How to Write a Book

 

          I am clearing out my mailbag for a few weeks between blog series. From time to time, I get asked by aspiring authors how to write a book. While I do not consider myself an expert by any means, especially in marketing books, I have some writing experience. I also know nothing about writing fiction, so please factor that in. Understanding these caveats, then, in today's post, I will attempt to explain the processes I use that I have found helpful.

 

Should You Write a Book?

          Before discussing how to do so, let us briefly examine whether you should write a book. There are people who should write, who are not writing, and people who are writing who should not be writing. So which one are you?

          Writing is distilled thought. It is the best of the essence once you have boiled away the superfluous. If your thought processes are often unexplainably muddy to others or your explanations are often misunderstood, you should probably not be a writer. On the other hand, the more time you have spent thinking, organizing that thought logically, and expressing that thought to others, generally speaking, the better of a writer you will be.

          This is why pastors usually (not always) make good writers. They have not just experience but actual expertise in that process.

          Sound arguments convince people by moving from the intellect to the emotion to the will. You reason with them, convincing them of something. Once convinced, they begin to be passionate about it. Being passionate about it, they are moved to action. Most of Western society at this point, however, short-circuits this. Primarily, they seek to produce emotion and then use that emotion to move people to action. This explains almost everything you see on television and social media, for example.

          If you are in the latter category (emotion produces decisions) versus the former category (intellect to emotion to will), do not write. Why? Well, first, because you will not know how to do it. Writing emotional non-fiction is possible but is somewhat complex and, for that reason, rare. While writing produces emotion, it does not rely on emotion but on reason. If you do not know how to reason, layer an argument to convince someone logically, or unpack and examine a thought systematically, you will write badly. In addition to that, if you write emotionally, you will damage people. You will place their thought process and decision-making on a faulty foundation, one that is prone to harm them. I say again, if you are not a clear, logical thinker, do not write.

          Finally, please do not write a book so you can say you have written a book. The self-publishing industry is called vanity publishing for a good reason. It is sustained by people who should not write because they do not know how to write or should not write because they are writing for the wrong reason. Write because you have something to say and are good at saying it.

 

What Book Should You Write?

          While there is no one particularly correct answer here, several good principles are worth briefly examining.

          First, write the book you do not see on the shelf. What I mean here is this: if you are looking for a good book on a particular subject and cannot find a good one, then one needs to be written. Write the book you need because chances are, if you need it, other people also need it.

          Second, write what you know. Earlier, I referenced the fact I do not feel particularly qualified to discuss how to market a book. There would be little point then to me writing a book discussing how to sell a million books. I do not know how to do that. But I do know how to write a book. Ergo, in this blog post, I am writing what I know.

          This knowledge can be something you have gained by experience, by study, or by some combination of both. But if you do not have one or both of those to hand, do not write that book.

          Third, write your passion. Hemingway said, “Write hard and clear about what hurts.” I used that quotation in Schizophrenic for good reason. Writing that book hurt. In 1949, Walter Smith asserted that writing is not difficult; all you have to do is sit down at a typewriter, open a vein, and bleed. Yes, I am the same guy that argued your writing should move from the intellect to the emotion to the will. But if you care deeply about the subject you are discussing, that passion will reach out of the book, grab the reader by the throat, and compel him to pay heed to your words. On the other hand, if you care little about what you are writing, I promise your reader will care even less. And soon, will not be your reader.

          Lastly, write what God tells you to write. So many authors first ask themselves what will sell and let the answer inform their pen. What a sorry way to approach writing. The result is writing that appeals to the masses, that satiates their desires. Their mind is not informed, their heart is not filled, their life is not ennobled, their soul is not lifted, nor is their future helped by that kind of writing. Say what God leads you to say, and let Him decide what the result will be.

 

How to Write a Book

          First, do not write. Research. Read. Study. Ponder. Throw in other assorted synonyms here. But do not begin by sitting down to a blank page to see what develops. The stream of consciousness that results will help precious few.

          Let me speak plainly at the risk of being criticized for the next sentence. Only write a book if you have read at least twenty-five books on similar subjects. So you have read a book or two, displayed some knowledge about them in conversation, and some starry-eyed would-be acolyte whispered, "You should write a book, ya' know?" No, you should not. A little learning is a dangerous thing. It leads people astray, all the while purporting confidently to provide the answer. Reading a book or two barely helps you to grasp the questions at hand, let alone offer answers of substance.

Of course, I do not mean to be taken precisely literally here. Many authors have written wonderful books without reading a single similar book first. But I promise they had already banked the equivalent amount of information internally first. This requires hundreds of hours of study. If you have not gotten this far yet, put your pen down and go do it. Only write once you could be classified as an expert on the subject in question; that's the point.

Second, outline the entirety of your book before you begin to write. This outline may be complex or straightforward, but the critical fact is to have done it before you start writing. Why? Readers are leaders, which thus means writers are leaders of leaders. Writing influences people. It takes them somewhere. How in the world are you, as a writer, going to take anybody anywhere with your writing if you do not know where are going when you first begin? Yes, I realize as you write, other ideas will occur to you. Fine; graft them in. But build the skeleton first. One of my books had hundreds of pages of outlines prepared before I began writing. Another book had a one-page outline prepped. But there is always an outline.

Third, writers write. They do not talk about writing, tell others they are writing, or promise themselves they will write, et al. They actually write. To write a book, you must discipline yourself to write. Sometimes this is easy, and the words and phrases flow off your fingertips as if John Bunyan himself were writing. Other times you will have to fight for every paragraph. Yes, both of these will happen to the same writer and happen often. But you will not publish any book you have not written. So start writing and keep writing.

Fourth, do not begin with a book; start with some smaller writing project. Write a history pamphlet for your church's anniversary. Launch a blog. Compose a thesis. Journal for a year. Start with something smaller and easier to wrangle than a book.

This is true for a couple of reasons. Initially, when you begin to write, you will not be much good at it. Like everything, it is only done well when you have done much of it. If your first writing project is a book you actually publish, I can almost guarantee it will be a poorly written book. Go around the block a few times before taking off the training wheels.

Additionally, the larger the writing project, the more temptation you will experience to shelve it unfinished. This is true for veteran writers as well. In every large writing project I have undertaken, there have been several seasons where it just sat there for months on end, untouched. I was sick of it. But having experienced this sentiment before, I know how to fight through that now. But if you begin your authorial career by seeking to pen your magnum opus, you will never publish anything. If, by some freak of nature, you do publish, it will be bad. So do not begin with a book; start with something smaller.

Fifth, write your initial draft using your outline from beginning to end. No, I do not mean in one sitting; relax. <grin> I mean, write it all, front to back, before you attempt to rewrite or edit anything. Just write. There is little point in polishing Chapter One to a fare-thee-well if you never get to "The End." Additionally, your mind should flow from thought to thought in the same stream you want your reader's mind to swim in. In other words, you will write better if you move logically from thought to thought rather than dwelling too long on any idea. Just as well, do not write Chapter Ten, then Chapter Fifteen, then Chapter Four. Write it front to back, beginning to end.

Sixth, rewrite and edit. Ruthlessly. The difference between average and good writing is not the writing but the editing. What makes a book an excellent one is not what you put in but what you take out. Your soul will weep as you eliminate sentences and clauses and phrases, whole paragraphs even, but do it. Seek clarity. Seek impact. Throw away the urge to impress. Resist the desire to rush anything into publication. The best thought in the world may well be misunderstood or rejected by the reader because of bad phrasing, punctuation, or spelling. Do not harm your own book; only publish it when it is ready.

Ernest Hemingway

Seventh, follow the regular rules of grammar. Yes, you can break the rules, but only if you know them, know why they exist, and practice them perfectly most of the time.

Lastly, choose a publisher. At the level all of my readers are at, you will need to self-publish. I have my chosen approach here, but there may be a better way for you. At the least, in addition to a well-edited final draft, you will need a cover, an ISBN, the formatting on the inside, and a marketing platform or a way for people actually to purchase your book. Do your homework here, and choose something that works for your budget and your target audience. As part of this process, I would also advise you to consider where people buy books these days and how they read them.

 

          In Next, I write that a book is a child. Each one is related to its siblings but grows up to become something unique. There is an indescribable feeling of accomplishment the first time you hold your own book in your hands. It is not pride but the immense satisfaction that comes from having accomplished the difficult and the worthwhile. If the Lord is leading you to write, follow Him, but follow Him intelligently. God is not pleased by slap-dash work; do it well. You will be pleased, in the end, that you have, and your readers will be grateful.

          Now – go get ‘em. <grin>