To write a book, you need to have an idea. Don't have an idea? Don't worry, there's many things that can give you ideas.
One of the ways you can get a story idea is to listen to a bunch of your favorite songs. For each song, try and come up with a story based on that song. This can help you get a start.
You can even look up writing prompts to help you. I'll have a book full of writing prompts and dialogue on my page for you guys if you want to check that out.
Another way to get an idea is to sit down and set a timer for five minuets (you can do longer if you want). Start writing and DO NOT stop until time runs out. It doesn't matter what you write, just write. It could be something like this for all it matters:
So the timer just started and I have no idea what to write abut so I'm just writing and I feel like my mind is blank wow I don't know what to do this is stressful like what even is writing
Obviously you would write more than that in five minutes, but that's just an example. Don't even worry about punctuation or grammar; just get whatever's in your head onto the paper. While you're writing, think of the first idea for a story that you can possibly think of and write it down. Once you're done, read it over and hey, maybe you'll get an idea out of it. I do this often in my English class, it's pretty fun.
Once you have your idea, you need to start planning! The easiest thing for me is to create an outline for the plot. Here's a blank plot outline that will help you!
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You definitely don't need to know EVERY detail straight away, but this should help you with the basic points and how to build up your story.
Character Outline You should create an outline for your character(s). (Make notes of their appearance, personality, etc.) It's extremely important to know your characters and their behavior. How will readers get to know your character when you don't know them yourself?
Chapter Plan You should also create a chapter plan where you write what will happen in each individual chapter. This will help you lots; it will motivate you to write the chapters and help you avoid writer's block!
If you do these outlines correctly, you will never get writer's block.
Here's some questions you should answer:
1. How should I start my story? This is tricky, if you're not sure how to write it. Just start writing something about the character you're planning to write about.
2. How is my story going to end? The answer to this should be easy. It can be something simple, or you can build up to an unexpected ending (plot twists; I'll talk about those later).
3. What do I think should happen in the middle of my story? It may be tough to answer this question, but you don't have to think of the center of the story in literal terms. Just write something that you believe could be the center point. It could be when somebody dies, a lesson is learned, or a mistake is made.
Here are five questions to ask yourself while you're writing a chapter:
1. How is my chapter going to start?
2. How do I connect this chapter with my previous chapter?
3. How would I like to end my chapter or HOOK the reader?
4. What do I think might happen in the middle?
5. What NEEDS to get done/happen in this chapter to keep the story moving forward?
It is important to realize that when you are writing, you must know when to stop. Don't keep the chapter dragging on and certainly don't have your story dragging on, either. If you can get rid of a part of your story and it still makes sense without it, then get rid of it. Try your best to only keep the necessary things.
Feel free to comment any requests you have, anything you need help with, and I'll do my best to write about it! The next chapter is going to be all about creating great characters!
