The 3 Stages of Writing Books
After an hour or so of thinking, I've concluded that every book has three parts. No, I'm not talking about the three act structure or anything. I mean literally. The spine and covers, the pages and the binding.
of fried chicken. In the idea stage, go wild with the randomest things. Once you get to the execution stage, use the full strength of all your writing knowledge and blow readers out of their minds. And finally, pretty it up with the presentation stage. The icing on the cake. The chocolate on an icecream. The fried skin on a chicken.
Nah, just kidding. I'm talking about the three parts authors follow when they're writing a book. Three phases, if you may. So without further ado, let's get to it!
1. Idea
The first stage of a book is the idea. The sparkly egg in its full glory. (Talking about sparkly eggs, someone needs to write a book about chickens who lay sparkly eggs)
Often, this is the part that takes the longest. It involves firstly coming up with something, hopefully interesting, and expanding on it. Think of it like a chicken (you) laying an egg (the idea) and brooding on it.
Most authors I know like to spend years imagining this and that for their shiny new idea. (Exhibit A: *me*) Some don't, which is totally fine. We all work differently. Personally, I say take as long as you need, but try to finish it before half your life goes by.
The idea can take the form of many things. It could be a premise statement, like 99 year old Bertha had a long and fruitful life until her pet chicken, Clucky, goes missing. Bertha heads out to find her dearest companion, but can she get there before Clucky becomes someone's next KFC meal? *cue dramatic music*
But it doesn't have to be as elegant as that. It could be a concept, a desire to write a book with a certain feel or even a character concept you love.
This is probably the easiest part of the three. Look hard enough and you'll find that egg. There's really no point in talking about this any longer, so on to Part 2!
2. Execution
Arguably the hardest, the execution stage is what trips most authors up. This is where the egg starts to hatch. It might crack, but until the chick comes out of the shell or stays dormant for longer than it should, you can't tell whether it's good or bad. (Okay, I had something better to say but I forgot in the approximate 5 seconds it took for me to type that.)
The execution part is what sets an average person apart from an artist. How we execute the idea is what separates the different forms of art. For authors, we write. Duh.
So what does this part involve? Fully fleshing out your ideas, making it work. Planning characters, plot, worldbuilding and whatever else needs to be done. And finally, writing all that down in a way that makes sense and editing it all.
For most people, it's easy to have ideas, but it's harder to express them. This is where everything you know about writing matters. With experience, the worst ideas can become a fully fledged fandom. That's why writing blogs (like this one) exist.
The execution stage is the tell tale between different authors. This is what most critics will look at. Because of this, you want to learn all you can about the writing craft to make that dream book. Sloppy writing will break an idea. The best writing will hatch it.
And you want to hatch the egg because that's the only way we can get fried chicken like how chickens will multiply, your book is highly likely to be what inspires someone else.
Take my Bertha and Clucky as an example. For the sake of time, I'm not going to write a story, I'm just going to write a summary of what happens.
Execution One:
Clucky is kidnapped by some rando who isn't revealed until the end. Bertha is a jerk who stays a jerk throughout the entire book. She fights sea monsters, jaguars and her grandkids (though not as violently) just to find Clucky. She also goes on a few hundred irrelevant sidequests.
Execution Two:
Clucky is kidnapped by a starving grandpa who lacks the ability to cook (which is why Clucky survived the book). Bertha starts out as a jerk and ruthlessly hunts this grandpa but as she and grandpa clash multiple times, she starts to think that maybe she should stop being a jerk and cook grandpa a nice meal. But not with Clucky.
If both plans are written out with equal writing prowess, which one do you think will have a higher chance of being a bestseller? Yes, the second one. If you said the first one, say the second one, please.
I've seen books with brilliant ideas but they suck. Why? Because their execution was sloppy. For the love of all that is good, try your hardest. Keep learning, writing, learning, writing. Nail your execution. Yes, perfect is impossible, but 99.9(recurring)% isn't.
3. Presentation
Eventually, your egg will hatch and come out either an adorable chick or an ugly duckling. You want the chick. Sure, an ugly duckling may turn into a swan, but the keyword is may. And swans are way overrated. Everyone's heard of fried chicken, but no one eats fried swans except sadists. (Jokes. :p)
How your book looks is more important than you think. I know I've turned down many a book because I didn't like the cover. On the flip side, there's books I've book because the cover was fab. There's many (free!) psychological studies on the internet if you want to find them.
Between the covers, the typography is also important. Imagine trying to read a serious YA romance novel that changes font size and colour every third word. You'd be sick of it by the middle of the book, being generous. Some books, like the Geronimo Stilton series does exactly that but still entrances millions of peeps. Teachers throw grammar down your throat, but there's a poet whose name I've forgotten (E.E. Cummings?) who basically ignored grammar. He's considered one of the greatest poets of all time.
My point? Presentation is subjective. Largely, it's up to your artistic taste. That said, you should still make sure it fits the tone and target audience. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, so there's no rules, per say, in the presentation stage. It's more of a dichotomous key. Like, is TA 18 years+? Yes --> Try realistic covers. No --> Try cartoony covers.
For covers, if you know you don't have what it takes to make it pop, the best option is to commission someone else to do it. However, begging a sibling/friend with this talent also works. I know of a few sites that help this process, though I can't recommend any having never worked with them before. There's also many, many artists who accept reasonable prices for quality book covers.
As for typography, it's much simpler than designing a cover. You may want to get someone else to do it for you, or you may want to do it yourself. It's all up to you. Above all, make sure whatever font and colour you pick is legible. For obvious reasons. There's other guides to go along with this, but there's for another blog post and when I'm more wise about it myself. If in doubt, use the standards.
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