Guest Blogger: What to do if You Have Just Decided to Write a Book by Brenda Berg

So, you’ve just thought of a brilliant idea for a new book. You may have had this idea a couple of weeks ago, and it’s been brewing in your mind. You’ve been trying to think of how the story can start and end and all the other twists and turns that will happen in the middle. But come on, if writing a book was easy then everyone would be doing it. Whether you’re writing fact or fiction, here’s a list of things you need to know now so you can make your career as an author as successful as possible.

Remain Quiet and Collected

The first thing you may want to do is to run outside and scream from the rooftops about your new idea. Kind of a eureka moment. However much you feel the urge to do this, at this stage of your career, don’t. Friends and family, despite meaning well can put a lot of pressure on you. It’s fine to tell a few people about your idea but don’t advertise what you’re doing. That stage is later when you have something to show them.

Be Real

I’m not saying that your idea isn’t the next big hit and they’ll be making films about you and your successes in years to come. However, until that time comes, you have to keep your feet on the ground. It’s very rare that the first publisher you go to will love your idea and front you a few million to keep you going. Writing is hard work, and initially, you’ll get very little money back. Statistics show that over 6,000 books are published around the world every day, so you’ll need to work hard to make yours stand out from the next.

Create Your First Draft

Now that your head is screwed on and your feet are on the ground, you can set about writing your book. Aim for the first draft. From start to finish, write your book once all the way through, chapter by chapter. You can be sure they’ll be bits that you want to change as you go, feel free to do so, but this will simply be the foundation of your work. If you can, seek the help of professional writers, such as the ones at State of Writing. They’ll be able to help you plan your work as well as providing you with tips if you get stuck.

Continuously Rewrite

When your first draft is complete, you need to go back through several times to rewrite. It may pay at this point to take a break for a week and let your ideas collect before reading through again. You may want to change the story in place or bulk up some characters. This is easily the most time-consuming part of the process. Some writers may even go through their work more than 50 times.

Finalizing: Part One

Let’s say you’ve gone through your story 100+ times. You’ve read it through and maybe even had a family member or friend read it through and they love it. Great, it’s time to start finalising your work. To start with, you’ll want to edit and ensure all the grammar is correct. You can do this yourself or promote the help of a professional service, such as UK Writings. This will allow you to refresh your skills as a writing, picking up on grammar mistakes that you may have forgotten about or developed bad habits of using, a common practice that many of us writers fall into.

Finalizing: Part Two

The second step of ensuring your content is ready for the primetime is ensuring that no aspects of your work are plagiarised. This is essential as, even if not deliberately, you may have accidentally copied someone else’s work. This is a copyright violation and, if not completed, you may find yourself with an expensive legal battle. One of the most popular websites among writers is Plagium and Academized that ensures this task is free of plagiarism and carried out to a professional level.

Finalizing: Part Three

The third and final part of finishing your work is proofreading. After all the other checks have been completed, one final proofread is essential to make sure everything is ready for the public eye. Again, you can do this yourself, but it’s highly recommended that you invest in a professional service, such as Write my paper. It’s extremely difficult to proofread work that you’ve written because the mind tends to read what it thinks should be there, sometimes missing mistakes. A second pair of eyes is always recommended. Once this has been completed, your book is ready for the public eye! Good Luck!