How to Turn an Idea Into a Book

hello everybody I've recently had an influx of new writers join my patreon exclusive Discord writing group and with new writers comes new questions the one question that has popped up the most is some variation of this I have an idea for a book what do I do with it first and foremost I did write an entire step-by-step guide to the writing process that goes all the way from the idea phase to the professional edit so you know you could just read it you can actually pre-order a signed copy right now link is below do it but if you haven't ordered it yet here is a summary of what you got to do before the drafting phase these are all the steps that will hopefully make the drafting process a lot less overwhelming unless you go with the first tip that one's just going to make the whole process harder speaking of here's tip number one just start writing according to the writing community at large there are two types of writers plotters and pancers plotters plan their stories ahead of time and pancers right by the seat of their pants which essentially means that they go into the writing process process with little more than an idea personally I think this labeling is reductive technically all writers are some mishmash of being a plotter and a pancer it's just a matter of which way you lean I don't know a single pancer who doesn't have at least some idea of the direction they're headed and even the most hardcore plotters like myself still make up some content on the fly all that said do I recommend fully pancing a novel absolutely not if you don't have at least some kind of plan you are in increasing your odds of writer's block of writing yourself into a corner or abandoning structure alt together and just creating a Meandering plot all that said some writers do prefer this method so I'm throwing it out there you can't say I didn't give you all your options if you decide to go the planning route which I personally recommend the first step is to thought dump this is where I write down all my ideas for the story good or bad it doesn't matter I write them down the ideas don't have to be in sequential order they don't have to be organized in any way they they can be setting descriptions they can be fight scene Maneuvers they can be kiss scenes or character descriptions or entire strings of dialogue this part of the process is Messy as dumps often are so long as you can read and understand your own ideas that's all that matters the point is to get them out in the open so that you can organize them later there's not a whole lot to say on this step if you think it's complicated you're overthinking it the next step is to map everything out got some characters in mind write some character profiles need to cre create a fictional Universe start World building and of course this is the time to start plotting your actual story I recommend doing these three activities in tandem because they have a direct effect on one another the characters you create are going to move the plot forward the plot is going to have an effect on the World building the World building is going to directly affect the characters and so on do not build the setting and characters first and then save the story for last remember the plot is the foundation of of your book your setting and your characters need to fit your story not the other way around this is why you want to do all three things at the same time now how you map these elements is up to you you can do it by hand you can do it on a poster board I personally recommend doing it digitally via a platform like scrol and a huge thank you to scrol for sponsoring today's video srle is a web app that combines mind mapping with a power of networked note taking it's great for people who are struggling to visualize how their thoughts can connect together which makes it perfect for organizing and mapping your story's concept you can use it to brainstorm ideas like in the thought dump phase you can use it to organize research which we'll cover in the next point you can use it to outline your thoughts which we'll also cover later in this video you can use it to manage entire projects at a glance which basically means you can manage your entire book via scrol it's great for creatives and creators you can even create public boards to share with your critique partners and beta readers or to use as a professional portfolio Olio if you're interested in checking out scrol you can get 10% off using Code Jenna 10 this code is only available for a limited time so you want to get on it ASAP definitely check them out I have them linked below go ahead and organize all of your thoughts and ideas via scrol they're fantastic the next step is to research once you start building your plot characters and setting you're going to notice holes in your work because you don't know everything this is when the good old Google machine is going to be your best friend not quite sure how to structure a novel Google it or read shut up and write the book I make it super easy to understand not sure where the climax is supposed to be Google it it's toward the end of the book right before the falling action and resolution and of course you're probably going to need to research content for your book does your story take place in ancient Rome time to brush up on your history so you make sure it's accurate does your character need to remove an arrow from someone's body time to research how to do it correctly so that dummy doesn't bleed out and of course are you writing mental or physical illness you probably want to portray that accurately so it's a good idea to research the crap out of the body and brain which brings us to the final step outline there isn't one single way to outline outlining looks different for every author there are snowflake outlines bookend methods clustering or topic outlines you need to choose the method that works best for you or take an existing method and tweak it to suit your needs for example my outlining method is a modified version of the top outline how much or how little you outline is up to you there are skeletal outlines which basically means that you only outline the major plot points of your novel and everything else you figure out on the Fly then there are people like me who create extremely detailed outlines my outlines can be 20 to 30 pages long you don't have to do that if you don't want to you create the outline that works best for you that's what trial and error is for basically at this step you're going to take all the mapping you did and then organize it into an outline of your choosing this will make the information a lot easier to manage it'll put your content in sequential order and it will help decrease your odds of experiencing writer's block it's easy to know what to write next when it's spelled out right in front of you so that's all I got for you today if you want more info on what to do before you start drafting your manuscript be sure to check out shut up and write the book you can pre-order a signed copy right now it's linked below get on it don't forget to subscribe to my channel I post new videos on Wednesdays and I host live streams on Mondays and if you want to be alerted as soon as I upload ring that Bell bye hey there this is Lisa cord Leone narrator for shut up and write the book by Jenna moressi be sure to subscribe to Jenna's Channel and ring the bell that way you're alerted as soon as she post a new video trust me you don't want to miss this stuff

Channel: Writing with Jenna Moreci

Views: 12,210

Keywords: write, writer, writing, read, reader, reading, book, books, ebook, publish, publishing, writing tips, writing advice, writing motivation, writing inspiration, how to write a book, tips for writing a book, turning an idea into a book, book idea, what to do with a book idea, authortube, booktube, Jenna Moreci, the savior's champion, the savior's sister, the savior's series, shut up and write the book, publishing tips, publishing advice, publishing motivation, self-publishing, bestseller tips

Id: oxj2juvHebI

Length: 6min 45sec (405 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 14 2024