A Beginner's Writing Tutorial

[Why_Me]

Here is a Tutorial on how to write for people who are just learning to write. This will follow an easy-to-read step-by-step tutorial that should cover a bit of the basics. If there is anything that you wish to add to this tutorial, just comment.

Step 1:   What do you want your book to be about? What kind of book is it? It could be a funny story, romantic story, heroic, bloody, non-stop action, mystery, adventure, and so on.

Step 2:   Pick a main chararcter.  Pick a setting. Pick a time period. This step is about choosing the main decisions for your book. Another thing that is an optional part of this step is deciding excactly what's going to happen. You can skip that last part and surprise yourself when you're writing. That could be good, but it would be more likely that you will get writer's block.

Step 3:   Choose your title. This step could actually come after Step 4 or 5 if you don't know what you should call it yet.

Step 4:   This is an optional step. Choose if you want your book to be a two-part book, a trilogy, a series of books, or just one book.

Step 5: Start writing. Make sure that you use good grammer and spelling. Or, if you're typing, spell check works too. Just remeber that when your computer says that something was written incorrectly, it may not be true. Use creative writing, good adjectives, and make sure that your storyline works and is easy to follow. Make sure to have someone besides yourself edit your stroy every once in a while, and not just when it's finished, as there may be a change at the beginning that may change the book a little.

If you want me add anything to this then post. I hope that I have covered a bit of the basics. If you have any questions about the basics of writing, then post them here, and I'll answer them in an edit of this post.

[sourb2]

I would renumber your steps, if I were suggesting a basic approach myself.  I would make your step 3 be step 6, bearing in mind that beginning writers almost always get their pet titles thrown out by their publishers and replaced with titles that the editor dreams up.  Only a well-established writer with a good following [meaning sales] can count on getting to keep her or his own favorite title.

For a new step 3, I would have the following: Plan out the book.  Decide how it's going to begin, how it's going to end, and how it's going to get from the beginning to the end without betraying the reader's interest.  If necessary make a few notes to yourself about this and see if it looks as good on paper as it sounded inside your head.

I'd move step 4 to at least step 7, and possibly even later than that.  And I'd stress that this really is optional and that you may change your mind about it as you go along.  [Of course that's true of other steps as well.]

For a new step 4, I'd have this:  Decide on a 'voice' [also known as a Point of View or pov] and promise yourself to stick to it.  That is, decide whether the protaganist is "I" or "he" or "her."  If it's "I," promise yourself to put down only things that the protaganist actually observes and thinks her/himself.  If it's "her" or "he," then decide whether the point of view is going to live 'inside' the protaganist's head [this is called Third-Person Subjective] or is going to be 'omniscient,' which means all-knowing.  [This is called Third-Person Objective].  Once you've decided, stick to it.  If you change your mind later, you have to go back and re-write everything to make sure you're obeying the rules for your new viewpoint.  You can also have multiple viewpoints, where, for example, one chapter is from the hero's pov and the next is from the heroine's.  Or whatever.  But have a plan and stick to it.  Nothing is more disconcerting to a reader than to be reading a passage written entirely from one character's viewpoint and then suddenly being told what some other character is thinking.  This is impossible in real life, and should never happen in writing either.

And, finally, within step 5, in addition to grammar and spelling, I'd also emphasize using correct punctuation and usage.  What punctuation is . . . is obvious.  But a lot of people either don't know what usage is or take it for granted.  Correct usage has very little to do with grammar, but has to do with using the right word to mean what you mean: for example, the difference between 'further' and 'farther,' or why we should say 'different from' rather than 'different than.'  Et cetera.  Usage also includes such niceties as British vs. U.S. vs. Canadian usage, such as where to use 'colour' and where to use 'color.'  When having a character talk, you should also use the words that character would actually use, whether those words are 'correct' or not.

That was all a pretty long-winded reply.  Hope it helps though.

[Why_Me]

Okay, thanks. I have a different 10-step tutorial for the WR tutorial that is different than this, and now, reflecting back on this, i see some mistakes that I have made.

[cwchang]

Looks pretty good!

[Treelow]

The steps are very good, although, most authors actually come up with a tile for their book after it's written...not before. By coming up with a title after, it allows you to take the book as a whole, and what it turned out to be (it never seems to end up exactly as planned), and make sure the title is entirely fitting.



-Treelow

[shanerm09]

Probably the best way to find out what is inside of you is to try it out. If you love to write and it makes you feel good, then that is the ultimate goal. While it takes a lot of work and often even more patience, creative writing can be just the outlet and hobby you need.