Tag: author

Nine Things You Need to Know Before You Write Your Non-Fiction Book

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[found on the creativepenn.com; by JOANNA PENN on JUNE 5, 2012]

“I started with writing non-fiction and it really did change my life. I’m actually working on rewriting my first book at the moment and I also devour non-fiction books so it definitely remains important to me. In this guest post Nina Amir, author of ‘How to Blog a Book’ poses some provoking questions that anyone embarking on writing a non-fiction book should ask themselves. 

Inspiration hits. The light bulb goes on. You’ve got a passion, and you pursue it. You see a need, and you fill it. There’s a question, and you answer it. You have a purpose, and you fulfill it.

These are all great reasons to begin writing a nonfiction book. And most writers, when struck by a good idea and the desire to write, simply begin writing. However, an even better reason exists to take a bit of time before you beginning writing to evaluate your idea—at least if you want your book to be successful.

Evaluate? I can hear you groaning. No one wants to evaluate anything, especially that book idea you are so psyched about.

If you simply want to write the book of your heart and you don’t care how many copies you sell, great. Go for it.

If you want to write a successful book, meaning one that sells to lots of readers or to a traditional publisher and to lots of readers, however, it behooves you to take the time to consider if your idea is a good one by industry standards.

To do this, I suggest you discover nine things about your book idea. Once you have this information, you’ll know if your book has a chance of success.

1. What Your Book Will be About and Why Would Someone Would Want to Read (Buy) It

You’d be amazed at how many writers cannot tell you in 50 words or less, or in 30 seconds or less, what their book is about. They also may not be able to list the benefits their book will provide to readers. Before beginning to write your nonfiction book, hone your topic and its angle. Figure out why someone would want to read your book rather than someone else’s book on the same topic. Write a pitch or elevator speech, a short statement that describes the essence of your book, and follow it with some bulleted points—the added value readers will take away from its pages. Think of this exercise like writing back cover copy. What might you say or write about your book that would make someone carry it to the register?

2. Who Wants to Read Your Book

Make sure you know your average reader—that one person you are writing for—as well as the size of your book’s market. Who wants to read your book, and where do you find them? How many of these people exist in the world? Are there enough of them to justify writing your book? This market research tells you if anyone is out there to read (buy) your book and helps you know for whom who you are writing.

3. Whether Your Book Will be Unique and Necessary

Make sure the book you plan on adding to the mix is not only unique compared to the other books in your niche or category but also necessary before you add one more title to the staggering number of books in print. Take a good hard look at what other authors have already written and published. Is what you want to write different—different enough to make someone purchase your book rather than an established title or a book by an established author? And is there a need for another book on the subject? If no books have been written on the subject, why? Is there a need for even one book on the topic?

4. If You Have Enough Content to Fill a Book

Sometimes writers think they have enough material for a book when really they only have enough for an article, or a couple of articles. Or they think they know what content they are going to include in the book, but when they finish the first draft, they discover they produced a manuscript that is scattered, rambling, misses the point, or leaves out essential information. Avoid these problems by mapping out your content first. Actually do a mind mapping exercise, which entails brainstorming while creating a large diagram of all your possible content and then organizing all these ideas into a table of contents or an outline. When you are done with this process you’ll know if you have enough content to fill a book, and you’ll know what content you plan to include in the pages of that book.

5. How You Would Describe Your Book’s Content

Bring your book to life with a short synopsis for each chapter. This accomplishes two things. First, when you couple this chapter-by-chapter synopsis with your table of contents, your pitch and list of benefits, you will have the best writing guide possible. Second, when you have finished the synopsis of all your chapters, and you have completed the previous four steps, you will suddenly have a clear picture of your book and feel ready to write your book. Why? Because it will seem real to you. If you can see it and it seems real, if your idea stood up to all the prior steps, it’s likely a viable book.

6. How You Will Ensure You and Your Book Succeed

Whether you self-publish or land a traditional publishing deal, you will need to promote your book. And promotion does not begin after the book lands in your hands as a finished product. It begins the moment that light bulb goes off in your head. Spend some time considering all the options you have to build awareness for yourself and your book as you begin the writing process as well as after you launch the book.

7. Why You Are the Best Person to Write This Book

Most nonfiction books are written by experts. Decide if you are the expert on your topic, how you will become the expert, or if you might need to bring in other experts (maybe a co-author, contributors or experts to interview). Also, does writing this book fulfill a sense of mission for you? If so, you might want to consider how to get that message across in the book and in your promotional efforts. Plus, in this step, it’s important to ask yourself if you have what’s called an “author’s platform.” Do you have a fan base or a large, loyal following of people who know you in relationship to the topic about which you plan to write? If not, you need to consider how you will begin building that built-in readership for your book.

8. If This is the Only Book You Will Write on This Topic

The more books you write, the more books you sell. That’s why it’s a good idea to spend a moment brainstorming other “spin-off” books on your topic. This is especially important if you want to create a business around your book or attract a traditional publisher. As an expert author, if you have more books, you can create more products and services to sell to readers. And publishers like to take on multiple-book authors.

9. How You Want to Publish Your Book

At this point, if you decided your book is marketable and has a chance of succeeding, you can begin writing your book—with one caveat. You need to know what publishing route you plan to take. If you plan on self-publishing, you can go ahead and write the whole book. If you plan on approaching traditional publishers, you only need to write 25-30 pages, or about two chapters, but you also need to write a book proposal, which includes all the information you just compiled. You then will submit the proposal to agents and publishers

Armed with this information, and assuming you discovered your idea is a viable one, you’re ready to take action on your inspiration. Turn your idea into a successful book.”

[found on http://www.thecreativepenn.com/2012/06/05/write-a-non-fiction-book]

20 Writing Tips from 12 Fiction Authors

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[found on iuniverse.com]

“Writing success boils down to hard work, imagination and passion—and then some more hard work…. Use these tips as an inspirational guide—or better yet, print a copy to put on your desk, home office, refrigerator door, or somewhere else noticeable so you can be constantly reminded not to let your story ideas wither away by putting off your writing.

  • “My first rule was given to me by TH White, author of The Sword in the Stone and other Arthurian fantasies and was: Read. Read everything you can lay hands on. I always advise people who want to write a fantasy or science fiction or romance to stop reading everything in those genres and start reading everything else from Bunyan to Byatt.” — Michael Moorcock
  • “Protect the time and space in which you write. Keep everybody away from it, even the people who are most important to you.” — Zadie Smith
  • “Introduce your main characters and themes in the first third of your novel. If you are writing a plot-driven genre novel make sure all your major themes/plot elements are introduced in the first third, which you can call the introduction. Develop your themes and characters in your second third, the development. Resolve your themes, mysteries and so on in the final third, the resolution.” — Michael Moorcock
  • “In the planning stage of a book, don’t plan the ending. It has to be earned by all that will go before it.” — Rose Tremain
  • “Always carry a notebook. And I mean always. The short-term memory only retains information for three minutes; unless it is committed to paper you can lose an idea for ever.” — Will Self
  • “It’s doubtful that anyone with an internet connection at his workplace is writing good fiction.” — Jonathan Franzen”Work on a computer that is disconnected from the internet.” — Zadie Smith
  • “Interesting verbs are seldom very interesting.” — Jonathan Franzen
  • “Read it aloud to yourself because that’s the only way to be sure the rhythms of the sentences are OK (prose rhythms are too complex and subtle to be thought out—they can be got right only by ear).” — Diana Athill
  • “Don’t tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass.” – Anton Chekhov
  • “Listen to the criticisms and preferences of your trusted ‘first readers.'” — Rose Tremain
  • “Fiction that isn’t an author’s personal adventure into the frightening or the unknown isn’t worth writing for anything but money.” — Jonathan Franzen
  • “Don’t panic. Midway through writing a novel, I have regularly experienced moments of bowel-curdling terror, as I contemplate the drivel on the screen before me and see beyond it, in quick succession, the derisive reviews, the friends’ embarrassment, the failing career, the dwindling income, the repossessed house, the divorce . . . Working doggedly on through crises like these, however, has always got me there in the end. Leaving the desk for a while can help. Talking the problem through can help me recall what I was trying to achieve before I got stuck. Going for a long walk almost always gets me thinking about my manuscript in a slightly new way. And if all else fails, there’s prayer. St Francis de Sales, the patron saint of writers, has often helped me out in a crisis. If you want to spread your net more widely, you could try appealing to Calliope, the muse of epic poetry, too.” — Sarah Waters
  • “The writing life is essentially one of solitary confinement – if you can’t deal with this you needn’t apply.” — Will Self
  • “Be your own editor/critic. Sympathetic but merciless!” — Joyce Carol Oates
  • “The reader is a friend, not an adversary, not a spectator.” — Jonathan Franzen
  • “Keep your exclamation points under control. You are allowed no more than two or three per 100,000 words of prose. If you have the knack of playing with exclaimers the way Tom Wolfe does, you can throw them in by the handful.” — Elmore Leonard
  • “Remember: when people tell you something’s wrong or doesn’t work for them, they are almost always right. When they tell you exactly what they think is wrong and how to fix it, they are almost always wrong.” — Neil Gaiman
  • “You know that sickening feeling of inadequacy and over-exposure you feel when you look upon your own empurpled prose? Relax into the awareness that this ghastly sensation will never, ever leave you, no matter how successful and publicly lauded you become. It is intrinsic to the real business of writing and should be cherished.” — Will Self
  • “The main rule of writing is that if you do it with enough assurance and confidence, you’re allowed to do whatever you like. (That may be a rule for life as well as for writing. But it’s definitely true for writing.) So write your story as it needs to be written. Write it honestly, and tell it as best you can. I’m not sure that there are any other rules. Not ones that matter.” — Neil Gaiman
  • “The nearest I have to a rule is a Post-it on the wall in front of my desk saying ‘Faire et se taire’ (Flaubert), which I translate for myself as ‘Shut up and get on with it.’” — Helen Simpson

Even famous authors sometimes have a tough time with writing; they also go through periods of self-doubt. Despite this, they always manage to come up with the goods. So take a lesson from them and stop putting off your writing plans and get started on your publishing journey today.”

[found on http://www.iuniverse.com/ExpertAdvice/20WritingTipsfrom12FictionAuthors.aspx]

River Boat Writer

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“The process of writing a novel is like taking a journey by boat. You have to continually set yourself on course. If you get distracted or allow yourself to drift, you will never make it to the destination. It’s not like highly defined train tracks or a highway; this is a path that you are creating discovering. The journey is your narrative. Keep to it and there will be a tale told.” 

― Walter Mosley, This Year You Write Your Novel

Billy Wilder on Screenwriting

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[found on writingclasses.com]

“Billy Wilder was one of the greatest writer/directors in film history, having co-written and directed such classics as Sunset Boulevard, Some Like it Hot, The Apartment, and Double Indemnity. What screenwriter wouldn’t want a little advice from him?

Well, here are some of Wilder’s screenwriting tips: [From Conversations with Wilder by Cameron Crowe] 

    1. The audience is fickle.
    2. Grab ‘em by the throat and never let ‘em go.
    3. Develop a clean line of action for your leading character.
    4. Know where you’re going.
    5. The more subtle and elegant you are in hiding your plot points, the better you are as a writer.
    6. If you have a problem with the third act, the real problem is in the first act.
    7. A tip from Lubitsch: Let the audience add up two plus two. They’ll love you forever.
    8. In doing voice-overs, be careful not to describe what the audience already sees. Add to what they’re seeing.
    9. The event that occurs at the second act curtain triggers the end of the movie.
    10. The third act must build, build, build in tempo and action until the last event, and then—that’s it. Don’t hang around.”
[found on http://www.writingclasses.com/InformationPages/index.php/PageID/270]

Writing Tips From Max Lucado, Best-Selling Author

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By Audra  Krell

“It was his first time attending a writing conference. He is a best-selling author who has written more than 50 books and has sold 65 million copies of his work. Yet it was also his first time speaking at a conference. Although he was on unfamiliar territory, New York Times best-selling Christian author Max Lucado spoke of the tools writers have, at the Writing for the Soul conference in Denver in February 2010. Below, find his best tips on subject, discipline and clarity for writers.
*   *   *   *   *
MAX SAYS: BE PASSIONATE
• Your subject must be so worthwhile that it keeps you riveted to your chair.
• Because of your passion, you write without ceasing until it’s finished.
• Strong topics and subjects cause writing to happen from the soul.
• Desire to work your writing through, so the reader doesn’t have to.
 
 
MAX SAYS: STEADY IS AS STEADY DOES
• Make a date night with your notebook. If you sit long enough, you’ll find something to write about.
• With disciplined writing time, you’ll grow to appreciate your work.
• Good words are worth the work.
• The only thing better than writing is when your words connect with the reader.
 
 
MAX SAYS: ON A CLEAR DAY
• Get your book down to one sentence. Every paragraph must pay homage to that sentence, or it doesn’t get to play.
• Every word must earn its place on the page.
• Write concise but not shallow.
• Revise for as long as you can.
 
 

Good writing will go where we never can, and reroutes the trajectory of life. It seeps into the farthest corners of the world and the depths of a reader’s soul. Readers let authors into their private moments by inviting the author to speak through their story. Although it’s a challenging invitation, it’s valuable and authors should accept. Clear thinking will deliver your words to their destination. Most places are far away, and require a long, long chair ride. Do not begrudge the hard work of getting it there, this generation needs the best books you can write.

For his final point, Max reminds the writer to let every part of the process work. “Sentences are like just caught fish. Spunky today, stinky tomorrow.” Let editing do its job. That way, you will put forth good, passionate writing, which will reach readers where they live.”

-by Audra Krell

How to Write a Play

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[found on backstage.com]
“1. The play does not always start at the beginning. Sometimes the first scene you write ends up in the middle of the play. This happens because when I write, I’m really channeling the voices of my characters.
2. A play is made up of moments that the character experiences as the story is revealed.
3. Ernest Hemigway said: “Good writing is true writing.” The best writing comes from trusting your gut feeling!
4. Even though every play or story has a beginning, a climactic moment, and a resolution, i stay true to the story by not trying to control it.
5. Teach the audience through laughter. The audience is able then to sympathize with their struggles and acquire a new sense of understanding for the world in which these characters live.”
[found on http://www.backstage.com/advice-for-actors/first-person/5-tips-writing-play]