Writing A book

This writing a book page, is page two of three, and part of,

'Creative Writing'

If you haven’t already done so, please read page one first, by clicking the icon below.

Still with me? Ready to begin? Great!

It really amazes me how many websites out there are offering expert tuition regarding the, how to write a book, theme. Before I decided to write these pages, I checked a few out. One in particular offered a guaranteed method of writing a successful book or screenplay in 28 days, working only one hour per day.

Now I ask you, does that sound realistic?


Okay, what are we going to be writing a book about?

That’s the million-dollar question, and the million-dollar answer is: Are you in it for fun or do you want to be paid.

From my point of view, if you’re going to do it, you may as well be paid for it, and paid well.

I met a man several years ago. He was getting on in years, and he’d written an autobiography about his life as a boxing trainer.

I actually read it, and it was really quite good. A large section of the book was devoted to Muhammad Ali, who he’d trained and who was also a personal friend. The book included lots of photos of him with Ali and many other celebrities and was endorsed by Ali himself. The reason I mention this is because, although his book was in point of fact really good, he didn’t have an agent or a publisher and had commissioned the book himself via a self-publishing house.

The self-publishing house had of course assured him that his book was marvelous and that he’d have no problem presenting it to the bookstores for distribution. Two years down the line, he’s left substantially out of pocket, 10,000 un-sellable books in the garage and nowhere to put the car!

Now I don’t mean to be unkind, but. It hadn’t occurred to him that to actually hope to sell an autobiography, you must first attain a certain degree of fame or notoriety. It’s just basic common sense. Would you by an autobiography by someone you’d never heard of? Certainly not!

Choosing your Subject

However, probably top of our list comes choosing the subject we’re actually going to write about. Which category it would fit into, and whether it’s going to be fiction or non-fiction.

I’m going to use my own experiences as an example here.

Now I don’t know about you, but I love reading fantasy fiction, and two of my favorites are Steven King and Dean Koontz. Both; in my humble opinion, being masters of the game.

Several years ago I thought yes, this is definitely for me and sat down to write a novel entitled Deep Side, a deep-sea fantasy adventure. I’d recently seen the movie, ‘The Abyss’, and with my background as a diver thought it would make my perfect debut as the next master of fantasy fiction. I discovered two things.

The first was that, I wasn’t enjoying it. The second was, it wasn’t any good anyway.

So, two months and fifty-seven pages later, I sacked it!

I’d never even considered writing comedy, but I’d discovered by actually sitting down and having a go that if I were to continue to write, it would be in the form of a comic theme.

My next dilemma! What am I going to write next?

I could sit here boring you to death with everything I’ve ever written, the whys, the wherefores, and how I eventually discovered that writing a child book would give me so much pleasure.

But I think I’ve already illustrated the point. You can’t hope to sit down on day one and come up with the goods. It’s going to take time and effort to find where your talents lie and what you're actually going to enjoy writing a book about.

Writing A Book - Conclusion

Even when your heart says it’s the right thing to do, effective research into your particular choice will prove invaluable and will save your time, your money and ultimately save you from disappointment.

And so. You’ve chosen your subject. Now it’s time to sharpen your pencil, sit down and find your style.

HOME