How to start writing a book?
Look, I'm no professional or some expert. I'll just try to share my knowledge. Hope it helps you :)
1. Brainstorm a book idea
Write the book you want to read. You might have heard this phrase a lot of times, and that is a great advice. Write about a world you'd love to live in. Don't bother thinking about the genre first. Take a paper and let your heart flow onto it, without judging anything; it'll fall into some catagory itself. Think of the main idea first then let it fall into any genre rather than doing it the other way round. If you stll don't have a idea, don't worry. Writing prompt helps a lot. You can always search for writing prompts.
2. Outline your story
Write the underlying idea of the story, the message you wanna convey through your writing, in 3-4 lines. Then decide who your characters are gonna be and get to know them. And take you time with every step, it's not a race. Construct the settings and plot. Don't bother putting every event chronologically in the first outline. Your first outline is gonna be rough. Write down any idea you think is good for you story. Later you can always add or remove elements. Don't get too strict with your first outline.
3. Gather information
Do researches related to your topic. For instance, if your story is set in the time period of WW2. Research about how were things in those days, what was the condition of government, what were the needs of people and how they used to live. After that get some basic knowledge about writing. There are more than 1000 books written but only a few are successful. There must be a strategy. Prepare a strategy for writing and publishing. And if you're self-publishing prepare a strategy for marketing too, but first writing. After writing you can search about publishing and all
4. Stay with your idea
Writing a book is a long process, you need to stay with your idea, especially if you're writing a novel or a series. Plotting your story helps to stay with your idea. Try to immerse yourself in the the setting of your story. Get to know everything about your world and characters. If you don't engage with your story often, you'll start losing interest in it and That leads us to our next step...
5. Start writing before getting cold feet
Start writing before you start losing interest in your story. Don't wait for the perfect moment when motivation will hit you and you'll suddenly write a masterpiece. That perfect moment will never come. If you're done with plotting, outlining and your research, start writing now!
