by NICK DAWS
So you want to write a book, but can’t think
of an idea? No problem! Here are just a few suggestions to set you
on the road to your first best-seller!
Start by thinking about your job (and if you’re
a student, a carer, a home-maker, a full-time parent or an unpaid
volunteer worker, that counts as well). Think about whether there
are there aspects of this which would be of interest to ordinary
people, or people who do similar jobs to you (or would like to).
Remember, you don’t have to be an ‘expert’
now – you can always research what you don’t know later.
But clearly it helps if you already know something about your subject.
And by the very fact of doing a certain job, you already know more
than the great majority of the population about this subject.
Suppose though your job doesn’t suggest many
ideas – or you simply don’t find it interesting or exciting
enough to inspire you. Try thinking about jobs you have done in
the past. Think about your hobbies and leisure interests –
from baseball to gourmet cookery, astronomy to foreign travel. Could
any of these provide the inspiration for a book?
And think about experiences you have gone through
in your life. The topics below have formed the basis of many thousands
of books already. How many of these could you write about from experience
yourself?
· Getting Married
· Having a Baby
· Bringing Up Children
· Living With Teenagers
· Dealing With Bereavement
· Being A Student
· Coping With Divorce
· Buying/Selling a House
· Learning to Drive
· Buying a Car
· Extending Your Home
Remember, the experience itself is just a starting
point. From the list above, take ‘Being a Student’,
for example. Here are just a few ideas for books which this might
inspire:
· Leaving home: a guide for young people
· Study skills for students
· Improve your memory
· How to work your way through college
· Cooking for cash-strapped students
· The Internet for students
· Making the most of student life
Hmm. I might have a go at some of these myself!
Seriously, the point I’m making is that most people have the
seeds for hundreds, probably thousands, of books within them already.
All you need do is spend a little time thinking about your life
– things you do now and things you have done in the past –
and consider how your knowledge and experience might be of interest
to others.
And here’s a further idea to make your idea
even more attractive to potential readers and publishers: develop
your own technology round it! And no, I don’t mean you have
to produce some clever gadget to accompany your book. By technology
I mean a plan or system around which you can structure your book
(or part of it).
An acronym is a good example of what I’m
talking about here. For those who don’t know, an acronym is
a word made up from the initial letters of other words or phrases.
It acts as an aide memoire for the words concerned, and in many
cases forms the basis for a set of guidelines or instructions. For
example, advertising copywriters are often taught that any ad they
write should meet the AIDA requirements. These are as follows:
1. ATTRACT the reader’s ATTENTION
2. Arouse INTEREST
3. Create DEMAND for the product or service
4. Prompt the reader to ACTION
So how could you apply this principle to your own
project? Say you’re going to write a book about bringing up
teenagers (a subject I know nothing about, by the way). A few moments’
thought gave me the acronym RAILS, made up as follows:
Set RULES
Make ALLOWANCE
Show INTEREST
Don’t LECTURE
Give SPACE (or SUPPORT)
An acronym can also help provide the title for
your book. In the above example, one obvious possibility would be
Keep Your Teenager on the RAILS. I can easily imagine this climbing
high in Amazon.com’s Top Sellers list. I don’t think
I’ll be writing it myself, even so – but if any reader
wants to pick up the idea and run with it, I’ll be happy to
settle for 10 per cent of your royalties!
Finally, suppose you want to write fiction rather
than non-fiction. The same principle applies – use your own
experience as a starting point, and build on it using your imagination
and research. For example: a friend of mine writes detective novels
from a police perspective; they’re called police procedurals
by those in the know. He doesn’t have a police background
himself and wrote his first novel entirely from his own imagination,
aided by research from books. He particularly treasures one glowing
review from a police magazine which congratulates him on the authenticity
of his characters!
Of course, the real point is that people are the
same the world over, whatever the occupation they happen to work
in: some are conscientious, others slapdash; some are sociable,
others solitary; some court trouble, others aim to avoid it. The
same would doubtless be true in medieval times, the present day
or the far future. All writers have to do is start from
their own experience of the world and the people in it, and extend
this.
Nick Daws is the creator of the popular “How to Write
ANY Book in 28 Days” CD course. You can learn more
about Nick Daws and purchase his writing philosophy at www.writequickly.com.
Please see our other articles:
The Next Big
Thing: A Brief Guide To The Publishing Industry
and The Submission Process For Aspiring Novelists
Print on
Demand Publishers
Tips for a Successful
Book
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