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Do you find yourself endlessly wondering how to start writing a book? Is it something that’s been on your bucket list for oh… ages? Don’t sit and wonder any longer. Sit and write instead. The hardest job of a writer is getting the words on the page, so if you can crack that, you can do anything.
Here are 12 different ways to get started on the book you always wanted to write.
1. Set A Daily Writing Goal – And Stick To It
This is the single most important step that anyone can take. It doesn’t matter even if you don’t have any idea yet what you want to write. A daily writing goal does two very important things:
- It helps you establish a writing habit. A habit is something you don’t need willpower for. You might have to write 100 words every day for 3 months, but eventually, that part of your day (especially if you do it at the same time and in the same place), will become something you don’t have to fight, or force yourself to do. You’ll just do it.
- It means you are practising every single day. Even if thousands of your words end up deleted or in the bin, you are honing your skillset on a daily basis until your writing becomes better quality, and you establish your own unique voice and style.
Daily writing over the course of a year can achieve an incredible amount of output and comes with the satisfaction of knowing you are doing exactly what needs to be done to get work started and finished.
For help with creating a daily writing habit, see here:
The 10 Step Guide To A Daily Writing Habit
How To Build A Daily Writing Habit (And Stick To It)
2. Record The Number Of Words You Write
If you’re writing every day, it’s worth making a note of each day’s word count. The old-fashioned way (the way I did it for years), is to simply record the total number of words at the end of each day. Most word-processing programmes have a word count option.
The more sophisticated version is to use a dedicated writing app like Scrivener. I resisted this for so long thinking that it couldn’t be any more useful than a standard word-processing program, but I am now a total convert to Scrivener and always use it for all my writing.
Whichever way you decide to record your word count, if you add them to a spreadsheet or a notebook it is a great way to see your progress mounting over time. It feels like a drop in the ocean to write a couple of hundred words on any given day. But when you are aware of your total word count over a week and a month it can be highly motivating to keep you going when you might otherwise have stopped.
3 Record Your Voice Speaking The Story
Almost every phone and laptop has an option for you to speak and save voice notes. This can be a really easy way to get a story out of your head and onto paper fast. Dictating a story will need a lot of editing afterwards, as no software is perfect at picking up every word and it will almost certainly fail on grammatical issues. But editing can often be a lot easier than finding the raw words in the first place.
Slow down when you talk, and tell the story at a relaxed pace. Don’t worry about mistakes or ums and ahs. You can edit everything out later. Speaking may feel easier and more approachable than writing in the beginning and can be a great way to get a decent word count down that makes you feel like you are making good progress right from the start.
I find this a really useful method when you have the story in your head already and simply want to get it into written format as quickly as possible.
4. Write An Outline
Outlining novels tends to divide writers. Some do, some never do. If writing the words themselves is failing you, then creating the story in bullet point format might be an easier task. The great thing about outlining is you have the whole story ready to go – all you really need to do is fill in the words. It’s like colouring in but with language instead of crayons.
Outlining is really good for checking your plot is coherent and that you know exactly what journey your characters are going to make. It stops you from making errors in consistency, which can be a problem if you write with no plan in mind (e.g. at the end of the book you’ve forgotten about your character’s mad aunt at the beginning of the book and turn them into someone who doesn’t have any living family – it sounds crazy, but it is surprisingly easy to forget what you know about your characters over time).
Having a great outline all written up can be really motivating when it comes to building up your word count as there is always a signpost for the next part of the story you need to create. For more on outlining see:
Outlining A Novel Without Dying Of Boredom First
5. Write A Flow Of Consciousness
If you are devoid of ideas but know that you have a lifelong goal to write a novel, try writing a flow of consciousness. Open a blank document and start typing. Don’t stop typing. The whole point of this is to write whatever pops into your head. It might even begin with I have no idea what to write here but I am writing anyway… and before you know it you’re getting I suppose I want to tell a story about a woman who fights her way to freedom…
The most amazing things can come out of your head if you give it some freedom to throw things down on paper that you might otherwise have overthought and discarded. You don’t have to write your actual thoughts – you can write any words that appear in your mind. If you find yourself describing a leafy clearing in the forest or the sounds of the city late at night, you know you’re on the right track. A story can be found in the smallest details, and the tiniest glimmers of an idea can get you started on a huge work of fiction that you weren’t even aware you were going to create.
6. Create A Character To Tell The Story
You don’t have to like your characters, but you do have to be interested in them. Try writing a few paragraphs to describe a person who might appear in a story you would write.
What are they wearing? What facial expressions do they have when no one is watching? Are they happy or bitter? Imagine him or her in your head. Make sure they aren’t one-dimensional – no one is 100% good or evil.
Now you have an idea of a person, write down their backstory. How did they get to where they are now? This is where you find out how they fit into your book. Are they main character material? Find their story so you can tell it.
7. Decide On Your Genre
The same story can be told in so many different ways. Are you a crime of passion kind of person or a warlock fan? Stories are timeless and repeatable (good versus evil; the underdog triumphs; true love wins), so understanding which genre you want to write within can go a long way towards getting you started.
A love story can be told in a fantasy novel in a completely different way from a historical fiction novel. Deciding on your genre first and foremost can cut out a huge amount of distraction that stops you from getting your work started and eventually finished.
Hint: don’t try to invent a genre because you think your idea doesn’t fit into any of the existing ones! It almost certainly fits in somewhere already and there will almost certainly be many books that already exist in this genre. Find them!
Reading other quality books in the genre you write in will help you determine if it’s your area or not. Your genre dictates how you tell the tale, and how you portray your characters.
8. Tell The Story On Post-It Notes
Write the major events on post-it notes. Stick them on your wall. Now fill in other events. Stick them on the wall. Move them around. Find the best order. Write more details and stick them on the wall (you get the idea).
Ideally, do this on a wall that you can leave them up on. They can work as a great rough and ready outline, as well as being a constant visual reminder that you have writing to do.
Playing around with the order of events using post-its is also a great way to craft a plotline that really draws the reader in and keeps them engaged.
9. Go To A Cafe
Treat yourself to a coffee or tea at a local cafe with your laptop in tow, and promise yourself you will write for exactly 30 minutes. The advantage of doing this is it removes a whole lot of distractions that you would otherwise have at home. But also, there is something in the psychology of seeing yourself as a writer in public that can help you get words out of your brain and down onto the page.
People-watching is also great for inspiration for characters and plot lines, and the fragments you hear of other people’s conversations are also fertile ground for prompting your imagination into life.
Getting away from home and into a less familiar place can get you started on the book that you’ve been putting off for years. And who knows, you might even get to the end of 30 minutes and decide that you need to keep going.
10. Decide On The Ending
The end of a book can cause a lot of consternation if you haven’t thought this through before you start. If you are a fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants writer and you don’t outline your story at all, you can reach the end of the book and not have any kind of ending to write about.
Before you write anything, think about how you want your novel to end. What feeling do you want to leave your readers with? What kind of story are you telling? Do you want your ending to be a grand reflection on everything that has happened or a short and punctual full stop to the story?
If you know the end of your story before you write it, it can be easier to get started with the beginning – not least because you know where you know where you are going when you begin.
As the saying goes, if you don’t decide where you are going, you will likely end up somewhere else.
11. Read A Great Book
It is inspiring to read something wonderful written by something else. If you are really struggling with any inspiration at all, tell yourself that’s ok – for now – and do something else instead. But make sure it’s something that may help you get writing in future.
Don’t just read any book that you find – aim to read one that is generally thought of very highly. You can easily find novels on Amazon or Goodreads by filtering by reviews. A great story will be two things: you’ll want to keep reading it once you pick it up and it will make you feel emotions while you’re reading it: suspense, sadness, joy, terror.
Putting writing aside for just a little while and reading something different and of high quality (I don’t necessarily mean literary – there is excellent fiction in every genre), can reignite your passion to create something your own readers will one day appreciate.
It’s like watching the Olympics and then deciding to take up a new sport. Seeing something done really well inspires all of us to emulate that.
12. Brain Dump Ideas
This is a short exercise that can help you find something on a whim that could turn into a work of art. Grab a piece of paper, or sit with a blank page on a notes app. Then set a timer for five minutes and write as many one-line story prompts as you can.
E.g.
Woman thinks next-door neighbour is a killer;
Man falls in love with wife’s best friend;
Man and woman reunite after 20 years apart;
Dog brings two apocalypse survivors together.
You get the idea. Don’t pause, and don’t veto or edit what you’re writing. Just dump down those ideas. After five minutes are up, take a look through your list and see which prompt feels the most exciting to you. Which one can you envisage as the premise for a great story? Does one have more meaning to you, or have you got personal experience you can draw on to make it truly vivid?
When we think critically we can dismiss ideas for being outlandish, and suppress ideas that seem silly. A quick-fire brain dump circumvents those barriers and can give you fresh new ideas on a story that you know you have to tell.
Final Words
Deep down we all know that writing a book only comes from sitting down and writing. Nothing else can make it appear, but this simple action is often the one thing we all procrastinate over the most. Whichever method you choose, the main thing is to begin getting your words down on a page.
You cannot edit, or eventually publish the words that you never get around to writing.
