How To Write A Book

In this videoI'm going to talk about how to write a book. Specifically how to write a novel. That's a very big topic, butI'm going to hit some of the key points that will at least get you started.

First of all decide what genre you want to write; what type of book. For example you may want to write a detective novel, science-fiction, romance or maybe horror like "Frankenstein"; or it might be literary like "Pride and Prejudice"; it may be comic. There are many to choose from.

The basic advice is "write what you like to read" because you have a passion for that, you understand the genre. Don't make the mistake of trying to chase a trend, because by the time you write a book that fits the trend, it'll be over.

Decide who your major character is; your protagonist.

And what happens to him or her; what's at stake for them; what's the overall shape of their adventure that's going to happen. Also who is opposing them. So that's where the conflict is going to come from: from your protagonist and your antagonist.



And you need to decide what the protagonist wants and who is stopping them; trying to stop them, and why. That gives you the overall structure of the story. If you know the ending, you also know what you're getting toward.

Now, some authors say they have no idea where they're going with the story. They just start typing and develop the story as it goes. It's easier for someone who has had many years of experience writing novels to do that, so I don't recommend that.

I recommend that you actually come up with at least an outline that has a beginning, a conflict, perhaps 5 or 6 steps along the way where the conflict escalates and gets more and more serious for your protagonist. You want this escalating conflict to lead to a big showdown: this is like the highest point of the conflict; the moment of truth. And whatever happens there, after that moment, will decide the ending.

And that's a very exciting moment in the story to get to, of course.

You also want to be sure that the resolution is coming from the story itself, not somebody coming out of left field.

So just to summarize some of the key elements of how to write a book, particularly a novel is to:
-Decide which genre you want to work in
-Who your main character is and what he or she wants
-Who or what is opposing that person
-The conflict that comes out of that opposition in stages that escalate
-And then a satisfying ending that resolves the story and comes from the story itself rather from outside.



When you master those elements you've got a pretty good start in how to write a book, particularly a novel.