Steps to Become an Author

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. 

Tap 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.

Build Your Skills as A Writer

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. 

Work out who the characters are and how they interact. Take the time to expand on their personalities, likes, fears, successes, and downfalls. Make them as realistic and pertinent as you can. 

Write as often as possible to develop that plot and fill in all the details. Expand your vocabulary by using a thesaurus and a decent dictionary. 

Set a daily writing target, such as a thousand words or maybe a two-hour time slot each afternoon for writing. However you arrange it, make it achievable, and keep to it. And don’t lose sight 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

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.