There are two kind of people who land on this page.
- Those who have been writing for a long time, perhaps since when they were a kid, and have now decided they want to take writing more seriously. So, they start googling “How to write a book” at 2 am because they have an idea for a novel they love, but this time, they want to create something worth publishing.
- Those who haven’t written much or anything at all throughout their life, but have developed either a newborn love for writing, or a story they feel the need to tell. The only problem? They know very little about writing and have no idea where to start, so they scavenger the internet to find out how to write a book with no experience.
Obviously, you could also simply be a writer on it’s fifth book who is struggling with this novel specifically. Perhaps you are writing in a new genre, or you are just stuck, which I get!
I would lie if I said it hadn’t happened to me before.
There are tons of resources online, both free and paid, on how to write a book, how to plot it, which method to use, etc… And they are great (take it all, learn as much as possible!), but, to beginners, they can feel quite overwhelming.
Don’t get me wrong. I am a writer and developmental editor. Writing is a craft that requires refined skills and you do need to study about it to grow.
But if you are a beginner, you mostly need to understand what works best for your writing, and which resources will be better for you. Learn as much as possible, but don’t make it too complicated.
Here’s a simple and intuitive method, perfect for beginners, to help you do just that and start writing your story, using one of the best, most popular tools among modern writers: sticky notes!
- Grab some sticky notes, and write down in them the scenes you have in your head for your story. Write one scene per note, it doesn’t to have to be detailed, just enough so you can recognise which scene is which.
- Put the sticky notes on a wall, desk, on the floor… just choose a surface and put them into chronological order.
- Now it’s time to look for the missing chain links: what do you need to add to make sure your characters can go from a scene to the next? Don’t think about the structure too much right now, we are just filling the holes, you can adjust them later. Just make sure there’s a beginning, middle and ending.
- Lastly, grab a piece of paper or open a document on your computer, and write down the plot you have so far. You can use it as a guidance to start writing your book right away, or to create a detailed outline for it.
And… you are all set to start writing you book!
Now, is this a perfect method? No, but it can be quite helpful to kickstart your writing journey.
Also, let me leave you a little note: it is going to be hard, and you will want to quit many times. There are going to be times when you won’t be able to write much, and times when you will be an unstoppable words warrior. You are going to second-guess yourself a lot.
It is all part of the process.
And I believe in you and your story.
If you want an extra help on how to figure out your story a little better, and follow a more structured process, here’s a blog post about the 5 questions that lay at the foundation of every novel, and at the bottom of this page you’ll find a module to download Map your Novel, a free plotting guide based off of them.
Now go writing! Your readers are waiting.
