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age
41-50,
anonymous
writes: Hi everyone.I want to write a book but I am not an experienced writer. I have so many ideas and would love to become a writer for a living but do not know where to start. I got a C grade for G.C.S.E English but feel as though that is not good enough for my dream. Can anyone point me in right direction as a starting point.Thanks Reply to this Question
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Fancy yourself as an agony aunt? Add your answer to this question! A
male
reader, anonymous, writes (28 May 2008): You may not believe it now, but it may actually be GOOD that you did not master English or have formal writing training simply because many of the top selling books sold in bookstores or from websites are written by people that have knowledge, experience and can effectively tell people about what they know in a systematic, simple and clear way.
We help people write and produce information-based products such as "How To", "Advice" "Directories" and other informational type products which may include home study courses, manuals, guidebooks and even recipe books.
We have lots of freely available advice including our blog over at http://www.highertrustmarketing.com/blog/ and sample articles over at http://www.infomarketerszone.com
Hope that helps...
Jeff
A
female
reader, anonymous, writes (28 May 2008): Look up the basic plots on the Internet to give you an idea of the skeletal framework for a book.
What kind of book will you write? Fiction or non-fiction? Adult or teenage or children? Science fiction or horror? Romance? Chick-lit? Family saga? Best thing is to decide what YOU like to read, what you would WANT to read, and jot down your ideas. Look at all the genres and see what you might like to try. Decide if your hero is male or female, what their name might be, what time they come from and where they live and what language they speak and what culture they were brought up in.
Avoid like the plague the "Mary Sue" and the author self-insert. (Google them, they are the death of any story.) If you're ambitious and go into historical fiction, you may have to research the culture of the place you want to set your character in, which requires some investment in books (as does the books that give you ideas on how to write!)
Grades indicate nothing - only on how well you performed in a timed exam with set questions. Creative writing does not have questions; those you formulate yourself, and then you hunt out the answer in your subconscious. So long as you have good grammar, spelling, punctuation and sentence structure you can write.
The other aunts are right, keeping a journal definitely helps! Put down the mundane things as well as the interesting things; the ephemera of everyday life exist in the imaginary world as well as the real one.
Feel free to do new things with the genres, too. Take horror - at the moment, there seems to be a lot of literature with sexy vampires and the inner workings of werewolf packs. Maybe you want to write that werewolves are solitary, and they're not forced to change but are actually individual sorcerers who shapechange to journey between this world and the next, like shamans. Maybe your vampires only look normal when they've drunk blood, because if they don't they'll go into rigor mortis and be stuck in one place till the sun rises and kills them!
There are no hard and fast rules. If you do work out that book, approach literary agents to act as a middleman between you and a publisher, as they know best who is appropriate to take your book, and most publishing houses do not accept unsolicited manuscripts from unknowns.
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A
reader, anonymous, writes (27 May 2008): Have you had any college or university education? Not absolutely required of course, but it helps a great deal if you don't know where to start. Is there a community or vocational college/university where you can take classes in Creative Writing as well as studying literature, without working toward a degree until you know what you want. Creative writing classes may focus on writing essays, articles, novels, books, poems etc. and expose you to different genre, as well as MAKING YOU WRITE and gain more experience with practice. Such classes will also suggest different places to publish for new writers. Daily journal writing is also very good for practice and fleshing out ideas. In the U.S., there are a number of literary magazines for writers, like Poets & Writers. Google them on the web. Most importantly, READ quality literature and WRITE. Good luck.
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A
reader, anonymous, writes (27 May 2008): The aunts have come up with some great web sites, have a look on them and decide. I used to write short stories for magazines and got paid, not much, but it all helps and they print your name at the end, so you are a little bit famous. Try it, its good fun.
take care
xx
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A
female
reader, Susan Strict  +, writes (27 May 2008):
 And proof-read your writing SEVERAL times before you send it to anyone else.
Then you won't make mistakes like writing "we-written" when you mean "well-written".
:(
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reader, anonymous, writes (27 May 2008): I used to write books when I was in my teens. I found that just writing gave me great experience.
Maybe you'd get some better answers here: http://www.careerglove.com/
Good Luck. X
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A
female
reader, Tisha-1  +, writes (27 May 2008):
 Hi, I think lots of authors keep journals of their daily lives and their thoughts, you could start there. I don't think the grade should be an indication of your ability to write well, so just forget about that and don't spend another minute worrying about that.
Here's a link for writer's resources, which may give you some help.
http://writers.internet-resources.com/
I guess it all depends on what you want to write about!
You might start by setting aside one or two hours everyday and just writing down whatever comes to mind.
Good luck!
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A
female
reader, Susan Strict +, writes (27 May 2008):
You write.
You write anything and everything that's in your head. The more you write, the better your writing will get.
You read what you've written - preferably out loud - and criticise it yourself as though you had just paid money for it!
You read what other people have written. Read anything and everything from classical literature to cheap pulp fiction. Read newspapers and magazines, and get an understanding of the different writing styles and why one style works for one type of writing and not for another.
If you want to make a start at having something published, try and write a feature article for your local newspaper. Pick a subject that might interest the local community, investigate it in depth, and then write. If what you write is remotely interesting and remotely we-written, then you have a good chance of it being published (and they will pay you a little money for it). Local newspapers work on a very low budget usually, and something they don't have to compile for themselves is usually very welcome (they don't pay a lot! and certainly not enough to justify the time you will have spent on it!!).
Will that do for a start?
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