10 Best Tips on How to Write a Book
If you dream of writing a book, remember: it is better to learn from masters of words. We chose tips from ten books on writing. You will learn where to start the first page and how to write dialogues. What is the use of a draft and what is the charge of a word. Why read books and how to look for metaphors. The tips are suitable for both future authors and those who just love great texts.
Creating a book is not a miracle, but a process. And it can be built step by step: from an idea to a delicious-smelling publication in a beautiful cover. With your name on top.
1. Make a synopsis
Before you start working on a book, make a synopsis — this is a concise, in a few sentences, description of the work, somewhat reminiscent of a mini-presentation of entrepreneurs who briefly describe their business.
Preparation is very important, because in the future, everything you write down at this stage will serve as invaluable hints for you.
Here are some questions to help you make a synapse.
Popular science literature:
— What are the common problems people face in this area?
— What gaps are there in this market?
— What important problems are ignored in other books on this topic?
— What useful step-by-step recommendations can you give to the reader of books on this topic?
Fiction:
— What figures of speech do readers of your genre like?
— On whose behalf is the story told? (Most often from the first or third)
— Where are the events unfolding?
— Which characters participate in them?
For example, here is a well-known description of the book "The Wizard of Oz": "A little girl from a small town is carried away by a tornado to a magical land; she goes in search of the Wizard who will help her return home."
2. Create a shock
There are different ways to start a book. Some work well in one text, but look weak in another. Therefore, it is important to analyze and be able to choose.
We will show you "False Prologue" at the reception. Here the climactic scene is taken from the middle or end of the book and placed at the beginning. In this way, the reader immediately "tastes" the main and dramatic event of the story. This strategy can be winning, but it can also ruin the dramatic tension in the text.
Before choosing such a beginning, ask yourself the question: why is it necessary?
If a false prologue only covers up an unsuccessful plot, then it is better to work more. If it really teases the reader's appetite, then it can be a very good start.
Examples of books with a "false prologue": Gabriel García Márquez "One Hundred Years of Solitude", Stephenie Meyer "Twilight, Saga" (book 1), Emily Brontë "Wuthering Heights".
3. Use the card board
The technique used by screenwriter Blake Snyder is a corkboard and cards. Hang a large cork board on the wall, take cards with episodes, blocks, excerpts of your future text and use the pushpins to attach these cards to the board wherever you want.
You don't have to part with cards at all. You put the pack in your pocket, go to the nearest coffee shop and sit for hours, shuffling your deck, laying out episodes, thinking over the sequence, looking for good and bad moments.
A whiteboard allows you to "see" the full picture before you even start writing.
The technique helps to test different twists, ideas, dialogues and the rhythm of the story; to understand how well they are combined. It is also a way to visualize text with a good structure.
4. Write a draft
The first draft is a window in the stuffy world of writer's block. Because it is with this breath of freshness that your Great Writer's Path begins. It's hard to be a writer who hasn't written anything at all. And it's pretty easy to be someone who isn't afraid of drafts.
A draft is not a story about "how terrible it was", but about "let me try and make a mistake, and then make something cool out of the mistake".
There is a danger here: the inner critic may come out. He steals the understanding that in front of his eyes is just an unfinished draft - there is still work to be done with it. But not now. However, you already stop and start digging into the details, rewriting and editing.
No matter how much the inner critic drills, don't let it out until you've finished the draft. In earnest. This rule will save you from a sleepless night one day: you will just finish the draft and go to bed, and not suffer that nothing works out.
5. Write in small portions
It often happens that you are contemplating an autobiographical novel about your childhood or a treatise, for example, about the role of a woman in history. And you understand: taking it up right away is like climbing the slope of a glacier. Your feet are slipping, your fingers are freezing, there is nothing to cling to. Then, from the depths of the subconscious, fears and doubts come to visit. And now the sheet is not white paper, but a dark forest.
"I breathe slowly and deeply – and finally I notice a five-by-eight-centimeter photo frame, which I deliberately put on my desk to remember about small doses. The frame reminds me: I need to write a piece. Small, like a five-by-eight photo. That's all for today. Now, for example, I will write only one paragraph about the place and time of the action," writer Anne Lamotte.
Say to yourself gently and affectionately: "Friend, now we will just write about the river at sunset or about the first date. That's all."
Allow yourself to take small steps. One a day. Step by step. And after a while, you will look back and see that you were able to go a whole way.
6. Follow the connotation
Without delving into terminology, connotation is the charge of the word. Yes, yes, like elementary particles. But if particles can only be neutral, positively or negatively charged, then here we have a much wider spectrum. There are words that are affectionate, derogatory, aggressive, official, high-society, ancient. Many objects and phenomena have a whole set of designations with different charges.
Compare the "maiden" in the fairy tales of the past and the "maiden" in our days. "Grey-haired" and "grey-haired"; "hopes" and "aspirations"; "darkness" and "darkness"; "cry" and "weep" are all words with different connotations that are appropriate in different situations.
The word you choose will tell the reader a lot about the character, his relationships, and the atmosphere you are trying to create. Choose carefully.
How to remember the nuances? Read texts from different times and fields, from fiction to news and advertising, as well as listen to what people are saying. To be on the safe side, you can check dictionaries. Sometimes there are small clues: for example, clarifications that the word is expressive or outdated.
7. Take into account rhythm in dialogues
Inexpressive dialogues that last endlessly are a common misfortune for authors.
There are two traps that writers fall into. The first is that everyone speaks like you. Each person has a special manner of speech. And very often in books, all the characters speak like the author. The second trap is that everyone speaks the same way. At the same time, the dialogue can be good, but if the same turns of phrase and rhythmic pattern are used in the speech of all the characters, then the remarks become inexpressive.
The secret of dialogue is in rhythm. Everyone has their own: we repeat the same phrases and filler words, build sentences according to the same scheme, use familiar idioms.
To make the character's lines sound natural, try to copy them from the speech of a real person. For example, take the manner of a famous actor (remember William Shatner in the role of Captain Kirk, the way he hammered his words – that was the rhythm!) or your acquaintance.
The goal is not to steal someone's external life, but to take a stable framework on which you can build something of your own.
8. Collect ideas
Try to observe the world around you and notice everything. Try this practice: collect small things and come up with a story for each item: from a crumpled check in your pocket to a piece of wood washed up on the beach. To do this, ask questions:
- Where did it come from?
- Who can look for this thing?
- What can it be useful for?
Remember your favorite genres (for example, melodrama or horror). How can you play with this item in stories of different genres? For example, a valentine from a secret admirer can be the beginning of a beautiful love story or a creepy plot about a stalker.
Any little thing can give life to the plot.
As Neil Gaiman wrote, "Ideas come from dreams. They are taken out of boredom. Ideas appear all the time. The only thing that distinguishes writers from other people is that they notice it."
9. Look for metaphors
The power of the image stems from its freshness and novelty. Therefore, it is necessary to develop a creative streak: look for unexpected connections and intersections; Try to think broadly rather than deeply. Here are tips for practice.
Sketch out a few comparisons—any that come to mind. Write them all down, even those that are clearly not useful. They can later lead you to a sensible idea.
Allow your mind to process the topic little by little while you are busy with other things. Perhaps a good comparison will pop up by itself. Psychologists explain such insights by the incubation effect: our brain is able to solve postponed creative tasks without us noticing.
To find fresh, unexpected metaphors, try to turn to other areas of knowledge.
Pay attention to any thoughts and associations you have, write down each idea. Remember: if you don't write it down now, you forget it later.
10. Read like a writer
Many future authors are book lovers. However, the thought of looking at a book under a microscope, reading it solely for the sake of style or analysis of composition, often disgusts them. But once you learn to read critically, you will enjoy it much more subtly than ordinary readers. You will read like a writer.
Learn to go through the text at least twice. At first, just like that, and then with a pencil. Note the rhythm, episodes and scenes, pay attention to the words, phrases, stylistic devices of the author.
If you are interested in the craft of writing, then read books not only for entertainment, but also for education - as an interesting example.
Don't worry: you won't lose your love for books, on the contrary. It is impossible to overestimate the benefits of analytical reading.
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