Before you ask yourself how to publish a book, before you decide on a Christian self publishing company, before you consider your book marketing, before you decide on the print on demand or simply standard book publishing or even decide on if you will self publish at all, you need to figure out what you will be writing and how.

 

Whether you are considering how to write memoirs or just some work of fiction, when you are writing a book, you cannot approach it without being sure of what you are trying to say. If there is one thing in writing a book that is most important, it would be, knowing ultimately what you are going to write about. So many people think that they will sit down with a pencil or pen and all of the inspiration that they felt building inside of them for so long will just run off of the tip of that pen like honeyed milk. This is simply not the case, no matter how talented a writer you are; let’s review a primary strategy on how to write a book.

 

Before you even write your title, you need to decide on the story. Write down a sentence, just one, that defines what your book is going to be about. It should be around 15-20 words long, and it should define your book in its most simple terms. This will take a while the first time you do it, so do not try to rush through this process. It will define your work.

 

Now you should break down your story somewhat. This may take a little while as well, but it’s probably the terms that you have already been thinking of your book in at this point. Cut your book into three bites, beginning, middle, and end. Define these three traits of your story, and keep it simple, you are starting to crystallize your story without losing it to the words; you can include rudimentary forms of your characters at this point. This is a very important process.

 

In the next step, you will create something that is similar to a storyboard, or the acts of a play. You will now develop the chronological stages of the story as you have segmented it. You can include key points at which the characters find definition in relationship to the story as you form this timeline.

 

You will now expand this storyboard, making each sentence form a paragraph. Your story will start to take on an existence of its own. The story may not be complete, but you will have the foundation on which to build your book. It is now the critical time to develop your characters. Your characters each need to be considered carefully. Take one page for each character and give them definition and histories. When you have completed this step, you will know your characters well, and the story itself will be blooming for you.

 

You have reached the point at which you will start to write your first drafts and actually do the authoring that you have been getting ready for, probably for weeks at this point. You are ready write that first book. Now just take it one day at a time, and remember to read what you write, you don’t want to realize that you’ve lost track of your story after you’ve rattled on for pages. Good luck and happy writing.