To Write Your First Book Follow These Steps

Ready to write your first book?! I’ve been writing since I was 8 and I love it. I’m here to help you get started on your dream of becoming an author with these simple steps.

You might have even attempted to start and sit staring at a blank page for 5 minutes, which feels like hours. To fight the boredom, you stand, move, and stretch maybe even grab a snack. Yet, a week later when someone asks how your book is coming, you think, “Book? What book?”

Without the right help, writing a book can be hard. You can end up making crucial mistakes, without the help of someone who’s done it before. Maybe you have always wanted to write a book and have the perfect idea, but you just aren’t sure where to start.

Ready to jump into how to write a book? Keep reading!

Find Your “Why” for Writing a Book

Having an inspiring book idea is just not enough. Before you put pen to paper or fingers to keyboard, you need to know your reason. Writing a book requires hard work but is the finished product is rewarding.

Long nights (or early mornings), extended weekends, emotional labor, and facing a constant self-critical process is required.

Need some help to find your why? Here are some common reasons for authors to write a book:

• Influence: To build authority.

• To give others an escape: If you write fiction like me, you might want to give others under pressure a safe haven to go.

• Desire project: To share an empowering story for the greater good.

• Income: For business success, financial gain, or to make a living writing.

• To have a getaway: A mental getaway can help you deal with your own problems.

• Develop a network: To encounter and connect with others in the industry.

• To transform lives: Books change lives and your message could empower others to make a change in their life.

There are no wrong or right purposes for writing a book! Your WHY will be unique to you and will keep you writing even when you may feel stuck.

Once you’ve determined your WHY, let that drive assist you in your writing. Keeping your purpose at the front of your creative process will make the writing process smoother and quicker than you thought possible.

Create Your Writing Space

The actual space where you write your book is critical. To prevent yourself from getting distracted be sure the area is not too loud, too busy, or too cluttered.

When your writing space is clean and tidy it is easier to focus on your writing. Experiment to find the writing environment that allows you to focus and write freely. Once you find the writing environment that makes you comfortable, go with it.

Set aside time to work on your book every day.

Creativity flows easier when you are consistent. Create a daily deadline to do your work — this is how you’ll finish writing a book.

Do not let yourself off the hook easily and never let a deadline pass. Setting a regular writing time and a daily deadline will ensure that you don’t have to think about when you will write. When it’s time to write, it’s time to write.

Set daily goals and deadlines

Try to write a page per day, get up an hour or two earlier each morning. If you write a page per day it is only about 300 words. You do not need to write a lot; you just need to write often.

Giving yourself something to aim for by setting a daily goal will keep you on track. You will start to build momentum if you make it small and attainable goals each day.

Get early feedback

Nothing hurts worse than having to rewrite the book you’ve already written, because you didn’t let anyone read it (I’m happy to help if you email me!)

To help you discern what’s worth writing, have a few trusted advisers give you feedback. These can be family, friends, or editors. To make sure you’re headed in the right direction, find someone who will give you honest feedback early on.

Finish your book

Millions of books go unfinished every year. Books that could have brought beauty and wisdom into the world or helped people. However, in one way or another, they never came to be. It is always the same reason: the author quit.

You might understand what I’m talking about, maybe you started writing a book but never completed it? You got stumped or didn’t know how to finish. Or maybe you did complete the book but had no idea what to do with it. It’s about to be a new decade and I believe in you as a writer. Once you’ve written your story, make sure to check out my blog on how to pitch publishers!