Blogging About Writing Marketing And Publishing. Written By A Dummy.
The most common question is where do you get your stories from?
I’m not sure. Sorry. The fact I surround myself with colorful friends, and that includes my family, might help. Also, watch and read a wide range of subjects and ask what if questions.
That said, I can tell you what happens when I come up with an idea and how that seed gets used.
Firstly as this is my opening for this new blog that at least both of us will read, let me say something about the publishing world as I and many others now see it. And my opinion and a dollar will buy you a cup of cheap coffee. Its a proven fact!
[image error]
Publishing has changed forever…
There are many publishing options for anyone wanting to write. The days when the only authors you could find were those taken up by publishers, are well and truly gone. Does not mean it’s suddenly easy. There are no quick fixes and AVOID LIKE THE PLAGUE, any books or courses that promise otherwise.
Knowing you have a story to tell is the first step. Educating on how to write is the next. After that, write till your fingers bleed, then keep writing. Learn to write often and write well.
I will note here for any pending court cases about my own process in the book sections. But I will say that every story starts with a single line as this instructional slide shows…
Like pro creation, your amazing seed, (or egg) grows into a full page outline as you flesh it out. At this stage you or I may have only two of three parts, beginning middle or end. The missing element presents itself later. I then write up one chapter, just to get a feel for the story, to see if it grabs me. If it does then I go back to my word processing program, in this case Scrivener, and start building the book.
Building the book
I’ll write up as much as I can about my story, and what I think will happen, in one go. Its free flow time, the moment where your missing element may present itself. If not , you have an idea of what is missing from the off and it will sit in the back boiler. So, keep going. And don’t worry about a title, that may not pop into your head, or one of your beta reader’s heads until the book is in final edit!
My point is, write an outline. Don’t try to start a book until you are happy you know what is going to happen, to who, when and why.
The final outline step
Is to read through what you have. And the best part is, TA DA! you should now have your chapters right in front of you. As you read, natural breaks in the story should jump out. No? Then I’m weird.
Highlight the break. With Word, insert page break, in Scrivener, right click and ‘split with selection as title’. I just did this with my new work, and I ended up with, crap, have to go and check… Got it, 41 Chapters.
That will increase in number as the trend now is for shorter chapters. My trend.
I still don’t have an opening, or inciting incident, in the first and currently empty chapter. But that will come. Please…
So, when I sit down to write, I open up each chapter and there is my work plan right in front of me. Really helps when you only get short bouts of time to write.
That’s it.
Get started now!
Then come back and see if I can help you with the next part. I’ll think of something.
