Simple Steps to Authorhood

You have an idea, or at least the glimmering of an idea for a book. The path to becoming an author is in essence fairly straightforward, though the details of each step and the work involved might make it appear complex and even a bit overwhelming.  But understanding the main steps and working through each one will eventually pay off for you. 

Crafting Your Imagination: 

The first step in becoming an author is to discover your writing passion. You can just start by coming up with ideas related to what you know or what interests and excites you. Or maybe you’ve already been inspired by a book you read or an author you enjoy. All the ideas you come up with can be jotted down and stored in a folder for future use or inspiration.

Building Your Writing Skills

Starting with the idea you've chosen to explore, outline a plot of how the story could go. It doesn’t have to be a fully baked plot line, just get the jist of it written down. Then you can flesh it out, work it around, and continue to improve it. 

Reading other’s works can also be helpful. Pay attention to how this writer moved the story along through the various stages and adventures. 

Work out who the characters are and how they interact. You could take the time now to expand on their personalities, likes, fears, trouble, success, and downfalls. Make them real and pertinent. 

Write as much as you can to develop your plot and fill in the details. Use a thesaurus and a good dictionary to expand your vocabulary. 

Set a writing target you wish to achieve each day, whether it's a 1000 word limit or simply a two hour time slot in your day for your writing. However you arrange it, make it doable, and keep to it. And don’t lose sight of the fact that it should also remain as fun as you can make it. 

Finding and developing your style will come with practice and experience. Let it happen.

Persistence, Patience, and Practice - This is Your Path

Becoming an author is a process. Talent could play a part in your success, or having an uncle in the publishing business could give you a step up, but these are all factors not necessarily in your control. The factors that you can control, and which are so much more important, are your persistence, your patience, and your ability to simply place words on paper. With time and effort, your words, your sentences, and your paragraphs will get better and better, and at some point, you will find you have a completed manuscript that you finally feel is worth showing to others. 

Publish

Getting your book into the marketplace can be one of the easiest steps now that Amazon KDP and similar platforms are available for self-publishing.

So just get your book done by following the above steps and stick with it until you are satisfied. You are your first customer and if you love the story, it's likely others will love it too.