Many people want to write a book. Indeed, a survey found that ten per cent of the population want to do it. Few people accomplish it, but you can.

I wrote my first book at the age of eight. From memory, it had 270 pages and the story involved ghosts, intrepid kids, and horses. Everything I wrote up to the age of 14 involved horses.

Sadly, none of my early stories survive; I wish I’d kept them. But here’s what they taught me: they taught me to get started, and to keep going until I finished.

Most importantly of all, those early stories taught me that writing a book is easy when you have the attitude that you CAN do it. Somehow I knew that writing was simple: you sat down, and you wrote whatever came to mind.

Here are three tips which will help you to start writing your book today. It really is easier than you think.

1. Sit Down and Write

This is key. Write anything at all; don’t stop to think. Keep going. If you try to impose logic on this process, you won’t write much, and writing will be difficult for you.

Think of your writing self as someone else. Let that other self write. You can sort out the mess later (all writing is messy.)

2. (Nonfiction or Fiction) Create an Outline Before or After You Write

Some writers swear by outlines. Other writers swear at outlines.

It doesn’t matter which kind of writer you are. I use outlines for nonfiction; I don’t start the book until the outline is done.

For novels, I outline after I’ve written anywhere from 20 to 100 pages. The “outline” is just a collection of scene notes, each scene written on an index card.

When I’ve completed the first draft of a novel, I outline the whole thing, just to see what I’ve got. It makes it easier to cut scenes, and create needed scenes before I write the second draft.

3. Realize That You Can Write Any Scene or Chapter in Any Order You Like

Let’s say you’re writing a mystery. A promiscuous heiress has been murdered. Her husband and her lover are both suspects. Your protagonist, an ambitious, over-worked, and under-appreciated female detective, who has a lover of her own, and a suspicious, violent spouse, is emotionally involved in the case.

Just get started. Write the scene where the gardener, one of the heiress’s former lovers, finds the body. Or write the scene where the detective interviews the husband, and gets nowhere.

On the other hand, perhaps all you know is that you want to write a novel. You have no clue what kind of novel, nor do you have a single glimmer of a plot.

Again, just get started. Write something, anything. Describe your favorite coffee shop or bar in four sentences. The door opens. Your protagonist enters. Her white silk blouse is torn, she’s lost a shoe, and has skinned knees and ripped stockings.

Just start writing and keep writing. Describe the images in your mind.

So there you have it — three tips to help you to write a book. Sit down, right now, and write a sentence. Then another one… See? It’s easier than you think.

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.

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?

I’m running a poll on my writing blog (please vote) asking writers about their greatest writing challenge.

To date, 40 per cent have chosen “completing projects I start”.

My theory is that it’s hard for writers to complete projects (especially long projects like books) because it’s hard to manage all their material. Their research, notes, ideas and multiple drafts, can lead to confusion. And this confusion leads to procrastination. I give you a wonderful writing process to follow in my Easy-Write Process, which eliminates procrastination because you always know what you should be doing next.

But how do you manage all the bits and pieces you need for even the smallest writing project?

My solution, and that of many other writers, is Scrivener.

There’s an excellent case study on managing lots of drafts and information here. This article, Literature and Latte – Scrivener Case Studies, describes novelist Monica McCarty’s process. She keep’s her series’ Bible in a separate Scrivener file:

“McCarty’s Series Bible is divided into three folders: ideas, proposals and books one through to 12. ‘When I transferred the information from Word it consisted of about four different folders containing some thirty plus documents from all over the place,’ she says. ‘Now, if I suddenly have an idea for book 8 I can go straight in to the right place and add it rather than having to scroll down an entire document and look around all night for it.”

If you don’t want to splash out for Scrivener, I suggest you keep a project journal.

John Steinbeck’s journal for East of Eden, kept as a series of letters, has been published: Journal of a Novel: The East of Eden Letters, of course.

Your aim in writing your book’s journal shouldn’t be to have it published; it’s to keep you “in” the book as you’re writing it, and to keep track of all your materials.

Before Scrivener, I kept all my project journals in MS Word documents. If I misplaced a piece of research, a simple search helped me to locate the section of the document in which I linked to the research on my computer, or on the Web. It wasn’t an ideal solution, but it proved effective.

Big tip: do keep all your thinking about the book in Scrivener, or in your book journal too. Get all your complaints and angst out of your head, and onto your computer screen. (Don’t delete these.) Making your thought processes conscious in this way keeps you writing: your negative thoughts don’t get a chance to fester.

Writing a book is a long project. You’ll complete your book if you stay organized.

Want to write a book in just 20 minutes a day? If you’re been putting off writing because you “don’t have time”, consider that bestselling author John Grisham wrote his first book during his morning train commute. You can accomplish a great deal in short blocks of time.

Here’s a secret: I’ve always written my books in 20 minute sessions. Initially, when I wrote novels, it was because my children needed me. I got into the habit.

Although I’m a full-time writer now, I still write books in 20 minute blocks of time, because it’s efficient and eliminates procrastination. There’s a lot of theory around why working in short sessions is so effective, and I won’t bore you with it, just know that it does work.

1. What Do You Want to Write About? It’s OK if You Don’t Know

If you’d love to write, starting presents such challenges that many people wimp out.

So how do you start a book? You sneak up on it. It’s fine to start without knowing more than the simple fact that you want to write… something. Sit down. Do some free writing, or some writing exercises. (I post daily writing exercises and tips to Twitter, if you’d like to join us.)

Do this for several days; never force. You’re training your subconscious mind to be creative on demand, and this takes a little time.

2. Schedule a Time to Write Your Book

We’re all so busy these days that everything needs to be scheduled. Schedule the 20 minutes you’ll work on your book. It can be any time at all; even your lunch hour at work. Just schedule it, down to the minute, and when that time of day arrives, start writing.

3. Relax: Creativity Is Playful

I can’t emphasize enough that your creative inspiration is playful. You can’t force it. Write however, wherever and whenever feels good to you (as long as you schedule it). Fifteen years ago, I went through a phase of writing book-length material on a Palm Pilot. I know writers who favor a certain type of paper, a special fountain pen and color of ink. One writer I know writes in the bathtub.

Whatever your own creative self demands, give in to it.

4. Write Whatever Comes to Mind: Don’t Expect to “Know” Too Soon

If you’re writing nonfiction, even a creative form of nonfiction, you’ll usually know what you want to write about before you start — although you may not.

Fiction is different. Many novelists start off writing with nothing more than an image, or a feeling. Be relaxed about this. Your left brain is logical and wants to know exactly what you’re writing. However your creative right brain isn’t verbal, and doesn’t care. Trust your right brain: your innate creativity will deliver.

So: start to write your book in your spare time. Everyone can spare 20 minutes a day.

Have fun when you write your book with Angela’ Booth’s great tips

The tips in Angela Booth’s free report, Write a Book: Powerful Writing Tips to Help You to Write YOUR Book, will teach you the strategies of a professional writer.

Discover how to make money online in your spare time with Angela Booth’s Sell Your Writing Online NOW training Not only will you discover how to write and sell ebooks, you’ll get complete training in how the Web works, so you can take advantage of the unlimited opportunities.

You can learn a lot about how to write a book from book reviews.

For example this review Books of The Times – Caught – By Harlan Coben – Never Look Away – By Linwood Barclay – Mom and Pop Thrillers – Review – NYTimes.com tells you how to create a believable character:

“David’s love for his son, bewilderment about his wife and anger at his newspaper’s new business practices (like outsourcing local reporting to workers on other continents, who have no idea how to paraphrase idiomatic phrases like ‘not enough room to swing a cat’) all serve to make him likable and to make readers share his worries. And in terms of regular-guy realism, this thriller reveals a major clue when David and his dad try to fix the leak behind a bathroom sink.”

Become a Highly Paid Professional Writer

Writing Genii shows you how — fast. Get the skills you need, to make the income you want.