How-to advice is great for fixing a coffee machine, but far less useful when it comes to writing a book.
Sure, the advice to have an outline, use it, and write 750 words a day sounds logical. However, writing a book is not a logical, repeatable process.
I’ve written eighteen books, and no two followed the same path.
The only commonality was that they all started with a single idea that I could explain in one sentence. From then on, the chaotic process of writing a book took hold.
It’s a myth that there is one right way to write a book. In reality, there isn’t a wrong way either.
Every writer is different, and that’s why you can’t apply a set of writing rules or routines to your long-form writing.
Each book I’ve written has taken a different path, even when I tried to replicate the process for a new book in a series.
Some have flown from my fingers, with hardly a pause, while others have felt like squeezing blood from a stone and ended up taking forever to finish.
But I finished them.
Douglas Adams famously said, “It takes an awful lot of time to not write a book.”
And that is true, because I have many ideas that have been sitting in my “next book ideas” list that are taking an awful lot of time for me not to write.
Writing a book is never a straight line from chapter one to the end. Twists and turns, dead ends, and the feeling that something isn’t quite right happen all the time.
Yes, you can push through these or similar obstacles, but if you’re writing your first book, they can seem overwhelming.
Writing a book is full of challenges that you can’t predict, and that’s why you need determination to see the process through to the end.
There are no rules, so you have none to break. You have to write your book your way.
From cathartic to creative writing
Like so many, my first attempt at writing a book was to get something off my chest. The result was a very long, awful book.
I spent two years writing it, and it was a failure, but it was also the best lesson for me about book writing.
It taught me that a book, and its story, is far more than the number of words it contains. Yes, getting to a 110,000-word count is an achievement. But a number is not a goal when writing a book.
The goal is to write a compelling story.
However, it wasn’t a wasted effort because I learned so much about pacing, character development, conflict, and building suspense from my mistakes.
It was a few years before I tackled another book, but a flash of an idea spurred me on. After writing a basic outline, I started writing the story, and it seemed to flow so easily.
So much so that I had to drag myself away from my keyboard many times, as there is a life to lead outside of writing.
Yet for a few weeks, I put off as much as I could so I could finish my book. When I did, I discovered I had a problem.
The story was only around 35,000 words, and at first, I thought it was a failure. I read it five times, but I couldn’t see how more words would improve the story.
In the end, writing the book was a much faster process than deciding to publish it. I agonized over it for weeks.
At the time, self-publishing was very new, so I thought, well, why not give it a try?
Without any marketing or promotion that we take for granted today, the book was a success. It sold copies from day one and continued selling for about a year.
What did I do differently from my first book?
I wrote a story for readers, and not only for me.
Why I didn’t try to repeat the recipe
I know I should have tried to replicate my first little success, but I had another idea for a book that I wanted to write.
It was based on a true-life story of someone I knew, but I wanted to write it as a fictional account.
Had I known how challenging it would be, I might have passed on the idea. Writing was the easy part, but the research I needed to do took up most of my time.
At almost every turn, I had to chase facts, dates, names, ships, geography, history, and political events.
Whereas my previous book had taken weeks to write from a few basic notes, this story took me nearly two years and created a mountain of supporting research notes.
If I’d ever believed there was only one way to write a book, this was proof that it’s simply not true.
Every story is different, and each one shapes the approach.
However, by luck or good judgment, I had written another book that sold quite well.
It was a long and tiring experience, but one I look back on now with pride, because the widow of my main character loved the story and told me I had captured her late husband perfectly.
The lesson I took from this book was that when you’re passionate about an idea, that passion will see you through to the end.
On to fully creative fiction, and failure
My next step was into a genre that I loved: science fiction. But only as a means to explore human behavior and keep it light-hearted.
I have to admit that I was and still am a fan of Douglas Adams, so it was no surprise that I borrowed a little from him.
My writing process could hardly be called a process. All I did was have fun with words and play around with ordinal numbers.
It was so much fun that I had to push myself to stop writing and go to bed. After six weeks, I had a manuscript of 80,000 words.
And it was another little success for me, with plenty of sales and wonderful reviews.
My instant thought was, well, I’ll do it again. And I did, three times, creating a four-book trilogy.
But each new book took a different route. I’m sure you’ve heard of “formulaic writing,” and this should have been the case, but it didn’t happen.
Each book became harder and harder to write. I was trying so hard to copy my earlier success, but just couldn’t do it.
In hindsight, I know why. I believed I had found the secret to writing a book, but it was only right for one story, because every book is different.
Conclusion
I haven’t written this piece to document every book I have written, because that would be boring.
However, in giving you a few examples, I hope it highlighted that there is definitely not one right way to write a book.
After writing eighteen books, I know that every book or story needs and takes a different path, and even then, it is not the same for every author.
It’s usually the type of story that dictates the way you write it, and only you can be the judge of what’s the best way to tackle it.
Yes, all stories start with an idea.
But what matters most is finishing, no matter how you get there.
Author’s note
No one reads this far into an article unless they are truly trying to find an answer to a question.
If you’ve reached this point, then, because you are a true seeker, I have one last experience to share with you.
Yes, I wrote eighteen books, but I started around thirty. You could call it a failure rate, but I prefer to say it is my success rate.
Writing a story or a book is not always a singular event that leads to a successful conclusion.
If you are planning on writing your first book, don’t start thinking that it’s a one-off, make-or-break effort. You might have to try, try, and even try again.
But you’ll find a way, your way, to get there, as I did.
Related Reading: How To Write A Book With A Word Processor The Safe Way
