Want to write a book? You can. Someone once said that if you’ve survived your own childhood, you have more than enough material to write all the books you want.

You can turn your life into fiction, or nonfiction. Your choice. Your thoughts, your ideas, and your emotions, come together as creative inspiration. All you need to do is allow it.

If you want to write fiction — a novel or short stories — your emotions are key. Readers read novels to feel, rather than to think. They also read in order to make sense of their own lives. Novels are not real, they’re constructed. However, they can feel intensely real to readers, and this is what readers what — an emotional experience.

You may feel that you have the world’s most boring existence, and that nothing exciting has ever happened to you, but you can use everything you are in your fiction. It’s the only way to write novels which touch others.

One point: you’re not using your life as it is. Real inspiration lies deeper than your thoughts and even your memories. You’ll explore your life, and use your emotions as the basis of your fiction.

The best way to get started writing your novel is just to start. Let’s look at three easy ways you can fictionalize your life.

1. Uncover Evocative Childhood Emotional Experiences

Ready to write? Think of a childhood experience — a pleasant one. Perhaps you remember a holiday, or a special family event. Recall the experience. Allow yourself to be there.

Allow the emotion to come back to you. Now start to write.

Write whatever comes: don’t control your writing.

At this stage, you’re just aiming to touch the experience. When you keep writing and allow yourself to feel your emotions, sooner or later a story will come to you. When it does, go with it.

2. Use Triggering Images from a Photo Album

Take out an old family album. Leaf through it slowly. Allow emotions to arise. Remember the day each photo was taken.

Now, choose one photo to which you have an intense emotional reaction, and start writing.

Again, don’t try to control your writing. Let your writing take you where it wants you to go.

By the way, once you start writing your novel, if you get blocked, take out your photo album again.

3. Let Music Inspire You

Music is inspirational for many people, especially music which was around in their childhood. When you listen to music which you heard in your youth, you’ll find that you’re taken right back to those long-ago days.

Sit down to write. Then close your eyes and listen to the music. Images — memories — will arise. Start writing.

You now have three ways in which you can access your emotions. These emotions trigger your imagination, and deepest inspiration.

Not only will writing your novel be fun, it will be meaningful to you, and to your readers.

Turn Your Words Into Gold: Write and Sell An Ebook In Just Eight Hours

Here’s what I love about writing ebooks: you write them once, and they keep on selling forever.

I know several writers who’ve taken to the Kindle platform like the proverbial ducks to water. One writer friend turns out a new Kindle ebook every month, like clockwork. The last time we spoke, she had 11 ebooks selling — and her income is rising month by month.

Another writer friend mixes writing her own ebooks, with writing ebooks for others. Currently she’s been commissioned to write a biography, and a family history, for the same client. She’s finding it huge fun, and she’s making more money than she’s ever made.

The benefit of writing and selling ebooks is that once written, they can keep on selling forever. Would you trade eight hours for an income stream?

Working on a novel?

If you are, take great care when naming your characters. You also need to take care with phone numbers, email addresses, business names…

You’re writing FICTION. This means that the names in your novel, and assorted info, like phone numbers, must be fictional too.

If they’re not, you could be in deep trouble.

It takes just moments to check that you’re not deliberately using the name of a real person or an organization.

Angela Hoy gives you a basic plan to follow, in this article Does that “Fictitious” Business Name in Your Novel Already Belong to Somebody Else? By Angela Hoy:

“1. Search Google for names you plan to use in your novel

2. If you plan to use email addresses in your book, register for those email addresses to ensure they aren’t already being used and so nobody else can acquire them in the future.

3. Search the U.S. trademark website for business names or fictional products you plan to mention in your novel.”

You should also include a disclaimer in your front matter, along the lines that any names, titles, organizations mentioned in your book do not refer to anyone. Include a disclaimer in your afterword too, if you have one.

This article, Why Book Trailers Are Now Essential to the Publishing Industry, suggests:

“Book trailers are relatively recent additions to the literary world. Most of the authors I know detest the very idea of them.”

You may well hate the idea of having to create a book trailer once you’ve written your novel.

However, if you’re in the planning stages of writing, consider writing a script for your planned novel. Much like a blurb, your trainer will get you thinking about your voice and tone, situations, scenes, narrative… in fact, everything you need to be thinking about, in visual form.

In other words, scripting a trailer can kick-start your imagination.

I’m planning novel which will have more than a touch of humor. Thinking visually has helped me to understand what I think is funny, and what scenes would be fun to include.

I suggested the “script a trailer for your book” to one of my students who’s stuck in the “dreaded middle” of her novel. It gave her some excellent ideas for scenes, and a new climax, all within 20 minutes.

She said: “When I thought about the trailer, it helped me to see a couple of my characters in a completely new and fresh way. I suddenly knew what they’d do next. They feel like real people to me now.”

Angela Booth’s writing guides have been created to help you to make money from your writing every day. Join the thousands of writers who are making great money with their writing skills.

Want to get published? Here’s a tip, if you’re writing a novel: pick a genre.

In the four years since I wrote this blog post, First Steps To Write A Novel: Pick A Genre, I’ve had several ill-informed comments from unpublished writers who think they know how to write and sell.

That’s fine — when you’re writing a book, it’s your book, so do what you please.

But it’s advice you should consider if you’re serious about writing a book and getting published.

You can even create your own genre, as Mary Higgins Clark has done, over many years.

As this article, Mary Higgins Clark: The Case of the Best-Selling Author – WSJ.com, points out:

“Ms. Clark has perfected a formula that appeals to a broad swath of mystery readers, 70% of whom are women. Her novels feature beautiful, intelligent women in danger, who often orchestrate their own escapes. Her heroines tend to be ambitious, self-made professionals—doctors, lawyers, journalists, interior designers. “

Why pick a genre? Essentially, because readers want what they want, and they want certain types of books at certain times. Paranormal novels are a genre, which Amanda Hocking has mined to the tune of $4 million in a year.

Suspense, romance (and its many sub-genres), science fiction, mystery etc are all genres.

If you’re a new writer, writing in a genre may seem to constrain you, however those boundaries can teach you how to write — and if you’re serious about writing fiction, it’s something you need to learn.

Books surpass their genres to become mainstream bestsellers every year. So just write the best book you can.

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.

Are you writing a novel? Give some thought to your setting.

Your setting is just as important as your characters.

For example, I love novels set in ancient Rome. To me, the setting of ancient Rome is much more important than the plot.

Think about your favorite novels — where are they set? Make a list of novels you love, and note their settings beside them.

In your own novel, you don’t need to opt for exotic settings, although you may. You can set your novels right in your own city.

For readers who live elsewhere (and even for local readers), your descriptions of time and place will add verisimilitude.

Once you’ve chosen a setting for your novel, develop the settings for your primary scenes.

Make a list of the major scenes in your novel, and choose a setting for them. You’re a location scout for the movie of your novel.

For example, if you’re writing a mystery, give some thought to where the body will be found.

I’ve just finished reading John Sandford’s latest novel, Bad Blood. the book opens with the victim being despatched in a grain elevator.

Not only is the setting unique and perfect for the tone of the novel, it’s also suitably creepy. The grains are soybeans, which will be turned into food…

The “Perfect” Setting Helps You to Write Your Book

You’ll find that when you devote time to your setting, finding locations for your scenes, thinking about how a location changes during the course of a season, and during the course of a day, your book will be much easier to write.

Your characters will quickly become real to you, because their setting is real.

And because your characters are real people to you, your novel will also be much more fun to write.

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Be where the action is with “Twitter for Writers: Achieve Writing Success 25 Words at a Time”, your guide to micro blogging for writers.