So you’ve decided to try your hand at writing books have you?  But, since you’ve never done it before where do you start? Some people would instruct you to just sit down and write while others would say start with an outline.  Even if you do a combination of these things you still may not know where to start.

There are thousands of authors out there.  Some are very good and some are not so good. My goal is to be among the very good ones, and my guess is you want the same thing. How do you get there though is the question? And with thousands of authors out there and hundreds of thousands of books what’s so unique about your book that makes it stand out above the others?  Well, I may be getting ahead of myself so let me step back and talk about where you start.

My first book was “my story” and because it was a true story the words just flew from my mind as I sat down to type.  It’s sometimes much easier to write about something you have “lived” than it is to “create” a story. I would suggest you think back on a strong memory from your past and sit down and write about it.  Writing about something that you intimately know about is good practice.  Even if you never publish it, it will get your juices going and stimulate your writing abilities. Think about it as writing a diary or a journal and write what happens on day one, then day two, and so on.

If you have never written a book before, I’d suggest you find an instructional book to help you, and read as many articles as you can about the subject. There are also many blogs on the subject. Brian Klem’s blog offers a lot of tips about writing in general. Writer’s Digest also offers many work shops for writers.

Regardless of who you subscribe to or how many blogs you read, start your adventure with writing something every day. It could change your life.

“Accept responsibility for your life. Know that it is you who will get you where you want to go, no one else.” – Les Brown