Where Do I Even Start?

I have a feeling that around this January or even February time, it's this time where everyone wants to start something. You know what I'm talking about--it's time to start that workout regiment, or learn how to be certified in a skill, or for most of us--we want to finally write that book.

I'm totally with you there--writing a complete book has been on my Resolutions lists since I started the habit of making these lists. It's probably why I'm not totally sold on making a list like that since I obviously don't take them seriously enough.

Well, I don't think I can help you on the wanting-to-start-a-workout-habit (but I'm all ears if you know of anything that works!) but I think you and I can work together to get our rears in gear to get some books out there.

So what if you want to write a book, but don't even have an idea? Coming up with an idea is super easy, and can be fairly inspiring and exciting if you're passionate about the subject, but sticking with it to "The End" is what get most writers in a bind.

I actually had a friend of mine ask me, "Where do you get your inspiration from? How do you find creative ideas to write about?" That's a fairly good question, and I didn't even realize that I had an answer, because I always feel void of creativity.

I told him that the best way to be a writer is to be a d*** good reader. The swear is just for flair, but you get my point. Avid readers make the best writers, because if you know what you like to read, or what the public likes to read, then chances are you know what to deliver. You know you'll be working on a project that can go somewhere.

That's for any kind of genre, not just fiction or fantasy. You don't have to sell fiction or fantasy to make it in the market. For example, I work as an intern for Cedar Fort and I work with nonfiction. I thought I wouldn't particularly enjoy the things that I'm reading, but I changed my ways. I believe everyone has a marketable skill. To me, that means that you know something that I don't, and chances are, you could write about this skill or experience that you had that will be interesting to other people. We all have a bucket list of hobbies to tag onto our daily lives or things we want to try. You might be that person that can act as a Segway between the kernel of knowledge and the audience.

So maybe the best kick-start advice I can give is believe that there's a book in you that needs to be written and read. Some don't ever come into being because the creator doesn't believe in it enough.

But back to the reader thing: avid readers ask questions. You don't have to be an English major to  know what a crappy ending looks like. Any kind of reader can appreciate a well-rounded character that doesn't fit in a stereotype box or does really cool things. As a reader, there are certain things that irk me, and most of them have to do with clichés. So when I sit in front of my laptop and I want to write something, I generally find myself writing characters or plots that reflect what I've learned from other writers. I explore the possibilities of creating a fictional character that could be mistaken for real life. Isn't writing sort of a way to study life in general? I take what I like and what I don't like and it affects my writing style so my book stands out from the other books.


For example, I'm not a fan of a main character that seems to "have it all." You know, the character that seems to outshine everyone and the other characters are just "side kicks," right? So for my books, I try to make my main character more "human"--because I believe that we're all the heroes of our own stories, but we learn things from other people and that's what makes us who we are.

If you still feel like you don't have a decent starting point, or you're just not "creative" enough, pick up any writing prompt book and just start writing everyday. I know, that's a lot of hoopla coming from me (didn't you enjoy my suffering and pity posts during NaNoWriMo?) but I did that for a Creative Writing class, and I found things that I found interesting enough to write about. You could write for thirty minutes answering a question or exploring something, and it could blossom into a full-length story. Prompts help you explore what you think about certain things about people, life, or yourself.

This could be getting fairly long, but in the next post, I'll share what I know about acquisitions, or that tricky step of getting people to actually sell your stuff. Again, this is a learning process for me, too, so I'm no expert, but if I can pass along what I learn to help others, by all means, hear me out.