Do you want to write a book? Perhaps you feel you could, but think that you need some training first. Yes, that may help, but in this article I’ll share a method that you can use immediately, even if you’e a completely new writer.

Over the years, I’ve written many books. I’ve come to know that starting and completing a novel or nonfiction book just means putting one word after another, and not stopping until the end.

Here’s my super-simple and easy method to help you to write a novel.

1. Brainstorm a Title

An inspirational title can act as the compass which guides you from beginning to end.

Start by selecting a genre: mystery, romance, science fiction — your choice. Not only do readers in a genre respond to an evocative title, booksellers have expectations of titles in a genre too — they want to know in which section of the store they should shelve YOUR book.

Let’s imagine that you’re writing a mystery.

Look at your bookshelf for inspiration, or check out the bestseller lists to get into the mood to brainstorm titles.

Mysteries will often include words like: “death”, “bones”, and “murder.”

The only criterion your novel’s title needs is that it should be mysterious.

Set a timer, and brainstorm titles for five minutes.

2. Brainstorm a Fantastic Situation, the Crazier the Better

All done? Excellent. Choose a title — any title from the ones you’ve brainstormed. Remember that you can always change your title later. Your publisher my decide to change it too, so you don’t need to obsess. A title just gets you moving forward.

Now you have your title, it’s time to brainstorm a fantastically crazy situation.

Mysteries usually involve a crime of some sort, often murder. So, who’s your victim? Why was he/ she murdered?

How was he/ she murdered? Where was he/ she murdered?

At this stage, you don’t need a complete plot, you just need enough material to become enthusiastic and inspired.

So there you have it. Brainstorm a title and a situation, and you’re well on the way to writing your book.

Get the help you need to write YOUR novel

Need inspiration and motivation while you’re writing a book? Angela Booth’s writing class, “Write More And Make More Money From Your Writing: Develop A Fast, Fun Productive Writing Process” at will help. This class is based on exclusive lessons she developed for her private coaching students to help them to write more, improve their writing, and to make more money writing. Have Angela at your side while you write your book.

If you’re stuck writing, her ebook “Top 70 Writing Tips To Help You To Write More” shows you how to end procrastination for good and write more.

Writing a novel is a journey, and it’s never a trouble-free one. Indeed, it can seem as if you’re plunging from one disaster into the next. You will get stuck. Usually, you’ll hit page 100 or Chapter Three, and the book’s problems will seem insurmountable. When you get past Chapter Three, you’ll get stuck again, several more times.

If you expect to get stuck, you’ll succeed in completing your novel. In this article, we’ll look at what you can do to leap over the wall, and rebuild your inspiration. The tips I’m giving you have helped me to complete my own novels and sell them. They work.

Here they are.

Give Every Major Character a Secret

Giving every character a secret helps to drive your book forward. The secret can be major (the innocent-seeming heroine is wanted by Interpol) to minor (the heroine is addicted to shopping for expensive shoes).

So when you get stuck, give a character a secret. You’ll need to do some rewriting. However, do not rewrite immediately, make some notes, and leave rewriting until you’ve completed the book.

Introduce a New Character

Just create a new character. This may be enough to get you past your block, and moving forward again.

Kill a Character

By the time you’ve reached page 100, your characters should be alive to you. If they aren’t, killing off a character may help.

Rewrite, in a Different Narrative Mode

Rewriting in a different narrative mode will often get you unstuck. If you’re writing in first person, rewrite a couple of chapters in third person — or write the next chapter in third person.

If you’re a new writer, writing in first person is instinctive. The danger however is that you’ll identify too closely with the “I” character. You’ll make life too easy for your character, and that’s disastrous. Change viewpoint, and make your character suffer.

Changing to another viewpoint will also help you increase suspense.

If you expect to get stuck when you’re writing a novel, you can write your way through the challenges. The above tips will help.

The Write A Book Collection — the ultimate toolbox for writing and selling your books

These days it’s crazy to spend years writing a book, without having any idea as to whether or not you can make money from it. If you want to write, you can – you have a global market, which is hungry for information and entertainment. And YOU can provide it… even if you’re a brand new author.

As you may know, I write and sell many writing guides. I also sell information products in many other areas than writing.

I want to show you how you can do the same, if you wish. Your dreams of writing a book can be the spark which changes your life.

I’ve collected everything I know about writing and selling your books into my brand new Write A Book Collection: it’s the ultimate toolbox for anyone who wants to write and sell books in 2010 and beyond.

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There’s a huge market for info products, so writing ebooks is the perfect home business. With the launch of the Amazon Kindle and the Apple iPad this market has exploded in the past year, and promises to be even bigger in 2011. The industry is set to grow even further as more and more people look to their digital devices for information and entertainment.

I’ve been selling information products for 10 years, so here are some tips which will help you to success.

Firstly, research your market before you write your ebook. I see many new writers creating ebooks on topics which interest them, but for which there is a very small market. You’ll be investing time and energy into your creation, so you need to be sure that people will buy it.

Decide whether you want to provide information, or whether the you want to entertain your audience.

If you want to provide information, look for people’s pain points – what do they need information on? Ebooks which sell information on topics like curing acne and losing weight are popular: the health area is a booming marketplace.

On the other hand, if you want to entertain you can do that too.

Novels are selling very well as the books, with one popular novelist earning $100,000 from his ebooks in 2010. He estimates that he’ll double his earnings in 2011. However, do realize that he’s been writing for over a decade, and has built a large audience. If you want to write novels you’ll need to build your audience too.

Secondly, create a schedule for developing new information products. Your products are your inventory, and your business will only be as strong as your inventory.

An easy way to build your inventory and increase your readership is to develop a series on a single topic. If your first information product is on weight loss, consider creating another dieting product, targeting a different segment of the weight loss audience.

If you’re writing novels, consider creating a series character. JK Rowling did this successfully. You can take your series character through several books.

2011 promises to be a huge year for ebooks, so if you want to write and sell them, now is the perfect time to start your home business.

Recession-proof your freelance writing career

“Write More And Make More Money From Your Writing: Develop A Fast, Fun Productive Writing Process” gives you all the tools you need for a thriving writing career, no matter what the economic climate.

Three weeks after completing the class one student wrote:

“Thanks Angela, for all your help and advice in class. I’m quitting my job next week. I printed out my letter of resignation tonight after landing a contract writing job that will pay me more for three months part-time work than I earned in from my day job in the whole of 2008! You were right – the great gigs are out there, and now I’ve got the skills to land them. Your class opened my eyes. Bless you…”

“Write More And Make More Money From Your Writing: Develop A Fast, Fun Productive Writing Process” shows you how to thrive as a freelance writer. Would you like to write five times more than you’re writing now, and sell to higher-paying markets? Take the class.

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Ebook publisher Angela Booth is presenting a new series of tips on her Top Ebook Writer Blog. The ebook market exploded in 2010. Writers now have many new sales channels and options, and Angela will be exploring them in the series.

Now three years old, her popular blog is a resource for information product creators. It covers ebook writing, marketing, and strategies.

Angela says: “I originally created the blog to provide inspiration for anyone who wanted to write and sell an ebook, but had no idea how to do it. Creating information products is a perfect home business, because the startup costs are minimal, and the business can be bootstrapped easily. I’m launching the new series because there are now a bewildering number of sales channels available to ebook creators.”

The channels include Amazon, Apple iTunes/ iPad, Lulu, Smashwords and many more.

The series will look at the various channels, and what they offer, so that writers can choose the best channel for their ebooks in 2011. Writers need to be wary of distributing through too many channels however, because each new channel requires a different format, and marketing can become very complex.

For writers who want to do it themselves, Angela will be including posts on the technical aspects of ebooks: how to format ebooks for the various channels, and how to hire a graphic designer, and copyeditor.

Like many writers, Angela is surprised at how huge ebooks have become so quickly. She says: “I’m sure it’s taken traditional publishers by surprise. This ebook tsunami started with the Amazon Kindle, and received a huge boost with the launch of the Apple iPad and the bookstore ebook readers.”

It’s a very exciting time for writers and information product creators as they explore the many new options available.

The series, called “Ebook Revolution 2011″, will be available on the Top Ebook Writer blog soon.

Want to make $500 a day WRITING… from your home office?

Are you make as much money as you could be making? Chances are that you’re not. There’s no shame in this. Writers often struggle to find their own special niche.

If you love to write, then you’ll love the information in my new ebook/ coaching package, Info Product Maestro: Make $500 a Day with Your Information Products.

Write what you like, when you like, and make an income you’ve only dreamed of.

Enjoy.

Did you notice the exclamation point in the title? I never use them — I have a phobia about them to the extent that if I read more than a single exclamation point in ten pages of any book I’ll throw it across the room.

But — I am excited about the new version of Scrivener. It’s finally here.

If you’re unfamiliar with Scrivener, visit the site to learn more. For Windows users, the Windows version will be out next year.

Here’s what I love about Scrivener:

* It keeps everything in one place

* I can work on my projects in chunks, so that I don’t lose ideas (I use it for everything)

* It’s easy to drag and drop chunks around until I have a structure I like. I outline, but invariably I make many changes to that outline…

* Easy export — new in V2, export to ePub

Here’s a tip. I’ve been using Scrivener since it first came out, and am very comfortable with it, but there’s a learning curve. That said, learning is SO worth it. You’ve got everything you need to learn — a great manual, and videos too.

I love Scrivener.

BTW — I have no affiliation with the product, I just love it.