How difficult is it to write a book?

[1voice]

anyone care to share their experience on writing a book, whether it be digital or standard print? I feel like the story would be the easy part and everything else is the hard part.

[Adam]

It's all equally hard honestly. Coming up with a compelling story isn't that easy, you have to have a plot that makes some sense even with suspension of disbelief. Your characters need to come off real and not over done cliches, they have to have struggles and you have to showcase their growth. It has to be written in a way that it keeps readers interested, you want the audience to hate certain characters while love others, the hardest part of any novel is to invoke any type of emotion out of the reader.

Dedication is key, tons of people start wanting to write a book, but never finish because they either can't follow through with a writing schedule or they just never developed a proper story. Outline the story, it doesn't have to be in ridiculous detail, just enough that you're aware of main plot points and where you want to go with it. Because if you write as you go then it'll never feel "complete". Knowing what you want to accomplish allows you to use foreshadowing in earlier chapters.

Good grammar, I can not stress that enough. If all you do is write in text speak then good luck. It's alright for there to be errors, it's natural. Authors focus first on getting the story written and they tend to miss some things, but that's why you go back and edit the book after you're done, and even if you edit it have at least two other people read it. As an author, you'll always be too close to your book to see certain mistakes.

The best advice I can give is to have fun with it. Don't write a novel for the sake of writing one, write a novel because the story you want to tell can't be done in any other format.

[OathAlliance]

In my experiences of writing a book, the story might seem easy on the basic level. But when it comes down to the in-depthness of your characters or how you are going to move the plot forwards it get's really hard. The Story is half the work.

I've found myself hitting my head against a wall to find that next piece. Also, just because you know where you're going doesn't mean that you can find a way there.

But like Adam said, it's about dedication. If you aren't willing to invest a lot of your time into writing a book then you should just stop. I've written 39 pages in my book and that's taken me at least 20 hours to do so.

As I've always said: "Anyone can write a book, not everyone can write one worth reading." If you do write a book make sure that you get others to read it so that you can see whether yours will be liked by people.

Last Advice, like what you write. Don't write about something you hate because it's something people like. Write what you like in a way that everyone will like it.

[topleka]

I suppose that largely depends on how easy it is for you to write and to stay motivated. I'd say it's not really hard as much as it time-consuming and oftentimes boring. A good book goes through many revisions to make it interesting and fun. You, unfortunately, have to read all the boring ones that come first, and that's after you've gone through the time it takes to write it. For some people, the writing comes easy once they've figured out a story. I mean, you already know what's going to happen, so writing it down is cake. For other people, getting the idea is the easy bit, but actually putting it into words is hard. If you'd like to write a book (I'm assuming fiction), I'd recommend outlining the story first, with a clear goal of what happens in each chapter. Don't do anything too epic. A smaller novel can be as short as 40,000 words.

[Chrysics]

Very, very, very, insanely difficult. I've been at it since I was 17 and my god, the amount of times I've scraped, restarted or started new projects is more times then I can count.

The main problem I have is finding the time. Work, uni and friends, it's all very hard to balance. It was a lot easier when I didn't have a life xD

[Johnathan Wrathborne]

Very, very, very, insanely difficult. I've been at it since I was 17 and my god, the amount of times I've scraped, restarted or started new projects is more times then I can count.

The main problem I have is finding the time. Work, uni and friends, it's all very hard to balance. It was a lot easier when I didn't have a life xD

Clearly its time to quit going to the Uni and get back on that book!

[Chrysics]

Clearly its time to quit going to the Uni and get back on that book!

haha...don't tempt me

I've often contemplated taking a year off to purely focus on writing and hell, even go to the states and try pitching a script around.

[rebelcheese]

It's hard, harder than it looks, and the market's more difficult to break into than ever. I mean, with the James Patterson factory taking up more and more of the adult and YA bookshelves single-handedly . . .

I started writing when I was 17. I'm 23, and only have been able to complete two novels, and the first wasn't very good. The second one has actually attracted some interest but I know better than to hold my breath after the last go-around. I'd love for it to get an agent and a publishing contract though, it's probably the most original idea in my arsenal.

I wasn't able to finish a damn thing until I started trying for the YA demographic and switched to the first person from third. Sometimes it just takes a while to realize where your strengths are. It took me upwards of five years for me to realize my own strengths and to figure out that my third person just isn't very good no matter how hard I try. I either get too flowery or too simplistic when I try third person, something I don't have problems with when I switch to first.

[Matt Cruea]

Writing, as with any form of art creation, is really 99% innate talent. Either you can do it or you can't. If it's really hard (I mean more in the frustrating, scrap it a billion times because it's not good sense, not in the sense that it is difficult to get a book published and it is tedious to write), it's probably not what you're meant to do.

[Adam]

The market is geared more towards reality stars and instant money making products. Agents rarely want to try to develop unpublished writers with no experience. it's not even about how much talent you have or how good your book may be. It's all about what is going to sell, Snooki, from the Jersey Shore is a best selling author.....that should say enough.

With ebooks and places like Amazon, Createspace, Lulu, etc you can publish your own book and break into the market that way. Anyone can do it, which is true, the difference is in the actual talent and the dedication. Just because you self publish does not make you any less of an author than anyone else.

Stick to your strengths and enjoy writing for the sake of writing.

Have people read it and help you see things you may miss. But don't give up just because it's hard.