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    Finish Your Book
    Finish Your Book
    Finish Your Book
    Ebook64 pages44 minutes

    Finish Your Book

    By Pete Ford

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    About this ebook

    Have you ever had an idea for a book, and started to write it—and managed only a page or two before the words dried up and you didn’t know what to write next? You’re not alone; many people—including many famous writers—started the same way.

    In this book I describe my writing process and show how to get from an original story idea to a complete first draft—without getting stuck. I explain how to develop a story and characters from a vague idea to a complete storyline, and use that as a roadmap that keeps the writing on track. The intent is that you’ll use this process as a starting point to develop your own, that works the way you need it to.

    I also cover some basics of editing, and then finish with a little bit about getting your work published.

    The book is intentionally short—read it in an hour, use it right away, and then keep it as a handy reference.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPete Ford
    Release dateJul 24, 2017
    ISBN9781370895229
    Finish Your Book
    Author

    Pete Ford

    Pete Ford is an English writer living in Colorado and making a living writing software for the U.S. Government--which is as uninteresting as you probably think.

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      Book preview

      Finish Your Book - Pete Ford

      Finish Your Book

      Copyright 2017 Pete Ford

      Smashwords Edition

      ~

      Smashwords Edition License Notes

      This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your enjoyment only, then please return to Smashwords.com or your favorite retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

      Table of Contents

      Acknowledgements

      Why I wrote this book

      Ideas

      Building on the idea

      A bit of character

      Point of View

      Timelines

      Writing it

      Self-editing

      Submitting for publication

      The End

      Further reading

      Other books by Pete Ford

      Connect with Pete

      Acknowledgements

      This book wouldn’t have happened if not for the fine folks at Old Firehouse Books in Fort Collins, Colorado, and the aspiring writers who attended the summer writing workshop in 2017. You guys jump started my writing after months of being becalmed. I can’t thank you enough.

      Why I wrote this book

      Starting a story is easy. The biggest single problem that a lot of people have isn’t getting started; it’s getting finished. Have you ever had an idea for a story, and started writing it only to get stalled after writing a page or two? If so, you’re far from alone; I started off with exactly the same problem, and many other people have, too.

      This book is about how I write a story, from getting an idea all the way through to having a complete first draft—without running out of steam after the first page or two.

      It started off as a short series of blog posts about the steps I go through to develop a fiction story. The posts were intended for anyone who happened to be interested, but were also a reference for myself—I’d never really documented my process in any consistent way up to that point. Writing it on the blog meant that others could see it and use it, and it had the advantage that I could find the information easily when I needed it—I could even pull the posts up on my phone if I wanted to.

      But that wasn’t enough. The posts were a handy reference, but there were a lot of details that I didn’t take the space to include. I needed to write the whole thing down so that I had a roadmap I could refer to as I worked. Later, I decided to publish it in the hope of helping other writers, especially those just starting out. This book is the result. The intention is to show you how to not just start a book, but finish it without hitting a wall.

      This is not a big book. That’s intentional. What I had in mind was a slim volume that you can read quickly, use immediately, and keep for reference later. In here you’ll find all the stuff I wished I’d known when I started writing—everything that’s important, and little that isn’t. I don’t go into too much detail, and again that’s deliberate; there are lots of very good books that go into things like character development, for example, in depth. At the end of the book I’ve included a small list of some that helped me.

      Make it your own

      They say every writer has their own process, and that trying to use someone else’s process doesn’t work. This is one hundred percent true—but only if you try to use that other person’s process exactly as they

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