Tip #1: Choose the idea you can’t get out of your head

Choosing a story idea is the part of the writing process that many writers overthink. Many aspiring authors fall into the trap of picking the story they think they should write. While others, choose the story that family or friends like the most. Instead of selecting one of these two options, choose the idea you can’t stop get out of your head. It’s not enough for you to like a story idea you need to love it. It’s like falling in love. When you’re in love with someone, you can’t stop thinking about someone. And you find yourself steering everyday conversation so you can talk about your new love interest. Because you’re so passionate about them, you fail to notice your friends rolling their eyes and thinking, not again. That’s how you need to feel about your story idea.

Why?

Right now, you’re probably thinking why is it so important for me to love a story idea? The path to publishing your first book is long and difficult. It always takes longer than you imaged. Obstacles and distraction that you never anticipated pop up and derail your progress. This leads to a delay in the publication process.

On a side note, there is nothing wrong with writing to market but, if you’re writing to market then writing is simply a job. And, that’s not the author career I’m trying to create. It’s important to have an audience and to write within a genre that has a demand. But for me, it’s more important to love what I am writing. I quit my day to job to pursue something that I was passionate about, not to replace it with another job.

Choose the idea you can’t stop yourself from writing

So, choose the idea you can’t stop yourself from thinking about and writing. When I first started writing Immunity, I went from creating a short synopsis to writing character profiles which lead to a scene by scene outline. After all of this planning, I was so excited that I started to write the first 11,000 words within the span of a week. I couldn’t stop myself from writing. I’m not saying that it was all smooth sailing. Along the way, I did make some classic first-time mistakes. I wasn’t disciplined with my daily writing habit. And, I got distracted by research and trying to write a perfect first draft, but, I kept coming back to the story. I was so determined to finish it because the story had piqued my interest and I was passionate about the characters.

Concluding Thoughts

What actionable step you’re going to take this week to help you choose the right book idea for you? I want to hear from you. Let me know by commenting in the description box below.

Thank you for listening, reading, commenting and sharing with such enthusiasm.

Your coach,

Amelia xx