How To Write A Book

You've probably heard it said many times. Maybe you've even said it yourself. "It's just TOO HARD to write a book!" The truth is, though, it isn't that difficult to write a good book.

I'm going to walk you through it, step-by-step. If you follow these instructions, you'll have a completed book in no time at all. Will it be good? Well, that depends on what your definition of "good" is.

Let's get started on the writing and we'll worry about "good" later.

Notice I didn't say, "Choose a good idea. You have to throw away the notion that every "good" book begins with a "good" idea. Not all of them do. Sometimes you have to take your idea and rework it until it works. But that's a whole other story...

The first thing you have to do is choose an idea that you know you can pontificate upon. If you want to write a non-fiction book first, and you know nothing about antique cars, then for goodness sakes, don't try to write a book about that yet.

Choose an idea that you know something about. The easiest way to do this is to think about:

• What do you enjoy doing in your free time?
• What are some of your hobbies?
• What's your favorite section to read in the newspaper?
• What kind of books do you enjoy reading?

Your idea should be something you are passionate about. It should be something that you know a lot about. You might want to do a little more research to learn more about it, but overall, you know enough about the topic that you could write your book without any research at all.

Now that you have the topic for your book, it's time to do some research. Even though you might be well-versed in the topic your book will be about, you still want to do some research and have plenty of information to draw upon.

Use Google to search for the latest news and information regarding your subject. Take your research offline and head to the public library for even more information. Don't forget to browse through trade publications, too. You'll find lots of good information there.

Take lots of notes on all the information you find. These will come in handy when you get ready to start writing your book.

There is no "easy" way to write a book. So the next step you have to take is to just sit down and get started.

Take all the notes and research you've gathered and create a nice outline for your book. Create 10-12 chapter headings, then 4-5 sub-headings below each one. This will give you a nice, overall outline view of your book.

Now that you have an outline, start writing. Begin by expounding on each sub-heading. Think of it as writing lots of articles that will be compiled to create a full-length book.

After you complete this process, go back and proofread your book, editing for errors along the way. Get about three other honest colleagues to read it for you, too, and give their input.

VOILA! You have just written a book. :)