The 6 Stages of Writing a Book

I have many friends who are writers, but we almost never talk about process. We don’t talk about process because what most of us have discovered is every writer works differently. Some people plot their stories first, others write an outline and so on and so on. I do none of that. I start writing and feel a flow and just keep going from there. I’m normally in about two or three chapters before I really know where the book is going.

Still, there seems to be a consistent process I go through. And in an attempt to talk people out of their fears, maybe this will provide something of a path:

STAGE ONE: Find a voice. This means writing until you really start feeling and “sounding” like yourself. This means working through the trying to sound smart season and the trying to be funny season and getting into the true voice that will feel authentic and true to the reader.

STAGE TWO: Find a subject. Some of the best books ever written were about nature or childhood or a summer in the woods. Your subject doesn’t have to be deep or “self help” oriented. If you’re speaking from your heart and being vulnerable with your audience, they will want to listen to you. Still, you’ll need a topic, a subject. Think of your subject the way a painter thinks about a bowl of fruit. You need to write about something, and hopefully something interesting. And if it’s interesting to you, it will likely be interesting to readers.

STAGE THREE: As the book fills out, begin to break down subtopics into chapters. It’s a golden rule for me to only allow one controlling idea per chapter. That means if I’m writing a book about childhood, I will only spend one chapter on my father and one on my mother and one on sports and one on whatever else. But only one idea per chapter. If your chapter is short, so be it. But make sure to have one topic and one controlling idea per chapter.

*Photo by shutterhacks, Creative Commons

STAGE FOUR: Write as many chapters as you can. Break them up into clear sections until the collection of essays begins to feel like a book.

STAGE FIVE: Figure out your chapter order. This means going through each chapter and seeing if they are building something. If they are, put them in the most obvious order. Then go back and make sure you are transitioning from chapter to chapter. End at least some of the chapters by leaping out to the thought of the next. Just give the reader a reason to want to keep reading. Shine a little light on the next step of the path.

STAGE SIX: Create a good opening and closing to your book. I do this last. I go back to the front of the book and I tell the reader everything I’m going to offer them in the book. It doesn’t have to be direct, but it does need to have some kind of intro. “This book is about grace, and without having lived through the stories in this book, I’d never have learned anything about grace…” and so on. And also a closing. Give people a chance to exhale and tell them again what they’ve learned. If you can, without being too direct, thank them for listening to you for so many hours.

After that, give the book to an editor and start getting feedback. I’d not request feedback before you feel like the book is done. And don’t get too much feedback. Just get enough that you can sharpen the book and then get a little more and so on and so on.

Anyway, that’s basically my process. Mine isn’t like most writers. Hope it helps you all the same.

The 6 Stages of Writing a Book is a post from: Storyline Blog