Starting a new book? Don't know where to start? You've come to the *write* place!
For anyone, starting to write a new book can be a bit daunting. You may not know where to start, how to start writing, how to write characters, etc. Sometimes the process can be overwhelming, I know the feeling, but I've learned some tips that can make the writing process so much easier.
If you're more of a traditional writer, this process can also be done on paper, but I'll mostly talk about digital documents. Personally, I write all of my work on Google Docs, as it allows me to navigate easily through chapters and my notes, but what I've found to be essential is building the story through characters and plot.
Characters
Your characters are an integral part of the story, no matter what genre of book you're writing. It is important that they mimic the actions and emotions of people in the real world because you want your reader to relate, love, hate, and react to them. With that being said, give your characters some depth!
Making a character sheet can really help this process! I'll link an article explaining what a character sheet is with a sample sheet HERE that you can download and fill out yourself. A character sheet is meant to help you, as an author, create a full character. Some things I personally like to include in my character sheet include nicknames, ages, occupations, physical descriptions, wants, likes, dislikes, strengths, flaws, and history. It's important to put all the small details here so you can reference back whenever you need to.
Plot
Now for the important, and arguably the hardest part of the writing process. The plot is difficult to write because you want to avoid plot holes, or any areas that will confuse your readers. To build a good story, you need to have a good plot!
For some, writing is a journey, meaning you will let the story write itself as you go along. For others, a planning process can make the story flow better. I started out as a person who let the story flow, but now I find it easier to make an outline. Now, this can be tricky, as you can be very detailed, or not detailed at all.
Something that I am finding helpful in writing Never-Ending Nightmares 2, is a chapter by chapter outline. For each chapter, I wrote two paragraphs of what would generally happen. This way, when I'm writing, I can just look at those paragraphs for reference and expand it into however many pages that chapter will be. This has been SO helpful, as I cut out a lot of time thinking about what comes next.
Hopefully these tips are hopeful to your writing process! Part 2 will be how I set up my documents for starting a new poetry book!
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