What are the 1st 10 steps to writing a book?

Question: What are the 1st 10 steps to writing a book!?
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I COMPLETELY disagree with the answer above me!. There aren't any "steps" to writing!. All you need to do is write what you want to write!. Write what you want to portray!. Write what you feel will make your story amazing!. NEVER edit your work in the middle of your story! You don't EVER want to "second-guess" yourself when you haven't even finished the story! Just write and write and write until you're finished!. After you finish writing, set it aside for a month or two so you can get your mind off of it!. THEN when you don't have that exciting "I just wrote a book!" state-of-mind, take it back out and edit it!. This way, you'll be able to REALLY edit your work without being "bias"!. It'll be like wiping the chalkboard clean and then starting over, I guess!. After you edit it yourself, hand it off to those you absolutely KNOW will be truthful in their editing!. Not just correcting spelling and grammar errors, but also questioning characters and their actions, a scene's contribution to plot, etc!. Don't give it to someone who you won't do a good job with it!. After that, then you yourself read it one more time!. Always remember that the final draft is the rough draft minus 10%!. So during the editing stage you are definitely going to take out a whole lot!.

I highly suggest you read the book "Stephen King: A Memoir of the Craft ON WRITING!." It includes such great advice for those who wish to write and get published!. An absolute fantastic read and is definitely worth your time!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

A story is about conflict!. One way to start is a conflict box, the protagonist's goal and the conflict preventing him from reaching it!. The antaogonist's goal and the conflict preventing him from reaching it (usually the protagonist's goal)!.

For example, in Harry Potter, Harry wants to get the stone to prevent Voldemort from returning!. Voldemort wants to get the stone to return to power!.

The conflict is the basis of your plot!.

Next you need characters, preferably multi-layered!. And you need a character arc, how the character grows in the course of the story!. Harry grows from being a bullied kid to being confident and standing up to Voldemort!.

A multilayered character usually has some flaws, for example, Harry's personal dislike of Snape leads him to suppose Snape is the bad guy!.

Once you have your character arc and main conflict, you can outline (perhaps in your head)the progress of the story and start writing!.

Everyone writes in different ways!. Some people write the bare bones and layer in more detail later, like giving the characters a unique voice (you don't want your strict policeman sounding like a teenaged girl and vice versa)!.

Others prefer to get each scene right before moving on!.

What you need to do is to review what you've written to make sure everything is moving the plot along and that your grammar and spelling is correct!.

You should have outside critics telling you if your story drags or if something is hopelessly unclear!. (You've written an encyclopedia of Quidditch in 20 pages or you've described a game without ever letting your reader know what the snitch is)!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

1!. Concept (Write down the main topic!. Is this really what you want to spend your time writing!?)

2!. Outline (All the main details need to go down on paper!. Do not stray from this outline unless you make a change in it!. Otherwise, you'll have a tendency to stray from the main plot of the story and it won't be half as interesting!.)

3!. Edit of outline (Yep, you've got to edit this too!. It's worth it though!. Do this at least a day after writing the initial outline; this gives you brain time to elaborate on what you want and how to do it!.)

4!. First chapter (Don't worry; almost every author goes back and competely redoes the beginning!. This is probably the easiest part! Enjoy it and just get your thoughts out there!.)

5!. Edit the first chapter (You can save this until after the book is finished, but I find it WAY easier to edit as you go!. Go through, and pull out anything that needs improvement!. You'll do this several times before you're actually done with the book, so don't worry!.)

6!. Hand it off (Give it to a friend who will edit it and give you honest critique!. This is where you either keep going or trash the entire concept!. Change whatever you agree with; you don't have to follow everything they suggest!. This can be done at the same time as Step 7!.)

7!. Fix ALL grammar errors and punctuation!. (If there are more than TWO commas in a sentence, you have too many!. Make some sentences long, others incredibly short!. If you have too much punctuation in a sentence, it makes the reader have to continue the same thought on and on and on, which gets really hard to do after a while; sort of like reading a paragraph out loud all in one breath, which, let's face it, is not very fun!. See what I mean!?)

8!. Read it out loud (Not even kidding; if it doesn't sound like you would tell this to a group of people, trash it and start over!. You need to make this sound like you are talking and telling a story!.)

9!. ADD DETAIL (I have to tell this to everybody who gives me their stories!. Even if you feel like there is enough, ADD MORE!.)

10!. Lather, rinse, repeat!. Start on chapter 2!Www@QuestionHome@Com

There are steps that can help you organize your time to write a good book!. These are my ideas, hope they help:

1!. Motivation!.

2!. Time and resources!.

3!. Brainstorm!.

4!. Think (let the ideas settle)!.

5!. Spreadsheet!.

6!. Skeleton (short chapters)!.

7!. Research (historical fiction, etc!.)

8!. First real draft!.

9!. Edit!.

10!. Second draft!.

11!. Third draft, etc, etc!.Www@QuestionHome@Com