Writing a Fiction Book
If you want to write a work of fiction, the world is your oyster. You are free to write whatever you want, but what you write needs to be good enough to draw a reader through the story, hold them there, and by the end of the book they should be satisfied that the plot made sense, was a good read and that they would be happy to buy another book by the same author. Sounds easy peasy? Lets see!
Lets start with the story. We can discuss short stories later.
Is the plot broad enough that you can write a whole book on the subject and hold everything together at the same time? Do a mind map or brain dump and see which pieces fit together, which pieces NEED to fit together and which make no sense being there!
Now go to the next “layer.” Link up the parts with the relevant pieces of information you wrote down earlier and see what you can add to each component. Write it down. Allow some space so that even when you feel happy things are fleshed out enough, there will be enough room to write down more should any additional thoughts come to mind!
I find, getting the first words out can be the hardest but these words are also critical in persuading potential buyers, why they need to read more and so you need to get this part right. Maybe not immediately but definitely before you publish and your book is live and in circulation. This is vital for online shopping where a potential buyer reads the free sample of the book and come away unconvinced they need to read more and if they are unconvinced of this, they definitely won’t buy. Alternatively if your book is in circulation as a print copy, generally potential buyers will just scan over the book and read a little. Have you done enough to make them not want to put the book down?
Okay, lets assume you have overcome this part and you are happy with your book opening scenes. Now what? You introduce your plot, theme, story line, call it whatever you want, and like little ripples, the story expands and fleshes out. Sometimes there is a twist, or sub plots unfolding and the story may change direction or gain intensity.
The great part about being an author is that you know before any one else what is going to happen and so you can use what ever means you want to deflect, complicate, raise questions in the reader so that they are never quite sure what is about to happen next but they are engaged enough with the story that they follow along.
However, what ever you do, please make sure it is credible and makes sense! There is nothing worse than devoting so much time to a book and following a plot, to have it fall to pieces at the end. You want to be talked about for the right reasons. Right? I know you may be sick to death of the book by the end, but don’t just drop it like a hot potato. Take a break and come back when free of brain freeze or mental fatigue and go for the grand finale!
When writing a book of short stories, again a buyer will be looking for stories that belong together. Let me give an example. Someone looking for short love stories will not be interested in a short story about a murder, or a short story for kids, if you catch my drift so don’t include them to fill up space. This is where your book title, description, any graphics, keywords used in describing the content and assigned category for the book comes in.
If your stories are a mixture of content, keep your audience in mind and keep related content together. For example, keep the childrens stories for a childrens book of short stories, and keep other content that is not in keeping with the book theme on standby for use at a later date. Otherwise your reader will feel short changed and unimpressed.