Planning And Drafting Your Book

Hi

Issue # 024, August 10, 2011

In This Issue:

1. Site Build It! works for me
2. Help Answer Questions pertaining to Writing
   
3. Like our Page
4. Google +1
5. Write a Book! Part 5
6. Spread the word

Site Build It! Works for Me. It can Work for YOU too!

Site Build it! works for me. It reduces the cost and complexity of creating a high-traffic website so much that anyone who knows how to use a computer can do it. Yes, Site Build It! works for me. It can work for you too. Give it a try. Now.

Site Build It! Can work for you too

Help Answer Questions Pertaining to Writing

The Ask It! page at writing-lovers.com usually receives a vast array of questions, some of them puzzling and others just plain difficult to answer. Now, I am making a formal invitation to all of you to participate in the answering process. Whenever a new question pops up, I will be immediately publishing it instead of keeping it all to myself so that you all have a chance to participate in the answering process.

This is not to say that I will entirely relieve myself of the responsibility of answering questions, no. Rather, I would like all of you to contribute so that the asking person has different view points.

To see which questions have been answered and which have not, follow the link below:

Ask it!

Like Our Page

We have a cool page at Facebook up and running. We want to have a lovely community of writers from all over the world, united into one, big, happy family, merrily scribbling away!

Already we going at 89 likes. Now, I know that's far below the number of people subscribed to this ezine. So please, if you have not yet liked our page, please like it.

I know some folks don't like liking facebook pages, but ours is really worth liking. You are going to know why in a little while. Follow the link below to like us. PLEASE.

Lovers of Writing

Google +1 Buttons

Okay, google is getting smarter and smarter. They want all of you folks to participate in the ranking of pages, and identifying good quality content for their search engine. So,they've asked us to put their +1 buttons to our webpages. If you have been paying attention, you have probably noticed that +1 buttons are springing up all over the place. It's quite simple, really: If you like the page, you click on the little +1 button. It would help to create a google account if you don't have one.

To make it easier for you to 'plus' my pages, if I may put it that way, I am putting the +1 buttons at the bottom of each page, because I am assuming that only after you read a page would you be in a position to like it and 'plus' it. So go ahead and 'plus' them!

Write a Book! Part 5 : Planning and Drafting

Like I said in the previous issue, it is pertinent to plan before you start writing. You do not just write a book out of the blues. Planning entails that you will have a purpose and a direction.

Writing a book is like embarking on a journey. You should know where you are going. You just don't wake up one morning and get on a bus, train or airplane without knowing exactly where you want to go do you?

Yes, a book, any book, no matter how long or short, has a purpose or the reason the writer is writing it. Does he want to teach people something new? Express his opinions on a certain topic? Expose a certain, hidden truth?

The purpose will guide the direction, style and format the author will take. This works in combination with the target audience or the particular type of people the book is intended for.

For example, are you writing for children? Then your book will have few or no chapters and plenty of illustrations, and your plan will help you to achieve this.

Most writers make a very detailed plan. They go to the extent of determining beforehand how many chapters the book will have, how long each chapter will be and the exact contents of each chapter. Others, on the other hand, with barely any planning at all, but just the main idea of what they want, get straight into writing, and this seems to work well for them. There are no hard and fast rules here; but the point is that you must plan for your book.

The initial version of your book is called a draft. A draft is an incomplete version, and entails that the writer has to add more meat to it. A draft can be as scanty as a list of chapter titles, heading and subheadings, with brief, explanatory notes under each; or it can be as detailed as a complete, written book. But the point is, your plan will result in a draft, and the draft will grow into the complete book.

There are many ways in which writers can plan their work, depending on what they are writing. If they are writing a novel, they may plan thoroughly for each chapter, determining all its details in advance. They may, additionally, sketch the setting, create character profiles and determine the major events of the plot such as the climax and resolution. To this effect, they create notes. And when they start working on their draft, they refer to such notes.

The notes you create when planning should be simple, easy on the eyes and straight to the point. Your plan should not be too detailed, so that it looks like some kind of book on its own. Rather, it should be made of headings and numbered or bulletted points.

Here is how I make notes when planning for my books (usually non-fiction): I determine the topics I am going to write about and list them down. I find it easier to type them out in a word processor on a computer. You can used a notebook, there is nothing wrong with that.

The topics I list become the headings for the various chapters I am going to write about. Next, under each topic, I list sub-topics or the main components of each topic. As you may have figured, these become the subheadings for each major chapter.

And ideally for me, this would mark the end of my planning. This draft forms the basis for my book and eventually grows as I fill in relevant details. The beauty about planning like this is that I am not restricted to following the pattern of writing from beginning to end in that order; but rather, I have the freedom to jump from topic to topic, starting in the middle, jumping to the end, or back to the beginning as I feel inclined, or when information becomes available.

Planning your book? Try this approach.

However, a word of warning: this approach works well for nonfiction. However, if you are writing a fictious book or novel, it is best that you start from the beginning, writing orderly till you reach the end. Jumping around, forward and back might just confuse you, unless you have really planned well.

To summarise:

1. figure out the main reason you are writing your book.
2. Determine your audience.
3. Plan the direction, format and style you are going to use.
4. Make notes.
5. Use your notes to create your draft
6. Add detail, revise, and rewrite your draft

Follow the above steps and your book will definitely take form, and be exactly what you want it to be!