How to start writing a book (advice no one actually talks about)

Paris Letters manuscript.

I am often floored by the bad advice by English teachers about writing a book. They say this:

1. Come up with an idea

2. Write an outline

3. Write the first draft

4. Edit it (aka the second draft)

5. Done

If I actually followed this advice I would have taken all my writing dreams and packed them in the back of a deep, dark closet. Imagine sitting in a classroom and being asked to "Come up with an idea and write an outline."

Hide!

Hide under a rock, in a closet... wherever... just run as far away from the page as you can!!!!

If you've ever considered the romantic notion of writing a book, here are a few tips that, shockingly, no one is talking about:

1. Journal writing. I know. I know. I go on about it. Yet one must get warmed up for the task. Journal writing warms up your inner narrator voice, plus the more you write, the more likely ideas will flow. "But I have nothing to write about."I never NEVER NEEEEEVVVVVEEEEERRRRR have something to write about before I sit down to write in my journal. And I write books for a living. All the books start as journal entries about nothing much. Journal writing warms you up and gets you started on creating a CONTENT LIBRARY.

2. Start a Content Library. This is a collection of:

   • brilliant bits that come out of your journal entries

   • nice notions you've thought while reading other things

   • interesting things you've learned as you walk around this world

   • nice turns of phrase you've overheard

   • jokes you've devised with your sinister mind

3. Read read read. Our inner narrators like reading. Reading is like handing your inner narrator booze. They get chatty after they've had a few books to drink.

4. Open a document on your computer. This seems obvious, but people think you don't need a keyboard to write a book. You need a keyboard and screen. Don't limit yourself by clicking along on your phone. Small device. Small ideas. Big screen. Bird's eye view. Shuffling will be required. For an 80,000 word book, I've probably had to write around 110,000 words. Why do that on a phone? Why do that to yourself? (Also typewriters count. A full keyboard. People have written entire books on typewriters up until recent times, as most of us have forgotten.)

5. Jot down the gems. Type the good bits from your journal writing and content library into the document. Link thoughts together.

6. Open the document often. Make a practice of opening the document to sit in front of it and BOOM. Ideas will come. Your inner narrator will go quiet if all you do is futz about on your phone all day.

7. Add more content. Keep the document alive by adding to it consistently. I'm finding that CONSISTENCY is the life skill we most need to get things done. Consistent exercise. Consistent vegetables. Consistent sleep. Think of your document as a garden. You can't just plant a few seeds and expect much. You have to water, weed, add, maintain the document consistently.

8. Keep rereading what you've written. Prune, pluck, add, rearrange.

9. Link thoughts together. You start with a scene... it doesn't have to be the first scene in the book. A scene. Then you build out from there. You write another scene. You build out from that scene. Then eventually you link scenes together.

10. Try not to bore others. A book is actually an entertainment device. Even text books. The reader must get what they came for. Try to avoid boring them to tears. Add a lot of line breaks. Short chapters are nice. Dialogue is nice. Big blocks of text is... zzzzzzzzzzzzz.

Sure, there are professors that go on about making an outline, but who knows how to do that when they don't even have much of an idea? For me, outlines have only happened after I've written over half the book.

OVER HALF of the book...

Then I go, ah, I see where this is going. So don't tire yourself on coming up with an outline.

Write the outline later, once you've written something to rearrange into an outline. See how that works?

If writing a book is on your Dream List, I offer up my three writing courses:

1. A WRITING YEAR: Perfect for when you don't know where to start. This course includes 52 writing prompts to get you warmed up. You can binge read them or do one a week.

2. ORGANIZING CONTENT: Especially good if haven't been able to move beyond journal writing or creating a content library. This course focuses on how to organize your writing and finish a project.

3. BOOK WRITING: This is the big one. It takes all the steps outlined here and delves deep. Plus, it covers getting an agent, writing a book proposal, and the business of being an AUTHOR beyond being a WRITER.

Overall, the most important thing is to just start writing. The slower the better.