How to Start Writing a Book by Matthew Caracciolo

How to Start Writing a Book

By Matthew Caracciolo

It’s time. You’ve got an idea for a book and you want to write it, for real this time, and pursue getting it published. The idea has been bouncing inside your head for ages and it’s begging to come out. The question is: how to start writing a book?

Writing a book, and finishing it, is not an easy task. Otherwise everyone would be doing it. Writing a book takes commitment, but it also takes the belief that your idea is worth hours and hours of your time, plus the exhaustion of the inevitable ping-pong between excitement and despair. A plan going forward will align your expectations to reality, build discipline, and prepare you for the long haul of writing tens of thousands of words that, when put together, make some semblance of sense.

How to Start Writing

1)     Write an outline. Some writers may tell you otherwise, and that’s fine, but for most people an outline is an essential tool to keep your head in the game. An outline not only helps you piece together your story or chapters before you get started, it’s a map for when you’re in the weeds of character development, plot progression, or information dumps. Without an outline, it’s more difficult to maintain disciplined in your approach. Your outline can be messy. It can make absolutely no sense to anybody but yourself. It can be as spartan or as detailed as you want. Without an outline, though, you’re walking blindly into the unknown.

2)     Commit to a writing schedule. It’s imperative to carve some time every day, or at least every other day, to sit down and write uninterrupted. Even if it’s just one hour, the discipline to push other things aside for your book will go a long way in getting it done. I know this can seem easier said than done, but if your book is a priority, you’ll find the time. Hint: it probably involves waking up earlier. As an off-shoot of this advice, don’t beat yourself up for missing a day or two. The important thing is to sit in front of the computer again and write.

3)     Set yourself writing goals. It’s good practice to determine a target before you get started. Tell yourself that you want to finish a specific scene before you stop for the day. If that’s too much, then think smaller. You want to finish a conversation, a description, or an explanation of something. You’ll feel more accomplished if you can check something off a to-write list.

4)     Leave something for tomorrow. I can’t remember which famous author it was that said this, but I don’t take credit for this idea. Though it may sound counterintuitive, not getting to something on your to-write list for the day leaves something for you to do tomorrow, which is at least one reason you can give yourself tomorrow to sit down and write. Keeping an idea gestating for another 24 hours is a helpful way not only to give yourself the ‘oomph’ to keep writing, but also to avoid writer’s block.

5)     Don’t start at the beginning. The first chapter, nay, the first paragraph is one of the hardest things to write. Many of the best beginnings start in media res, that is, in the middle of things. That’s hard to do when you haven’t written the ‘things’ yet. Don’t stare at a blank page waiting for that super first sentence to come flowing from the fingertips. Write literally anything else. And then write something else that comes to mind. Write whatever comes out. Writing begets writing, and soon you’ll have pages, albeit piecemeal, of scenes or ideas, but that’s better than a blank page. You can stitch your bits and pieces together as you go, and soon enough a suitable beginning will present itself.

There is a lot more advice out there about what to do once you’re really in the thick of it: how to avoid writer’s block, how to construct scenes, how to revise, how to get published, etc. That can wait. The most important thing is to get started and to keep going. Writing a book is a noble and distinguished pursuit, but don’t expect it to always feel that way. Set yourself up for success!

Matthew Caracciolo is a freelance writer and author of The Waygook Book: A Foreigner’s Guide to South Korea from Monday Creek Publishing. He also maintains his own travel blog, Travel is Fatal, on his website. To find out more about The Waygook Book or Travel is Fatal, please visit matthewcaracciolo.com.