I Want to Write a Book. How do I Start?
Following the pattern of all good blog posts, I will proceed to give you a long-winded introduction before getting down to the answer.
I saw once that 80% of Americans at some point want to write a book. I don’t know if that’s a real stat, I don’t know if it’s true, but I would say that the number of people who want to write a book is truly staggering. In the cultural consciousness that is western thought, it’s a common idea that writing and books are dead - or at least dying. I wonder how that can be the case if year-over-year more books are being self-published than before.
There is the commercial argument. There is a surprisingly robust sub-community of writing that looks at it as a purely money making venture. The sharp spike of children books, self-help, activity books (crosswords, colouring, etc), and other niche topics is largely from those people. There are those who proclaim success online, and openly flaunt their financial achievements after creating these books, I wonder how much of it is true, but that is not for me to judge.
I’m more of an optimist, a foolish idealist to some. It’s my belief that as people drift more and more away from story telling, something in them yearns to return. Story telling is the oldest profession, contrary to what others might say. Before there was language, we grouped around fires and told tales about where the ripe berries were and where the prey animals found water.
As the human mind evolved, so did our desire for stories. Instruction manuals for survival were no longer sufficient, so we looked for patterns in our day-to-day. When the crop was good, it was the sun god’s doing.
Stories were critical to our origins as a people, and they’re important now too. Look around at the cultural zeitgeist, stories are everywhere.
When I first wrote my first book, friends and family congratulated me. I didn’t understand it. Strangely enough, neither did they.
They thought that writing a book was difficult because books are long. Because for most it takes months or years to finally finish it.
That is an achievement, yes. BUT, the real challenge is just below the surface. The lay man doesn’t know of it, or they don’t consider it when they clap you on the back or sing your praise.
Writing the book is where your problems start.
The Ground Rule
So you want to write.
Welcome.
First lesson, writing is a job. It is work. That doesn’t mean you need to do 9-5, some jobs are part-time, and some jobs only need you once a week from 9pm to midnight.
I say this to prepare you for what’s ahead. If you do not have the willingness to grind it out, you will improve very slowly (or sometimes not at all), and you will probably not be successful. Some people say: “I do this for fun. I don’t care about success.” That’s perfectly valid, but understand that there are those who also use that as an excuse to take writing casually, to never finish a book, or get caught up in the worldbuilding instead of the writing.
For the purpose of this post, I’m going to assume that you want to write a good book, and maybe one day sell a few copies.
The Actual First Lesson - Ideation.
Now that that’s out of the way, let’s get to it.
As you might have guessed, writing starts with an idea. Ideation.
I’ve learned from my own experience and working with clients that sometimes, ideation is a tricky temptress. It’s very easy to get caught up in what feels like a great idea, but is suddenly not robust enough to stand on its own as a story. So how do I find out what’s a good idea and what needs to be built on? If I had the magic answer to ideation, I’d be on a private island somewhere in the pacific, sleeping on my bed of money.
There’s a school of thought that say, ‘write what you know’. I’m not here to say, don’t do that, but I think the average person’s life experience does not translate well into a book. Just because something happened to you in your life, does not mean it’ll be a good story. The same goes for characters. Characters are not people, they are fictional creations. If you try and take a person out of your life and make them into a character, it’ll probably be boring. Feel free to take pieces of a person’s personality, or speaking style, or physical tick, or experiences — just not the whole thing.
It comes down to: be flexible, don’t write yourself into a corner.
At this point, you’re rightly thinking: ‘well Matthew, you haven’t actually answered my question.’ Correct.
A good starting point is a strong premise. The premise is often a 1 sentence explanation of your story idea. Adrian Tchaikovsky said in an interview that his premises often start with ‘What if _____?’ This doesn’t apply to all stories, but I’ve used this for my own and found it to be a strong starting point.
Think of the premise as your hook. What is the thing that will make the reader want to pick up your book? Do not confuse your premise with your synopsis. Having a clean, punchy synopsis is critical to a book’s success when publishing or self-publishing it is a different piece. Just like the heart and brain are both important, critical pieces of your body, they are still different.
Where it gets tricky is that there is not just one type of hook. For Romantasy (a popular genre in 2026) your hook might not be a premise, it will probably be related to your characters and how they interact in your story.
I don’t want to get too deep in the weeds, if I could distill it into one thought, it would be this: having a good starting point for your story (the result of your ideation) is helpful and makes things easier. But it is not everything. You still need to build on it and you can always adjust, add, or remove elements that don’t work or weaken the story.
This ties in nicely with the next step.
Step Two. Prep.
If I haven’t rustled any feathers to this point, this is where I will definitely upset some people. You’ve completed step one, and you have a sense for what kind of story you want to write, you have an idea for what generally happens in the story, and the characters that will execute your ideas. The next step is in the title. Prep.
There are two schools of thought when it comes to prep. There are the outliners; and there are the discovery/pantser/free-form/gardener writers. As a quick aside, it should probably tell you something about the unfocused tendencies of the second group the fact that there are so many different words for this group while outliners have never been called anything besides outliners (in all the videos/books/lectures/interviews I’ve seen).
Outliners create an outline. This is takes many forms which range from sticky notes on a wall, to an entirely separate document complete with short form historical events, graphs, and incredibly detailed maps. I will go into greater detail on how to make an outline in a separate post, but the basic idea is that you need somewhere to organize and lay out your thoughts so you create the outline. Broadly, you’ll want your outline to have a rough breakdown of what happens in the plot, a summary of your characters, and whatever you deem important to write down and remember about the setting.
Discovery writers don’t use an outline. They write, and discover their book as they go. If you have any experience writing, you know how difficult this is.
I have an opinion that is not widely held in the writing community. I believe this is because the writers are empathetic by nature. This leads them to be more accepting of alternative methods and broadly taking the stance of ‘anything works’. Unfortunately, this is true to a degree. You can write a great story about anything, you can use any method to get there, and what some might say as a rule is just style — and your style is different from theirs’.
However, this also bad advice to new writers slip in. Since you’re here, reading this, I assume you’re a new writer. It is my strong stance that the SINGLE MOST HARMFUL PIECE OF ADVICE that is widely given to new writers and accepted is that: discovery writing is a perfectly acceptable technique for new writers.
It is not. I have to go on a quick rant. Skip ahead and look for ‘rant over’ if you’re not interested. Writers are naturally entrepreneurial, but instead of creating a business, they are creating stories. Some entrepreneurs sell themselves to sell their product. The bigger platform they have, the bigger platform their product has. Elon Musk would not be as successful as he is if he stayed out of the press and was just a quiet CEO of an electric car company. It’s the same with writers. Not every writer and/or entrepreneur seeks notoriety, but many do — and it is a valid strategy to move units.
Stephen King is a well known author. You probably know about him. You might not know, that he is a prolific discovery writer. That is the system he uses and that is what he promotes. He promotes this system, because it helps build his status as a true savant and to-the-bones author. Just like how you probably heard stories, read books, or watched movies where the main character is ‘The One’, you may have some part of you that wants to be ‘The One’. And if you don’t, why? Being ‘The One’ would be amazing. You wouldn’t have to work hard and dedicate years of your life to focus on getting better, you would simply be better than everyone, after all — you are the one.
Stephen King says he started writing at six or seven, he sold his first short story at twenty. That is thirteen to fourteen years of practice. He also studied English and became a teacher for it.
When I hear the excuse of ‘it prevents my creativity’ or ‘I just don’t have fun when I outline’ or ‘when I outline, I feel like I’ve already created my story’ I can’t help but shake my head. It feels like an excuse that the wider community just accepts and allows. If you are writing your first book, do you believe you have it in you to just create a great book? Are you ‘The One’? Or are you a human being just like the rest of us.
I will tell you what doesn’t get said. The vast majority of discovery writers struggle on their first book. It’s all vibes and excitement and ‘oh the love of writing’, until you hit a wall. For some, it’s on chapter 4; for others, it’s chapter 20. But, you probably will find that wall. It’s not your fault, no one expects you to know how to write a story on your first one. So when you stop and don’t know what happens next, or you look back at what you’ve made and realize it’s not all that strong, what do you do?
Some people quit. I know people who’ve said they picked up writing. I didn’t warn them properly and a few months later, they just give me a shrug and said ‘I don’t know, it just stopped working.’
But you may not be like them. You might actually finish the book. But do you know how to fix it? If you finish your book and you realize that one character doesn’t have an arc, or this plot line is weak and should be remove or combined with another. Are you going to make all those changes?
I would argue: no.
If you lack the discipline to create an outline, I doubt you have the discipline to make those changes. Yes, it’s rude and mean. BUT IT NEEDS TO BE SAID. Discovery writing works for Stephen King because he’s written so much, and he knows how to peel his work apart and make the big systemic changes that inevitably come up in the editing process. Famously, his first book was thrown in the trash after a few pages because he didn’t think it was good. His wife fished it out and convinced him to finish it, but there is a different universe where that book was never published and maybe he never made it. If he stopped to outline, maybe he would have seen that it’s shaping out to be a great story and never would have dropped it in the trash.
Don’t get caught up in the hype and good vibes. Write an outline, plan out what your story is going to be. If you want to keep the magic when you’re writing, that’s fine, then be vague and high-level in your outline. There’s no excuse. String together a few sticky notes, write out in a document the start and end state of your characters. Outlining does not have to mean writing out every scene, it can be as vague or specific as you want.
Having a handful of sticky notes still leaves HUGE gaps in your story to fill it in with your on-the-fly creativity. It’s no excuse.
Writing is not easy. Take it seriously. Do better. Become better. You owe it to yourself.
Rant over.
Step Three. Write the Damn Thing.
Be as consistent as you can. Some people set word count targets, others spent time spent daily or weekly.
Try to plug away consistently.
Everyone writes differently, but I’ve found that sitting down for longer sessions is where I work best. My first hour is often slow and unproductive, but after that I hit a stride that usually stops at hour three or four.
Try not to compare yourself with the speed or productivity of others. It’s non-sensical and it would be silly to be discouraged by how quickly someone else works. Even if you use it motivate you (as I did when I started), it’s common for that energy to turn negative at some point.
But I won’t sit here and honestly try to tell you how to work.
Step Four. The Dreaded Revisions.
Everyone has a different system. Writers who work at publishing houses might go through a dozen revisions before a book is done, I know that on my first book I went through six.
What’s important is that the number of revisions is greater than zero.
I understand that some people will finish their book and say: ‘well, that was terrible. I now know what not to do’ and proceed to writer their next book. I think that’s acceptable, but I would argue that even if you think the book will never be read, that you should learn how to go back and make changes. Once again, this is a job, one where you want to get better.
If you have truly no idea what to do in the revisions, I’ll give you this, revision #:
Obvious edits. You probably have a series of notes somewhere for all the things that you already know you want to change, insert, remove. Make those adjustments before trying to clean anything up.
Initial proofreading. Make your own effort to review your manuscript and find all the errors. No matter how hard you try, you’ll probably still miss mistakes. Don’t beat yourself up. It’s normal. But this also means that you shouldn’t keep reviewing the same passages, chapters, or the whole manuscript over-and-over again until it’s error free. While you’re on this editing pass, try and also look out for continuity errors that you might have made accidentally or as you adjusted elements on the fly.
After you’ve done these two revisions, there are more editing passes that you can do. You may choose to do them yourself, or you could get some outside help. I will always suggest outside help, whether its paid or unpaid depends on what you can afford.
Humans have a hard time seeing their own blind spots. Even if you catch errors or known broadly what you need to change, that might just be the surface, or maybe you’re not thinking about it correctly because you’re too close to the work.
Step Five. Outside Help.
This is usually where you have a decision to make. You have a few choices before you, ask yourself which one are you?
I don’t want to spend any more money on this story. I want to move on to the next.
I’m willing to invest time but not money.
I have money saved up and I want to improve this story to make it sell better.
I have no expectation for this book, but I do want to improve this story and my writing.
If you’re #1, just skip this section. If you’re #2, you probably will want to investigate free options for alpha readers or try writing groups to get feedback. If you’re #3 or #4, read on ahead.
Here is some terminology to better understand the world you’re walking into.
Alpha/Beta reader. These are readers who will go over your story, or a part of your story and give their feedback. Sometimes, they’ll give you big advice, but often it’ll be along the lines of: I liked this, I didn’t like the story, this character was annoying, maybe change this, I was confused by this part, why did this happen? Treat Alpha/Beta readers as the budget version of a developmental editor (definition below), and sometimes these people are free or paid services.
When it comes to editors, there is overlap in definitions, and it varies slightly.
Copy editor. These are individuals who will go over your manuscript and look for technical errors in grammar, spelling, punctuation, syntax. This is usually the cheapest form of editing as they prioritize speed and give your manuscript an initial pass of edits.
Line editors. These individuals could be considered as a leveled-up version of copy editors. Line editors will look line-by-line for the same technical errors but also identify weak sentences and make changes to improve: flow, clarity, consistency, tone, pacing, and more. Essentially, they make your writing better.
Proofreaders. Like copy and line editors, these individuals will read your book and look for basic errors and continuity issues. Treat this like a final pass to make sure there’s no glaring problems.
There are some that roll these three types of editors into one, and just call it line editing or copy editing. It’s confusing.
Developmental editors. Or to some, structural editors. These people will go over your manuscript and identify weaknesses in your story elements (plot, characters, and setting). They’ll look at the overall structure of the story and the overarching pacing. Developmental editing is the most important type of editing, but it’s also incredibly subjective and hard to measure. It’s very hard to make a surface-level judgement call if a developmental editor is good or bad.
Depending on if you have the budget to hire these editors, this is how your revision count could potentially balloon.
What you have the budget for, and the amount of work you’re willing to make changes will determine what you choose. What I would say still is this: on my second book I hired a copy editor with the hopes that he would fix my bad writing and everything would be fine. I didn’t realize how big my story-level weaknesses were, and that hampered the overall performance of the book.
Initially, I looked at the book as a failure. I’d invested a good chunk of my disposable income and it felt like it barely had an impact on its sales. But, I did learn a lot about my own writing. The editor helped point out the common mistakes I made and the weaknesses that I’d adopted into my writing.
That is all to say, even if you don’t believe your book will do well, or you find it hard to justify spending so much on something that will yield little return. Instead, consider it an investment into your future writing, a hands-on lesson in how to write better.
As soon as I did that, I didn’t feel nearly as bad about the money spent.
Step Six. You’re Done. Or Are You Just Beginning?
Hypothetically, you’re done. CONGRATS. You wrote your book, it’s stellar and now you feel the void in your chest. You’re not alone.
Assuming you want to put the book out there, you can either get it published at a company or do it yourself, or in other words, self-publish. Warning! Be very careful when dealing with self-publishers, or small presses (some call them vanity presses). Self-publishers will charge you a fee and do things that you can do with relative ease yourself. Vanity presses will offer to print your book and give you a few boxes with a hundred copies of your book, it’ll be up to you to sell it.
I would probably suggest avoiding either of them. At worst it’s a scam and they’ll just take your money, at best they are charging you a fee and providing very little value to you. You can self-publish your own work and do a better or equal job for a fraction of the cost. Printing your own copies of your book is also dangerous, there’s not many places to sell physical books. Book fairs are an option but expect 0-4 sales each time you go. Book stores, distributors, and big-box retailers exist but they almost never just take some Joe-schmo off the street and stock their shelves with your book.
Indie Publishing is also a viable route, but it is fraught with danger. Be very careful about who you work with and make sure that they give you a contract to sign.
Back to the more common options. Option one is called traditional publishing. There are companies around the world that might want your story, will pay you an advance, work with you to make it as good as it can be, then publish it online and in book stores. With each sale, you’ll get a royalty cut but only once your advance has been paid off. If the publisher fails to recoup what they paid you ahead of time, you won’t see any royalty money.
Almost every big name author you’ve ever heard of is traditionally published. The problem is that publishers can only work with a certain number of authors a year, and their margins aren’t the best so they’re not very willing to take a chance on people. This means that most publishers will outright ignore any submission ‘off the street’. If you hope to find any success on this route, you’ll need an agent.
Agents are also in limited supplies and just because you have an agent, does not mean a publisher will work with you. Like Authors, a publisher will only work with Agents they know and trust in most cases. Agents are good at sniffing out good books from bad books, so if your manuscript doesn’t meet a minimum threshold of quality, you won’t even get in the door that leads to the actual door.
When you break it down, traditional publishing companies will generally focus on these 3 core activities:
Use in-house editors to make the book better.
Market the book online, physically, and through other channels you might not have access to (bloggers, booktok, traditional media).
Handle distribution of physical copies locally and/or globally, once again using channels you do not have access to as an individual.
As a bonus, they will also give you an advance payment of money to help address your expenses while you write or work with them on refining your book.
On the flip side is self-publishing. Self-publishing sounds great on paper. You don’t need to get through any doors and you don’t share your royalties with anyone except the printing/distribution companies.
In response to the core activities of trad publishing companies, you can:
Hire freelance editors, but to get it at the same quality as a publishing company, you will have to spent probably >$6k USD. This is the absolute minimum and I anticipate it will still be more than that (unless it’s with ProjectK Publishing :])
You can market your book online, but you will struggle when it comes to physical marketing or more traditional channels. Even if you decide to market your book online entirely, I would think that these companies know the tricks of the trade better than you.
Local distribution can be handled by companies like Draft2digital, IngramSpark, and Amazon KDP. They will take their fees, but you can still make some money off each sale. Just be aware that as you try and get your book in other markets, you will into issues. This is where traditional companies with their local partnerships would pull ahead of you.
Broadly, understand that self-publishing has a greater potential for profit, but you will be taking on all those costs yourself. If your book is poorly written, poorly marketed, or just not right for your genre/market, you may end up throwing a bunch of money at the problem and not seeing a result.
——
In conclusion, writing a book is one of the more difficult things a person can do. But, it’s worth it.
If you’re truly here to attempt or perhaps to refine your skills at this herculean task. Welcome.