Tidbits for the novice writer

Writing a book is not an easy task, but it is not as hard as everyone seems to think it is. Most people believe that book writing requires an extraordinary amount of things; some of these things are necessary and others are not that much, but they are usable.

Age

It is not that relevant, if the person is old enough to write his or her name, he or she can indeed write a book
Topic

If it is your very first book, the ideal thing is that you write about something that you are passionate and well versed about

Research

Once you get a hold of what it takes and how to write a book, then you can choose a topic and do the corresponding research; however, even if you are extremely well versed on a subject, it will never hurt to do some additional research, just to freshen your knowledge.

Materials

It is “greener” to do the writing directly on your computer, using a mechanical typewriter is indeed something that some writers prefer and for others having the simple notebook is what suits them; however, consider materials and cost of such materials: Paper, ink, pencils, pens and so on.

Alternatives to publishing your book

When you are a novice writer, the chances that you will find a publishing house that takes on your work are slim; of course, it is possible to get such breaks, but they are not as common as mass media books and movies portray. Yet, there are alternatives for a novice writer to being able to publish his or her work.

Shared publishing

Some houses like to try out new writers, but they are still a business that needs to have a secure gain to continue trying with new writers and at the same time being able to pay their employees. Therefore, they will publish your work just as long as you agree to cover half of the publishing expenses; you will have the endorsement of the publishing company and all the connections, you will just have to pay your half.

Author’s promotion

This means that the publishing house will agree to print your book, BUT you will have the sole responsibility to sell it nationwide. To achieve this, mostly you will have to visit libraries and other book stores and ask them to sell your book on commission, that is, if they sell any books, they will pay you minus their commission and they will return to you all the books that were not sold.

Publish online

There are many websites that will accept any and all works and present them to visitors, they will in turn participate on a voting poll and those writers whose books have the highest votes will be real-world published.

Submitting work for publishing

One of the most important things a writer can do is to submit his or her work to a publishing company. Getting published is one of the strongest achievements that a writer can obtain when he or she has completed a work, regardless if it is a book or a magazine article and without consideration on the type of text that he or she has written.

If you are a novice writer, you will certainly be tempted to send the whole work to each and every possible publisher, but there is no need to do that. It will suffice if you make a summary or even a condensation of the work that you have and submit this short compilation to the prospective publisher.

Keep in mind that it has to be short, but not that short that it will diminish the quality and impact of your complete work. That is, if your book is 300 pages, a 15-30 page summary will suffice.

But the most important thing is for you not to submit anything if you haven’t got your author’s registry yet. Once you have finished your work, make sure to make the short overall overview and submit that one too for author’s registry. As soon as you’ve got the registry for both of them then you are good to go.

Writer’s block

When you are writing, regardless if it is a novel, poetry or even a biography, there are times when you will find yourself blocked. Writer’s block is actually more common than what most writers are willing to accept or recognize. It means that you will have to look for an adequate solution that will allow you continue writing your book.

There are many ways to overcome the infamous writer’s block, each writer has to seek the one that will suit the best, however, here are some pointers:

Take some time off

Try to focus your activities into something that is completely and totally opposite to the thing or subject that you are currently doing your book on; if you are writing about or of poetry, seek something opposite like science fiction or even a horror movie to do the trick.

Work on something else

Sometimes the writer’s block appears when you are saturated in the subject; if, for instance, you are writing a biography of an important military character, then try writing a short story on fairies and goblins.

Do any other activity

Sometimes a writer’s block is caused by simple stress; performing any physical activity will help you get rid of such stress and as a result, you will be able to overcome the writer’s block.

Scheduled writing works?

Most writers say that they have disciplined themselves to write their “best novels” for at least 8 hours a day, until such time as the novel has been finished; this is indeed adequate if the novel is a historical, biographical or any other type of book that is based on actual events happening in a specific time and place.

But there are other types of books that are more “artistic” to name the overall style, they are fictional books that are not based upon real life events. Either because the place does not exist or because it is placed in an imaginary world with imaginary characters; either human or otherwise. It is indeed difficult – to say the least - to control inspiration in such a manner that you can experience it from 9 to 5 and then switch it off.

Needless to say, what happens with poetry, the ultimate artistic written expression; the poet cannot sit down at a desk for a specific time and develop what will constitute the fuel for human emotions.

Even still, there are those who state that there is no possibility of successfully writing a book if there is no schedule and deadline set in advance. Therefore, if you are planning on writing your first book, novel or even poem, then you need to seek what will work better for you; scheduled or not.