Lason, My First Book
Writing Tips for Newbs
As a stated earlier, I first wrote the story from Lason's viewpoint from the
beginning to the end. Then I did the same for Kelly and later added others.
I then had to merge them together. My first attempts failed, and even now
many details have been cut to maintain the arc of the story.
This may be a description of what not to do, but it is very important during
the inspiration phase to get things recorded as fast as you can. Don't worry
about grammar, just make sure when you go back through it you understand it.
There may be sections that you don't like, but don't worry about it since
you will have to rewrite everything over and over anyway. The most important
part is getting the story down and filling in as much detail as you can about
what is inspiring you.
I believe all really good movies, music, books, or art need to spark emotions
in their audience. If the work doesn't move them then, in my opinion, it
fails. I believe underlying emotions drive true inspiration and the trick is
to preserve those feelings early on. How else can you invoke them in your
audience if you have forgotten them yourself?
There is no sugar coating - writing is hard work. It will require a large
amount of time with your butt in a chair working on it. Sometimes it will
feel exciting, like when you figure something out you really like. Other
times you might be losing sleep worrying about how to make something work.
Set goals. It doesn't matter if you feel like working on it or not. Some of
my best work followed a long stressful day at my day job. You have to push
yourself, or it will not happen.
You will not get much help. Don't expect your spouse, children, friends, or
anyone else to help you, regardless of their profession or schooling. Chances
are they will get sick of hearing about it and quickly change the subject
shortly into the process. I say this from the perspective of writing. They
can, however, be a good resource to bounce ideas off of. Early reads by
family members gave me the encouragement I needed to continue on.
A note about letting people read early, or even very early, copies of the
book: Chances are they will never re-read the work. I don't think it has
anything to do with how they felt about the story - I think it has more to
do with the time commitment of reading something they have already read.
Don't lose sleep over it.
You may think it's cool to be writing a book, but if you share it on Facebook,
other social media sites, or even at real life events you will find that it
may turn off many people. Also, a surprising number of people will then claim
they are working on a book as well. This gave me even more incentive to
finish it. Not because I wanted to brag about finishing it, I just did not
want to be one of them. If you are truly writing a book, I have great
admiration for you and wish you the best.
To write a book and let others read it takes balls. You have to really hang
yourself out there, and some people will not be able to separate fact from
fiction. Because of this, it was very hard for me to start sharing the work.
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