How do YOU prepare to write a book?

[PassTheChocolate]

Do you prepare an outline? Do you just write when the flow is good? Do you wing it and go back to make adjusments?

[cpg35223]

Here's what has worked for me, PTC.

First, make sure you have a germ of an idea. The one I am finishing up now came from a child's obituary I read in the newspaper three years ago. If you can't describe your story idea in a single, simple sentence, then you don't have a story.

DO NOT OUTLINE AT FIRST. Go to the book store and buy a couple of journals. You know, the kind with nice, lined paper. Just start jotting down things that occur to you. Snippets of conversation. Details on character. Events. Characters. The odd phrase or two. Keep it with you and write things as they come to you. If you wait until you get home, these little ideas inevitably flutter away before you capture them.

Honestly, keep at this until you come up with the ending. Knowing the end is incredibly important, for it will help the rest of the book fall into place. I had been kind of thinking on my current novel, taking notes on it for a few months, without having a clear idea of how to end the thing. Then it hit me when I was driving down the interstate. I pulled off at the next exit and parked at a gas station and scribbled furiously for thirty minutes.

As you write your notes, transcribe them into your word document. My current novel (Which I'm finishing up) is running right at 79,000-80,000 words. My notes alone were 36,000 words. So when I transcribed my notes (those that proved useful) and put them in order, I was almost halfway to a first draft.

One important thing to always keep in mind: Your story is ALWAYS about character, not events, not theme, not anything else. If you're not keeping characters at the core of your story, then you don't have a story. For example, if you want to write about the Civil Rights Era, write about a person who is experiencing the turmoil of the Civil Rights era, not the Era itself. So your characters have to really be thought through--a benefit when you have to write things like dialog. As far as characters go, there are some basic worksheets out there where you can flesh out your characters. Here's a good one: How to Create a Character Profile *Writers Write -- The IWJ*

Once you know about your basic idea, your characters, and your ending, then you can start working through a rough outline. But keep writing notes and transcribe them. Just put them wherever they belong in the order of things.

A time will come when you know you're ready. Then you take all your notes, put them in order, throw out what doesn't work, and write a coherent first draft.

I think it also is a good idea to read one or two books on things like structure and dialog. You don't want to write something by the numbers, but you need to understand dramatic structure, too. Also, to ensure you have a polished style, read The First Five Pages by Noah Lukeman.

Some other thoughts:

Write every day. Just commit yourself to it. Make it a habit like brushing your teeth. You'll be surprised how much you can get done in thirty minutes every day during the week, an hour or two on the weekends.

Read your work ALOUD. There's a weird psychological barrier to reading your own words--the mind tends to gloss over boneheaded mistakes, awkward constructions, etc. Reading aloud exposes those problems.

One last caution about outlines. They're very useful, but don't make your characters slaves to them. Funny thing about your characters. They develop minds of their own over the span of their creations.

[Rocky Raab]

Whether it's a 1,000-word article or a 500,000-word novel, I essentially have the whole thing in my head before I begin. I think that the first scene is the most important, because if you don't "hook" the reader immediately, he'll never get to what YOU think are the good parts.

I find I have to jot down key things about my characters - a physical description, background and such - or I'll get them mixed up later on. But I start with only an impression of their personalities, just as we do in real life. As the story develops, so do my characters. Surprisingly, sometimes they change in ways I would not have expected or even wanted to. Again, just as in real life. (It is spooky the way characters I thought I created go their merry way no matter what I wanted them to do!)

I have major plot events and their sequence in mind, but I allow the characters to handle the details of them as they occur. I never compose dialogue ahead of time, my characters create it as things happen to them.

[PassTheChocolate]

Thanks for sharing, great advice as always.

[Synergy1]

I find it difficult to remember the entire story so I insert an outline on my header page. THe outline always gets adjusted and sometimes I adjust it 14 or 15 times because as the story is consumed by perverbial paper, changes occur.

Also I always type it on my computer as it is easyo remove, adjust or revise story.

[Peggy Anne]

I get inside my characters heads, and leave the rest up to them, and my typing fingers.

[kaykay]

Originally Posted by PassTheChocolate

Do you prepare an outline? Do you just write when the flow is good? Do you wing it and go back to make adjusments?

A few years after our son died, I decided to write a grief recovery type book for bereaved parents. I has some idea of a lot of things I wanted to share in the book, but it helped me organize it by doing an outline of the chapters first. Then I went back and wrote them. And yes, I did kind of "wing it" returning later to make adjustments. Maybe this is true with all people who write something, but, yes, there were definitely times when I felt the "flow was good" and other times when it seemed like plowing through mud.

The approach probably varies with the style of book being written and with the author's personality, I would think. I have somewhat of a "wing it" personality and that's generally how I roll. That said, however, I had to organize my book first into some semblance of order or else I would have just been "all over the place."

[linicx]

I think everyone is different. It is one thing to write a 1000 words, and quite another to writer ten times that amount. It took me five years of research before I could write and introduction.

The one thing you cannot do is number any page until the entire book is finished and edited. A good editor has the software that will paginate and create the index.

[PassTheChocolate]

Originally Posted by kaykay

The approach probably varies with the style of book being written and with the author's personality, I would think.

I agree. I figured it would vary by the individual. But I imagine the type of book would also dictate the process.

Originally Posted by Peggy Anne

I get inside my characters heads, and leave the rest up to them, and my typing fingers.

Amazing, I did this for my first project and fell in love with my characters. They were like my children; I was very attached to them. I lost my thumb drive...and that project.

Originally Posted by linicx

I think everyone is different. It is one thing to write a 1000 words, and quite another to writer ten times that amount. It took me five years of research before I could write and introduction.

I imagine so.

It's really interesting to see all the different approaches to a shared love of words.

Words and food for me. Heck, words are food for me.

[Rocky Raab]

This may be hard to believe (even I find it so!) but I wrote my first novella of just under 70,000 words in just 15 days. I liken it to a batch of bad homebrew that sits in the bottle until the pressure finally blows the lid and the contents spew forth in an instant. I changed nothing but the typos and published it - essentially a first and final draft.

The second book took me six months but ran 375,000 words.