How To Get Better At Writing

By Kemi Owonibi

Writing is such fun, right up until the moment you have to sit down and write.

HOW TO GET BETTER AT WRITING TODAY is a self-help book designed to help writers and authors overcome their greatest obstacles and achieve their highest goals in writing.

If you are looking for a book that simplifies the craft of writing from start to finish, this book is for you. In this easy-to-use book, I will be showing you step by step how to move from preconception phase to the point where you begin to write, to the point of completing your manuscript. And then we will take it a notch further up to the point where your book or your content is published and reaches your audience.

In this book, you will learn:

• How to overcome your biggest writing problems.
• Where to find inspiration and how to nurture the writer in you.
• Why your writings are not as good as the ones written by your favourite authors, and what you can do about it.
• How to set SMART writing goals and achieve them.
• How to organise, store and manage your writings.
• The intricacies of the cover, front and back matters, book title, beginning, and the body of your book.
• How to develop your characters, plot, settings, and take your descriptions to a top notch.
• Ways of publishing and promoting your book and other contents.

This is an action book; it is also full of real-life examples that will help transform your writing experience from absolute nightmare into such bliss.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Kemi Dorcas DELE IJAGBULU
• Release date: Sep 6, 2020
• ISBN: 9781716601156

Book preview

COPYRIGHT

Copyright © 2020 by Kemi OWONIBI

All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-71660-115-6

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means— electronic or mechanical, without written permission from the author, except for brief quotations in printed or electronic reviews and articles.

~*~

Cover design: KEMI OWONIBI

DEDICATION

To Sinmisola Ògúnyinka

Author. Friend. Mentor

"This is how you do it:

you sit down at the keyboard and you put one word after another until it’s done.

It’s that easy, and that hard."

– Neil Gaiman

Contents

COPYRIGHT

DEDICATION

INTRODUCTION

WHAT IS YOUR GREATEST WRITING PROBLEM?

WHO IS A WRITER?

HOW WILL YOU KNOW IF YOU ARE A WRITER?

LET’S GET STARTED!

SECTION A:

BEFORE YOU START WRITING.

1.      WHERE DO I START?

2.      A WRITER HAS GOT TO WRITE! EVERY DAY!

3.      WHAT DO I WRITE?

4.      KNOW YOUR BOOK GENRE!

4b. WHAT IS A BOOK GENRE?

5.      KNOW YOURSELF

6.      READ LIKE A WRITER

7.      READ & DISSECT OTHER BOOKS SIMILAR TO YOURS

8.      DO YOUR RESEARCH

9.      TAKE A CLASS!

10.      WRITE WHAT YOU LOVE TO READ.

11.      UNDERSTAND YOUR AUDIENCE

12.      BE A WRITER AT HEART!

SECTION B: WHILE YOU ARE STILL WRITING.

SECTION B: WHILE WRITING

1.      SET WRITING GOALS!

2. CREATE A WORKSPACE.

2.      DIGITAL DEVICES AND APPLICATIONS

3.      ORGANISING, STORAGE AND MANAGING YOUR WRITING

4.      PLOTTER VS PANTSER

5.      WRITING A BOOK: THE THREE PARTS OF A BOOK

6.      BOOK COVER

7.      GIVING YOUR BOOK A TITLE

8.      GETTING DOWN TO WRITING THE MAIN BODY

9.      GETTING DOWN TO WRITING: BEGINNINGS MATTER

10.      DEVELOP YOUR CHARACTERS

11.      NAMING YOUR CHARACTERS

12.      DESCRIBING PEOPLE: AVOID STEROEOTYPES

13.      THE SETTING OF YOUR BOOK

14.      PLOT: OUTLINES, MIND MAPS, AND IMAGINATION

15.      SHOW, DON’T TELL

16.      WRITING SUMMARY AND SYNOPSIS.

17.      FINISH YOUR BOOK!

18.      THE POWER OF FIRST DRAFTS

19.      WHEN YOUR FIRST DRAFT IS COMPLETE.

20.      READ IT! FLIP IT! AND RETELL THE STORY!

SECTION C: WHEN YOU ARE DONE WRITING.

SECTION C: AFTER WRITING YOUR BOOK

1.      LEARN TO SELF-EDIT

2.      EDITING & EDITORS

3.      WAYS TO PUBLISH YOUR CONTENTS

4.      HOW TO PUBLISH A BOOK

5.      SELF-PUBLISHING COMPANIES

6.      EBOOKS

7.      BOOK DIMENSIONS

8.      TRIM SIZES

9.      SIMPLE WAYS TO MARKET/PROMOTE YOUR BOOK

GET BETTER AT WRITING: IN CONCLUSION

A Word from The Author

Appendix 1: Flash Questions for Writers & Authors

Appendix 2: Writers’ Glossary

About the Book

About the Author

INTRODUCTION

I am excited that you have picked up this book, and more importantly, that you are reading it for a purpose – to get better at writing. Writing tips have helped every writer and I am pleased to share my knowledge with you.

Whether you are a beginner, a professional, few things make a writer more anxious than facing a blank page, and it is your creative responsibility as a writer to transform that blank page and craft it into a masterpiece. That is what this book is all about – to provide the much-needed help to catapult you from your point of weakness to that of strength, to help you overcome the hurdles and insecurities that are limiting you from attaining your full potentials as a writer, and to motivate you to get back to your work-in-progress, complete your book, and publish it.

My journey as a writer is quite familiar. I started writing as a teenager; I had an obsession for stationeries, and I would get loose sheets of paper to write – anything, random stuff. The use of computer was not popular in those early days, and we did not have mobile devices. With time, my writing skills evolved, and I went from writing on loose papers to whole exercise books. Then I took it a step further; as a university undergraduate, I joined writers’ groups, later became an editor, and I published different periodicals for the groups where I was the editor. I was also involved in helping other people to write, proofread or edit their books. For a few years afterwards, I focused more on blogging, and I also began to write the first drafts of my book ideas. In 2019, I made the decision to start publishing some of my ideas, drafts, and other contents as books/eBooks.

Do I have my challenges as a writer? Yes. A million and one. Blank pages possibly top the list, many times I just do not know what to write. I often get overwhelmed by the enormity of what I must write. I struggle with plotting, most of the time. Sometimes I wonder why I cannot write books that are so outstanding like the bestselling authors do. I occasionally worry when I cannot use lofty languages like other writers. And I oftentimes abandon my work-in-progress. Basically, I have the same struggles as other writers and authors. However, I do not allow these challenges to limit me.

I have received a lot of questions about writing – from how to generate an idea to how to launch a published book, and everything in-between. I thought it would be more effective if I put those thoughts together as a book. So, this book is a general overview of the entire process of writing and publishing your book.

Like any other skill, writing is a skill that you can learn; and as a writer, you must take advantage of every opportunity to learn something new, especially if such new knowledge will be relevant to you writing goals. I may not know what your biggest writing problems are, and I cannot claim to be entirely sure of the level you are in writing and publishing your literary contents, but I am positive that you will be helped in this book, because it touches all the bases.

So, it does not matter if you are still an imaginary writer, if you are struggling to write the first few sentences, or if you are angrily deleting the ones you have written. Perhaps you have completed a few chapters and you are stuck. Or if you have a complete manuscript in your cabinet. Or perhaps you are already a professional with many publications behind you. There is something for you in this book. There is something for everybody.

WHAT IS YOUR GREATEST WRITING PROBLEM?

Let us start by addressing the writing problems. It is important to have a problem list, so that you can have an honest assessment of yourself. That way, it will be easier to tackle them.

What are your greatest writing problems? Which scenarios best describe you?

I will highlight a few of the answers I have received from writers, but if none of these problems describe you, you can add yours to the list.

You have been trying to write a book, but it is not coming out right.

You probably do not know where to start.

You ran out of ideas.

You got overwhelmed by the enormity of what you wanted to write.

You are trying to write that story, but hey, it sounds so silly!

You are always tempted to edit every single paragraph as you write it.

You cannot help deleting the things you have written, because they do not sound right.

You have this great idea, but all you have managed to write is a pathetic imitation of your idea.

You do not understand why you are unable you write something perfect, like other people do.

You wish you could write better, just like one of your favourite authors

You cannot risk a third eye reading what you have written, even you cringe while reading it.

You wish you could write better, just like one of your favourite authors

You cannot risk a third eye reading what you have written, even you cringe while reading it.

You are thinking maybe, just maybe writing is not for you!

You are really, really struggling with certain aspects of your writing. They just would not gel like you wanted.

You have written a couple of chapters, but you got stuck and abandoned it for months, or even years now.

You started writing, and you got busy with other stuff, and now you cannot get yourself to continue, you do not even know where you were anymore.

You have finished your first draft, but you do not know what to do next.

Perhaps what you are writing is not a book, but content for your blog, or for a social media post, or for a magazine, or for a play or drama, and you not making a headway.

Does any of the above scenarios describe you? Then this book is for you. If you stay with me as we