GatorDeb

I've been wanting to write a book since I was 9 (I turn 30 on May 26th) but I've never been able to come up with a story. Then I attended a show called Las Vegas Tenors on December 16th and they happened to have Clint Holmes singing (never heard of him before and I have almost 7 years in Vegas). He sang a song that inspired me to write a story. When I finished the story I realized there was no "point" to it... it was just a telling of events. I then got the inspiration of making the story part of a bigger story arc, and that's what I'm working on now. I have ~9700 words and I'm about 30% done (of the current outline I have, it may get expanded later). I like to keep track of the words because it's a measure that -something- is being created. I like scrolling through it and taking a long time to get to the end.

12/16: Inspiration hits
Somewhere between 12/16 and 1/12: Came up with expansion #1
1/12: 10,000 words
1/13: Came up with expansion #2

ceeece

Congratulations, GatorDeb! You've succeeded in the first step! I just want to say this first off. Don't force yourself into a specific number of pages. Write the story and let it determine how long it is. It might turn out to be a book and it might not. That's probably not the advice you want to hear. It is daunting. I've written two books. One was very short 192 pages and the other ended up being 345 handwritten pages. The one that was longer was a result of the story, honestly. I was in my teens when I wrote both of those and I just let the story take me and I pretty much chronicled the story as it came to me. Your goal of a page and a half a day is a good one. I typically like to write 2 pages but settle for 1 if that is what I get. One thing I notice when reading is how much writers devote to the inner thoughts of people. Write it from the character's perspective and get their thoughts and feelings in certain circumstances. Stories are always better when we like the characters and can relate to them anyway. Know at least some semblance of your direction. You don't need to know everything that is going to happen. That's half the fun in the journey anyway. Every chapter should be like a mini-novel. There should be a conflict and a progression to resolve that conflict. That keeps things interesting. Conflict keeps the story progressing and pulls the reader along. Good luck and keep us updated!

DVD Josh

It was a dark and stormy night....

GatorDeb

ceeece the problem is what if the whole book is 40 pages I think a book has to be at least 250 pages to be a fiction book, but I despair that I won't have enough to say.

I'm on page 10

benedict

Good luck with this.

Didn't you write the first paragraph in 2002?

chrisih8u

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Lateralus

GatorDeb

I've started and abandoned writing the book several times. That time I was going with another story. I've been wanting to write a book since I was 9 so that was 20 years ago.

mgbfan

Good luck. For what it's worth, you're writing a manuscript. It's not a book until, well, it's a book.

djmont

Word count is what you should look for, not page count. For most novels, 60k words would be the minimum, with most books weighing in at closer to 100k.

Good luck!

Seeker

Good luck - I remember you IMing me in 2002 with those first paragraphs!

drmoze

Is this really how people become authors? I thought it was more like : concept --> outline --> details --> write. Not: 1.5 pages --> 1.5 pages -->1.5 pages......

arbogast777

I echo what everybody said about not trying to force your story into a page count or word count. Let the story take as long as it needs to tell itself.

Also, don't try and force a certain number of pages each day. You can't apply rock solid rules to the creative process - it just doesn't work that way. Over the course of writing the book, you might average 1.5 pages each day, but that doesn't mean you actually do 1.5 pages each day. One day you might do 1, the next 3.

Both of the above points have one thing in common - you're thinking about quantity, not quality. Just tell your story.

One tip - don't go back and reread/proofread what you wrote the day before. You'll never move forward. Just plow right through to the end.

comanche_doyle

Good luck on the project. Just remember that even though it seems like it has all been said before, there is always something new to say.

mgbfan

Then why would you write a 300-page story? If you don't have a story worth telling even to you, it's just a waste of time.

djmont

Agreed. The world is full of awful (usually unpublished or vanity published) books that were motivated by the thought of "I want to write a book" without anything more than that. The only reason to write a book is because you have a story you need to tell.

Seeker

If you don't need to tell the story, don't tell it.

Good books come from the soul.

GatorDeb

Well I got 9.5 single-spaced pages then kind of quit on it. About to start on it again. I really want to write it by my birthday and have a family member open it. They don't know I'm writing it.

I bought an Asus EEE PC, and it should be here in less than a week. I'm not allowed to have laptops at work but when it gets warmer (late January) I plan to go to my car on my lunch hour and work on my book. I also go to shows a lot, and usually take the DS. Now I can take the ASUS and write a few pages while I wait for the show to start. I like the Eee because it's very portable and it's designed to be taken anywhere.

So 100k words would about 166 of my pages (about 600 words per page). 60k would be about 100 pages. I'm a tenth of the way done I guess I don't feel that hopeless now, it doesn't seem like it has to go on forever.

NIMH Rat

Is the book about your family?

Good luck! I've written six books and can advise you thus: carve out a wedge of time every day to work on it. An hour is enough. If you write 20 words or 1000 words, doesn't matter. An hour a day. A good trick is always to give yourself something to look forward to the next day. So if you're writing something really exciting, and the hour comes to an end, stop. You've put the hour in. Then the next day you're going to look forward to getting back into it. Don't just wait until you're bored or tired to stop writing. Stop when the designated time is up. Even if you're in the middle of a sentence.

GatorDeb

No, I have three fiction storylines and I'm going with one of them. I want to write an autobiography but I want it to be published post-humously.

Tygan

I heard that a burrito really gets the creative juices flowing.

mgbfan

You're WAAAAAY too focused on word counts an page counts. Read what others in this thread are telling you. You need to tell your story, and you need to take just exactly as long as it takes to do so.

It almost seems to me like you're more concerned about the end product than you are about the process. What is the point of "writing a book" if it's just an exercise in reaching a page count? Write a great story that speaks to you, and let it take exactly as many pages as it requires. If someone wants to publish and make it a book, that's great. But if you're doing nothing but producing pages of text ... ask yourself why. It isn't going to matter if you nail the ideal length for a paperback if nobody wants to read it.

mgbfan

Couldn't disagree more.

GatorDeb

Well I know exactly the story I want to tell, but then I start thinking it will take 30 pages or so to tell all of it, and that's not a book, and then I get writer's block Then nothing comes out. I guess I have to just relax and write a scene at that time. That's what I'm doing now, I'm just writing different disjointed scenes and I'm just filling in between them.

The Eee shipped !

P.S. Are there good sites to (legally) download rlf (Sony Ereader) compatible books about writing? I got a $50 store credit code that is shipping with the ereader so once it gets here I'm getting Stephen King's On Writing for sure (~$5). I've started that book many times and never finished it, so it'll be great to have it with me on the go at all times.

NIMH Rat

Couldn't disagree with YOU more.