How to write a book...

[wildwesty]

While this may seem a bit strange, I realize that there are tons of writers that cruise LIT so it seems like as good a place as any to ask. At the urging of several friends I am thinking hard on writing a book. What software would be best used for such a task? I currently use microsoft word for my writing but often find that staring at a large blank white page can take away from the writing process. Any advice or help is welcome.

Thanks a ton!

 

[Weird Harold]

While this may seem a bit strange, I realize that there are tons of writers that cruise LIT so it seems like as good a place as any to ask. At the urging of several friends I am thinking hard on writing a book. What software would be best used for such a task? I currently use microsoft word for my writing but often find that staring at a large blank white page can take away from the writing process. Any advice or help is welcome.

Thanks a ton!

Staring at a blank page (even if you chnge the defult color scheme to something inspirational) is going to happen what ever program you use.

MS Word is s very good word processing program with some very good editing and reviewing tools -- If you dont trust them completely and turn off "check spelling and grammar while you type."

Corel Word Perfect Suite 8.0 (or whatever current version they're up to) is also a very good full-feature word processing program.

Either program is suitable for writing a novel, although more publishers are set up to deal with Word documents than will aept WordPerfect's document format.

For help on dealing with that blank white page, try reading some of the threads about writer's block and organizing your story in the Author's Hangout Forum.

 

[Lynxie]

If you want to vary your routine, try writing out a basic outline of the course you want your book to take on paper. Personally, I find it very gratifying to be able to crinkle something up and toss it if I don't like it - much more satisfying than just hitting 'delete.' Once you have the outline, type it up in whatever word processing program you're using. At least that will get you past having your first page be blank... and it might help you out if you get stuck in your writing later, as you can always refer back to it and see what your original ideas were.

 

[Ezzy]

At the urging of several friends I am thinking hard on writing a book.

What software would be best used for such a task? I currently use microsoft word for my writing but often find that staring at a large blank white page can take away from the writing process.

Any advice or help is welcome.

Ok, so am I the only one to wonder what the book is about? Fiction or non-Fiction? What style or genre are you going to write in? Is it based on other writing you have done already, or is it going to be a completely new work?

If you know what you are going to be writing about, you might want to research the major publishers who publish in that genre, most of them have good FAQ sections that will answer most of the standard questions as to what document formats they are regularly using.

Are you writing it as a part time work or are you going to work full time at it, whichever you do set a routine that you can follow for the same day every week. The discipline needed to actually complete a book is beyond the grasp of a large segment of the population, you can start small and increase as the spirit takes you.

There are loads of books about how to write a book, or creative writing in general, read one or two before you start.

On trying to get over the “blank page syndrome” your routine will help, as will a strong outline, the more you know about the story / facts you are going to write about the better you can make the outline. If the facts / story can be laid out chronologically, you can have a good idea of your chapter layout to follow the chronology.

The more detail you can put into the outline the clearer your choices for logical stopping points in any single chapter, and the less chance there is of long term “BPS”, as you know where the story / facts flow and it makes it easier to write following the river of words down the page.

If I want to make a blank page less threatening, I simply shrink the window I am writing in to match how I am feeling. I sometimes write with only 5 or 6 lines available, allowing for the top margin on a page this can be as little as an couple of inches, which I find a lot less intimidating than the 8 or 9 inches the monitor can display.

As the work moves faster, I open the window and the pages start to flow with their own tides, the ebb and flow of the words, sentences and paragraphs take on a their own life.

One other technique I use is to stop while I still have ideas about the next section of the work in my head, I then write a précis of those thoughts as a last paragraph, and stop for lunch or overnight etc.

I find that for the most part, I can reinvigorate myself on my return, by reading the synopsis; resetting my mind and getting back into the rhythm of the word flow again.

Give yourself enough time to sleep, I have found time and again, that it is often better and more productive to stop writing and get regular sleep, than to keep working till there is no time left between the writing and heading out to your regular job.

Being in control of the way you write can be far more important sometimes than what you write, and the routine you set should work towards that end, giving you the control.

Let me also admit I don’t always practice what I preach, and I have been known to burn the candle at both ends and in the middle too, when the words are flowing and the ideas are popping out one after another. But it does cause chaos in your life if you write this way all the time, it can wreck your bread and butter job as you keep falling asleep there, and it can ruin your writing style and mess with your mind at the same time.

I am never as happy with my writing, on the times I have little or no control over my routine, the best work I do always has a measure of control in it.

Good luck…and if your book is any good, can I please have one of the advanced copies when you get them?

 

[Ezzy]

As you can see above ^^^^^^^^^^^^^ my techniques work!

Who'd have thought I could have gotten past that BPS to write all that?

 

[wildwesty]

Thanks to everyone who replied. I appreciate the advice and would welcome more should there be any that didn't get shared. The inspiration for this book stemmed from sitting at my friend's place and having an entire room of females focused on my every word as they were asking me about sex. I will try to keep the thread updated as to what happens with my writing. Thanks again!

 

[Ezzy]

The inspiration for this book stemmed from sitting at my friend's place and having an entire room of females focused on my every word as they were asking me about sex.

Well now! A book about sex... perhaps you should invite them all to do some further research with you for your book. Not just the pretty ones, the ones who aren't so pretty will be happy to help out too, you just wait and see!

 

[Weird Harold]

Personally, I find it very gratifying to be able to crinkle something up and toss it if I don't like it - much more satisfying than just hitting 'delete.'

[minor hijack]

I once saw an add-on or macro for (I think) an early version of MS Word that fed that feeling of gratification. Whenever you deleted something it would appear to be wadded up and disappear in a puff of flame and smoke -- with propriate sound effects.

It might have been a late version of Wordstar, or a completely different program, but it was definitely an emotionally satisfying delete function.

I wonder if anyone has upgraded and adapted it and has it floating around the Interent someplace?
[/minor hijack]