How to write your own book, have you had any experience?

Just start writing. See what emerges.
Or
You can plan it, chapter by chapter. Make a list of what you must cover.
Very exciting. Enjoy it.

Stop reading about it and just get writing. If you've not got anything written what have you got? Nothing.

Are we talking about fiction or non-fiction here? I have written and self-published a local history book which has sold well and continues to sell. I thought about it for ages then decided to just do it. I decided to give myself a year, otherwise it.might have gone on for ever. Do your research thoroughly and decide on your intended market first then just get writing. You can work out chapters as you go and decide whether to investigate publishers or self-publishing as you progress but it's important to.just get into the discipline of writing whether longhand or on your computer. I thoroughly enjoyed the research process. Keep all your paperwork organised. I have no experience of writing fiction but the process must be similar. Get those ideas down on paper first. I think the Writers Year book is very helpful and Writing magazine too. I haven't made a fortune but I have more than covered my costs. I feel it is one of the most enjoyable things I have ever done. Incidentally the title was one of the first things I thought of. Good luck.

Hello blue blossom. If you type Story Keeper into google, then go to it, Story Keeper is a guided way to write your life story. It interviews you, asking succinct questions, that wakes up your memory !! It is a bit like a ghost writer, you tell it everything, and it edits if necessary. You can take a year or so, or just a week! It receives your pictures or certificates etc, and records your voice for grandchildren to remember you.
Our son gifted it to us for about £100, but can be less, or more!
I’ve not started yet, but it looks incredible.

Sit in front of your computer and write a set number of words every day no matter how poor you think they are.
After a week, read and revise all you have written.
You will begin to realise whether you need to plan, research or simply get it all down on paper.

Then start work.

Before you go to the expense of publishing do get some honest opinions I have read some awful self published novels some I was unable to finish I know it wasn’t a cheap exercise I have read the occasional good one which I really enjoyed

Never plan… that would then be like filling in the gaps. Just let your characters emerge and live. On my fourth book now. 3 published. But I would say keep notes. Make a family tree with birth dates etc. Note the dates of anything significant. Before you send it to a publisher, go over and over it. Also get someone who doesn’t know the book to read it also. They may pick up thing , that you, so used to it, miss.
Good luck. It’s a steep learning curve but well worth it.

P,s, if you want to know about publishing, I am happy to tell you honestly how it has been for me.

The first title I was sure of. Being a trilogy the others followed naturally, and I design my own book covers .

The comment get someone else to read it. Not just read through but proof read. Not the same thing but I used to type reports for husband then proof read. Had to give up in the end and get a typist. Because if you have typed you are familiar with the script and miss mistakes my proof reading skills improved tremendously when I stopped typing
Hope your husband gets his head round it and enjoyed the journey

It's hard to find a traditional publisher who will accept a novel from an unknown writer. Two genres which publishers won't touch are cookery books (because all recipes are now on the Internet) and memoirs, unless they are written by a famous person.

Self publishing has become easier over time. I published my first novel in 2013, and the process of uploading it to Amazon was difficult and time consuming. In the end I paid someone to do it for me.

You need to have the kernel of an idea to begin with. Some authors prefer to plan everything out first, and others prefer to start writing and see where their ideas take them.

I am currently working on another novel and I am using the 'Living Writer' platform. It's useful for keeping tabs on characters and plot.

Whether I will finish it is another matter, but it's still there on the platform if I ever decide to work on it again.

I am writing my fourth novel now. It is going slowly as I don’t yet know my characters as well as in the previous 3 books. But I will let them sort themselves out. As I said I never preplan. But I have 3 box files full of notes and ideas. Lots of cross referencing of dates and places etc. Love it all. Like someone up thread has said, just start.

I started when sorting out DM's family papers which she left in chaos on her demise. My plan originally was just to research the branches of the families and make a document tracing family members for the information of DC and DGC. However, using various websites, I found references in B,M &D, old newspapers, censuses, court records, emigration lists...so much now available online, and so very informative. Her father's family had a fascinating and easily traceable history, and so I started in the 18th century with a military posting in Newfoundland and Boston during the American Revolution, and wrote an historical novel about the wife and family who accompanied the army, the tragedies that befell them , factually true as a skeleton of the story, but I fleshed it out with lots of research and travel, imagination and inspiration. It was a great success, and started me on the second part of the trilogy, the little boy who saw his mama die in childbirth during the siege and his papa seriously wounded at Bunker Hill....how that childhood trauma affected him in later life and I linked it with a scandal in his middle age, when he stabbed and killed his daughter's beau...PTSD before there was such a thing. He believed the young man to be a burglar or a threat to his family. The characters just flow from your fingertips once you get started and have imagined what they look like, their nature, dreams, fears, but guided by the outline of the real story, proved by public documents. Or you can deviate completely. I've just finished Book 6, about WWI, and the nurses who served on Malta. It's been fascinating, absorbing, hugely informative. Much more fun than simply recording Gt Aunt Mildred's basic details. Make her come to life, especially if you have older family who remember her and can give you clues as to her character. Good luck...once you get started, it becomes a total obsession.

That sounds splendid Boudicea. All my books are based in places I know but the characters entirely fictional. And as I was at art school, they have a decidedly artistic bent.

The content is up to him. I guess he has some ideas, or the subject wouldn’t have arisen.

Amazon self-publishing is the current no-brainer option. No up-front cost, order copies as required. You can order a batch at ‘author price’ for free distribution or personal sales. (But order one copy first, in case it didn’t turn out quite as expected!)
Write on a computer, in Word (or the free alternative, Libre office). Take a little time to learn basic formatting - use Paragraph Styles for titles and chapter headings, use the proper commands for entering, not a load of spaces. Then a DOCX file will ‘come out right’ in Amazon straight off.

Enjoy, and good luck!

I have written two non-fiction books for educational purposes. I had an excellent editor, a clear agreed plan of chapters and their focus and what the introduction and conclusions would say. Whilst fiction writing is different, you still need a plan, and a publisher. It’s also hard work.

I’ve tried to write my life story in the past and because a large chunk was really bad then I just can’t do it. I’d suggest he writes whenever he feels like it and takes it from there. Good luck to him.

My Mum started her life story chapter by chapter, then we proof read it and she had it published. She sold 300 copies for cost as she did not want any profit. There is a story in us all. She passed 6 years aho, but her words remain. Get it done. She could have sold her story many times over, particularly with friends and local historians

I am currently on what I intend to be the final edit of a non fiction book - a new idea at the core validated by a senior academic at Oxbridge - and i think it is potentially very valuable to readers (yes i know we all like our own ideas! But i have had a professional editor say it should be published....) Anyway - i would have saved myself lots of editing later if i had spent more time planning a structure before i began writing. I like just to sit and write but know i do better work if I first plan.
However people are different. Good luck!

It depends entirely on what kind of person you are, whether you just start writing and see where you finish up, or if you plan the whole book beforehand.

It also depends on whether you are writing fiction, a biography, autobiography or a scientific work, as obviously in this kind of writing you need to stick to facts, and in the more scientific projects to formulate a hypothesis and prove or disprove it.

Perhaps you should try your local library and find a hand-book about writing the kind of thing you are interested in.

Why don’t you just start writing your first book and enjoy the experience or join a writing group where you can find like minded people and follow the advice of the tutor.

Writing professionally is a whole different ball game, for this you need an agent who deals with books on your subject eg adventure, historical, comedy etc. Then you find an author who writes your sort of book and find out who their agent is and submit your book to the agent to see if they will take you on. The agent then tries to sell it for you to a publisher.

If you successfully sell your first book to a publisher and there is a market for it, they will then ask for book 2 and give you a timescale to finish it in.

Writing and publishing is a tough profession hence I suggest writing for fun.

My son has been writing children’s fiction for about 20 years and it is a stressful profession and sometimes isolating , sitting in his writing office for hours, but he wouldn’t do anything else.

I’ve never written a book myself, but as a former German teacher and lifelong reader I’ve always had a certain interest in writing and literature. I also have a few friends and acquaintances in the book trade, so I’ve picked up a little about the process over the years.
From what I’ve seen, I wouldn’t spend too long trying to plan everything perfectly before actually starting to write. Of course, it depends on the genre. With some stories you probably need a fairly clear idea of where you’re going, while with others you can simply start writing and see where the characters and story take you.
Personally, I’d want to know roughly where the journey begins and where it is supposed to end, perhaps with a few important points in between, but I’d leave myself enough freedom to change things along the way. The first draft doesn’t have to be the finished book. That’s what revising is for.

A bit of thought must also go to what happens after the book is published. You may be content and proud to have your book on your bookshelf. …But perhaps you may want more; which is when publicity comes in. Who will do it for you ? Might you have to promote the book yourself?. ‘Meet the Author’ talks. Readings, signings etc. All stressful if you are not used to public speaking.