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Newbie Writer Help!!!

Sasha

New Member
Hey, guys i've just joined the forum because i am interested in writing a book about my life and i have no idea where to start.

Please can anyone suggest a way to get started or any sites/books/seminars to attend to put me in the write direction? :confused:

Thank You.

Sash.
 
Welcome.

A first step might be to think about what in your life is something to write about that other people would want to read. Brainstorm about why your life has been that engaging. Start to make a list or outline of those things. A structure for your book might start to form.
 
Why don't you just start writing and see what develops? Take an episode from your life and tell that story. There's really nobody who can tell you how to start. Just start. Like "when I was 15 I bought a black suede blazer at a store called The Late Show, which used to be on St. Mark's Place. The guy who ran the shop was a hippie queen named Rollerina who skated around the store arranging things and singing. When he took my fifteen dollars he told me that jacket would bring me luck, and it did . . . "
 
The easiest method of writing is to pick up a pen and start writing, or a keyboard if you prefer typing. If you are a writer, the words will begin to flow.

Also, the best advice I can give to an aspiring writer is this: read, read, read. The more you read, the better a writer you will become.
 
Sasha said:
Hey, guys i've just joined the forum because i am interested in writing a book about my life and i have no idea where to start.

Please can anyone suggest a way to get started or any sites/books/seminars to attend to put me in the write direction? :confused:

Thank You.

Sash.

Have you lived an interesting life, or do you perhaps have an unusual perception of events? If so, are you good at describing them?

Anyway, Good Luck!!
 
Telling your life

If you have decided that your life is interesting enough for others to read, then the very best thing to do is WRITE
Get it all down on paper (er CD or disk). Don't worry about order or size. Then what you need to do is arrange it in chronological order (Usually birth to present, unless you have some pre-birth memories you want to divulge.)
Then you need to read it
If you still think it bears re-telling to the public. Pick a moment of time, time in your life that seems to be the crux of the reason your are writing the story.
Make THAT your starting point. From that point - flash back for history, forward for current events. Put together a tale that others WANT to read. Present us (readers) with a conflict (conflict in loose terms - a point of decision could be enough) and tell us how you got there - what it's like to be there and how you got (or plan to) get out or move on.
If you have not written book sized manuscripts and have only written shorter works -- make sure you have at least a couple of million words under your belt before you start a book length saga.

Good luck!!
 
ArJohn said:
If you have not written book sized manuscripts and have only written shorter works -- make sure you have at least a couple of million words under your belt before you start a book length saga.
A couple million, huh? That's what... (does some rough word count calculations: roughly ten to fifteen novel length manuscripts per million)

So, yeah... write twenty to thirty book length pieces of fiction, and then you're ready to start writing. :confused:

Just start writing and see what develops.
 
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