How to Write a Book

As the wife of published author Stefan Bourque, I have seen first-hand how difficult the writing process is. Writing a full-length novel is far different than writing articles or even short stories. It can be a difficult, lonely process, fraught with doubts and late-night caffeine highs. Here is an insider's view of what it takes to write a book.

Author, Know Thyself

Before putting pen to paper, or more likely, fingers to keyboard, take some time to ask yourself what your motives are for writing a book. Do you envision yourself as a best-selling author? Would you be fulfilled to simply hold your published book in your hands, never mind if you ever see a royalty check? Are you writing to get your story out because it keeps haunting you? Or maybe you simply want to bask in the revelry and the oohs and aahs of others when you state, "I wrote a book."

Knowing your reasons for writing your book is important because you will need to draw on your motivation later on when you're facing down writer's block, or the dreadful feelings that you never should have started this journey in the first place. If you don't know why you are writing, you will likely never finish your book.

Create an Outline

Write an outline for your book. You're probably groaning inside at the thought of writing one, but an outline performs several necessary actions. First, it will tell you whether your story idea is good novel-making material. You may discover that your idea, while brilliant, is not complex or long enough to make it novel length. It might be better off as a short story. There's nothing worse than getting halfway through a book before realizing you don't have enough material to warrant drawing out the story. In addition, you don't want to bore your readers with added fluff just so you could get your page count up. Secondly, an outline will help you move the characters from Point A to Point B in a logical manner. If you outline each chapter, your characters are more likely to stay the course when you are thoroughly sick of writing your story (this will happen). Also, it will give you a reason to write when you don't feel like writing. With an outline in front of you, you can't claim writer's block.

Author, Know Thy Characters

Hand-in-hand with outlining is character development. Spend a decent amount of time thinking about your characters, their motivations, and how their motivations influence their interactions with other characters in the book. Write out a short history of each character, noting significant experiences that eventually shaped your character and made them the person that they are today. As your characters move from the beginning to the end of your book in your outline, write how their experiences have changed them (if at all). The more time you spend on character development, the more multi-dimensional and real they will become. You may never actually describe the complete life history of each character in your book, but you will easily be able to tell when you make them do something out of character as you tell the story. If your characters do something out of the ordinary for their behavior, or if your characters seem flat and one-dimensional, readers will lose faith in your story-telling abilities.

Just Write

Now that you've done your homework, you are ready to write. Easier said than done, right? Now is when you find yourself staring at a blank page, unable or unmotivated to move. If you are having trouble getting started, it's okay. Just start writing something, anything. Write whatever you are feeling at that moment. Eventually your stage fright will subside and you will begin writing your book as you follow your outline.

Write every single day. Although it doesn't matter so much when and where you write, it will be easier if you have an established block of undisturbed time each day to look forward to. Do not worry about word count or page count. Force yourself to stick with your writing for at least an hour. Even if you only write one sentence during that hour, it doesn't matter. Other days, you will write several pages and be disappointed when the hour is up so quickly. Writing every day will keep the story in your head active and brewing when you are not writing. It will keep events fresh in your mind so your timeline does not come out wobbly. You will remember what your characters just did in the previous section so they do not do something that contradicts their actions in the next section. Readers can tell when a writer has stopped writing for a while and then picked the story back up.

No matter who you are you will find yourself tiring of the story or the characters. About midway through the book, you'll want to just throw the entire manuscript into the trash. You'll chastise yourself for being overly zealous and doubts will creep in about your abilities as a writer. This is completely normal. And this is where most people give up and eventually stop writing. They are the folks you know who are always writing a book but have never actually produced anything at all. This is when you've got to push through it. Remind yourself why you have chosen to write a book. Read your favorite author again. They went through this phase, too. The only difference between you and your favorite author is that your favorite author slogged through this boring, long, drawn-out part of the writing process and you are still struggling with it. Pull out your outline and simply write the next section.

Write every single day. If you do not write every single day, you will fall off the wagon. You will lose momentum. You will lose focus on why writing was such an important goal to you. It is no different than exercising or dieting. You must do it everyday. No excuses. Just write. I cannot stress this enough. I know I make it sound easy: just write. But it's not. Nobody lives in a bubble. Life happens. There are a million distractions and reasons for skipping a day, promising yourself that you will write extra tomorrow. If you can pull this off, if you actually finish writing your book, you will be among a select few who do. This may be the hardest thing you ever do in your life. Writing is not easy, even for those who love to write. It is intense and exhausting, and best done in short, successive bursts.

Your Book, Your Baby

Congratulations! You have just completed writing your book! You have just completed the first step towards getting published. Not many people can make this claim. As difficult as it was, the writing was the easy part. Now the process just gets harder from here. Now comes the editing, more editing, and maybe even several complete re-writes before you even think of where and to whom you want to submit your manuscript. But before you begin that process, give yourself a small break and celebrate the completion of your book!