15 facts you should know before you start writing a book
If
you feel the same way as I do, then your fingers are itching and you finally
want to start writing the book.
Before
we start writing, however, we should first deal with the basics of writing
books.
After all, it wouldn't even occur to us to fly an airplane without having
obtained a pilot's license.
So why not first learn what actually goes with writing a book?
So, here are the basics of writing a book, so you don't make the same mistakes
I made with my first manuscript.
1. Don't start out completely haphazardly
I made the same mistake as most beginners. I just started writing. You can do it, but don't be surprised if you get stuck due to a lack of planning.
If you still manage to finish the book, there is a good chance that the literary diamond you have hoped for will turn out to be a cheap glass pearl. To prevent this, it is advisable to invest time in planning in advance.
There are basically two types of writers:
1. Outliner / in German: planner
2. Discovery Writer / in German: discovering a writer
By the way: I deliberately use some of the English expressions because they are also common in this country.
Outliner / Planner
An outliner plans his book pretty carefully before he starts writing it.
Discovery Writer
A Discovery Writer gets going and lets his words drive him with a little plan.
That means: the Discovery Writer often doesn't even know the end of his book when he starts writing, let alone which characters appear.
Probably the most famous example of a discovering writer is Stephen King. Yes, the master of long hams doesn't care about outlines.
I too belong to this category. However, I had to realize that I'm not Stephen King and that a little planning doesn't hurt me, on the contrary, it's actually extremely good.
From my own experience, I advise every beginner - even if you are more of a Discovery Writer - to think about the basics of the plot. You do not need to submit a doctoral thesis. But create a framework that will help you not to crash while writing.
By the way: Thanks to appropriate planning, you can also overcome your writer's block or prevent it from arising in the first place!
2. What a good story needs
Even if it sounds strange at first, writing books is subject to certain rules. So if you want to write a book, it doesn't hurt to have heard of them before. So if we want to cook our own Roman soup, we need a few basic ingredients so that the whole thing doesn't taste bland in the end.
About the ingredients:
Obstacles, Goals & Complications
For a story to be interesting, there must be obstacles and problems that the main characters have to overcome. Peace, Joy, Pancakes is nice but pretty boring to read.
Giving the characters goals while making it as difficult as possible for them to achieve them creates reasons to push the story forward.
characters
You need good and active characters. A story lives from the actors. Without interesting characters, the best story is only half as good.
Indeed, books are either story-driven or character-driven. Usually, however, the character-driven ones are much more interesting and in-depth.
Good characters are active
In real life, we tend to let things come our way. We are passive. That's boring in books. Our protagonists shouldn't sit around and wait for something to happen. Our characters should be goal-driven and actively work to achieve those goals.
If the character is too passive, he will be pushed around in the story. This can lead to other characters being much more interesting than the original lead.
We should send our main character on a "journey" and throw a lot of obstacles in his way along the way.
By the way: The more the character is the focus, the better it should be developed. If even you don't really know your main character, how are you going to get that across to the reader?
conflict
Every story needs conflict.
Make life difficult for your characters, or even hell. Start with a small problem and make it worse and worse as the story progresses. There are plenty of ways to do this.
Tip: You can see this very well in films and TV series. In the next film, pay close attention to the obstacles thrown in the way of the main character.
3. Ideas Finding/organizing
In the beginning, there is the idea. But not every idea is a good idea. And just because you have a thousand ideas doesn't mean you should put them all in the same book.
If you try to cram too many ideas into a book, this can lead to the story no longer appearing well-rounded or even forced.
When you start you might only want to write one book, but once you've done it you might want the next one. So save some ideas for your next work.
4. Research
Research is important to:
- Don't stand there like the last bully.
- Make a story believable.
- Refine existing ideas.
- Knowing what to write about.
- Giving characters the right voice (the doctor has a different vocabulary than the builder).
- To come up with further ideas.
Some like this aspect of writing the most, others not so much. I don't like research at all.
For this reason, I try to choose topics that require as little research as possible. Accordingly, I will be careful not to choose a doctor as the main actor or to write a medieval novel.
Onsite
If you want to describe landscapes, it doesn't hurt to have been there before and to be able to refer to photos.
via interview
If you need special information, the best thing to do is find an expert and ask him. Ideally, you already know someone like that, otherwise, you are guaranteed to find someone online who you can contact. The sentence: I'm researching for a book makes many curious and willing to help.
technical literature
If you're writing about a serial killer, there's no harm in reading profiler's books. The bookstore is around the corner or Amazon or other platforms like Thalia can help with this.
By the way, if you're looking for an author's writing program that will help you manage all the research for your book in one place, take a closer look at Scrivener.
5. In which genre do you want to write your book?
Genre is the category in which the book will be found in the bookstore, be it physical or online.
For example:
- science fiction
- thriller
- horror
- Romanesque
- fantasies
Why should you know your genre?
When you buy a book, you choose a genre. So when I buy a thriller, I expect a thriller. If this turns out to be fantasy when reading, I'll probably be disappointed. The chance that I will buy another book by the same author is correspondingly small.
For this reason, it is advisable to write in the genre that one prefers as a reader. That way you know what to expect. And at the risk of repeating myself: this expectation should not be disappointed!
6. Main character (Protagonist)
You should know his main character. There is no harm in working out a biography.
In addition to biographical characteristics, a few other questions also need to be answered:
- Who does the story happen to and why?
- What's interesting about it?
- Why does it take so long for our protagonist to reach his goal?
- Why does everything that can go wrong go along the way?
- Why is this the biggest challenge of his life?
These are questions that should be answered when creating the action (plot).
7. Action (Plot)
- Who does what and why?
- Why is this going to be a long story and not a short one?
It is helpful to understand how actions are constructed. One often speaks of the 3-act structure. This can be observed very well in films.
Basically, films are structured very similarly to books, but one must not forget that a film gets to the point much faster. Films are well suited to observing the development of a plot structure. But when it comes to your own book, you should better stick to other books.
Info: At this point, I deliberately refrain from going into too much detail because I am not an expert in this field.
8. Locations / Backdrops
Locations provide opportunities to spice up the storyline. If I set up my plot in the desert, I create completely different circumstances than in the big city.
Depending on the story, locations can contribute almost as much to the plot as characters.
It is also important to consider whether you are taking real places or creating fictional worlds. Logically, it also depends on the genre.
It makes little sense to set a historical novel in the present. In a fantasy story, it is closer to creating a fictional world than in a crime thriller.
Often the scene can also give rise to a scene. If you are in a special place on vacation, it may inspire you to take action.
9. Motif
No crime without a motive, usually.
It's the same with writing. I need a motive for my story. There needs to be a deeper reason why the main character or villain does what they do.
Giving the story a good motive increases the credibility and gives the story coherence.
10. Timeline (Timeline)
In what time period does the story take place (days, years, decades)?
Do I go chronologically, do I skip, do I start from the back, or do I try a Tarantino and mix wildly?
There are no fixed rules here. It is important that the whole thing is coherent and does not confuse the reader.
As a beginner, I wouldn't venture too much on the ice. Less is often more, and just because Quentin Tarantino mixes things up wildly on Pulp Fiction doesn't mean you'll be able to pull off the same technique.
11. The beginning
All beginnings are difficult, especially with books. You have to captivate the reader immediately and ideally without making the typical beginner's mistakes.
If you don't know any better, there's a good chance that you're trying to create tension with a well-worn beginning. Keyword chase.
In this article by Marcus Johanus, under point 8 you will find a very nice list of well-worn beginnings. By the way, the post exposes 10 other interesting rookie mistakes. ( Addendum June 2018: Unfortunately, Marcus has deactivated his blog due to the new GDPR. That's why the link no longer works.)
By the way: If you can't think of a good place to start right away, feel free to skip this part and come back to it later. Not having a good start is no reason not to start writing!
12. Know the craft of writing
Like the craftsman, the writer has a tool kit.
Just because you learned in school how to put the letters in the right order and use punctuation to break up words doesn't mean you know what writing is.
What do I mean?
At this point, I will refrain from teaching the craft of writing. Nevertheless, I will try to explain to you with a few examples what is meant.
The show, don't tell
If you want to convey to the reader that the man is already old, you can say:
The man is old.
Or show:
He looked at the gray stubble in the sink.
Avoid unnecessary adjectives
You should really avoid using nasty, small, superfluous, annoying, ugly adjectives.
Form active sentences
We tend to use passive sentences. However, passive sentences unnecessarily bulk up the sentence and seem clumsy.
Passive:
Planning took 9 hours.
Active:
We planned 9 hours.
Accompaniment of direct speech
If you don't know any better, you are tempted to accompany dialogues as entertainingly as possible.
"Ouch, that really hurts," he purred, his face contorted with pain.
Whispering has a sought-after effect and the pain -distorted is unnecessary because it is already explained with the ouch indirect speech.
Alternative:
"Ouch, that really hurts," he said, touching his cheek.
Basically, you should try to express feelings through the dialogue and not through the accompaniment. One reason for this is show, don't tell. Another is that cumbersome accompanying sentences slow down the flow of reading. On the other hand, we ignore accompaniments, such as said or asked, without thinking about it.
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