“Writing a book is easy! Anyone can
do it.”
As an author, you hear this from
people all the time. People look at writing as one of the “easiest” professions
there is because “after all, anyone can do it”. Sure, anyone can sit down and
type out 80,000 words on a word doc. It doesn’t take any special training or
specialized tools or knowledge… right?
Well, not exactly.
Writing may be one of the easiest
careers to get into, but it’s not the easiest to make it in. Not only is there a
lot more to writing than most people know (I’ll get to that in a bit), but
there’s also another key factor – the criticism. Being an author is one of the
most high pressure jobs you can get. Why? Because everyone believes they’re an
expert. After all, anyone can sit down and read your work and then compare it
to hundreds of others, analyzing your every decision, your every grammar
mistake or spelling error or plot hole. And they will, trust me. They’ll write
a review, good or bad, and put it out where the entire world can see. It won’t
matter if they have any kind of credentials, if they actually know what they’re
talking about, or if anyone should listen
to them. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, and they’ll be sure
everyone hears about it – even if that’s all it is.
So what does it take to write a
book that will make it in the hard world of reader criticism? A lot of things.
An author is basically a psychologist, an English teacher, a sociologist, an
engineer, a government major, a scientist, a religion specialist, poet, and a
logician, etc. etc. etc. Why? Let me break it down for you.
Psychologist: An author has to know people. You have to get inside
their heads and find what drives them. Every decision that your characters
make, you will be responsible for. In-depth characters are one of the key
components to making a book work – and therefore a key component to making
readers like and buy your work. They have to function as human beings – be relatable,
understandable, and lovable. They have to think like people think, act like
people would act. Every part of their personality, thoughts, actions, hopes and
dreams all will be analyzed and studied and, ultimately, will decide whether or
not you’ve created real people or flunked out. Poor character creations are one
of the first things that will turn readers off for your work.
English Teacher: As an author, you basically have to know more than an
English teacher would about grammar, punctuation, spelling and turn of phrase.
You’d better believe that your work has to be perfection or it’ll get mentioned again and again in reviews.
Sociologist: As an author, you will have to have down the origin,
development, organization, and functioning of your human society. You will need
to be able to answer any question that arises about the entirety of your world
from the view of your own humanity. And it all has to be consistent, or people
will find those inconsistencies and publish them for everyone else to see.
Engineer: How do your flying cars fly? How did your character
get over the wall with just a piece of rope and two pulleys? How did your
pre-technology civilization build a castle suspended over the ocean? Any and
every engineering problem your characters face, you’d better know the answer to
– or at least be able to pull off a believable bluff. People want to know
things are believable: that they could actually happen. If there isn’t a
reasonable explanation, they’ll cry foul.
Government Major: You may not actually have to go to law school, but
your government has to be as believable as your engineering. You’ll need to
know how it functions because that will affect your entire society. The rule of
law is essential in character development and for both you and your characters
to know where they stand. Who is above who? How does that affect your
characters’ day to day lives? How does it affect your plot? Does it help it,
hinder it, or is it the cause of it? You’ll need to create a system of law that
makes sense, is uniform, and functions – or vice versa, one that is failing and
has logical reasons as to why.
Scientist: For all the reasons you have to be an engineer, you
have to be a scientist. You have to be ready with a scientific explanation of
everything in your newly created world. A plant has a healing property? Why?
What causes it? How does it work? The sun revolves around your planet instead
of the other way around? Why? How does it affect your planet? Does it change
weather? Plants? Any environmental aspect of your world needs to make sense
with all the other environmental aspects. Any scientific breakthrough will have
to be backed up. And if you don’t have good explanations, then you either have
to bluff believably (which isn’t a walk in the park) or you’ll likely be criticized
for it.
Religion Specialist: What religion does your country/world have? Does it
have many? How does it affect your characters? Do they believe in it/them or
not? How does it/they relate to your scientific standpoints? How does it/they
affect the culture/social standing? If you mention a religion once or twice and
never have it affect anything, it’ll be considered a poorly developed world or
a plot hole.
Poet: People expect a certain poetic – or at least interesting – level to the descriptions
in books. If they’re bland or boring, people won’t read your book. It’s just
that simple. No one wants to wade through pages upon pages of boring descriptions.
Authors have to weave words in a way that draws people in and holds them
captive for hours at a time.
Logician: Everything your characters, world, government, science
and religious groups do must make at least some logical sense. You have to be
able to justify it all logically – if only logically in the minds of the people
doing it.
And all of that is only for
starters. There’s all the small details that make a story flow, as well. The
humor, the subtle hint of emotions without stating them, the color every author
has to add to their own unique world that can’t always be defined.
You may be thinking “well, you
could just not have any of those things if they’re so hard”. And you could, I
guess. Not have a religious group and therefore bypass that difficulty. Or you
could skim over scientific explanations of things and simply say no one knows.
You could give vague backgrounds on characters that could, possibly, explain
all their actions without having to go into detail. But if you do, it will come
across as sloppy and not well thought out, and you’ll be just as disliked on
those grounds as well.
There is some leeway with things.
You don’t always have to give the
scientific explanation, or include some religion, or give a full account of
every characters’ background. But you do have to include at least some elements
of them all. Well-developed plot, world, and characters is critical to creating
a good book. The amount of work you put into it is almost always how much
return you’ll get back. People appreciate good books because good books are hard to write. It’s not every day that
you stumble upon a book that draws you in and captures your attention to a
depth that a truly well-done book does.
Which brings us back to the
beginning. “Writing a book is easy! Anyone can do it.” Yes, anyone can write a
book. You could sit down and type out 80,000 words on a doc and publish it on
kindle and see what happens. Lots of people do it all over the world, every
day. That slogan is why there are so many books out there. Anyone can write a
book the easy way.
But not everyone can write a good book.
