I want to write a book but I don’t know what to write about

By Dennis Mellersh

Sometimes the desire to be a writer who wants to write a book is just a vague emotion, inclination or desire. There isn’t necessarily a concrete idea of the specific book we want to write in our minds, we just have this urge to write.

For beginner writers this often can be summarized in the statement/question: “I want to write, but I don’t know what to write about.”

Having the freedom to write anything we want can be limiting or constraining, because in the early stages of learning to write, having this freedom of choice can be paralyzing – writer’s block in effect.

The successful children’s book author and writing instructor Judy Delton stated this problem well in her book, The 29 Most Common Writing Mistakes and How to Avoid Them.

Delton related a situation in which she became aware of a university student taking a creative writing class that she was struggling with. The problem is that in the course, for some of the assignments, the students were told they could write about anything they wanted to. The student said she found this “intimidating” and had trouble writing anything at all for the assignments.

Here’s what Delton explained about the challenge of not having a specific topic to write about:

“Everyone needs limits. If I say in a class ‘Write about bubble gum’, or ‘ink’, or ‘your vacation’, the whole class is writing in a moment. But if I say, ‘Write about anything in the world you want to’, they sit and look stumped. It is inhibiting. So set some limits for yourself, something not too big, and give yourself permission to fail.”

She also suggests that beginners in the process of becoming writers should realize that in the learning stage they don’t need to write about something “important.” The purpose is to get used to the habit of writing, by practising writing.

Worrying about the topic you are going to write about will interfere with your creativity.