So You Want To Write A Book

By Charles Williams

They say that everyone has a book in them. They also say that most people die with that book still in them. I decided not to let that happen to me. I didn't make that decision until after I retired in 2001 at age sixty-two. So, you see, it's never too late. It was 2006 and many false starts later before I published my first novel. The road to publishing that book was long and contained many pitfalls along the way. It was also a great learning process.

What I'm hoping to accomplish with this article and those that follow, is to get you motivated to write that book you have in your head. I'm going to do this by giving you the benefit of my experience so you can avoid some of the mistakes that I made creating my book. What worked for me may just work for you and if it saves you steps along the way so much the better.

I'm not going to tell you what to write because you already have some ideas about that or you would not be reading this article. I will only make one suggestion. When you are just starting out as a new writer it is best to write about what you know. That may be a memoir, a how to book in your area of expertise or a fiction novel based on some life experience you have had. Okay you have an idea for a book, what next?

Well first let's get your mind-set in the right place. It helps if you think of your writing as a pleasurable pastime and something you always wanted to do rather than a get rich quick scheme. To help with that here are some statistics, about 500 books per day are published in this country, of those only about 7% make money. Last year, in the United States, only one person in four even read a book. That does not mean that you can't write a best seller, just don't dwell on it. We will get into marketing and publicity later in this series.

Only you know what your abilities are and only you will know if you need help and how much. Personally, I had years of management experience and considered myself a competent business writer. However, creative writing is a little different, I discovered this the hard way and it cost me some time. After messing around with a couple of projects I realized that I did not know the first thing about writing a short story, let alone a book. There were things like, outline, plot, structure, characterization, dialogue and format that I had never even considered.

I found help at my local community college. Almost every city has a university or a community college and they all offer a variety of writing courses. Get a catalog and see what your local college or university offers. Audit a couple of classes to see if they are teaching what you need.
The first class I took was titled "If you can talk you can write". It was a great class and I went on to complete that instructors four course writing series.

The next article will cover good writing habits and what to do when, you think, you have a finished manuscript.

C.D. Williams in a retired U.S. Coast Guard Chief Warrant Officer and the author of the novel "Palawan." You may learn more about the author and his writing activities at: http://www.cdwilliams.com