Introduction: Crafting a Book

Have you ever wanted to write a book? Do you have a good idea but don't know where to start? Or maybe you've already scribbled down some ideas but have no idea where to start?

This blog will help you with all of those problems and much, much more. This summer I am going to be writing a 10-part blog series about how to write your book from beginning to end and everything in between. You'll learn how to come up with great ideas, plan a plot, break the chains of writer's block and almost any other area of writing a book you can think of.

Trust me. This stuff works. And I'll tell you a story right now to show you how these blog posts will help you.

When I was nine years old, my mother starting reading the masterful trilogy "The Lord of the Rings" by J.R.R. Tolkien to me and my three brothers. There are no words to describe how that book impacted me. When I heard Aragorn speak, I imagined him in the same room. When Gandalf fell down the abyss in the Mines of Moria, I was right there beside him trying to grab his hand. When Legolas shot down the Nazgul over the river, I heard the twang of the bowstring. As Frodo stood on the brink of Mount Doom, I too felt the indecision and desperation of the moment.

It was because the book was alive. Vivid, beautiful language flowed from the pages as if it were magic ink. Tolkien was a master of the English language, and even at nine years of age, I could recognize that. So I made a promise to myself, one I thought quite easy and insignificant. I told myself that one day I would write something that would leave a mark among the literary world. I would write a book that would stand out. I would write a book that was alive, just like Tolkien had.

I soon learned that writing wasn't how I imagined it. I found a little notebook and starting scribbling a story in it. Before long, the notebook was filled. When I look back, that was quite a feat for just a small boy to accomplish. But when I had filled the lines of that notebook (I still have it, too, as a memento of my first days of writing), I realized that simply writing in a notebook was not going to send me to a publisher to get my #1 New York Times bestselling book out there. I would have to type my book.

My mom had an ancient Macintosh computer that she let me use. Every day I would sit there pecking away on my book. Over the course of several months, I typed and typed and finally reached a hundred pages.

Wow. I was only ten years old and I had typed more on one project than most people ever would. Needless to say, I was very proud of my manuscript. I obsessed over the magical world I had invented, and I drew elaborate maps of the ancient kingdoms in my book.

And then one day, the screen turned black and the antique computer died. It crashed, and I lost all the hundred pages. Not a remnant of what I had is left and I will never be able to find it again.

It was devastating for me. How would you feel if your favorite treasure was suddenly gone? To me, my book was a part of me.

But did that stop me? Nope. I started over. A year later I had written a hundred pages again. A few months after that, I scraped together enough words to make something the size of a book.

I knew I wanted to get my book published, but as I started searching online for a way for that to happen, I began to lose hope. Nobody would want a book like mine. I read about bitter authors who had been rejected. I skimmed over stories of high tax rates and little profits. I saw age limits years older than me, and more importantly, I saw that I would have to pay to get a book published.

And then at my local library I met a man named Wayne Drumheller. Mr. Wayne showed me how I could self-publish my own book for free. I could print my own copies and then sell them.

So that's what I did. I popped my manuscript into a file and uploaded it to a self-publishing platform. Mr. Wayne helped me make a cover, and that was that. Very much happy with my success, I started writing its sequel. Years flew by, and now I am working on my sixth novel.

That story was meant to tell you two things. If you want to write a book, you will need to have determination. Lots of it. You can't be the kind of person who started building a birdhouse and it's still sitting half finished in the basement. You can't be that person who wants to grow a garden and ends up with a plot of weeds. The "I think" and "Maybe" people are not for the writing world. You have to want to write a book and want it enough to sacrifice for it. You have to not give up, even if you lose a hundred pages of work.

the second thing I am telling you is this: I started writing with determination and nothing else. It wasn't until my third book was a work in progress that I really discovered how to write. My first book is almost comical when I read it. The trilogy I began my writing ventures in is the greatest example of a writer morphing from bad to good that I have ever seen. If I had the tips I will share with you, my books would have been much better. Both content and quality would have been a hundred times better.

Even with a world of determination, you have to know something about how to write a book before you begin it. Otherwise your first literary attempt might be so bad you don't want to keep going.

Believe me. I'm a critical judge of my own work. The future blog posts that I hope you will read will make your book better. I promise. They will help you, just like they have helped me.

If you want to keep reading this series, make sure you follow my social media to get updates when they are released! Good luck on learning how to become a better writer, and I hope you enjoy the future posts.

-Robert E. Locklear