Ask HN: How to write a book? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: How to write a book?

4 pointsambivalents5 comments

I've had a yearning for most of my life to write a book, and have decided 2019 to be the year to do so.

I anticipate some feedback like, "Well first you need to have something to say." Fair enough - I'm at a stage where I have a few half baked ideas but no story complete or complex enough to warrant a full book length. I do have things to say, though, and know I have the drive in me to get them out with some guidance.

Has anyone been here? How did you write a book, writers of HN? Do you just start? And word by word keep going?

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... By writing, like you said. It's no more complicated than that.

That you're asking this here leads me to believe there's some unknown (to me) internal resistance holding you back: start writing. Write some more. Then write some more.

You might be interested in books like "Bird by Bird" (Lamott) or "Do the Work" (Pressman) etc. (I've read BbyB a few times, and am re-reading/-listening to DtW again as I plow through some drudge work that's necessary, but irritating.)

First thing in the morning, write three pages. 30-40 mts. Don’t plot. Just write. Don’t spell check. Don’t try to weave a story. Just write without a plan. Pen to paper. Writing is a habit. You can’t be a sporadic writer or author. It’s a craft. It needs discipline. Do this for six weeks first.

Not sure if you mean fiction or non-fiction.

For non-fiction (at least):

1. Write - a first draft, of an essay, chapter, article, anything. Don't judge for quality. A first draft is supposed to be bad.[0] Just write the stuff down. The main thing is to have raw material for:

2. Editing. Edit, re-edit, reorganize, etc. Maybe dozens of times or more, until there's not a word that can be improved or cut, until every cliché is gone. Edit more. Maybe the pieces will merge, or split apart - let the writing happen, go where it wants to go, not where you want it to go.

p.s. Zinsser's On Writing Well, on writing non-fiction, is wonderful, as is pg's essay about writing essays.

http://www.paulgraham.com/essay.html also: http://www.paulgraham.com/talk.html

[0] Like it says in Clean Code, first you write dirty code, then you clean it. Nobody can write clean code; it's a product of editing.

I came across an interview in the Paris Review in which E. B. White (of Charlotte's Web and "Strunk & White" fame) talked about his writing process.

I believe jelliclesfarm has given you some excellent advice. On the other hand, White spoke about how, for him, writing was sort of like surfing -- he liked to wait for the wave of inspiration to come upon him before he started to write. Obviously that notion can be abused. You might wait months for "inspiration" to hit you. Fair enough. But what I think he meant -- and this is valuable -- is that there were certain optimal conditions for him for writing, and it was important for him not to waste them. For me, my best writing is early in the morning when the house is quiet. I think White liked to write in the kitchen when there was activity going on with which he was uninvolved.

This Twitter thread has some good pointers: https://twitter.com/JamieJBartlett/status/966603813791649792

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