Writing a good book : How to be blown away by your own story

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You want to write a good book ? How to immerse your reader in your story? Maybe you should be blown away by your own story. That’s the way I write, as Stephen King or J. K. Rowling do. A novel is more than a good sequence of words, it is about bringing characters to life and telling their stories. Here are some tips for a lively narrative, to immerse the reader in the story you have created. Starting with your first reader: you.

Why you have to be blown away by your own story

Good books don’t give up all their secrets at once.

Stephen King

Writer

If you think further, a story without any surprise isn’t very funny.

Here is a very important point.

You cannot create a good story if you are bored, guys !

When you are writing, have fun !

Whatever your methods and tips for creating a good story are, this is the only process you should not forgot as far as you write.

As a reader, you want to be involved, amazed, you want to feel it as a part of your life, don’t you ?
No secrets there : so you have to do it as a writer, too.

You have been told all this, haven’t you ?

So why are you ashamed ?
Why are you doubtfull ?
And why do you roll down again and again this false excuse named procrastination not to finish it ?

Writing: A persistent whisper named procrastination

Maybe the fear of being judged is strong enough to make you freeze.

Well, if it makes you feel any better, all writers are familiar to procrastination.

I have been few weeks ago in a writers’ workshop about procrastination. This was during the international Festival of Utopiales (a science fiction festival).
This writers’ workshop was featured by the author Lionel Davoust. He has written about thirty novellas and two novels and won some literary prices.
And you know what ?
He does still have to deal with procrastination.
So do not let yourself stop so easily.
You can go through.

Let me tell you something about writing your story :

You are the only one who can write it.

At these moment, you are probably listening to your little voice whispering that these kind of story has ever been writen many times.

I know but let’s shut it down.
You know why ?
Because…

Your imagination is unique.

Remember this. It is very important.

Whatever you do, whatever your goals are, you are unique as a person. So make it your own way.

When writers support aspiring authors

Let me tell you the story of Fannie Bultez, an aspiring author.

She was so discouraged about her writings, she was afraid she wouldn’t be able to finish her novel.
She explained on Twitter she could never write as well as J.K. Rowling and Stephen King.

A few monthes ago, J.K. Rowling told she would have liked someone to have helped her when she was writing Harry Potter.

Surprinsingly J.K. Rowling answered to Fannie Butlez, :

Don’t write me. Write like you. Nobody else can do that. Finish your book.

JK Rowling

Writer

As the author and singer Mathias Malzieu said, “This advice is exactly magical.”

Fannie gained a motivational advice and then she made an online promise to finish writing her book.

The best to do is to write like you, finish the story, your story.

To write a good book : you need self confidence, experiment and curiosity

You need self confidence to walk through the life. This is same for writing.

Read and write a lot, all the writers will tell you.

Experience and travel, this is a good way to enrich yourself, too.
Your dreamed road trip seems inaccessible ? Look around you, you can discover people and life just around the next city, just around the corner you’ve never been to.

Travel is a state of mind, not the distance you cross.

Be curious. Be awake.

Writing is nurturing the awaken mind.

Write the story you want to read

No matter if you write your story for your friends or for a Publishing House, the way is the same : yours.
Be sure you write the story you want to read, and it will be a breathe in your life.

Obviously, it won’t be easy, it won’t be written in two days. Once the first draft is finished, and rested for a few weeks, then you have to edit and rewrite: be sure, this is the begenning of the adventure.

Writing is a long walk, but this trip is also a fantastic experiment.
Hard are the lanes, but you must persue to finish it, you deserve it.

Then it will be your story. If you do your best, you will write a unique tell, at least unique for you.
Do not try to compare yourself with others : the only way is to compare your work with yours.
Can you do it better ? Always.
A story is alive. So you can never end it.
But you are able to awake it somehow.
Feel your story enough to live it from inside, side by side with your characters.

When you will have done this, you can rewrite or edit your text to make it more vivid.

A story is alive. So you can never end it.

But you are able to awake it somehow.

Feel your story enough to live it from inside, side by side with your characters.

When you will have done this, you can rewrite or edit your text to make it more vivid.

To write a good book, you must speak the language of the five senses, plus an essential sixth sense: empathy

Take breaths, breaks, take time to understand the motivations and emotions of your characters.

Use your body, not only your mind when you are writing your book.

Figure out how your characters walk, their mood. How they speak, not only the sounds but how they express. How they feel heat or cold, the wind blowing or the sun’s warm caress on their skin.

There is also a sixth sense you have to play with.

Use your empathy.

To write a good book, you must speak the language of the five senses, plus an essential sixth sense: empathy.

Take breaths, breaks, take time to understand the motivations and emotions of your characters.

Act in symbiosis with your characters.

Each of your characters ? Of course.

How could you know the motivations of your bad guys or stupid ones, if you don’t connect with them ?
Be your characters, not only the nice ones, but all of them.
To become them an be a confusing experience, but your writing will be truly enhanced.

You will know how to express their lazyness or exhaustion, their optimism or despair, their compassion or friendship, their rage or love.
Emotions are the jewels of your writing.
If write using this formula, your book is more than a piece of words, it is vivid.