Write & Finish Your Book

Finding ideas
One giant leap?
Writing is work
Making time and space for writing
Starting
Tone and voice
Writer’s block
Checklist


Finding ideas

If you do not have a new idea, expand an article you wrote. If you have already written a short piece about a particular subject, you have some knowledge of that subject and very likely an idea of what else could be written about it or related subject. Extend the ideas and knowledge in that short piece into a book.

Write about something you know well. This may seem obvious but many writers ignore a subject they know well simply because they think it is too common a subject to be of interest. Even very common or basic subjects are not well-known to all and even those who know a subject are willing to learn more about it.


One giant leap?
Few of us know much about Whitefella Neopaganism at this stage. Little information is available. (Whitefella Neopaganism is European Neopagan lore embracing the white Australian mythology, culture, landscape, flora and fauna.)

However, many of us know a great deal about the European Neopagan lore and that is essentially the basis from which Whitefella Neopaganism stems.

Choose a topic that is familiar to Neopagans and write about it as it is specific to Australian Neopaganism. For example, herbal correspondences are a familiar subject. Use your knowledge of the hows and whys and whens of European herbal correspondences to write about the correspondences of native Australian plants. Find out which correspondences already exist and which don't. Write about how you use the existing ones and propose additional ones to complement them.

Whitefella Neopagan lore is still in its infancy. European lore is thousands of years old and we forget that it too once had to be discovered and discussed. Our own lore can only be made by discovery and discussion and you have the opportunity to make your mark.

Think about what whitefella lore you would use if it was available. Do you know something about it? Can you find out? If existing Neopagan texts and community knowledge are not sufficient, mainstream texts and field guides make a good starting place. Imagine the information in them as it would appear in the form of Neopagan lore and look for the gaps in the knowledge. Choose a gap and start making notes.

If you are not confident about the lore itself or about your writing, start small. Choose a small managable part of a bigger subject rather than the whole subject. For example, write about the iconic native plants or animals or the natural seasons of your area. Write an article about what you are confident about, write another article, then perhaps another one. When your book begins to form in your head, you are ready to make an outline then start writing it.


Writing is work
Everyone wants to be a writer. It is a universal ambition. Everyone can picture themselves on a talk show, the audience clapping as the host holds up the book, signing books for a queue of fans, admiration of friends and strangers, and so on.

That is not writing a book.

Writing a book is about working to write a good readable book and finishing it. If the thought of the work to be done between the idea for a book and its completion leaves you cold, think hard about whether you are cut out to be a writer.

For some writing is easier than for others, but for all published writers writing is work. It is not unpleasant work, it is simply not, if you intend to complete a book, some idle occupation to be fiddled with every now and then.

If you want to be published, treat writing as work and get on with it.


Making space & time for writing
Writing is not exile from the world.

Successful writers make time and space to write within their everyday lives. They put a desk in the spare bedroom or set up their laptop on the dining table after lunch, put the answering machine on and the baby down for a nap, or put in earplugs and write on a laptop on the train to work. They make time and space.

Telling yourself you can’t write unless the conditions are perfect is telling yourself you can’t write.

Get out your diary and mark in a month of writing time. Choose a regular activity in your life that is less important to you than writing a book, and replace it with writing.

Half an hour a day is enough, an hour is even better. Every day you write is a day closer to completing your book.

If you find it difficult to re-focus at the start of the daily session, read the last few sentences you wrote the day before.


Starting
Few write or complete a book. Get started and you will be completing your book while others are still thinking about starting theirs.

Make an outline (see Outline Your Book). Write out chapter headings and write two or three sentences of description for each chapter. An outline is a table of contents of a completed book. It is a map to where you are going and a guide to how to get there.

An outline will show you what you do have and what you do not have. And once you know what you do not, you can set about getting it with research and writing. It is an invaluable writing tool, and one successful writers use.

You do not have to write in chapter order. That is, you do not have to write chapter two after chapter one and chapter three after chapter two.

If you get stuck on chapter two, go on to another chapter, any other chapter. The aim is simply to keep writing.

Write one book at a time. Sometimes when writing up an outline, a writer realises there is a second book to be written, a sequel perhaps or a related book.

Write up a second outline and put a few ideas and notes into it then go back to the best idea and write that book.

Focus is vital. Trying to write two books at once destroys focus.

It can be hard to choose between ideas if you have more than one, but if you don’t choose you will never get started.

If you lose focus, return to your outline.

If your outline itself lacks focus or has the wrong focus for this book, it is time to re-do it. Cut out everything that would look good in your book but is not strictly necessary. Look at what you are left with. That is the core of your book, the focus. Is it the right focus or does it need to shift slightly to make a better book? Does it need to be set aside in favour of another idea it has inspired? The outline is not cast in stone. It is the map to a good book and so it needs to be the right map.

Outline Your Book


Tone & voice
Trying to please all of the people all of the time results in vague, weak writing. Picture a group of readers or a single reader who would be interested in the subject you are writing about and write for them.

Never speak down to your readers. Think of them as pleasant intelligent people who wish to gain the knowledge you have and speak to them as an equal.

Let the information speak for itself. Do not try to sound like an expert. Just write what you know and write it clearly. Readers appreciate books that are easy to read.

Do not write to impress people. Writing a book to completion is enough to impress most people. Getting it published is even more impressive.


Writer's block
Writer’s block is often seen as some huge unstoppable outside force and a writer in the grip of writer’s block may simply stop writing and hope it goes away. This is a mistake. It may not go away for a long time and meanwhile the book goes nowhere.

When you run out of things to write on chapter two, simply close it and open chapter six or eight. This is the most effective way to avoid writer’s block.

If it is writing itself that is the trouble at the time, stop writing, choose something from your to-do list and do it. It might be to re-read a particular piece of research or make a decision about whether chapter four would be better off where chapter nine is. If you have five minutes left of your scheduled writing time, do a five minute job. Do that job and you have progress on your book.


Checklist
1. Outline
2. To-do list
3. Schedule time for writing & researching
4. Start writing


Recommended reading:
GLP's Publishing Guidelines
Outline Your Book


This file found at http://gythasblogofshadows.blogspot.com/