How do you write a book?
It's a great question, albeit unfocused and difficult to answer. Plenty of people want to write a story and there are lots of tutorials on how to do it, so let's boil this question down to the starting point. Before any words land on the page, a writer needs an idea.
The beautiful thing about writing is these ideas can come from anywhere, and we have a range of stories across the world because of it. Now don't confuse finding an idea with plotting out an entire book. That is the cart before the horse and I find many people get intimidated by the idea of writing because they think they have to have the whole book figured out up front.
For some people, this is true. We call these people "plotters", in that they like the have the whole story planned out before they sit down to write. On the other end of the spectrum are "pantser", who write by the seat of their pants. They start writing and see where the story takes them as they goes. Both of these methods, and all the strategies that fall in between, all have to start with an idea. That is what this blog is going to help with.
Often times the idea can be summarized in what sentence. I don't mean that is going to define your entire book. To speak in cliches, the idea is the spark that lights the fire. It is only the first match.
For example, the initial spark behind Demons at the Doorstep was,
What if there was a story about magic being real in the world but the chosen one knew they were the chosen one and actually trained for it?
This idea started me on a creative exploration of what magic would look like if it was real in the city of Toronto, and if it were real what would that 'chosen one' be up against? This led to creating the witch hunters, and the story continued to evolve from there (I was much more of a pantser back then then I am now).
The idea for book 2, The Lupatus Stone, came about in a similar manner. Where would Jessica and Damien go next? What other species could I explore in this story? I thought werewolves would be interesting, and then started to ask myself the question:
How would a werewolf curse impact a family?
The rest of the story evolved from there. Before a writer jumps into actually doing the writing, they need to find the inspiration for something to write about. Here are some of the methods and ways I've utilized to help generate ideas.
Write what you want to read
When you visit your local bookstore and you're looking for a new book to pick up, do you ever get that feeling of, "I wish I could just found a book that is ________". That's what I mean by write what you want to read. Chasing trends and current hot topics is never a good idea because by the time you get to actually publishing the book, assuming you get that far, that trend is likely to have already evolved or passed. Writing a story that you yourself want to read will never get old.
I mentioned above that Demons at the Doorstep started with a question, and this was very much spurred on by not finding what I was looking for in bookstores. I really wanted real world magic, but most urban fantasies I was finding were paranormal romances. Nothing wrong with that, but it wasn't what I was looking for. I wanted fun, friendly magic. So I turned to young adult. Throughout most of my youth, however, Harry Potter was the be all end all of fantasy books, but that didn't really quench my thirst either. Firstly I wasn't a bit fan of the books (I was an adult by the time I tried it) but it felt like that franchise had a stranglehold on the genre. There were other urban fantasies out there such as the Shadowhunter Series by Cassandra Clare, but that was too angsty for my taste. I wasn't here for the melodrama of teenagers.
What I was looking for was a book that had the fun of a young adult book with similar themes of finding yourself, embracing your power, and adventure, but with characters that could handle things with some emotional maturity while facing down magic in our world as it currently is rather than being whisked off to a magical land once their powers were discovered. I wondered, as I mentioned above, what would happen if the chosen one already knew they were special and had trained accordingly.
I couldn't find a book like that... so I wrote one instead.
Tell Your Story
Now to clarify, I do not mean this literally (unless you're writing a memoir). While writing a fictional story with you yourself as the main character could be a fun place to get started as a writer, especially if you are younger, use it as a writing exercise and then move on. Self-insertion into a story is problematic for several reasons, but first and foremast because we don't see ourselves objectively.
For better or for worse we can rarely portray ourselves fairly and this can often lead to either Mary Sues, characters that are too perfect it becomes boring and flat. Plus if you do proceed to the editing process and have other people read your story, you may not like what the feedback they have. It's hard to take feedback in a healthy, non-personal way as it is, let alone if you've made yourself one of the main characters.
What I mean by telling a story based on your own experiences or identity. It means starting with what you know and building from there. Often times this comes out of a need and desire for more representation - publishing has made great strides but must continue to improve on this - and wanting to see ourselves in books.
For example, Woven in Moonlight by Isabel IbaƱez. Wishing to see more books about her own cultural background, Woven in Moonlight is a fantasy novel that draws inspiration from Bolivian politics and history. It also has some of the best descriptions of food I have ever read, by the way. Ibanez took a part of her own story, and a gap that was missing in the book world, and created a beautiful story within that pocket.
Inspiration for your own story may also be hiding somewhere in your history.
If you can't find it, flip it
Sometimes there are new stories that exist in old ones. While there may be no such thing as a new idea anymore, that doesn't mean old stories can't be flipped on their heads. Fairytale retelling is its own category of fiction, after all. For example The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyers takes old tales about Cinderella, Littler Red Riding Hood, Rapunzel and Snow White and sets them in a sci-futuristic adventure across her four-book series.
Another way to flip stories is to tell them from a new perspective. For example, Sherwood by Meagan Spooner. This robin-hood inspired retelling flips the script and puts Maid Marian at the forefront of the story where Robin of Locksley is dead and she has to take up the crusader's mantel. Spooner takes the well known story of Robin Hood and tells it from a new perspective, giving new life and original take on an old classic.
The other way to flip stories is to flip the identities or roles within a story. What if Cinderella was queer and the Annual Ball may be a death sentence (Cinderella is Dead by Kalynn Bayron). What if Wesley was the one captured and Buttercup had to go save him (The Princess Will Save You by Sarah Henning). Or what if the Outsiders was a coming of age classic featuring a gang of women instead (Bad Girls Never Say Die by Jennifer Mathieu). There are lots of ways that a simple flip can change the entire narrative, and can lead you to creating an entirely new story. It all comes back to what story do you as the author want to see out there in the world. You may just find your starting point in a story that you feel is missing something, that could be retold and maybe even improved.
Modern Inspiration
You may have noticed that most of these ideas and prompts start with the same "What If'. That is the question that is really the catalyst for a great number of ideas, that helps you find the gaps that your story may be hiding in. And we don't always have to look to the past to see out those spaces in between. Sometimes just a sentence, a moment, or a single memory, can be the inciting incident for a greater story. For me, it was a Tik Tok! Yes, a 15-second video was what served as inspiration for another one of my side projects that I've deemed my "Magical Library" project.
The video that started it all was a POV video (a short scene acted out) where a young woman appeared in the frame and looks at the camera, holding a book. In the background, you can hear shouts and the pounding footsteps of someone chasing her. She then hands the book to the person behind the camera and winks, saying "Hold onto this for me, will you?" before she jumps out of a window thanks to the magic of a green screen. And, as it usually works with trends on tik tok, I subsequently saw countless other videos over the next few days. The algorithm is a scary, confusing thing.
But these videos left me with many, many questions. Who was the woman. What is the book, and why was she being chased for it? Who was the person holding the camera? What happened after the woman jumped out the window? And because I wanted answers to these questions, I started crafting my own version of this scenario. My Magical Library WIP (work in progress) began to form.
Inspiration can truly come from anything, which is why my next tip is very, very important.
Write everything down
You never know what random thought, idea, or nugget of information might inspire a story. If you ever get an inkling of that "what if" question, write it down! I use the notes app on my phone with an running list of story ideas - questions that pop into my mind as I'm going about my day to day. I also have a notebook by my bed for those inevitable ideas that strike, far to often, in the of the night.
For example, I have a side project that is a pirate fantasy adventure based on a dream. Yes, a genuine dream where pirates that snuck onto this incredible island that stuck out of the ocean like a severed thumb, kidnapped/liberated a woman from the island, and then escaped. That became the opening image of my story and it's evolved immensely from there.
From time to time, when I get stumped or when I'm looking for a new project to tackle, I go back into that collection of notes to look for inspiration. It's great because there may have been an idea or question that I couldn't tackle at the time it popped up, but may be of use to me at a later date or even if a different story. So be sure to write everything down.
Inspiration can come from anywhere. The challenge that so often stops us from pursuing those ideas is our own imposter syndrome. We can cut an idea off before seeing its full potential if we can't see the potential in ourselves to pursue it. Not all ideas will turn into a story, but it may be one tangent that inspires another, which inspires another, and then that becomes a story. So by writing down all of your ideas, asking questions, and looking at known scenarios from different perspectives, you will eventually see something take shape that you can dig into. And have fun exploring it.
Finding that story idea is only the beginning, after all
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