HOW TO GET STARTED WRITING

 

Hi wonderful authors! This is Michelle Files of TheAuthorFiles.com. I'm here to help you with all things author related.

A little bit about me:

At the moment, I have written and published a couple dozen books in the mystery/thriller genre. And I'm currently writing a new thriller series. I'll update you when that series is released. Okay, that's enough about me.

Are you new to writing? You've come to the right place.

The very first step, before you can do anything else, is to figure out how you are going to write. As in, with what instruments.

Sure, this sounds super simple. But it's a bit more complicated than that. It's probably the very first thing you will need to figure out, even before you decide what you will be writing.

Can't afford a fancy computer and software? Don't know how to type? It doesn't matter. You don't need any of it, at least not until the book is actually written. At some point you will need to get the book into a digital format though. But you can hire someone to do that if you like.

You can start by writing with a simple note pad and pencil. Sounds weird, huh? It's not.

James Patterson, best selling author for like the last couple of decades, has said that he plots all of his books with a notepad and pencil.

If JP can do it, so can you.

Okay, you probably already have a computer. That's great, and it will make things easier in the long run.

Writing software, such as Scrivener, is fantastic to write your book with. Don't have it? Not a problem. Tons of authors write with whatever Word Processing Program is on their computer. But I do recommend that you get it at some point.

So, before you worry about what your book is going to be about, start with the tools that work for you.

Personally, I write on a Mac in the Scrivener software. Now, some people will say that Scrivener has a steep learning curve, but I haven't found that to be the case at all. Of course, there are lots of bells and whistles in the program that I don't use. So, I found it to be super simple. And they have tons of tutorials to help you figure it all out. You just need some time, and the willingness to learn.

Once you get the book written, you can format it for ebook and print book distributing right in Word, or in Scrivener. But, Vellum makes it extremely easy to do. More about Vellum in a future post.

Check out my website at TheAuthorFiles.com. And I love questions. So please feel free to leave a question or comment below. I will read all of them.

 Happy Writing!

Michelle Files

Here's a book I recommend to help you get started:

Michelle Files writes Mystery/Thrillers, Small Town Dramas, and Non-Fiction Books for Authors. She is also a professional copy editor and proofreader. Find her at MichelleFiles.com or TheAuthorFiles.com.