These 13 simple steps if followed judiciously will have you become a published author in no time.
1. Start calling yourself a writer.
You can not become an author without first being a writer. It is writing that gives birth to an author. But, how can you be an author when you’re not even confident about being a writer. I so much believe in affirmation, so the more you intentionally and boldly call yourself a writer, the more chances you get to becoming an author.
2) Decide on your big idea.
Your big idea is that message you have within you that you wish to share with the world. This big idea should be something that you’re really interested in. It should as much as possible give you bubbles. It should be like that butterfly feelings you get when you’re excited about a secret, especially one that is known to only you.
3). Choose writing tools.
Decide on writing on paper or using a computer. As for me, I write on papers, plain sheets , and exercise books until am ready for my final draft which I type on computer. It is important to discover what works best for you. I get more inspiration writing with pen than typing on a computer.
4) Pick a genre.
It is very important that you decide the writing genre you’re going to pass your message on. This could be poetry, short story drama etc. Having this at the back of your mind makes your writing less cumbersome.
5) Choose your audience/readers
This is a very important aspect of writing. Knowing who you’re writing for guides your thoughts and help you choose your words correctly you’ll end up a very bad author if you do not learn to determine the people you’re writing for before settling down to write.
6) Conduct research.
You can’t write about a subject you don’t know anything about. Even if you have the idea about what you wish to write about, there is still need to conduct an in depth research about that topic. You can also conduct interviews if the topic of interest calls for it.
7) Find a mentor.
Follow people who have done what you’re about to do. You can start by reading books of authors that writes in the same genre you have chosen, this will help you learn how to present and position your own book too. This is very important as no one is an island. People have written books on that your big idea, so try going close to these people or their books to gain more insight from them.
8) Construct an outline.
People always complain to me about how they gets stuck and don’t seems to know what to write next after writing chapter one or two. This is because they mostly do not write an outline before going deep into the writing process. Outlines stands as guide you follow as you write, they tell you what next to write about, this way you’ll not be short of ideas of what next to write on.
9) Find your voice.
Every writer has his or her own voice. For example I can tell a book is written by Bishop Oyedepo just by reading it even without seeing the authors name. Constant reading of his book has made me familiar with his voice. people should be able to identity your voice distinctly as a writer. The fact that I tell you to find a mentor doesn’t mean you should copy the authors writing pattern to the extent that people can not differentiate your book from the author’s. Be you, be unique, don’t imitate.
10) Guide your space.
Allow people around know your writing time so you wouldn’t be distracted or disturbed. Not guiding your writing space can make you loss ideas to distractions. I do my writings in the night when every other persons in my house are asleep.This prevent my ideas from being lost carelessly and gives me undisturbed time to flow uninterruptedly.
11) Set deadlines.
Setting deadlines helps you write consistently. For someone like me who would ordinarily not do something’s unless it is very compulsory, setting target or deadlines help me write more, even when I feel so exhausted or lazy, I still write because I wouldn’t want to fail in meeting the deadlines I’ve set.
12) Edit your first draft.
Your first draft is the rough unedited copy of your manuscript. It doesn’t matter if you’re engaging the service of an edited, editing your first draft helps to clarify your message and also help you discover some items to add or remove from your manuscript before submitting it as a final draft to an editor.
13) Persevere
Writing and getting published involves hard work and dedication. Publishing a book is not a job for lazy people because the writing process can be very tiring and the publishing aspect is more frustrating. But for you to becoming an author you must keep writing, go through the editing process and wait patiently for the publishing process until your name is written boldly on that book and published to the world in soft copy or hardcopy form.
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