Roar, had previously published Lighter Than My Shadow , a young adult graphic memoir about a young woman experiencing eating disorder recovery. Gender Queer was not published by Roar, but published for and marketed to an adult audience. Lion Forge released a relatively small print run for the US market of 5,000 comics.

Kobabe also writes about eir early experiences of publication in The Nib , remembering the support librarians gave the book in those early days. Kobabe recalls many librarians saying “I know exactly who I want to give this to”.

After Gender Queer won the Alex Award, a video of a parent railing against Gender Queer in a school board meeting in Fairfax, Virginia went viral in 2021. This sparked a series of copycat challenges. From July 2021 to December 2022, the book was banned in 56 school districts .

PEN America claims “where Gender Queer was read in full, rather than challenged based on a few illustrations with sexual content, many districts and school boards across the country decided to keep the book”.

Five of the ten most challenged books in each of the last three years featured LGBTQIA+ content.

A community impact

It’s difficult to estimate how many trans and non-binary young adults there are in Australia. In 2022, the ABC reported there were just 10 referrals to Melbourne’s Royal Children’s Hospital for gender services in 2011. In 2020, that number was just under 500. In 2021 it was over 800.

In an afterword to the new edition, Kobabe writes,

Many of these pages hold things which at one time seemed like my deepest, darkest secrets, until I brought them out into the light and I realised they are just aspects of being human. The process of writing this book helped me figure out who I am. It also made me realise I am part of a wide community, all wrestling with the same questions.

It’s true that seeing ourselves reflected in literature might make us feel less alone. Other people’s stories help us find a shape and form for telling our own stories.

To me, the aesthetic appeal of Gender Queer lies not in the material details of Kobabe’s personal journey. Instead it is the reverberation between the dynamic figures at play inside and outside the text. Kobabe, the author, gazing benevolently down at her younger self. Maia, Kobabe’s character, gradually realising eir needs can only be met through the imperfect, hope-fueled art of authentic communication. Me the reader, and my own stories of periods, bras, pap-smears, body hair, masturbation, and feeling betrayed by my body.

And sitting outside this frame, the imagined young adult reader who might be the ghost of Maia Kobabe emself, seeing eir experiences mirrored for the very first time in the pages of a book.

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Craig Melvin’s son interviews him about his new book, ‘I’m Proud of You’

TODAY co-host Craig Melvin is releasing his first children’s book on May 7, and nobody is more excited than his 10-year-old son, Delano . In an interview with his dad about the new release, Delano had a few questions about the writing process.

“What made you write the book ‘ I’m Proud of You ‘?” Delano asked.

Craig began to respond, “What made me write the book? I wanted ... “

“ ... to show me that you were proud of me?” Delano answered his own question with true 10-year-old flair. Together with his  wife, sports broadcaster Lindsay Czarniak , Craig is raising Delano and daughter Sybil, 7.

“That was part of it,” Craig said. “I wanted to write a book that celebrated fatherhood. That celebrated you . That celebrated your sister. That celebrated, like, just being a parent. And I wanted to write something that you would enjoy.”

He also wanted his kids to know that he’s proud of them, not just for the big things. He’s “proud of the little stuff, too.”

“I remember when you tied your shoes the first time. I remember when you made your first basket. I wanted to write something that celebrated the small things,” Craig said.

“When I was born, how did your life change?” Delano asked.

"I’m Proud of You" by Craig Melvin

"I'm Proud of You"

Rosie Colosi lives in New Jersey and is a reporter for TODAY Parents. She has bylines in The Atlantic, The Week, MSNBC, and PureWow, and she has written 33 nonfiction children's books for Scholastic, Klutz, and Nat Geo Kids. Once upon a time, she played Mrs. Claus in "The Rockettes' Radio City Christmas Spectacular," but now she mostly sings songs from "Annie" to her two daughters … while they beg her to play Kidz Bop.

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A Modern Mom Finds an Ancient Outlet for Feminist Rage

In Alexis Landau’s ambitious new novel, “The Mother of All Things,” the frustrations of modern parenting echo through the ages.

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By Eliza Minot

Eliza Minot is the author of the novels “The Tiny One,” “The Brambles” and, most recently, “In the Orchard.”

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THE MOTHER OF ALL THINGS, by Alexis Landau

What is the source of maternal rage? The answer is as infinite as it is ancient. In 1965, the poet and essayist Adrienne Rich, with small children underfoot, captured a possible explanation for this abyss in her journal when she described it as “a sense of insufficiency to the moment and to eternity.”

But where — for moms, for women — does this nagging feeling of insufficiency come from? From the misogyny that we grow up with? From the helpless outrage we bear as our messy, gorgeous, individual maternal experiences are flattened by society into a weirdly infantilized stereotype that’s placed, like a paper doll, into a two-dimensional dollhouse called “Motherhood”? Or does it come from the profound feeling of helplessness that accompanies the ability to give life to a human being, but be unable to ensure that life’s safety?

Ava Zaretsky, the diligent heroine of Alexis Landau’s ambitious and engaging new novel, “The Mother of All Things” (her third after “Those Who Are Saved” and “The Emperor of the Senses”), simmers with a steady rage that never fully erupts toward her kids (Sam, 10, and Margot, 13, who’s at the edge of “adolescence’s dark tunnel”) or her husband, Kasper, a preoccupied Los Angeles film producer. Rather, Ava’s rage burns beneath the surface, “so white and hot it blurred the contours of her body.” She is angry that, in a marriage of supposed equals circa 2019, Kasper can relocate to Sofia, Bulgaria, for a six-month film shoot without a second thought, while her own work as an adjunct art history professor is smudged out by the needs of her family. Her fury is also embedded, we later learn, in the powerlessness that comes with profound loss.

When the family joins Kasper in Sofia for the summer, the kids enroll in a day camp, allowing Ava to wander this mysterious city. Her curiosity and creativity bubble to the surface. She begins writing about an ancient Greek woman whose life parallels and dovetails with her own, and whose narrative is interspersed throughout the pages of the novel. By coincidence, Ava also reconnects in Sofia with an intimidating former professor named Lydia Nikitas and becomes involved in a group of women who participate in re-enactments of ancient rites and rituals, most notably the Eleusinian Mysteries.

Despite some moments that feel forced and overly earnest, particularly in the ancient narrative and the Nikitas story line, Landau’s writing is accessible, specific, lush and transporting. Her research is rigorous and full of elegant effort. The great success of this novel is the author’s sustained exploration of a woman in early midlife who, seething quietly on the inside but operating gracefully on the outside, bravely re-evaluates how her life has unfolded in order to progress as a mother to herself. Renderings of Ava’s childhood — a heartbreaking recollection of a favorite red belt, memories of a father’s girlfriend entering her life and then leaving it — are especially astute and rich.

At times, the novel’s disparate parts compete with rather than complement one another; some characters seem predictable, and certain ideas redundant. When things are meant to get weird, as in the rituals, it can feel more Scooby-Doo than genuinely haunting. For this reason, more than once, I felt like shaking the book like a snow globe, as if its fascinating contents, suspended, might set free more of its wildness.

Landau’s prose can also lift off the page, as it does in a prolonged memory of Ava’s first childbirth and its aftermath. Here, Landau’s writing is intimate, tender and full of terror. The sentences breathe with the softness of shared human experience across time — absolutely sufficient to the moment, and to eternity, too.

THE MOTHER OF ALL THINGS | By Alexis Landau | Pantheon | 336 pp. | $29

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Response of Michael Smerconish to Being Disinvited as the ’24 Dickinson College Commencement Speaker

• May 6, 2024
• Michael Smerconish

“On a personal note, and as a long-time acquaintance and admirer of your career, I am excited to welcome you to campus.”

So wrote Dickinson College president John E. Jones by letter dated January 17 when inviting me to be the school’s 2024 commencement speaker and an honorary degree recipient.  But on Saturday morning, he wrote for a different reason – to rescind the invitation, citing a desire to limit distraction at graduation.

On one thing we agree:  I would never want to take attention from the Class of 2024, especially recognizing that COVID robbed its members of celebrations when they graduated from high school in 2020.

Dickinson was my fifth commencement invitation.  I have previously addressed the graduating classes of Widener University (2016), the Klein College of Media and Communication at Temple University (2017), Delaware Valley University (2018), and the University of the Sciences (2020).

So what changed?

In the last few days, some Dickinson faculty and students raised complaints about a book I published in 2004.  That’s not a typo – 2004.  They were left uncomfortable after a selective reading from my post-9/11 book through their 2024 lens.  Signs at a student encampment this week displayed the demand of my cancellation alongside divestment in Israel.

This should be a cautionary tale for anyone in America who believes in fairness, common sense, the free exchange of ideas, rational decision-making, and the importance of leadership in the face of hysteria.

My work as an author was well known to Dickinson and applauded by its president.  The press release announcing my selection correctly acknowledged that I’ve written seven books.  My first book was the only one I never set out to write.  It just evolved based on personal experience. To be sure, the words I wrote at a time when Bin Laden was still on the lam, and America was reeling from the greatest strike on our homeland since Pearl Harbor might look intemperate to a student who wasn’t born when the attack occurred.  But my words resonated when written with adults, including their parents.

Times change, people change, circumstances change. Statements in books written decades ago, if penned by the well-intentioned with a history of tolerance and advocacy of unity, cannot in a just and rational society be the basis for judging someone’s soul or determining their fitness to be part of the national conversation. And it certainly shouldn’t obliterate someone’s lifetime of reputation and performance. Those students who demanded I not speak had better hope that twenty years from now, when they are looking for a job, no one will look at everything they said and did two decades earlier, yanking it out of context and using it as a weapon of personal destruction.

“Flying Blind: How Political Correctness Continues to Compromise Airline Safety Post 9/11” was written by me in the immediate aftermath of that calamitous day.  It has been grossly distorted by those who advocated for my Dickinson cancellation.  I doubt any of those critics read it in total.  Instead they have surgically selected quotes that suit their narrative, not the thesis of the book.

“Flying Blind” was an outgrowth of my weekly newspaper column for the Philadelphia Daily News in which I often addressed a post-9/11 world, including airline security.  Much of that which ended up in the book was first published in the newspaper.  My investigation was entirely serendipitous; it began with an unusual airport screening preceding a flight to Florida for our kids’ Spring Break and ended with my invited testimony before the United States Senate.

See my sworn testimony here: Oversight Hearing on Passenger Screening and Airline Authority To Deny Boarding

My whistleblowing focused on a Department of Transportation policy pre and post-9/11, which precluded more than two individuals of any particular ethnicity from being singled out at the same time for secondary screening at airports.  Applying that illogic to the 19 terrorists who killed 3,000 Americans on 9/11 means that even if airport security had suspected criminal intent by the would-be hijackers, they could not have been subjected to secondary questioning.  I believed that policy to be ludicrous then – and still do now. My primary source was the Honorable John Lehman, former Secretary of the Navy and 9/11 Commissioner (who wrote a blurb for the book jacket).

Secretary Lehman first piqued my curiosity when he asked the following question of Secretary Condoleezza Rice at the 9/11 Commission hearing on April 8, 2004.  Listen:

Among the many I personally interviewed was Herb Kelleher, the founder and President of Southwest Airlines who confirmed what Lehman had raised in the hearing.  Pennsylvania’s longest-serving U.S. Senator, Arlen Specter, wrote the Foreward for the book.  All author proceeds were donated by me to the Garden of Reflection, Pennsylvania’s official 9/11 monument based in my native Bucks County.  I was interviewed extensively by major media when the book was published.  The manuscript was well-received and not controversial at the time.

“Flying Blind” is actually one of two books I have authored on airline security.  The other is called “Instinct” and tells the story of Jose Melendez Perez, an American hero who stopped the presumed 20th hijacker from entering the United States one month prior to 9/11 and, in the process, arguably thwarted a direct attack on the U.S. Capitol or White House by the four terrorists aboard Flight 93.  I donated all author proceeds from “Instinct” to the Flight 93 Memorial in Shanksville, PA.  The front jacket of “Instinct” contains the endorsement of former Pennsylvania Governor and the nation’s first Secretary of Homeland Security, Tom Ridge.

My commencement speech was already written.  It’s a 14-minute version of longer remarks I’m delivering across the country called The Mingle Project.  In a world of bombast and discontent, I’m on a mission to restore civility and compromise to our public discourse.  For three decades, I’ve had a front-row seat to the increase in polarization that has gripped the nation.  I see the current climate as part of a much larger disconnect in society fueled by technology and self-sorting that has caused a mental health crisis among our youth.  In my remarks, I draw on anecdotes, social science, and humor to encourage common experiences through social interaction that is not based on technology.

See: The Mingle Project – Trailer

“Class of 2024, when we mingle, we tell each other our life stories. We practice empathy, we build connections, and we strengthen our social fitness,” I would have said.

The twisting of an uncontroversial book when I wrote it twenty years ago without acknowledgment of the context in which it was written — and the resultant cancellation of constructive graduation remarks — is regrettably a reflection of our times. I am collateral damage. This will not dissuade me from seeking to be a voice of reason in unreasonable times.

I’ve worked on a hot mic since 1990.  Today (and for the last 11 years), I am responsible for 15 live hours of radio per week on SiriusXM.  And last month, I celebrated my ten-year anniversary as the host of my own program on CNN.  As Malcolm Gladwell would say, I’ve invested my 10,000 hours. I’ve always viewed my access to the airwaves as a privilege.  Admittedly, I have said plenty of foolish things over the years.  But none with animus.  My record contains no hate, no prejudice.  If the case were otherwise, you’d know it.

Which is why I find the Dickinson decision so troubling and chilling. Before there was any hint of controversy at Dickinson, in both my SiriusXM and CNN advocacy, I condemned the decision by the University of Southern California to cancel the planned speech by its valedictorian, who happened to be Muslim, after some of her social media postings drew attention. We are doing our youth, future leaders, and nation a disservice if the civil, deliberative speech of the type I would have delivered at Dickinson is now unwelcome because it is easier to yield to the uninformed than to invest the time necessary to make reasoned decisions.

I am already hearing from many alumni who are disappointed in their alma mater.  One suggested, and I agree, that the honorable thing for Jones to have done was to call me and explain his inability to control the unjustified campus sentiment while asking me to withdraw my acceptance in return for a public statement saying that this should in no way be viewed as a negative reflection of my scholarship or work as a journalist.

Those members of the college community who pressured to get my speech cancelled are surely celebrating today that their censorship-fueled campaign succeeded. But my guess is that more than a few who remained silent and succumbed to the mob are at least a little bit embarrassed at having done so.  Surely, they realize the precedent that’s been set for future commencement speakers?  Achievement of the sort that warrants invitation to speak at such a ceremony does not come from a life lived quietly.

I wish the Dickinson Class of ’24 all the very best for a wonderful graduation day and a bright future. And I hope for them a world where volume no longer eclipses reason.

Watch my response live on SiriusXM HERE.

We welcome for consideration all submissions that adhere to three rules: nothing defamatory, no snark, and no talking points. It’s perfectly acceptable if your view leans Left or Right, just not predictably so. Come write for us.

Uncategorized May 6, 2024 Governor Ed Rendell’s Letter to Dickinson President John Jones By Governor Ed Rendell Governor Ed Rendell’s letter to Dickinson President John Jones in response to Michael Smerconish having been disinvited as the Dickinson College commencement speaker. Read Exclusive Content

Mingle News May 3, 2024 The Importance of Teen Mental Health By Alice Herrick Dr. Tami D. Benton, Psychiatrist-in-Chief at CHOP, emphasizes the critical need for teen mental health support in conversation with Michael. Read Exclusive Content

Mingle News May 1, 2024 How a Middle School Won the Battle Against Cellphones By Alice Herrick A Connecticut middle school banned cellphones, sparking initial protests but then led to improved focus and fewer conflicts among students. Read Exclusive Content

Mingle News May 1, 2024 The Power Of The Front Yard By Alice Herrick Michael and Dr. Conrad Kickert discuss research from the University at Buffalo suggesting well-maintained front yards could combat loneliness in America. Read Exclusive Content

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Last updated on May 31, 2022

The 40 Best Books About Writing: A Reading List for Authors

For this post, we’ve scoured the web (so you don’t have to) and asked our community of writers for recommendations on some indispensable books about writing. We've filled this list with dozens of amazing titles, all of which are great — but this list might seem intimidating. So for starters, here are our top 10 books about writing:

• On Writing by Stephen King
• The Kick-Ass Writer by Chuck Wendig
• Dreyer’s Englis h by Benjamin Dreyer
• The Elements of Style by Strunk, White, and Kalman
• The Story Grid by Shawn Coyne
• A Swim in a Pond in the Rain by George Saunders
• Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott
• Mouth Full of Blood by Toni Morrison
• How to Market a Book by Ricardo Fayet
• On Writing Well by William Zinsser

But if you're ready to get into the weeds, here are 40 of our favorite writing books.

Books about becoming a writer

1. on writing by stephen king.

Perhaps the most-cited book on this list, On Writing is part-memoir, part-masterclass from one of America’s leading authors. Come for the vivid accounts of his childhood and youth — including his extended "lost weekend" spent on alcohol and drugs in the 1980s. Stay for the actionable advice on how to use your emotions and experiences to kickstart your writing, hone your skills, and become an author. Among the many craft-based tips are King’s expert takes on plot, story, character, and more.

From the book: “Amateurs sit and wait for inspiration, the rest of us just get up and go to work.” 

2. The Kick-Ass Writer by Chuck Wendig

If you haven’t checked out Wendig’s personal blog, head over there now and bookmark it. Unfiltered, profane, and almost always right, Wendig’s become a leading voice among online writing communities in the past few years. In The Kick-Ass Writer , he offers over 1,000 pearls of wisdom for authors, ranging from express writing tips to guidance on getting published. Written to be read in short bursts, we’re sure he’d agree that this is the perfect bathroom book for writers.

From the book: “I have been writing professionally for a lucky-despite-the-number 13 years. Not once — seriously, not once ever — has anyone ever asked me where I got my writing degree… Nobody gives two ferrets fornicating in a filth-caked gym sock whether or not you have a degree… The only thing that matters is, Can you write well? ” 

3. Find Your Voice by Angie Thomas

Taking advice from famous authors is not about imitation, but about finding your own voice . Take it from someone who knows: Thomas is the New York Times #1 Bestselling author of The Hate U Give , On the Come Up , and Concrete Rose . While she’s found her calling in YA literature , she has plenty of insight into finding your own voice in your genre of choice. Written in the form of a guided journal, this volume comes with step-by-step instructions, writing prompts, and exercises especially aimed at helping younger creatives develop the strength and skills to realize their vision.

From the book: “Write fearlessly. Write what is true and real to you.” 

4. The Forest for the Trees by Betsy Lerner

Since its publication in 2000, The Forest for the Trees has remained an essential resource for authors at various stages in their careers. As an editor, Lerner gives advice not only on producing quality content, but also on how to build your career as an author and develop a winning routine — like how writers can be more productive in their creative process, how to get published , and how to publish well . 

From the book: “The world doesn't fully make sense until the writer has secured his version of it on the page. And the act of writing is strangely more lifelike than life.”

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5. How to Write Like Tolstoy by Richard Cohen

From the book: “Great writers can be inhibiting, and maybe after one has read a Scott Fitzgerald or Henry James one can’t escape imitat­ing them; but more often such writers are inspiring.”

6. Feel Free: Essays by Zadie Smith

Smith is well-known for her fiction, but she is also a prolific essay writer. In Feel Free , she has gathered several essays on recent cultural and political developments and combined them with experiences from her own life and career. In “The I Who Is Not Me”, she explores how her own lived experience comes into play in her fiction writing, and how she manages to extrapolate that to comment on contemporary social contexts, discussing race, class, and ethnicity.

From the book: “Writing exists (for me) at the intersection of three precarious, uncertain elements: language, the world, the self. The first is never wholly mine; the second I can only ever know in a partial sense; the third is a malleable and improvised response to the previous two.”

Books about language and style 

7. dreyer’s english by benjamin dreyer.

A staple book about writing well, Dreyer’s English serves as a one-stop guide to proper English, based on the knowledge that Dreyer — a senior copy editor at Random House — has accumulated throughout his career. From punctuation to tricky homophones, passive voice, and commas, the goal of these tools should be to facilitate effective communication of ideas and thoughts. Dreyer delivers this and then some, but not without its due dosage of humor and informative examples. 

From the book: “A good sentence, I find myself saying frequently, is one that the reader can follow from beginning to end, no matter how long it is, without having to double back in confusion because the writer misused or omitted a key piece of punctuation, chose a vague or misleading pronoun, or in some other way engaged in inadvertent misdirection.”

8. The Elements of Style (Illustrated) by William Strunk, Jr., E. B. White, and Maira Kalman

A perfect resource for visual learners, this illustrated edition of The Elements of Style has taken the classic style manual to a new, more accessible level but kept its main tenet intact: make every word tell. The written content by Strunk and White has long been referred to as an outline of the basic principles of style. Maira Kalman’s illustrations elevate the experience and make it a feast for both the mind and the eye. 

From the book: “A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts.”

9. Sin and Syntax by Constance Hale

If you’re looking to bring a bit of spunk into your writing, copy editor Constance Hale may hold the key . Whether you’re writing a work-related email or the next rap anthem, she has one goal: to make creative communication available to everyone by dispelling old writing myths and making every word count. Peppered with writing prompts and challenges, this book will have you itching to put pen to paper.

From the book: “Verbose is not a synonym for literary.”

10. The Sense of Style by Steven Pinker

Combining entertainment with intellectual pursuit, Pinker, a cognitive scientist and dictionary consultant, explores and rethinks language usage in the 21st century . With illustrative examples of both great and not-so-great linguistic constructions, Pinker breaks down the art of writing and gives a gentle but firm nudge in the right direction, towards coherent yet stylish prose. This is not a polemic on the decay of the English language, nor a recitation of pet peeves, but a thoughtful, challenging, and practical take on the science of communication. 

From the book: “Why is so much writing so bad, and how can we make it better? Is the English language being corrupted by texting and social media? Do the kids today even care about good writing—and why should we care?”

11. Eats, Shoots, & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation by Lynne Truss

From the book: “A panda walks into a cafe. He orders a sandwich, eats it, then draws a gun and fires two shots in the air. "Why?" asks the confused waiter, as the panda makes towards the exit. The panda produces a badly punctuated wildlife annual and tosses it over his shoulder. "I'm a panda," he says, at the door. "Look it up." The waiter turns to the relevant entry and, sure enough, finds an explanation. Panda. Large black-and-white bear-like mammal, native to China. Eats, shoots and leaves.”

Books about story structure

12. save the cat by blake snyder.

Best known as a screenwriting manual, Save the Cat! is just as often named by authors as one of their most influential books about writing. The title comes from the tried-and-true trope of the protagonist doing something heroic in the first act (such as saving a cat) in order to win over the audience. Yes, it might sound trite to some — but others swear by its bulletproof beat sheet. More recently, there has been Save the Cat! Writes a Novel , which tailors its principles specifically to the literary crowd. (For a concise breakdown of the beat sheet, check this post out!)

From the book: “Because liking the person we go on a journey with is the single most important element in drawing us into the story.” 

13. The Story Grid by Shawn Coyne

Shawn Coyne is a veteran editor with over 25 years of publishing experience, and he knows exactly what works and what doesn’t in a story — indeed, he’s pretty much got it down to a science. The Story Grid: What Good Editors Know outlines Coyne’s original “Story Grid” evaluation technique, which both writers and editors can use to appraise, revise, and ultimately improve their writing (in order to get it ready for publication). Coyne and his friend Tim Grahl also co-host the acclaimed Story Grid podcast , another great resource for aspiring writers.

From the book: “The Story Grid is a tool with many applications. It pinpoints problems but does not emotionally abuse the writer… it is a tool to re-envision and resuscitate a seemingly irredeemable pile of paper stuck in an attack drawer, and it can inspire an original creation.”

14. Story Structure Architect by Victoria Schmidt

For those who find the idea of improvising utterly terrifying and prefer the security of structures, this book breaks down just about every kind of story structure you’ve ever heard of. Victoria Schmidt offers no less than fifty-five different creative paths for your story to follow — some of which are more unconventional, or outright outlandish than others. The level of detail here is pretty staggering: Schmidt goes into the various conflicts, subplots, and resolutions these different story structures entail — with plenty of concrete examples! Suffice to say that no matter what kind of story you’re writing, you’ll find a blueprint for it in Story Structure Architect .

From the book: “When you grow up in a Westernized culture, the traditional plot structure becomes so embedded in your subconscious that you may have to work hard to create a plot structure that deviates from it… Understand this and keep your mind open when reading [this book]. Just because a piece doesn’t conform to the model you are used to, does not make it bad or wrong.”

15. The Writer's Journey  by Christopher Vogler

Moving on, we hone in on the mythic structure. Vogler’s book, originally published in 1992, is now a modern classic of writing advice; though intended as a screenwriting textbook, its contents apply to any story of mythic proportions. In The Writer’s Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers , Vogler takes a page (literally) from Joseph Campbell’s Hero of a Thousand Faces to ruminate upon the most essential narrative structures and character archetypes of the writing craft. So if you’re thinking of drawing up an epic fantasy series full of those tropes we all know and love, this guide should be right up your alley.

From the book: “The Hero’s Journey is not an invention, but an observation. It is a recognition of a beautiful design… It’s difficult to avoid the sensation that the Hero’s Journey exists somewhere, somehow, as an external reality, a Platonic ideal form, a divine model. From this model, infinite and highly varied copies can be produced, each resonating with the essential spirit of the form.”

16. Story Genius by Lisa Cron

From the book: “We don't turn to story to escape reality. We turn to story to navigate reality.”

17. A Swim in a Pond in the Rain by George Saunders

More than just a New York Times bestseller and the winner of the Booker Prize, A Swim in a Pond in the Rain is a distillation of the MFA class on Russian short stories that Saunders has been teaching. Breaking down narrative functions and why we become immersed in a story, this is a must-read for anyone wanting to understand and nurture our continued need for fiction.

From the book: “We’re going to enter seven fastidiously constructed scale models of the world, made for a specific purpose that our time maybe doesn’t fully endorse but that these writers accepted implicitly as the aim of art—namely, to ask the big questions, questions like, How are we supposed to be living down here? What were we put here to accomplish? What should we value? What is truth, anyway, and how might we recognize it?”

Books about overcoming obstacles as a writer

18. bird by bird by anne lamott .

Like Stephen King’s book about writing craft, this work from acclaimed novelist and nonfiction writer Anne Lamott also fuses elements of a memoir with invaluable advice on the writer’s journey. Particularly known for popularizing the concept of “shitty first drafts”, Bird by Bird was recently recommended by editor Jennifer Hartmann in her Reedsy Live webinar for its outlook take on book writing. She said, “This book does exactly what it says it will do: it teaches you to become a better writer. [Lamott] is funny and witty and very knowledgeable.”

From the book: “Perfectionism is the voice of the oppressor, the enemy of the people. It will keep you cramped and insane your whole life, and it is the main obstacle between you and a shitty first draft.”

19. Take Off Your Pants by Libbie Hawker 

From the book: “When it comes to the eternal quandary of pantsing or plotting, you can keep a foot in each camp. But if your goals will require you to write with speed and confidence, an effective outline will be your best friend.”

20. Writing into the Dark by Dean Wesley Smith 

And for those who eschew structure altogether, we’ll now refer you to this title from profile science fiction author Dean Wesley Smith . Having authored a number of official Star Trek novels, he definitely knows what he’s talking about when he encourages writers to go boldly into the unknown with an approach to writing books that doesn’t necessarily involve an elaborate plan. It might not be your action plan, but it can be a fresh perspective to get out of the occasional writer’s block .

From the book: “Imagine if every novel you picked up had a detailed outline of the entire plot… Would you read the novel after reading the outline? Chances are, no. What would be the point? You already know the journey the writer is going to take you on. So, as a writer, why do an outline and then have to spend all that time creating a book you already know?”

21. No Plot, No Problem by Chris Baty

If you’re procrastinating to the point where you haven’t even started your novel yet, NaNo founder Chris Baty is your guy! No Plot, No Problem is a “low-stress, high-velocity” guide to writing a novel in just 30 days (yup, it’s great prep for the NaNoWriMo challenge ). You’ll get tons of tips on how to survive this rigorous process, from taking advantage of your initial momentum to persisting through moments of doubt . Whether you’re participating in everyone’s favorite November write-a-thon or you just want to bang out a novel that’s been in your head forever, Baty will help you cross that elusive finish line.

From the book: “A rough draft is best written in the steam-cooker of an already busy life. If you have a million things to do, adding item number 1,000,001 is not such a big deal.”

22. The 90-Day Novel by Alan Watt

And for those who think 30 days is a bit too steam cooker-esque, there’s always Alan Watt’s more laid-back option. In The 90-Day Novel , Watt provides a unique three-part process to assist you with your writing. The first part provides assistance in developing your story’s premise, the second part helps you work through obstacles to execute it, and the third part is full of writing exercises to unlock the “primal forces” of your story — aka the energy that will invigorate your work and incite readers to devour it like popcorn at the movies.

From the book: “Why we write is as important as what we write. Grammar, punctuation, and syntax are fairly irrelevant in the first draft. Get the story down… fast. Get out of your head, so you can surprise yourself on the page.”

23. The War of Art by Steven Pressfield

If you feel like you’re constantly in the trenches of your “inner creative battle,” The War of Art is the book for you. Pressfield emphasizes the importance of breaking down creative barriers — what he calls “Resistance” — in order to defeat your demons (i.e. procrastination, self-doubt, etc.) and fulfill your potential. Though some of his opinions are no doubt controversial (he makes repeated claims that almost anything can be procrastination, including going to the doctor), this book is the perfect remedy for prevaricating writers who need a little bit of tough love.

From the book: “Most of us have two lives. The life we live, and the unlived life within us. Between the two stands Resistance.”

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Books about writing as a lifestyle and career

24. steal like an artist by austin kleon.

As Kleon notes in the first section of Steal Like an Artist , this title obviously doesn’t refer to plagiarism. Rather, it acknowledges that art cannot be created in a vacuum, and encourages writers (and all other artists) to be open and receptive to all sources of inspiration. By “stealing like an artist,” writers can construct stories that already have a baseline of familiarity for readers, but with new twists that keep them fresh and exciting .

From the book: “If we’re free from the burden of trying to be completely original, we can stop trying to make something out of nothing, and we can embrace influence instead of running away from it.”

25. Mouth Full of Blood by Toni Morrison

From the book: “A writer's life and work are not a gift to mankind; they are its necessity.”

26. Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg

No matter what stage you’re at in your writing career, Goldberg’s Writing Down the Bones will help you write more skillfully and creatively. With suggestions, encouragement, and valuable advice on the many aspects of the writing craft, Goldberg doesn’t shy away from making the crucial connection between writing and adding value to your life. Covering a range of topics including taking notes of your initial thoughts, listening, overcoming doubt, choosing where to write, and the selection of your verbs, this guide has plenty to say about the minute details of writing, but excels at exploring the author life.

From the book: “Write what disturbs you, what you fear, what you have not been willing to speak about. Be willing to be split open.”

27. Zen in the Art of Writing by Ray Bradbury

What does it take to become a great author? According to the beloved writer Ray Bradbury , it takes zest, gusto, curiosity, as well as a spirit of adventure. Sharing his wisdom and experiences as one of the most prolific writers in America, Bradbury gives plenty of practical tips and tricks on how to develop ideas, find your voice, and create your own style in this thoughtful volume. In addition to that, this is also an insight into the life and mind of this prolific writer, and a celebration of the act of writing. 

From the book: “Every morning I jump out of bed and step on a land mine. The land mine is me. After the explosion, I spend the rest of the day putting the pieces back together. Now, it's your turn. Jump!”

28. The Kite and the String by Alice Mattison

One of the most common dilemmas an author faces is the struggle between spontaneity and control. Literary endeavors need those unexpected light-bulb moments, but a book will never be finished if you rely solely on inspiration. In The Kite and the String , Mattison has heard your cry for help and developed a guide for balancing these elements throughout the different stages of writing a novel or a memoir. Sure, there may be language and grammar rules that govern the way you write, but letting a bit of playfulness breathe life into your writing will see it take off to a whole new level. On the other hand, your writing routine, solitude, audience, and goal-setting will act as the strings that keep you from floating too far away. 

From the book: "Don’t make yourself miserable wishing for a kind of success that you wouldn’t enjoy if you had it."

29. How to Become a Successful Indie Author by Craig Martelle

This one’s for all the indie authors out there! Even if you’ve already self-published a book , you can still learn a lot from this guide by Craig Martelle , who has dozens of indie books — “over two and a half million words,” as he puts it — under his belt. With patience and expertise, Martelle walks you through everything you need to know: from developing your premise to perfecting your writing routine, to finally getting your work to the top of the Amazon charts.

From the book: “No matter where you are on your author journey, there’s always a new level you can reach. Roll up your sleeves, because it’s time to get to work.”

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30. How to Market a Book by Ricardo Fayet 

From the book: “Here’s the thing: authors don’t find readers; readers find books . [...] Marketing is not about selling your book to readers. It’s about getting readers to find it.”

31. Everybody Writes by Ann Handley

The full title of Handley’s all-inclusive book on writing is actually Everybody Writes: Your Go-To Guide to Creating Ridiculously Good Content — which should tell you something about its broad appeal. Not only does Handley have some great ideas on how to plan and produce a great story, but she also provides tips on general content writing, which comes in handy when it’s time to build your author platform or a mailing list to promote your book. As such, Everybody Writes is nothing like your other books on novel writing — it’ll make you see writing in a whole new light.

From the book: “In our world, many hold a notion that the ability to write, or write well, is a gift bestowed on a chosen few. That leaves us thinking there are two kinds of people: the writing haves — and the hapless, for whom writing well is a hopeless struggle, like trying to carve marble with a butter knife. But I don’t believe that, and neither should you.” 

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Books on writing poetry 

32. madness, rack, and honey by mary ruefle.

With a long history of crafting and lecturing about poetry, Ruefle invites the reader of Madness, Rack, and Honey to immerse themselves into its beauty and magic. In a powerful combination of lectures and musings, she expertly explores the mind and craft of writers while excavating the magical potential of poetry. Often a struggle between giving and taking, poetry is, according to Ruefle, a unique art form that reveals the innermost workings of the human heart.

From the book: “In one sense, reading is a great waste of time. In another sense, it is a great extension of time, a way for one person to live a thousand and one lives in a single lifespan, to watch the great impersonal universe at work again and again”

33. Threads by Sandeep Parmar, Nisha Ramayya, and Bhanu Kapil

If you’re looking for something that explores the philosophical aspects of writing, Threads asks big questions about writing and the position of the writer in an industry that has largely excluded marginalized voices. Where does the writer exist in relation to its text and, particularly in the case of poetry, who is the “I”? Examining the common white, British, male lens, this collection of short essays will make it hard for you not to critically consider your own perceptions and how they affect your writing process.

From the book: “It is impossible to consider the lyric without fully interrogating its inherent promise of universality, its coded whiteness.”

34. The Hatred of Poetry by Ben Lerner

Despite its eye-catching title, this short essay is actually a defense of poetry . Lerner begins with his own hatred of the art form, and then moves on to explore this love-hate dichotomy that actually doesn’t seem to be contradictory. Rather, such a multitude of emotions might be one of the reasons that writers and readers alike turn to it. With its ability to evoke feelings and responses through word-play and meter, poetry has often been misconceived as inaccessible and elitist; this is a call to change that perception. 

From the book: “All I ask the haters — and I, too, am one — is that they strive to perfect their contempt, even consider bringing it to bear on poems, where it will be deepened, not dispelled, and where, by creating a place for possibility and present absences (like unheard melodies), it might come to resemble love.”

35. Poemcrazy by Susan G. Wooldridge

If you’ve ever felt that the mysterious workings of poetry are out of your reach and expressly not for you, Wooldridge is here to tell you that anyone who wants to can write poetry . An experienced workshop leader, she will help you find your inner voice and to express it through the written word. Giving you advice on how to think, use your senses, and practice your writing, Wooldrige will have you putting down rhyme schemes before you know it. 

From the book: “Writing a poem is a form of listening, helping me discover what's wrong or frightening in my world as well as what delights me.”

36. Writing Better Lyrics by Pat Pattison

From the book: “Don't be afraid to write crap — it makes the best fertilizer. The more of it you write, the better your chances are of growing something wonderful.”

Books about writing nonfiction

37. on writing well by william zinsser.

Going strong with its 30th-anniversary edition, On Writing Well: The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction is an evergreen resource for nonfiction writers which breaks down the fundamental principles of written communication. As a bonus, the insights and guidelines in this book can certainly be applied to most forms of writing, from interviewing to camp-fire storytelling. Beyond giving tips on how to stay consistent in your writing and voice, how to edit, and how to avoid common pitfalls, Zinsser can also help you grow as a professional writer, strengthening your career and taking steps in a new direction. 

From the book: “Don’t try to visualize the great mass audience. There is no such audience—every reader is a different person.”

38. Essays by Lydia Davis

Ironically enough, this rather lengthy book is a celebration of brevity. As one of the leading American voices in flash-fiction and short-form writing, Davis traces her literary roots and inspirations in essays on everything, ranging from the mastodonic work of Proust to minimalism. In both her translations and her own writing, she celebrates experimental writing that stretches the boundaries of language. Playing with the contrast between what is said and what is not, this collection of essays is another tool to the writing shed to help you feel and use the power of every word you write.

From the book: “Free yourself of your device, for at least certain hours of the day — or at the very least one hour. Learn to be alone, all alone, without people, and without a device that is turned on. Learn to experience the purity of that kind of concentration. Develop focus, learn to focus intently on one thing, uninterrupted, for a long time.”

39. Essayism by Brian Dillon

In this volume, Dillon explores the often overlooked genre of essay writing and its place in literature’s past, present, and future. He argues that essays are an “experiment in attention” but also highlights how and why certain essays have directly impacted the development of the cultural and political landscape, from the end of the Middle Ages until the present day. At its heart, despite its many forms, subject areas, and purposes, essayism has its root in self-exploration. Dip in and out of Dillon’s short texts to find inspiration for your own nonfiction writing.

From the book: “What exactly do I mean, even, by 'style'? Perhaps it is nothing but an urge, an aspiration, a clumsy access of admiration, a crush.”

40. Naked, Drunk, and Writing by Adair Lara

From the book: “Write it down. Whatever it is, write it down. Chip it into marble. Type it into Microsoft Word. Spell it out in seaweeds on the shore. We are each of us an endangered species, delicate as unicorns.”

With a few of these books in your arsenal, you’ll be penning perfect plots in no time! And if you’re interested in learning more about the editing process, check these books on editing out as well!

ZUrlocker says:

11/03/2019 – 19:46

I'm familiar with several of these books. But for new authors, I urge you caution. It is very tempting to read so many books about writing that you never get around to writing. (I did this successfully for many years!) So I will suggest paring it down to just two books: Stephen King on Writing and Blake Snyder Save the Cat. Snyder's book is mostly about screenwriting, so you could also consider Save the Cat Writes a Novel by Jessica Brody. Best of luck!

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The Book on Writing: The Ultimate Guide to Writing Well Paperback – May 14, 2013

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• Print length 254 pages
• Language English
• Publication date May 14, 2013
• Dimensions 6 x 0.58 x 9 inches
• ISBN-10 0989236706
• ISBN-13 978-0989236706
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• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Grey and Guvnor Press; 4/14/13 edition (May 14, 2013)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Paperback ‏ : ‎ 254 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0989236706
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0989236706
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 12.8 ounces
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 0.58 x 9 inches
• #464 in Journalism Writing Reference (Books)
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• #674 in Authorship Reference

About the author

Paula larocque.

www.paulalarocque.com

Paula LaRocque's first novel, "Chalk Line," will be published in September 2011 by Marion Street Mysteries. She's a writer and writing consultant who has conducted workshops for hundreds of media, government, academic, and business groups across the United States, Canada, and Europe. She also has been writing consultant for the Associated Press, the Drehscheibe Institute in Bonn, and the European Stars & Stripes in Germany.

For ten years, she taught technical communication at Western Michigan University’s School of Engineering, and journalism at Texas A&M, Southern Methodist, and Texas Christian universities. And for the following 20 years, she was assistant managing editor and writing coach at The Dallas Morning News.

She has been a columnist for the Society of Professional Journalists’ Quill magazine for more than than two decades. Her commentaries air regularly on National Public Radio in Dallas. She’s author of three non-fiction books (Marion Street Press, Inc.):

• "The Book on Writing: The Ultimate Guide to Writing Well"

(This comprehensive work, a good seller since its 2004 publication, has had great reviews and has five stars on Amazon.com.)

• "On Words: Insight Into How Our Words Work—and Don’t"

(This collection of Paula’s print and radio commentaries on the language and the way we use it was published in 2007 and is a popular gift item.)

• "Championship Writing: 50 Ways to Improve Your Writing"

(This collection of writing and language columns was published in 2000.)

In 2001, Paula returned to the dream of her childhood: writing fiction. Her first novel, "Chalk Line," launches a mystery series set in the Dallas-Fort Worth area and featuring Detective Ben Gallagher.

Paula is a member of the Mystery Writers of America, Sisters in Crime, Inc., the Houston Writers Guild, and the Dallas-Fort Worth Writers Workshop. A member of the Associated Press Managing Editors association from the early 1990s through 2001, she was elected to the Board of Directors and appointed an officer. In 2001, the association granted her its highest honor: the Meritorious Service Award for exemplary contribution to journalism.

She earned a BA degree Summa Cum Laude in 1971 and an MA in 1972 (Western Michigan University). She also worked on a doctorate, but her academic and journalism career became so demanding she did not complete it.

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Controversy follows Gov. Kristi Noem as she is banned by two more South Dakota tribes

FILE - South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem speaks during the Conservative Political Action Conference, CPAC 2024, at the National Harbor, Feb. 23, 2024, in Oxon Hill, Md. Noem is now banned from entering nearly 20% of her state after two more tribes banished her this week over comments she made earlier this year about tribal leaders benefitting from drug cartels. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)

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South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem is now banned from entering nearly 20% of her state after two more tribes banished her this week over comments she made earlier this year about tribal leaders benefitting from drug cartels.

The latest developments in the ongoing tribal dispute come on the heels of the backlash Noem faced for writing about killing a hunting dog that misbehaved in her latest book. It is not clear how these controversies will affect her chances to become Donald Trump’s running mate because it is hard to predict what the former president will do.

The Yankton Sioux Tribe voted Friday to ban Noem from their land in southeastern South Dakota just a few days after the Sisseton-Wahpeton Ovate tribe took the same action . The Oglala, Rosebud, Cheyenne River and Standing Rock Sioux tribes had already taken action to keep her off their reservations. Three other tribes haven’t yet banned her.

Noem reinforced the divisions between the tribes and the rest of the state in March when she said publicly that tribal leaders were catering to drug cartels on their reservations while neglecting the needs of children and the poor.

“We’ve got some tribal leaders that I believe are personally benefiting from the cartels being there, and that’s why they attack me every day,” Noem said at a forum. “But I’m going to fight for the people who actually live in those situations, who call me and text me every day and say, ’Please, dear governor, please come help us in Pine Ridge. We are scared.’ ”

Noem’s spokesman didn’t respond Saturday to email questions about the bans. But previously she has said she believes many people who live on the reservations still support her even though she is clearly not getting along with tribal leaders.

Noem addressed the issue in a post on X on Thursday along with posting a link to a YouTube channel about law enforcement’s video about drugs on the reservations.

“Tribals leaders should take action to ban the cartels from their lands and accept my offer to help them restore law and order to their communities while protecting their sovereignty,” Noem said. “We can only do this through partnerships because the Biden Administration is failing to do their job.”

The tribes have clashed with Noem in the past, including over the 2016 Dakota Access Pipeline protests at Standing Rock and during the COVID-19 pandemic when they set up coronavirus checkpoints at reservation borders to keep out unnecessary visitors. She was temporarily banned from the Oglala Sioux reservation in 2019 after the protest dispute.

And there is a long history of rocky relations between Native Americans in the state and the government dating back to 1890, when soldiers shot and killed hundreds of Lakota men, women and children at the Wounded Knee massacre as part of a campaign to stop a religious practice known as the Ghost Dance.

Political observer Cal Jillson, who is based at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, said this tribal dispute feels a little different because Noem seems to be “stoking it actively, which suggests that she sees a political benefit.”

“I’m sure that Gov. Noem doesn’t mind a focus on tensions with the Native Americans in South Dakota because if we’re not talking about that, we’re talking about her shooting the dog,” Jillson said.

Noem appears to be getting tired of answering questions about her decision to kill Cricket after the dog attacked a family’s chickens during a stop on the way home from a hunting trip and then tried to bite the governor. Noem also drew criticism for including an anecdote she has since asked her publisher to pull from the book that described “staring down” North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in a private meeting that experts said was implausible.

After those controversies, she canceled several interviews that were planned as part of the book tour. With all the questions about “No Going Back: The Truth on What’s Wrong with Politics and How We Move America Forward,” no one is even asking anymore about Noem’s decision to appear in an infomercial-style video lavishing praise on a team of cosmetic dentists in Texas who gave her veneers.

Jillson said it all probably hurts her chances with Trump, who has been auditioning a long list of potential vice-president candidates.

“I think that the chaos that Trump revels in is the chaos he creates. Chaos created by somebody else simply detracts attention from himself,” Jillson said.

University of South Dakota political science professor Michael Card said that if it isn’t the vice-president slot, it’s not clear what is in Noem’s political future because she is prevented from running for another term as governor. Noem is in her second term as governor.

She could go after U.S. Senator Mike Rounds’ seat or try to return to the House of Representatives, Card said.

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'Staring down little tyrants': Kristi Noem's book includes false anecdote about Kim Jong Un

Noem's spokesman has said the anecdote will be removed from the book..

South Dakota GOP Gov. Kristi Noem's memoir includes a false anecdote about a meeting with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un while she served as the state's representative in Congress, according to reports.

The excerpt from Noem's book "No Going Back," first flagged by South Dakota politics outlet The Dakota Scout , details meetings with multiple world leaders through her tenure on the House Armed Services Committee.

"I remember when I met with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un," she wrote in the book set to be released Tuesday. "I'm sure he underestimated me, having no clue about my experience staring down little tyrants (I'd been a children's pastor, after all)."

But Noem's spokesperson seemed to confirm to Politico and other news outlets that the story is not accurate and that the book will be corrected to remove it.

"It was brought to our attention that the upcoming book ‘No Going Back’ has two small errors,” Noem's spokesperson Ian Fury told the New York Times . “This has been communicated to the ghostwriter and editor. Kim Jong-un was included in a list of world leaders and shouldn’t have been."

Prep for the polls: See who is running for president and compare where they stand on key issues in our Voter Guide

The two-term South Dakota governor is considered to be on the shortlist of potential running mates for former President Donald Trump.

Related: How North Korea's Kim Jong Un is revving up nuclear and military intimidation tactics

The other error Fury referenced is the timeline of a conversation with former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley, who she says called her in 2021 to offer to mentor her. Noem wrote that the conversation ended with Haley saying: "I’ve heard many good things about you. But when I do hear bad things, I will make sure that you know."

Noem wrote that she perceived the call as a threat. A spokesperson for Haley told the Times and Politico that Noem's characterization of the conversation is inaccurate, and that Haley "has long called and written notes supporting other women when they go through challenging times."

The book will be corrected in the future to say the conversation happened in 2020, not 2021, Fury told the Times.

Noem's memoir has gained attention in recent days for an account of shooting a 14-month-old wirehair pointer on her family farm.

Noem described the dog as "untrainable" and ruined a hunt and attacked chickens. It acted like a "trained assassin" that was "dangerous to anyone she came in contact with," she wrote.

The anecdote drew backlash from both sides of the aisle and quickly became fodder for Noem's political opponents. The Democratic National Committee called the excerpts from the book "horrifying" and "disturbing."

Noem has defended the story as a reality of farm life, and as an indicator that she can face "difficult, messy and ugly" tasks.

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An Overview of the IELTS

The International English Language Testing System (IELTS) is designed to measure English proficiency for educational, vocational and immigration purposes. The IELTS measures an individual's ability to communicate in English across four areas of language: listening , reading , writing and speaking . The IELTS is administered jointly by the British Council, IDP: IELTS Australia and Cambridge English Language Assessment at over 1,100 test centres and 140 countries. These test centres supervise the local administration of the test and recruit, train and monitor IELTS examiners.

IELTS tests are available on 48 fixed dates each year, usually Saturdays and sometimes Thursdays, and may be offered up to four times a month at any test centre, including Elektrostal' depending on local needs. Go to IELTS test locations to find a test centre in or nearby Elektrostal' and to check for upcoming test dates at your test centre.

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