How to Write a Book in Five Steps

I have been writing for many, many years. Whether it was poetry early on, academic writing or the novels I write today, my writing process has always consisted of these five steps. I get lots of email about people wanting to write their own books, but they don’t often invest time, money and energy into the process. This can be for many reasons, but one of the biggest is the lack of clarity. You don’t have to have perfect clarity to began your project, just know that you may doubt it every step of the way but if you stick with it, you’ll be proud you did. . Here are my five main steps to getting started: 1. Have an idea -It goes without saying that you have to have a general idea about what type of story you want to tell and what perspective you want to tell it from. Your idea should be something that you get excited about and have some existing knowledge related to it. What you don’t know, you research. . 2. Know the overall purpose -It is good to know exactly what you want others to take away from your book before you start. That’s not to say that many people won’t take something away that you never thought of, it happens to me all the time. But having a general outcome keeps you on track and on purpose. . 3. Make an outline -Here is the technical part. An outline helps you organize your stories especially for biographies. After all, a book is just a series of short stories strung together by a central theme. We do this everyday when we talk. Outlines also help with creating chapters and clarity. The clearer, the better. . 4. Write one story at a time -Try your best not to jump around. It happens, I find myself with several windows open on my computer often, but my best writing comes when I focus on telling one story at a time. When I’m writing a blog, I only write a blog. If you stick to one story at a time the process feels easier and more straightforward. You also don’t skip important details that being all over the place might cause. . 5. Write a little each day -This is easier than many people think. If you sit down to write a paragraph or two a day, the project will be complete in a matter of months. This means not spending too much time second-guessing your writing and spending most of your time just letting the words fall on the paper and cleaning it up later. There is a writer’s saying I think of often, “you can’t fix a blank page…” I find this step to be the easiest. Once I have established what I’m writing about and how many words I plan to write a day, it becomes a simple task that takes less time than most people think. . One of my favorite things to do is to show others how to do what I do and that it absolutely can be done. I hope this is helpful. . Happy Friday! LOVE, Jameelah . Let me help: http://www.jameelahraoof.com/my-services . . .