Q&A: What are ideas and techniques to prepare for writing a book?

I’m in the process of writting a book. To prepare I just did a lot of creative writting that I would never use in a real book I was trying to get published. I got all the crazyness out of my system! It improved my writting style greatly, and now I have a little trove of interesting short stories

Do you already have an idea for a book? If so, great! Sit down and start writing it.

Seriously, there are two fundamental things that every writer needs to do:

1. Read. Read good books, bad books, novels, short stories, fiction and non-fiction, books that you wouldn’t ordinarily read. Figure out what works and what doesn’t work in them. Learn from them. Be educated by them as well as entertained. Pay close attention to setting, dialogue and character development.

2. WRITE. Just sit down and write. Every day. A page, a paragraph, a sentence, a journal entry, a chapter, a poem, a really creative shopping list, anything. Just write. Without sitting down and putting the pen to the paper or the fingers to the keyboard, you’ll never develop a voice, a style or the discipline to write a book. A writer has to write. It sounds like ‘duh’ logic, but how many folks say they’d love to write a novel if only they could find the time? A real writer makes the time. A real writer writes.

Remember also that there are millions of people in the world who want to write a book but won’t ever get past the “preparation” stage. I love those people, because I know I’ll never have to compete with them for an agent or publisher.