“Um… Question: How Do I Write a Book?”

It all begins with an idea. Maybe you just finished watching that new Netflix show and it had a great gist, but… it was awful. And it had so much potential. If they had just changed that, added this, taken away this character… Oh. So you’ve got an idea, have you? Cool.

It could also go a little something like this…

You—“Wow. Look at that rock.”

Other Person— “It looks like a dragon.”

You— *punched in the face with inspiration*

You see? Anything could give you an idea. But once you’ve got an idea, what comes next? You need a plot, character developing, world building, antagonists, protagonists… Did I lose you yet?

Let’s move just a bit slower.

Here’s the more in depth version:

Once you have your idea, hone it. Create characters, settings, a plot. Who’s in the story? Where are they? What happens?

Then you can ask yourself more questions, like the character’s backstory, what’s the history of the setting, etc. As many or as few questions as you like. Do not overwhelm yourself. It doesn’t need to be perfect. Actually, scratch that—first drafts are never perfect. (Mine was, uh.… We don’t talk about my first draft.) Just kidding! First drafts are important. They help us grow and notice what we’re doing wrong and what we want to change. 😉

Now you write! Don’t think too much about this—just write. Follow your story-line and be careful not to fall into plot holes. (More on those later.) Remember:

“You might not write well every day, but you can always edit a bad page. You can't edit a blank page.”

—Jodi Picoult

Once you’ve written your first draft, completely, you need to leave it alone for a little while. Long enough so that you’re prepared to catch your own mistakes, which, my opinion, anyway, is sometimes really easy, and sometimes really hard. What I mean is, as you’re writing you’ll likely love it. There will be no problems.

Or so you thought.

By giving yourself a little break you’re getting a new perspective. You see? Yeah? Good.

Now you edit it. Make sure that it makes sense—yep, your fresh eyes will catch mistakes you didn’t see before. Once you (think) you’re done, ask your older sister, brother, mother, father, best friend, arch nemesis—maybe all of the above—to read your book. These are called Beta Readers. Usually you want your beta readers to be your target audience.

Example: The novel that I am writing is a middle-grade fantasy, so I asked my best friend (13) and my older sister (15— I know she’s in high school but she’s my sister, so… does weird shrug slash hand gesture that clearly conveys “You know what I mean”) to read it and they are constantly giving me feedback. (It’s still not finished.)

Then you take some of the feedback to heart and you edit. Yes. Again. Hundreds of times. Half of being a good writer is editing.

Next you make your book cover. (If you don’t feel like paying a professional, you can make it on Canva yourself.)

And lastly, you decide if you want to be published. You can self-publish, (yes, that’s a thing) or you can reach out to a big company and pitch your book.

I’m still on rewrite. What about you??

Weekly Writing Prompt: Somebody gets bitten by a vampire but doesn’t realize it. Then, when symptoms begin surfacing, they pass it off as something else, because, vampires? Seriously?

— Leah Larkspur (13)