Why do you want to write a book?

By Dennis Mellersh

In addition to learning about how to write a book, you might also want to spend some time answering, to your own satisfaction, the question of why you want to write a book.

Is it: For the money a book might bring? Is it because wring a book is something that might be fun to do?

Or is it because you love writing and a book could enable you to express some of the ideas you consider important and get those ideas out to the wider reading public?

The fact that you are doing research on the concept of writing a book, and that you are reading this article, shows that you are serious about your writing and that your desire to write a book is more than just a vague idea on a wish-list.

Well, what about the financial aspect?

The famous 18th Century writer and literary critic Samuel Johnson once said, “No man, but a blockhead, ever wrote except for money.”

Johnson, however, did not always follow his own advice. Although he depended on writing and editing to earn his living, he nevertheless wrote without payment expected in numerous instances, in order to disseminate his ideas.

There is a saying about living life successfully which advises us that we should “Do what you love and the money will follow.”

In the case of writing a book, this might be stated as a formula: 
Love of writing + writing a book = money

While it is difficult to believe something that specific, it is true that all of us are much more likely to successfully make a living if we do something that we enjoy and take pride in doing.

Writing, particularly writing a book, is too difficult to pursue seriously if the only motive is to make money from it. There are easier ways to earn a living.

However, there are possible financial rewards if your book is successful.

Just make sure you are embarking on this journey for the enjoyment and because you feel passionately about it.

Writing your book will thereby be more invigorating and personally satisfying.

If you try to write a book only for the money it will just seem like a lot of work and might lead you do abandon your project.

How to generate ideas for your book project

By Dennis Mellersh

One of the roadblocks in learning how to write a book is the tendency of aspiring book authors to wait for “inspiration” for ideas to stimulate their writing efforts.

There is a misconception that as writers, we need to experience that magical feeling of spiritual excitement, that moment of blinding insight, in order to produce ideas for our book writing efforts.

However, there is an orderly process involved in the production of ideas, and it can be studied, learned, and duplicated.

An example is the idea-generating process outlined by James W. Young, in his little 52-page book, A Technique for Producing Ideas.

The book provides an interesting journey in visiting the subject of how ideas are born and stresses that the process is something that all of us can learn – it is not magic, or inspiration-driven. In fact, the process is relatively simply, but it does involve work.

On the last page of the book Mr. Young summarizes his views on the “process or method by which ideas are produced."

First, the gathering of raw materials – both the materials of your immediate problem and the materials which come from a constant enrichment of your store of general knowledge.

Second, the working over of those materials in your mind.

Third, the incubating stage, where you let something besides the conscious mind do the work of synthesis.

Fourth, the actual birth of the Idea – the “Eureka, I have it!” stage

And fifth, the final shaping and development of the Idea to practical usefulness.

Are writers by nature unhappy?

By Dennis Mellersh

As we work at our writing today and think about the question of the challenges of how to write our book, here is some food for thought on the emotional makeup of a writer from the mystery and psychological novelist Georges Simenon*:

“Writing is considered a profession, and I don’t think it is a profession. I think that everyone who does not need to be a writer, who thinks they can do something else, out to do something else. Writing is not a profession, but a vocation of unhappiness. I don’t think an artist can ever be happy. ..If a man has the urge to be an artist, it is because he needs to find himself. Every writer needs to find himself through his characters, through all his writing.”

*Source: Writers at Work The Paris Review Interviews, Edited by Malcolm Cowley, The Viking Press, Viking Compass Edition, New York, 1959

Learning how to describe emotions and feelings in our writing

By Dennis Mellersh

One of the important abilities we need to acquire in our efforts towards learning how to write a book is that of developing the skill of describing emotion or states of mind by actively showing or demonstrating feelings or emotions.

This will make our writing, and therefore our books, much more vital and alive than simply using non-complex adjectives to describe an emotion, such as sad, dejected, happy or angry.

One aspect of this was discussed in my October 10, 2012 post talking about the need in good writing for showing instead of telling, particularly in fiction.

One of the emotions that many of us experience as we grow older is a sense that the wonder we felt about life and the world in general is less intense and childlike; and is now more tempered and mature.

If we are writing about such a feeling or emotion, it would be rather flat and less evocative to simply say that we have lost our sense of wonder or amazement about the world, compared to when we were younger.

By contrast, here are a few passages showing this feeling from the poem Ode:  Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood, by William Wordsworth.

It is interesting that Wordsworth considered it necessary to tell us in the title what the poem is about. My personal feeling is he could have let the writing speak for itself to deliver the meaning or message. He also wrote an extensive preface to the poem explaining it.

You may recognize some of these words from high school English literature classes:
There was a time when meadow grove and stream,
The earth, and every common sight,
To me did seem
Appareled in celestial light,
The glory and freshness of a dream.
It is not now as it hath been of yore—
Turn whereso’er I may,
By night or day,
The things which I have seen I now can see no more.
…
But yet, I know, where’er I go,
That there hath passed away a glory from the earth.
…
Wither is fled the visionary gleam?
Where is it now, the glory and the dream?
…
Though nothing can bring back the hour
Of splendor in the grass, of glory in the flower;

The next time you are reading a novel, other fiction, or any kind of book that interests you, consider paying attention to, and perhaps writing out passages, that demonstrate an effective way to convey feelings and emotions.

How to write a book: The role of writing materials

By Dennis Mellersh

The choice of specific writing materials seems to help some aspiring writers in their efforts to learn the art of writing a book.

Or put another way, some writers, particularly with fiction and poetry, rely on specific writing materials in order to set the inspirational mood they feel they need for creative writing.

Today with so many electronic devices available you would think that book writers would all be creating their books on tablets, desktop computers, or laptops.

But writing is a creative pursuit steeped in tradition, and throughout literary history writers have often had personal preferences when it comes to the media they choose to write with.

Charles Dickens, for example, who did not have modern writing devices available to him, wrote in longhand with ink and a quill pen, and generally wrote his novels on a specific size of paper which he cut himself from larger sheets of paper.

He could have written his books on regular sized paper with a pencil, but he had his own preferences.

Today many writers still choose to write with pre-electronic materials.  Some writers still prefer the tactility and overall feel of a typewriter.

Others may want to use a fountain pen with a specific color of ink and only write on a certain type and color of paper.

Whatever materials you choose, it is important to feel comfortable and to use the materials that get you “in the mood” for writing your book.