This is a guest post from Célia Berton from the YelloHonu blog, writing about how to become a successful author. It is the first step, before self-publishing an ebook. The book. The story. Enjoy!
“I write books, I am the master of my art. Nobody can pretend to be like me, nobody can predict what I would or will say, not even me.
I am in control of a world made from orders of my inspiration and after having bowed to its dictation, I make the strings holding my characters and the circumstances of this world dance. This world is fictional, I make it real on paper but on the hearts of my readers too.
I use my adult abilities to make my child’s imagination be loved. I am aware of what reading has brought me and I want to give it in return.”
Below I will help you become a FORMIDABLE author with the perfect steps to work faster and have priceless strategies to IMPRESS your readers! Watch out, keep reading!
Questions to ask yourself
- Why do I write?
- What type of book do I choose?
- Whom do I write for?
- Am I going to put joy in my story? Sadness?
A Book Skeleton
Writing style
A book has a category: fantasy, thriller, novel, comics etc…
A book is organized: “Chapters”, it can be written in more or less the same number of pages or not)
Book’s rhythm
Without repeating the terms of college and high school thought to delimit the stages of a history, I offer you the ingredients and headlines ls of each phase are similar :
-
- A description phase
- A phase of adventures’ creation
- A conclusion phase
I do not want to be too precise on what should or should not be put in these steps and in what order they should be written because writing is structure AND freedom, the important message is that anyone finds these phases to clearly understand the message(s) expressed. Tomorrow, you might be able to have a revolutionary structure that your reader ABSOLUTELY LOVED!
The bases of a logical and strategical work to be understood and to create this immense desire to read you more sentence after sentence are necessary! You will understand why.
A Story
It has a beginning and an end: the beginning and the end can be different as in most stories but it can be original to imagine a story where the characters and the created universe do not change through and until the end, if there is an inspiring or pedagogical significance to the story.
Hence, the question to ask, which is why am I writing?
The characters
They can be fictional, real, human, inhuman, animal, plant and anything that comes out of your imagination.
The writing style
Is your style and level of writing appropriate for children, adults, or adolescents? It is not necessary to write in reverse (a french trendy style of speaking) or in familiar language because you target adolescents in construction, they must be offered an advanced language.
For example for children, it will be a fun way because they will not necessarily look on the internet or their dictionary the meaning of what they read. I leave it to your author’s imagination to find the right idea.
MY Secret bonus!
Creating scenes that come out of the flat part of my story, it is not mandatory but it can be fantastic assets. WHY?
First of all, the imagination will work enormously and will mark people deeply because the difference of the element will stay in the reader’s memory with this ‘surprise’ effect. Secondly if one day you get the chance to make it a movie you need scenes which burst the screen.
It is essential for these scenes to be sensational, which means that the character is in a state where his eyes, his limbs, his listening, and his wonder are stimulated. If the character is stimulated, the reader is stimulated. We must not underestimate the reading experience vs the observation of a film.
I personally find that the two are equivalent but my sensitivity has always been more marked by what I am impregnated of while reading as imagined scenes.
The other advantage is that the attention is falling naturally while reading, we minimize this effect and increase the pleasure of reading when we do that.
Tips
- Take notes on paper (sheets or notebook) when you have violent blows of inspiration.
- Make rough drawings (or written descriptions) of the places you have in mind for its history.
- Ask your friends about your story. When you write, you reserve for yourself a privileged atmosphere without interference and allowing a psychological relaxation.
- Always try to put words that you do not understand and will learn in your novel, the goal is not to go to the facility, like any activity it is necessary that you progress yourself.
Things To Avoid
- To write to be loved by all (give up his writing style or never find it)
- To avoid taboo subjects or choose only fashionable subjects
- To forget that you are a creator and that to create is to write on things that at the most do not exist
Over To You
Apply these steps and methods and move your writer’s career by always improving your skills! Let us know if you have any questions, in the comments below.
Amazing!! Thanks for sharing this great insight. I do pretty well at writing, the major tool I use is I first create the story in my head, play it from beginning to the end before putting it down in word. It works like magic for me all the time.
Taking note, asking friends what they feel about my story and making rough sketches are great tip I’ve learnt from this article. I’ll effect these tips in my next writing adventure.
Thanks
Hey Lok,
I believe your in the right path! I hope this post helps you realize your aspirations.
Good luck!
Marios
Thanks for the tips! Writing has honestly been one of my weaknesses in life – I’ve never liked writing since school and had always dreaded language subjects (I had to learn 3 different languages for 6 years!). But I’m someone who has a lot of different ideas and inspirations in my head at times where I least expect it. And it’s quite hard for me to actually talk to someone about it. So in those times, I’ll usually write down those inspirations on my phone.
I’ve actually taken the time to write some of them down on a blog but I was thinking of at least doing a short story out of it. Your post came in at the right time. Will definitely bookmark this to remind myself on the process of writing 😉
Thanks so much for sharing.
Hey Wina,
It’s good that you’ve started a blog, since it will help you put your thoughts in order. Having a plan with the main points you want to write is very helpful. Good luck with your writing aspirations
Thanks for stopping by!
Marios
Thank you for sharing with us how to be a successful author.Writing something which can be loved by the readers is a very complicated work.But as Technology has advanced,we are getting skills which help us to be good writers.
This post is very informative for sure.people who dream to be an author of their books can tell you ‘THANK YOU” because everything their need is in this post.
I always dream to write a book about my life and I enjoyed this post.I bookmarked it for future check.
Hey Julienne,
I’m really glad you liked the post. I hope it helps you writing your book.
Thanks for stopping by!
Marios
Thanks Marios,
I am a published author. I would like to publish my second book but something does not seem right. The surprise to me is that I can’t place a finger on the wrong thing. Reading your post has been very helpful. I really like your four tips and the three things to avoid. I will follow these steps and hopefully my second book will get to the shop shelfs.
Hey Juliet,
I’m glad Celia’s post clarified a few things. If you need anything else, let me know 🙂
Marios
I admire people who can write well because I can’t. But over the time I have learnt to just let my idea flow and write freely whatever comes to my mind. Even then, I still can’t imagine myself writing a book.
After reading your article, I realise that there are so much more important things to focus on rather than just my language skill. Identifying the audience, create our very own writing style, let our imagination run wild… writing now seems much more exciting than ever. Thanks for all the tips!
Hey Grace,
You need to have a plan, a layout of what you want to write. The main ideas. Sometimes, i find myself writing about irrelevant or confusing staff, just because I didn’t set my plan from day 1.
Thanks for the visit!
Marios
I am very interested in writing a book about my life. I fear of putting too much information in but I also do not want the book to be boring either. I have had quite the interesting and slightly tramatizing life.
I don’t think that an E-book is quite what I am looking to write, but it doesn’t have to be an E-book to get great writing advice from your article or the books you offer that help as well.
I have to drop the fear of writing honestly. I have started a book once or twice and never finished it because I was afraid. Of what I am not real sure, maybe it’s opening up too much, but that is how you get the feelings in there.
Any advice on this, because it is not really writter’s block so much as a mental block.
So do you have any advice on choosing a publisher? I am a whole book away from needing it yet, but making plans is all part of it.
Thank you so much for this article!
Stacie
Hey Stacie,
I’d suggest you should start writing right away. Start with a page or a paragraph a day. Just get it started. The more you write, the better for you!
As for publisher, you can check this post (external link). You can also check Print-On-Demand (POD) as well as methods of eBook distribution.
I hope I’ve helped!
Marios
Thanks for this article, it can teach me how to be a better author to my blog and help me attain better success in all my endeavors that involve writing, journaling, and making my own ebook. I hope to make my own ebook one day and this article can help me do just that.
Hey Jon,
I’m really glad you liked the post, and that you’ve found it useful. If you want to write an eBook, you can check my How to self-publish a book series.
Thanks you for a good look at what I need to become a good author. I do write well, but you have put the elements I need into a good perspective. I like those questions I need to ask before writing, especially ” Who should I be writing for?”. I think I need to work out what style I want to write in. Maybe I will get my answer when I identify a book with a style I like. Thank you for the guidance.
Hey JJ,
Knowing your audience or target market is essential to any business. So, you should know it beforehand.
Thanks for stopping by!
Marios
I absolutely love this insightful article because it is full of great information. This is fascinating and intriguing to me.I find it difficult to write a story or article, but reading this your article gave me some insight to move forward. I believe following your tips can be of help to my writing career. I will stay around your blog to learn more about becoming an author. This article is very resourceful and helpful. Best regards
Hey there,
I’m glad you liked the post. Thanks for stopping by! Please take a minute and fill out my Annual Survey 🙂
Marios
This post is very impressive. “How To Be A Successful Author” tells about everything a writer has to know. If anyone wants to be a successful author, the to does and don’ts mentioned in this article will help him to polish his skill. In what way writing would be impressive to the readers, very well taught here.
Thanks for this post Marios! I would like to learn your more articles on this topic.
Hey Amod,
For more on writing and publishing a book, you can check my 10-post series How to self-publish a book
Thanks for stopping by!
Marios
This is very good advice, it is hard to write a captivating story and keep people’s true attention. To describe images so they are etched in brain and make it hard to forget.
I have never written a story but I have written poems and plenty of journal time, I enjoy doing that because there is no pressure of what anyone will think since I’ve written them for my eyes only. I think If I were to attempt writing a story it would stress me out so to speak and I would be constantly trying to please the reader…might take the fun out of it.
Do you find that changes with time or are you just naturally good at pleasing the audience or reader?
Hey Amanda,
We are all bloggers (amongst other things :)) We all write for an audience. So, I think you should view it as another blog post. Maybe start another blog with your stories. It’s a great way to, sort of, test your stories. Think about it 😉
Thanks for stopping by!
Marios