by M. J. Joachim

Created on: November 04, 2009

It's got to be the dream of every writer out there. Someday we will write the world's greatest novel. It will be captivating, riveting, action packed, sentimental, and it will move people. Back to reality now, because all that daydreaming isn't going to help you pay the bills, especially on your current salary as an editor and/or author. But if you could, what would you do to write that book? What steps would you take to make sure that your book was the best one ever written, and how would you take baby steps to at least engage in the process of writing that book right now?

*Get an idea (or several ideas that work well together). Anyone can choose a topic to write about, but you want more than an ordinary topic. You need an original idea, or an angle that hasn't ever been explored before. Perhaps there are several little things all related to one bigger thing, and you have unique thoughts about them. Yes, this could be the beginning. Now write it down.

*Explore your idea. Test it out and see if it will work. Do experiments if you can, training animals, mixing substances, observing reactions. Bring up bits and pieces of your idea in random conversation to get other people's reactions to it. One person might say, "Ah, cool." Another might say, "That's impossible!" After you've collected lots of information about your idea, you can decide how you want to proceed with it. You are going to see it through in the pages of your book, aren't you? Exploring your idea gives you some hands on experience with it, allowing you to elaborate when you unveil it in the pages of your story.

*Prepare an outline. This doesn't have to be one of those high school research paper outlines. It can be descriptive paragraphs that help you sequence things correctly. It should include table of content drafts, character entrances and descriptions, background information, and any details you will want to expand on in your book.

*Finally, start telling your story, jotting down simple background sentences at first. Then go back and fill in all the detail. Each author and book is different. You may choose to make skeletons of your chapters all at once, and then go back to fill in the essence of your composition with details, or you might simply write one chapter at a time, eagerly allowing the work to reveal itself through the power of your hands. The concept is yours, and only you have the genius to make it come alive.

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