Getting an Idea for a Book
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.
Mini Bio: Nick Daws is a best-selling British author, and
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 by clicking below.
