Anybody Can Write a Book

Hey. You finally made it. Good thing you didn't get lost. Good question. How is this suppose to happen? How does one become a writer? How does one go about writing a book? Hmm. Let me think. I'll have to get back to you on those questions. Finally, some tough and challenging questions. This could really turn into something interesting.

Ya. You do that and bring back some fries as well. Hii

Hi. Hi. Hi.

I highly doubt a publisher would print something that isn't good just because there are 10,000 words there. It would be sad if that were true. I certainly wouldn't buy any books like that even if someone published that type of poor quality work!

The genius of an idea is how it works without being too obvious. An aspiring writer has a problem. He needs to demonstrate and impress his publisher or any publisher for that matter that he is capable of producing a certain number of words within a given time period. So, what does he do? Simple. He looks for direction. How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Practice. Lots of practice. A certain number of words on any given subject is direction. Writing to produce this number of words is practice. And posting regularly in a forum is lots of practice. It is hard to explain the process without diminishing the power of an innovative idea. Only the results will prove whether it deserves its place in the writer's body of knowledge.

Word count is a widely-used metric in the publishing industry. Regardless of the quality of the work and how it was produced, word count is a key indicator of various aspects of publishing. For instance, productivity is easily measured by using word count per unit time. From such metric, the publisher is able to plan his publishing calendar and monitor for any problems. Other metrics come later once the writer conforms to this constraint and delivered his assigned number of words. A young aspiring writer is well-advised to adhere to such metric because it is difficult to demonstrate skill without some measurable output of words. It is too easy for a novice writer to object to such mechanical approach of looking at his literary capabilities in terms of numbers. He wonders, What about quality? Here, the novice writer failed to understand his own industry. Word count is a valid measure of quality.

You are right. 10,000-word book would be too short. But it can make a good e-book, you think? I shall try NOT to be intimidated by the number. When will I ever start? Actually, there is something going on in my life that I would very much would like to write about. But the ending is nowhere to be seen, because the situation has not been resolved yet. Thinking...

Yes. I agree. Writing a book seems risky when you are doubtful if a good ending could be found. Writing a perfect beginning and middle is surely an achievement, but without the perfect ending, your achievement won't see the light of day. I have one such work that's been in the shelf for several years now. It's one of those hey-wouldn't-it-be-cool-to-write-this-book idea of mine. Working Title: A Lotto Jackpot Story. It's basically a how-to guide (or a lotto gaming strategy book) and an account of how a lotto club achieved the impossible with this gaming strategy. Since it's non-fiction, I actually have to win the jackpot to provide a credible ending. I started the project just to test (or develop) my creative writing skills. I wanted to write something and this came up from a series of events. It took a year to finish, but for my efforts, I actually did produce a lotto primer. Now, I want to see how skillful I can be as a writer and find the proper ending for this literary work. Hmm. Maybe now is the time to actually finish this project.

How do you motivated yourself? This is a bit complicated to answer. Fortunately, it is not that relevant or important at this point in time. How do you get started? This, on the other hand, is easier to answer. Just start a discussion on your chosen subject and PM me a link. And I'll post a reply to make it active. This will allow you to post more stuff. P.S. I did a recalculation and it seems the 10,000-word book is too thin. The correct number may be significantly higher. Oh well, nobody seemed to have noticed it yet so I will let it be for a while before I post a more intimidating number.

Right now, my premise is largely based on my confidence with my own capabilities. But I would like to prove that my ideas work equally well for those who are not as capable. Anyway, since I'm writing a book about how to write a book, this will give me a chance to actually prove everything I've been saying so far. In about two weeks or so, I will have a "recommended" writing process ready for testing.

Word count is a metric used by publishers and editors. In fact, you will usually get a writing assignment with only two parameters: the topic and the word count. The target reader is implied, most of the time, because writers and publishers usually cater to a certain reading public. The deadline is also fixed for periodicals and probably for books as well because publishers usually have a target number of titles planned. Interestingly, we can gauge a writer's writing skill by how much he can produce in a given period of time (i.e., word count within a specific number of calendar days). It's a metric every writer should be aware of because it's the language every editor and publisher speaks.

Hmm. My grammar and tenses suffer from speed writing. Where is the edit button around here anyway?

Brevity is the soul of wit. However, you don't need to be so stingy or frugal with your posts. You can expound the ideas presented here with your own.

sorry bloggeroo that's what I do always so i cant change it.

By the way, asking questions will encourage you to write some more. So, if you find yourself short of ideas to write, just ask a question, any question. Try that some time in any discussion here at myLot and I'm sure you'll be writing a lot.

I share your concerns about the difficulty of writing a book. But there is an interesting insight in a software engineering book that I find applicable for solving this problem. The author said that we expend too much of our energy trying to anticipate and solve unknown problems. It is much better and easier to proceed with what we do know and solve little problems that we are familiar with. Having done that, we are now a little wiser and the big unknown problem is now a little less intimidating. We have succeeded in moving forward towards a goal. A book project is a collection of little problems that we need to solve. We do not need to be all knowing and solve them all at once. Pick something you can solve today. Then, do it again tomorrow. And then one more time after that. Hmm. This is good stuff. I could surely use all of these in my book. Anyway, don't mind me. I'm writing a book on how to write a book.

You are thinking ahead of yourself by assuming that a publisher or editor will not be interested in what you have written. With 4,000+ posts beside your name, you have already done a lot of writing. For you, what is needed is an editor (or publisher) who would take whatever you have written and focus your writing into something publishable. Once you can accept the idea that you can indeed write a book, you can open up possibilities for yourself. Of course, when I said anybody can write a book, I didn't say everybody can become a J.K. Rowling or a Dan Brown. That is a different proposition altogether. What I merely said is that writing a book is not as difficult as we imagined. With the internet and online publishing, it is very easy for a person who is frequently online to actually produce a book. Most of us are not aware of the process because our writing is not intentional and a book is not our intended outcome. I'm just pointing out what may not be obvious. I'm just an observer who's telling you of possibilities.

One way to help your group is to use myLot as a place to refine your writing and members of your group to meet online. I would suggest posting a key idea or topic here at myLot and see how readers would react. But you have to be subtle about it. Posting the topic without hinting to myLot readers that you're writing a book is the best approach. Besides, myLot rules states that personal information should not be posted here. It takes a bit of getting use to, but once you just treat myLot as a kind of writing software or tool, you will be more productive and before you know it, you have completed your book.

Becoming a bestselling author is an entirely different problem. But I think even that is solvable. For now, my proposition is just limited to producing a book and guiding the aspiring author towards that goal. Someday, as a published author of several books, I may have the insights to suggest possible solutions to the "bestselling author" problem.

Like you said, it is easy to write 200 words about a single topic. Writing 10,000 words require a different approach. And usually, conducting research is the ideal starting point. In fact, publishers and editors will demand to see your research. The bibliography or the list of references about a writer's chosen subject matter is not a trivial decoration at the back of the book. It is an essential part usually undertaken from the very start of a book project. The bibliography demonstrates a writer's proficiency or mastery of his chosen subject and the arguments surrounding it. The easiest way to start writing is to pick up a book, read what the author has to say and then decide whether you have a better proposal or solution for the same readers. If you feel that you have better or different ideas, writing is your chance of contributing to the ongoing discussion. This thread can provide an interesting example of what I just mentioned. If you agree with my proposition, then you have nothing to write. If you disagree with my proposition, but have no ideas of your own, again, you have nothing to write. It is when you disagree and you have a different idea on the matter, then you have something interesting to write. By just adding your reasons to your disagreement on any subject, you can give yourself a motivation or justification to write. If you want to be a writer, disagree with everybody, but have a reason ready because that is your ticket for getting published.

If you have seen a high-rise building being constructed, you probably don't have an idea of what it will finally look like. Only the project engineer has the big picture. The same is true in writing a book. It's like an engineering project. The person who's job it is to manage the book project knows what it will look like in the end. Usually, the editor or publisher fulfills this role. But certain writers with strong opinions or a unique perspective of the world can actually assume this role. For beginning writers, it is my professional opinion that somebody else should perform this role. Somebody should say, We're going to write a book about moneymaking (or some publishable subject). That person, the book project manager, knows what will be written, but he won't be doing the writing. That is the job of the writer. Since you already acknowledged that producing 10,000 words is doable, the hardest part for you is delegating the role of book project manager to somebody else. Making a judgment that something is impossible to do is assuming the role of project manager. If you want to write a book, you will have to let go and let a better person do the job. Somebody optimistic is better.

From a scale of 1 to 10, the desired quality of a book is a matter for the writer to decide. Simply saying that a book with a quality rating of 10 is beyond the reach of most writers does not tell us much. A writer with a desire to write a book with a quality rating of 10 is not interested to know that he lacks the skills and resources to undertake such project. He may already know that. So, it is a moot point and hardly relevant. What an aspiring writer is interested to know is the answer to the more pressing questions: Under what conditions can such a book be written? Can I afford the costs? Where can I acquire the needed resources to reach my quality objectives? I don't deny that there is a cost for writing a book, but we cannot presume that simply because the costs are high that no writer will be prepared to pay the price. The book is still doable. The writer just have to pay the price for the right quality.

I have already started writing my book. It's a how-to book on writing and publishing a book. By next week, I'll have writing processes in place that will allow me to work in varying conditions.