istryj
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How to Try Writing a Book (For Dummies)
This is not a guide from a professional, but since I’ve been interacting with people in my online community for over 20 years who strive to write a book or a script for a visual novel, I’ve seen recurring problems that often lead to fiascos. Therefore, I’ll share my thoughts on easing the writing process if you don’t know where to start. I won’t say anything new – everything can be found in more serious literature that, for some reason, is rarely read.
Dictionary of Terms
Don’t try to write it all before you actually start working. Some people “burned out” at this stage, faced difficulties, and these were the last messages from authors. Working on world-building consumed all their time, leaving no room for creativity. Add to the dictionary as you write – it will save energy and keep you from trying to cram everything you’ve thought of into your novel.
Plot
You open a book by your favorite author, see a complex text, and it might seem like the text just appeared that way, printed as a monolith from the printer. Complicate the text step by step.
How Could It Look? Let’s Consider a Humorous Example:
We want to write a book; we have nothing. We need a hero. Let’s say it’s a young mage. What would he do? He is busy creating a magical staff of incredible power. Not interesting. He is busy creating a magical staff that his family has been working on for a thousand years. Yes. In the end, he creates it, but it’s still not interesting. Introduce an anti-hero who hates the hero (maybe the hero stepped on his cloak in childhood) and therefore steals the staff right after its creation. Not interesting. The anti-hero steals the staff, the hero’s girlfriend, and his beloved dog. There you go.
Since the staff is stolen, now there must be a chase. On dragons? Dull. On airships. There’s a whole guild of airship drivers who handle transportation in that world and are sometimes hired to bomb mages with bombs. Good. The hero chases the anti-hero, catches up with him, and a battle ensues. How do they fight? On staffs, it’s not interesting… Maybe our hero and anti-hero are nobles and have some sort of status weapon? Yes. Let it be “mawashi geri” – I don’t know what that is, never eaten it, but they say it’s a cool thing. Great – they take out their mawashi geri, and a fight occurs. The hero returns the staff. Not interesting. The staff falls overboard the airship? Not interesting. The hero’s girlfriend, along with the staff, falls overboard the airship, into the jungle where a clan of hermits cultivates their golden cores and hasn’t seen women in 10,000 years! There! End of the first volume.
Everything is written down, and we return to the beginning.
Dictionary of Terms – now we have facts about the world that are guaranteed to be in the book. Record them.
Now we can detail the first scene where the hero stands on the balcony of the ancestral estate and, patting his trusty mawashi geri on his belt, dreams of finishing his family’s work. Airships fly across the sky and occasionally bomb unlucky mages… Great.
Begin the second iteration where we complicate the plot. It turns out the hero’s girlfriend cheated on him with the anti-hero… boring. She cheated on him with the dog! Start describing details. Make as many plot twists with complications as needed, and we will have a ready plan and even written separate scenes. You can write the book.
This is not a guide from a professional, but since I’ve been interacting with people in my online community for over 20 years who strive to write a book or a script for a visual novel, I’ve seen recurring problems that often lead to fiascos. Therefore, I’ll share my thoughts on easing the writing process if you don’t know where to start. I won’t say anything new – everything can be found in more serious literature that, for some reason, is rarely read.
Dictionary of Terms
Don’t try to write it all before you actually start working. Some people “burned out” at this stage, faced difficulties, and these were the last messages from authors. Working on world-building consumed all their time, leaving no room for creativity. Add to the dictionary as you write – it will save energy and keep you from trying to cram everything you’ve thought of into your novel.
Plot
You open a book by your favorite author, see a complex text, and it might seem like the text just appeared that way, printed as a monolith from the printer. Complicate the text step by step.
How Could It Look? Let’s Consider a Humorous Example:
We want to write a book; we have nothing. We need a hero. Let’s say it’s a young mage. What would he do? He is busy creating a magical staff of incredible power. Not interesting. He is busy creating a magical staff that his family has been working on for a thousand years. Yes. In the end, he creates it, but it’s still not interesting. Introduce an anti-hero who hates the hero (maybe the hero stepped on his cloak in childhood) and therefore steals the staff right after its creation. Not interesting. The anti-hero steals the staff, the hero’s girlfriend, and his beloved dog. There you go.
Since the staff is stolen, now there must be a chase. On dragons? Dull. On airships. There’s a whole guild of airship drivers who handle transportation in that world and are sometimes hired to bomb mages with bombs. Good. The hero chases the anti-hero, catches up with him, and a battle ensues. How do they fight? On staffs, it’s not interesting… Maybe our hero and anti-hero are nobles and have some sort of status weapon? Yes. Let it be “mawashi geri” – I don’t know what that is, never eaten it, but they say it’s a cool thing. Great – they take out their mawashi geri, and a fight occurs. The hero returns the staff. Not interesting. The staff falls overboard the airship? Not interesting. The hero’s girlfriend, along with the staff, falls overboard the airship, into the jungle where a clan of hermits cultivates their golden cores and hasn’t seen women in 10,000 years! There! End of the first volume.
Everything is written down, and we return to the beginning.
Dictionary of Terms – now we have facts about the world that are guaranteed to be in the book. Record them.
Now we can detail the first scene where the hero stands on the balcony of the ancestral estate and, patting his trusty mawashi geri on his belt, dreams of finishing his family’s work. Airships fly across the sky and occasionally bomb unlucky mages… Great.
Begin the second iteration where we complicate the plot. It turns out the hero’s girlfriend cheated on him with the anti-hero… boring. She cheated on him with the dog! Start describing details. Make as many plot twists with complications as needed, and we will have a ready plan and even written separate scenes. You can write the book.
