9 Steps to Writing a Book

We live in an age where college degrees are a dime-a-dozen, jobs are scarce, and opportunities seem limited. But change is the nature of the universe, and when one door closes another one opens. We all know this, but we also know that finding our path in life is like walking in the dark.

This was the case for me as well. I had just recently graduated with my bachelor's degree in astrophysics and philosophy with a year off between graduate school (fingers crossed). I moved out of state for the very first time in my life, and needed a way to support myself. "What could I do?" I asked. "What skills have I acquired over my journey that would make me stand out, that people would pay me to use, and that I enjoyed doing?" I had already worked 9-5 in a cubicle before, and while it was a good experience that provided stable income, I could never shake the feeling of how autonomous and 'safe' it was. Of course, there's nothing wrong with safety and stability, but it seems as though that's mostly for people want to act like they're old. When you're in the spring of your youth you should take risks, learn about who you are, and invest in your future (at least that's what everyone over 30 keeps telling me).

Then it hit me! As a philosopher, educator, advanced student, and professional procrastinator, there's one thing I've been trained to do in in a short period of time that many people haven't: write. So I wrote a book, about everything I knew about the physical world, all in just two and a half months (including procrastination time). It was an enlightening experience that I think everyone should go through at some point in their lives. If you are thinking about becoming an author, maybe I can help by sharing the path I took.

1) Make A Roadmap (Complete with Regular Stops for Sightseeing)

As you probably guessed, the first (and most difficult) step to publishing is to figure out what you're going to write about. I'm sure many people get stuck because they think they need to write an epic tale or some sort of coherent story. But it's important to remember that when it comes to writing, you are only limited by your experiences and the number of words you have to describe them. Presumably, if your heart has been beating for any number of seconds, you have been experiencing the world and analyzing it in order to survive and get by. Those experiences are the fuel that will light the fire of your manuscript. Many people assume that a book needs to be concise from one page to the next, a story with a beginning, middle, and end. But while any book should have a common thread tying it together, there's no set recipe for how it needs to be organized. It merely has to be a reflection of you.

The best advise I've heard from the multiple sources I consulted when learning how to begin writing was simply to write about what you know. More importantly, you should be making something that you would want to read yourself. This applies to all things one might create; you make music that you would listen to, food that you would eat, etc. I myself have always had a difficult time keeping my attention on long drawn out stories. I prefer to have concise bits of knowledge that I can chew on without needing to know the whole story (I am a product of the Internet generation, after all). Hence, I crafted my book into discrete sections that could be seen as separate parts of a whole.

I began my book, Majesty In Monotony: Everyday Things With A Cosmic Perspective by first outlining each section in it and writing down tentative chapter titles. This also allowed me to set specific daily and weekly deadlines more easily as I started to finish writing. My intention was for my reader to be able to read any chapter by itself and come away with a complete understanding of that topic. Of course, one needs to read the whole book to get the full cosmic perspective. But this way, someone could pick up my book and read Chapter 11 before Chapters 4-9, and be no worse for wear. I was able to do this thanks to the contents of my book. Majesty in Monotony is all about the connections between everything in the universe. The first chapters provide a brief scientific overview of the history of the cosmos, the cellular and atomic composition of the human body and how it connects to the universe, and a guided tour of the cosmos from Earth to the visible horizon of the cosmic microwave background, in order to give the reader context for our place in existence. I then describe the importance of the fields of study we are taught in school—history, mathematics, science, and language—to show how we have learned about the world over the past few millennia. Finally, I take a broad philosophical view at the various professions we have in society, and try to show the reader why all jobs are important, whether you're a business entrepreneur, a janitor, or a politician, using that cosmic perspective.

So while one might write their book from beginning to end—like a play or piece of fiction for example—I was able to jump between sections and fill in the gaps between chapters as I gained inspiration for them, until I was satisfied with the topic. With this format, I was able to study at my leisure, adding in data and arguments that I was learning about day-by-day. One day I might write an essay about the history of mathematics, and the next I might add some notes about how agriculture and industry could be revolutionized in the new millennium. While this was incredibly freeing, I should also note that it did cause some confusion during the editing process, as I needed to decide what order each paragraph needed to go in, causing some sections to look disjoint without added segues.

Again, everyone's process will be different. The key is to craft your journey with a set goal in mind and regular intervals of completion ("checkpoints" as one might say). When you know who you are, you'll know where you need to go. The most dangerous part about writing a book is never publishing it, which is an easy trap to fall into, because IT WILL NEVER BE PERFECT. So, cut it up into pieces and draw a finish line, so that when it's done, you know it.

2) Have A Healthy Dose of Isolation (but not too much to go crazy)

I think the reason that writing is one of the artforms I have the greatest affinity for is because it jives with my introspective nature. Obviously I've written plenty of garbage, but luckily most of it was produced before high school. One can improve at anything if they continue to challenge themselves and practice their skill in question, and I was always the kind of kid who would write too much, just droning on and on. In addition, even though I would eventually get enough practice speaking publicly to be comfortable with that, writing has always been so much easier for me, because in writing you have time to think about what you want to say, and you can change your words before they enter someone else's mind. This is probably why I prefer texting over a phone conversation.

Writing is a skill that requires peace and focus. This is probably one of the greatest hurdles prospective writers need to overcome. Some people just can't sit still in a quiet room or tune out the outside world without losing their minds. Even if you enjoy being alone in a room with nothing but keyboard strokes (and maybe some relaxing music), you can still get easily distracted by the internet. Of course, you could always turn off your internet connection, but that may not be possible if you need it to study. Some people might suggest blocking certain distracting websites, but then again that may not be feasible. I personally was using YouTube for both its educational and mindless content, intermittently pausing documentaries to watch cat videos. Under those circumstances, discipline and a stern sense of deadline are invaluable.

Writing can seem very impersonal, because you aren't interacting with anyone directly. But while it may get lonely at your workplace around 3 a.m. on a coffee buzz, remember that at their core, books are really just recorded conversations, albeit one-sided ones. You're writing not just for yourself, but for your reader, and when someone picks up your words, they are completing the conversation by listening with their eyes. That's the beauty of the written word, it transcends time and space. You might be able to talk to someone on the phone from across the planet, but the only reason we can converse with the likes of Shakespeare and Mark Twain is because they wrote down what they were thinking.

3) Learn From Predecessors

It's something you'll hear everywhere generic advise is sold. Many will tell you that in order to become a good writer, you need to do a lot of reading. While this is true to a certain extent, I think all you really need to do in order to become a better writer is to simply do a lot of listening. After all, what is writing but a different version of speaking. Like I said, I really don't enjoy reading that much, at least when it comes to novels and textbooks. I can get through them, but whether it's because of my youth or the age I grew up in, I just can't focus long enough to get through long, drawn out tales. Much of what I read today comes in the form of articles. I especially enjoy reading Cracked, their articles are just so damn funny (and they have click-baity numbered titles like this one *cough*). As you might have guessed, this is also why I wrote my book the way I did. I assume throughout the book that the reader might be getting bored, which helped me organize each chapter and vary my tone, diction, and vernacular throughout it in a fun way.

So while reading is important, it's by no means the only way to learn how speak and write well. You can and should also listen to lectures, public talks, informational videos, music (which is essentially lyrical poetry), and even your writing. Looking for places in your own work where you repeat words or use simple words where more phonetic ones could replace them is one of the best ways to exercise your vocabulary. Good listeners make good speakers, which attract good listeners. It's a self perpetuating cycle, like most things in nature.

4) Be Patient With Yourself

When I realized in late July that writing a book could be a viable way for me to gain extra income in a creative way, I initially planned to be done by the end of August. Then October rolled around, and I had just finished conducting research and adding notes to my manuscript. Granted, the notes were usually in the form of paragraphs and data that I could easily extrapolate from, but I was still unhappy with my progress. Although, I think it was for the best. The great thing about writing a book is that it gives you an excuse to research any topic you want. Thanks to my leisurely pace, I was able to explore every corner of Harvard's Museum of Science & Culture! That being said, if you want to complete your book in just a few months, you should already have a decent handle on the majority of topics you're going to write about, with research only necessary for specific details that support your arguments (or story). This is even more true for the majority of people who are already working another job (more on that later).

Of course, only you can decide how long your book should be. The benefit of writing about such broad topics was that it allowed me to go as in depth as I liked about each subject. Just because someone is taking the time to carefully craft their masterpiece, don't think that means they have to spend years writing it. If your subject matter is something you feel confident in discussing, it should be easy for it to naturally flow from your stream of consciousness. In extreme cases, authors can even be so skilled that they are able to complete a work in under a month. Anthony Burgess wrote A Clockwork Orange in just three weeks, and I'm sure Stephen King could spit out a novel over the course of a weekend if his life depended on it. I purposefully wrote in such a way and on subject matter that I mostly understood because I knew that way I could complete an entire book in a relatively short amount of time. This leads to the next point...

5) Understand yourself well enough to know what you know

Writing a book should never be a race. However, if you want to complete a book in just a few months (which you can), you need to choose your topic very carefully. This ties into the point about making a roadmap. If you can't even pick a destination, your journey is only going to take longer. On the same note, the less you understand the details of the topic you're writing about, the more time you will need to spend doing research, and the longer it will take you to actually begin writing. For this reason you must be able to reflect on your life and understand what kinds of knowledge you have been accumulating over the years. Ideally, your writing will be a natural extension of something you think about on a daily basis anyway. The reason I wrote an entire section about school subjects is because I was literally in high school learning those subjects just a few years ago, and I wanted to capitalize on and remember that knowledge before I lost it. Perhaps a better example comes in the form of the guided tour of the universe in my book. As a public educator at the Fiske Planetarium, my job was to give lectures about astronomy while another person was navigating around the cosmos, and one of the most common talks we would give is the tour of the universe. So thanks to my work, I already had a near 3D model of the visible universe engrained in my mind, and that allowed me to write it out as a whole chapter almost completely from memory. If you can apply your daily work to your writing, that will save you a tremendous amount of time on your work.

Similarly, understanding your strengths will better highlight your areas of weakness, which will in turn help you know what questions to ask to focus your research. I am an astrophysicist and a philosopher, and I don't want to claim to be anything else. As an astrophysicist, I study the physical nature of the cosmos as a whole, from atoms to galaxies. As a philosopher, I overthink everything and am really good at organizing my thoughts into coherent arguments (at least I hope). I make it a point to emphasize this in my writing. I am not a biologist, but as a living organism who did research on quantum chemistry, I can discuss life and its origins. I'm not an economist, but as a student of math and a member of a near-global economy, I can discuss philosophically about how money flows, how it's used in society, and how it has evolved over time. That's really the heart of my book, looking at the things we interact with everyday through the lens of fourteen billion years of history whilst orbiting Earth. After all, everything we do takes place on our planet, which itself is just drifting through space anyway. In that sense, everything we do is related to space. After all, we are just drifting stardust.

You can do the same thing in your writing. If you're honest and careful about the way you speak to your reader, it will free you to have a much more engaging conversation. So while you should focus on your areas of expertise, don't be afraid to explore areas you aren't familiar with, especially if what you're writing is fiction anyway. You can say what you want, just try to make sure you don't say anything that will waste your reader's time. Aaaand segue!

6) Have Empathy for your Reader

Like with any conversation, you should be cognizant of how someone else might interpret your writing. You should understand who your target audience is, and try to have some sort of idea of what they already know. If the topic you're writing about is especially nuanced, including footnotes and/or a reference section would be very courteous. Try to avoid jargon if possible, and if you do use specialty words try and make it a point to define them properly. If you're telling a story, don't let a scene draw on for too long, keep the plot moving. The goal is to make your reader want to keep their eyes glued to the page, so you want to avoid boring them or scaring them away with foreign words. That being said, we do live in the age of the Internet, so if your readers feel truly lost, they should be able to easily cross reference your data or the words you use with their phones.

In addition to empathy, it is important to not forget basic practices. Revise your manuscript multiple times, and try to get multiple perspectives on it. If you can, get beta readers whom you trust to look at your book before you publish (or as was the case for me, convince people to buy the first copies with typos, and then offer to buy them drinks in the future). You may even wish to read your book out loud to make sure it flows just right. You could even pay a stranger to read it, especially if they don't have any formal background in the subject. If a layman can understand your writing, you're probably in a good situation. Of course, you could always just pay for a professional editor, but they usually cost a few hundred dollars. If you happen to be a poor college student (or just someone who doesn't think they should pay money to publish their book), that's fine too. Just make sure your have enough grammatical training to be your own editor.

7) Record thoughts before they fade away

We all know that sometimes thoughts can be fleeting. Depending on the type of manuscript you are trying to publish, it can be very easy to lose great ideas that would have fit in just right in that certain section of your story. What if you simply don't have the time (or motivation) to write the very moment a good idea comes to mind? One major roadblock that I have yet to mention is in how to balance being a writer with everything else in life. I had the luxury of only working part time on weekends while I was writing, which I presume is not the case for the majority of people. Many prospective writers are likely working a day job to sustain themselves. If you happen to be one of these folks, it can be especially useful to write down ideas as they come to you. You may carry a notebook with you, or if you are someone who works with their laptop, you can add to your manuscript by adding a sentence during your work breaks. This tactic is especially useful if you only have a specific block of time (e.g. on the weekends) to do your real writing. If you think of something in passing while driving, watching television, or anything else that could be useful to your book, you can write down the thought when it comes to you, and then expand upon it during your scheduled writing time. This also alleviates the stress of writing all at once, as it distributes the burden and gives you natural starting points that you can come back to when your busy schedule allows.

8) Be Bold (Yet Humble)

Eventually you will need to publish, so don't be afraid when the time comes. That being said, also don't be hasty. Probably the most egregious mistake I made in writing was not editing thoroughly enough before officially publishing. I began editing by adding sticky flags to the hardcopy proof of my first publication. My plan was to edit the book itself by hand to put myself in my readers shoes. I even organized the flag colors to correspond with various errors (i.e. blue was a simple typo, green was a grammatical error, red was a factual error, etc.). However, by the time I got to the fiftieth page or so, nearly every sheet of paper had a flag of some various color on it. There were so many errors—albeit minor ones— that it got to the point that I decided to just revise the entire book on my laptop. I even did a simple mathematical calculation wrong (I forgot pi), which is just shameful. Needless to say, had I just read the whole thing thoroughly the first time instead of just skimming through it, I would have saved myself plenty of grief. And yes, I did expect to publish a book after only skimming through the entire thing. But in my defense, I had read through each section once after writing them, and I have a bad habit of never editing any of my papers because I always got high marks on school essays without ever editing once (hence the note about humility). By the time I had finished writing Majesty In Monotony, I just wanted to get the darn thing published so badly and be done with it.

I would of course pay for my hubris down the road. After finding the first few small typos, I was so ashamed of myself that I couldn't even pick up the book for a good month to edit it. But eventually I was able to overcome my insecurity, and come to terms with my work. As it turned out, I didn't make as many mistakes as I had thought, but I did find countless opportunities to improve and enhance my writing. Many authors will say that writing a book is like having a child, and for good reason. One can easily be wrought with anxiety over being judged by others, especially over something as personal as a book. But ultimately it is worth it, precisely because of how uncomfortable it makes you. In many ways, it's analogous to modeling or acting. Being in the public eye isn't easy, famous and beautiful people suffer from the same bodily insecurities we all do. But in the same way that seeing yourself in the mirror or on video forces you to be comfortable in your own skin; writing, reading, and publishing your thoughts forces you to understand yourself better as a human being. Writing helps you find your voice, and ultimately that's why everybody should write some sort of book, if not to sell, then at least for themselves. We all have a voice, and we can only benefit from finding it.

9) Finally, Remember That Everything is Just Stardust Anyway, So Don't Be Afraid to Write About Something You May Not Be An "Expert" In.

Enough said. Criticism is growth, and complements are something you should be hearing every moment from yourself anyway. All else is just frosting on the cake that lies beyond your control. Don't halfway anything, and don't be hindered by obstacles. Giving up is what kills people, moving forward fearlessly is how we grow. It's the essence of life, and it's the reason our ancestors were able to expand beyond the plains of Africa, over the seas onto every continent, and eventually to The Moon. You're going to live anyway, so why not chronicle your story for the rest of the world to learn from. You never know how you might impact others for the better, even if they won't be born for another few centuries. Enjoy your journey of discovery, both through writing and in all aspects of your life!