How to Know If There's a Book Inside You
Ideas are wonderful inspirations that come to writers from a wealth of deep wells. Some writers spend months mulling over an idea for a book project. Inevitably, they arrive at the realization that an idea isn't always substantial enough to meet the word volume needed for a bona fide novel. So how can you know if there's a book inside you? Try write the idea until your muse exhausts or hits the proverbial brick wall. Leave the idea for a week or two. Then, try to restart from the last page. If the idea continues to flow smoothly, you have a book inside you that has potential.
The Truth Is...There's a Book Inside Each of Us
It's a true statement that life is a story that often has numerous twists and turns, colorful characters and odd, bizarre even, circumstances. Not every writer can reach best seller list level. If you love to write, just do it for personal satisfaction as well as a sense of compiling daily entries into life's journal. Thus, there's a book inside each of us if we know how to look for the basis of our story. For better or worse, we marry our fates to our continually evolving circumstances. Writing for the love of it brings out the inner individualism we are all born with. Writing also reflects our emotions and general fears and sensitivities as we grope our way through the maze of each twenty-four hour cycle of life.
Your Approach to Writing
How you approach your writing speaks volumes of your innermost motivations and thoughts. If you know how to apply fingers to a keyboard or pen to paper, your approach to writing is an opportunity to venture into your undiscovered talents. If punctuation and grammar are a problem, bone up on these basic elements of writing necessity. Approach your writing as you would any new adventure: with eyes wide open and spine stiffened to accommodate potential pitfalls. Expect obstacles. Once you confront the idea that life is the biggest obstacle to our sense of free will, you can overcome pitfalls and obstacles like a champion prize fighter. You'll need those boxing gloves because you'll find yourself sparring with yourself and those who would deny you the pleasure of doing what you love best: writing.
Take the Time to Study Other Writers
There are millions of writers in the big world of literature and media. Take the time to study other writers, myself included. This helps develop likes and dislikes in literary style. For me personally, I'd love to develop the unique writing simplicity of Chekov and combine it with the complexities of Virginia Wolff with a dash of Stephen King's elements of macabre. Yes. I know. That's impossible. Or, is it? Agatha Christie is my favorite writer. Yet, Christie is an acquired literary taste. As I trek onward, upward and forward in my goal of providing suspense novels with a focused subject, I know the path ahead is fraught with boulder sized obstacles. Only unbending literary willfulness prods me on.
Beware the Genre Trap
Most writers know the dangers of trying to switch tracks when writing novels. If you write suspense, writing comedic novels can be culture shock to your readers. The other genre trap is being at the mercy of contemporary reader interests. A writer who writes to their readership knows the value of developing their genre with each new literary contribution. Yet, it takes a writer with a bit of daring to break out of the ordinary and write outside the demands of the top ten best seller list. If you watch this list, you'll see the perpetuation and duplication of themes. If there's a book inside you, it should be one that has never been written by you or another writer. You can choose familiar topics so long as you approach them with your own unique brand of writing style and content. In other words, look for the furthest approach to a familiar subject. It's likely to be one that has yet to be written.
Accept Criticism and Rejection - Every Writer Has Done So
Learn to accept criticism even when you disagree with it. Remember that constructive criticism can be your best ally to moving ahead with literary skills. Be able to judge the difference between constructive and destructive criticism. You can accept the former and reject the latter. Rejection is another tool that helps good writers learn to tighten their literary aspirations. If you intend to be published, plan to be rejected more often than approved. Somewhere inside all of that rejections lies you, the writer, unwilling to be daunted by rejection and more than willing to soldier on to literary success.
Look for the Book Inside You
How do you know for certain there's a book inside you? Simple...there's a nagging and daily recurring thought that grips your mind and creates mass preoccupation. Your book is in that part of your brain that has stored away all those long forgotten ideas and opinions, hopes and dreams. Now...isn't it time to free those thoughts and start Chapter One?
