How to Write a Book

    At first glance, it might seem that writing a book is hard, but it is actually incredibly easy. Now let me be clear: getting a book finished and edited is a long and sometimes frustrating endeavor, and publishing a book is very difficult.  Did I just contradict myself?  Well, not exactly. You will notice that I said writing a book is easy.  The writing part is something I would say a majority of people can do, with little to no experience. 

Sometimes, though, the things one might call “tangibles” will prevent someone from taking up writing, to begin with. In my own case, when I began writing, my grammar was lacking, and my spelling was horrible. But that wasn’t something that affects the value of a good story. A good story has to have something that isn’t in the arena of English grammar. One might argue that a good story needs to have a good lesson, good characters, and keep someone engaged, all of which is true. But I’d say that a good story has to have something that reaches the truths of the human person. Those moments- pain, joy, disappointment- have to be evident in a visceral, raw way. In essence, to write a good story, you have to be yourself. Placing the rawness of your own experience of life in the pages can be a vulnerable exercise. But those truths that you hold dear will manifest themselves in the pages you write, and your audience will see it. 

Another aspect that is difficult to overcome is that of patience. And that’s hard, considering that our culture is perhaps one of the most impatient in history. We’re used to having things instantly at our fingertips. Everyone loves it when you can get a lot for a little, and the less work you can do, the better. After Leon's Son began its publishing phase, I suddenly had all kinds of people wanting to talk to me about writing. - when you live in a small town, word gets around. To my surprise, many of the people I talked to wanted to write a book or are in the process of doing so. Many of them had good ideas, too. But they were unwilling to be patient with themselves. In their impatience, instead of pacing themselves and being forgiving with themselves, chose instead to burn themselves out through frustration or give up entirely and spend their time doing other things. People always ask me, "How did you get your book published?" I always respond that the most important thing is time.  If you want to get a book publishable, you need to make it one of your top priorities.  You need to write a lot to become better.  It's not that it is that hard, it will come easy with practice, the key is doing it.  It's like playing an instrument. In the beginning, there is the initial excitement of picking up a new instrument and the prospect of playing it well, but, over time, the novelty wears off, and you enter a period of monotony and difficulty. It’s here that the virtue of patience is so important! Because by persevering, you can produce something beautiful. When you watch some of the best violinists in the world on stage, they’re completely free. They’re joyful, unafraid of the crowd, and know exactly what they’re doing. Neither they nor the people watching them are thinking about the long hours of monotony, failure, and difficulty. To get to that point, though, they had to endure. So, after all that, would you still say that writing a book is easy? Well, yes. Because if you have a good story, put it on paper. But don’t be afraid or discouraged when moments of difficulty arise. Oftentimes one thinks of heroism and greatness as one moment, but it isn’t. Behind every great act are thousands of little, imperceptible moments of patience and preparation. Like a well-cut diamond, a masterpiece takes time, patience, frustration, perseverance, and hard work to make that diamond in the rough turn into something beautiful. The mining of the diamond is the easy part. It’s taking that diamond to the next step that takes a strong mind and a willing heart.