Got a Good Idea for a Book?

This another in my occasional series on the book writing process.

Have got a good idea for a book but are not sure where to start? Here are some things to consider:

Develop Your Idea
Every new book starts with an idea but often it doesn’t end up with it.
The first thing you need to do is try and flesh out the idea. Mull it around in your mind for a few days, asking questions, such as, ‘what if I change this’, ‘what happens when I do this,’ ‘what if I add this.’ When you’re happy that your idea has some form and shape, you should write a one or two-page summary then start to develop it into the style of a book by writing it out chapter-by-chapter. You can do this linearly with a list of chapters, starting with chapter 1 and finishing at say, Chapter 40. Add what you know about your new novel into each one, but of course at this stage many of them will still be blank.

 

If a linear list seems a bit boring to you, you could use a spatial approach such as Mindmaps but whatever you do, a chapter-by-chapter guide will help you. It not only gives you guidance when you are about to write, it keeps track of plots and sub-plots, characters, threads etc., and at a glance gives you the balance of the novel; the balance between action and inaction, the appearance of certain characters, frequency of fights scenes, love scenes etc.

 

I said earlier you might not end up with the idea you started with, this is because as soon as you begin to develop a novel, stories often take on a life of their own and you might find that your idea is no longer the main focus of attention. In some cases, the idea might not be strong enough to be developed into a novel and could end up as short story, part of another book or a blog.
In the same way as you developed chapters, you should now do the same with characters. Write a bio for each one and get to know them well. This helps to maintain consistency throughout your novel and at this stage, you should decide their status in life – if they are  married, do they smoke, drink, drive fast cars etc.

 

Can you Write?
It’s a discouraging thought but it takes around 100 hours to learn anything proficiently and in book terms this equates to about a million words. It goes without saying that the more we do something, the better we get at it, and this is equally true of writing. What about all those successful ‘first-time’ authors we are always reading about, I hear you say. In many cases, they are nothing of the sort, as many have already written half a dozen novels that were never published or were previously involved in a job such as journalism or editing that requiring much writing. In my case, I wrote several complete books, numerous half-books and developed dozens of ideas for novels before I published my first novel. That said, it is not impossible to find authors who have not written a word since leaving school and are now riding high in the sales charts – look at E.L. James.

 

Will it Sell?
Lofty authors will say they don’t care if their book sells, they just want to see it published. Let me tell you, there is nothing more dispiriting than finding your book unloved and un-reviewed at number 350,000 in the sales charts, while other less worthy novels are riding up the charts, supported by dozens of great reviews. Two questions to consider.
1) Is your book aimed at a particular segment of the market, be it romance, crime, paranormal? Cross-over books, e.g. a vampire detective, rarely work as they are difficult to target at a particular audience, and it is best to avoid tired and over-supplied segments, e.g. misery memoirs and another ‘girl on the train.’
2) How will it be marketed? This, for many, is the difficult part, as after spending months writing, editing and re-editing, you can expect to sell around 35 copies with just the support of family and friends. To improve this, we have to move into the realms of PR and advertising, but as a first and relatively inexpensive stage, you should copy the good habits of established authors with a well-edited and proofread script, an eye-catching cover and blurb, a professional website and a presence on social media.

 

The Future
Do you only have 1 novel in there? That’s a shame as nothing sells a novel quite like another one. Imagine you are the author of six novels and a little piece of advertising done for your new book attracts a number of new readers, chances are you will sell copies of your new book and a number of your earlier titles to each new reader.

 

Further Information
There is more information out there than you can ever hope to read in books, courses, websites, blogs etc. Look on author websites as many offer book writing guides and many publishing and writing courses are a good chance to meet other people in the same position as yourself.

The main advice I can offer is to keep writing, whether you think it’s any good or not. The next day you might think of a way of making it work and if you still don’t like it, you can always remove it at the editing stage.