The Fastest Way to Write Your Book

by Dave Haslett

  You could get other people to go out and ask the question for you. You don’t have to all the work yourself. See chapter 15 for more ways of getting other people to help you.

  Biographies

  If you read biographies and autobiographies, look out for the minor characters: the crazy brothers, humorous shopkeepers, wicked teachers, and mad uncles, and the tricks and stunts they pull. A good biography can produce a rich crop of interesting characters and amusing scenes. Change the people’s names and you have a set of instant, ready-made characters and events you can use in your books.

  You could combine the people and events in the biography with elements of your own life. Or bring together the most interesting minor characters from several different biographies and see what happens.

  Or you could choose an interesting-looking character who witnessed a major event, even if he was only in the background. Describe what happened from his point of view. He’ll have plenty of other things going on in his life, of course, and these will influence the way he sees things. He might see things differently from everyone else. He might have made considerable sacrifices or overcome great adversity just so he could be at the event. How might it have changed him? What sort of life is he going back to? How does he feel about going home after the event he just witnessed?

  Books

  When you need ideas on a particular subject, nothing beats a good book. Try skimming the headings and sub-headings and thinking about each topic or concept that you come across. If that doesn’t trigger anything, try reading the main text beneath the most interesting headings. You might come across something that triggers a ton of ideas.

  You could also search online for articles about your chosen subject.

  Childhood

  You might have had an ordinary childhood, but many things will have happened to you by the time you reached adulthood. Family members will have come and gone, friendships will have been made and broken, relationships will have begun and ended.

  Then there are all the adventures you had during the school holidays, made-up games with bizarre rules, toys, pets, school bullies, lessons, teachers, sports, school friends and their strange parents and siblings, and much more.

  Classified advertisements

  You’ll sometimes see some really odd things for sale in the classified ads in your local newspaper, on notice boards, in shop windows, and online.

  Try the local “Selling” pages on Facebook too – search for “things for sale in …” and insert the name of your town or city. If you’re looking for something specific, try searching for that. For example: “musical instruments for sale in Birmingham”.

  You could use Google to search for specific things for sale in your area too, as it will find items listed on other sites.

  Try picking a particular category or niche on eBay, Freecycle) or CraigsList and browse through the selection of items on offer. You’ll often find interesting, unique and bizarre things listed.

  When you’ve found something, ask yourself some questions about the item and its seller:

  How did he get hold of one those things in the first place?

  Why did he want it?

  Why is he getting rid of it now?

  The most mundane things can have fascinating stories behind them. And even if they haven’t, you should be able to imagine that they have and get a good story out of it.

  For example, what if you see several items for sale at the same address?

  Could it be a woman selling her husband’s belongings because he ran off with someone else?

  Is someone selling his possessions to cover a debt?

  How might he have fallen into debt?

  What if the items don’t belong to him?

  Does the real owner know he’s selling them?

  What if the real owner tries to buy one of the items and discovers it’s his?

  See if you can come up with some bizarre reasons why the person might be selling each item. You could also think about the people who buy the items. Why might they want them?

  Curiosities

  Sometimes, if you take a good look around, you’ll see the strangest things. They might not make complete stories, but they can make fascinating curiosities that will liven up dull scenes and descriptions. Things that seem out of place are especially worth taking a closer look at.

  For example, I know of a country lane where there’s a gas cylinder propped against a wire fence. It’s been there for years. But what’s it doing there? In my head, I have the idea that perhaps the farmer wanted an electric fence but he had to make do with a gas one because he didn’t have an electricity supply to charge his battery. Perhaps he also has a poor – but hilarious – grasp of basic science. In that case, what else might he have done?

  Perhaps someone put it there as a joke. Or maybe it fell off a lorry. What other reasons can you think of? And why is it still there after all these years?

  The secret behind this technique is to look properly, and actually see things. Train yourself to spot anything that seems out of place. Question everything, and use your imagination. There might be a logical explanation, but you should still be able to get a great story, scene or character out of it.

  Daydreams

  Daydreaming is one of the best ways of getting ideas. Look around you, read something, look at a picture, watch something on television. Then close your eyes and visualise what you’ve just seen or read. Let your mind wander around the scene.

  What thoughts does it trigger? What does it remind you of? What’s happening outside the scene? What’s happening behind you? What’s happening elsewhere in the world that might be connected to what’s happening here? Are there any interesting characters, stories or settings in the scene that you could use?

  Or perhaps you could daydream about somewhere you’d like to be. Close your eyes and picture a deserted beach, a tree house in the middle of a forest, a country meadow, a boat on a lake, or whatever appeals to you. Imagine that you’re there, relaxed and happy. Then let your mind wander: what exciting things might happen there?

  And what about the places you really wouldn’t like to be? Dare you explore those places in your mind and in your writing?

  Do something else

  Sometimes you need to get away from writing for a while, or clear your mind. This is a useful technique if you’re stuck on something.

  Back in the days when I was a computer programmer, whenever I got stuck on a tricky piece of code I’d head for the bathroom, shut myself in a cubicle, and sit quietly for a few minutes. Sometimes I counted the tiles on the floor. The solution always came to me within a few minutes. In fact, I won prizes for my clever designs and innovative thinking. It works for solving writing problems and coming up with ideas too.

  Writing computer programs can be just as creative as writing books. Several of the ideas in this book were adapted from techniques I used as a programmer.

  One thing I particularly like about programming is that you can test every step to see whether you’ve got the right answer, and fix it if you haven’t. I wish I could do that with my books!

  Dreams

  Dreams can lead to all sorts of great ideas. That’s why it’s important to keep a notepad and pen next to your bed. Write down your dreams as soon as you wake up. You might have dreamt about something that would make an interesting character, a terrific plot twist, or a perfect cliff-hanger. Don’t waste it.

  Dreams can be useful for non-fiction writers too. Many scientists and inventors say their greatest ideas and breakthroughs came to them in dreams. Your next dream might be the complete outline for a nonfiction book that becomes a bestseller.

  After you’ve been writing down your dreams for a while, look back over your notes and see if you can spot any patterns. Could you connect some of them together, or join small parts of them, to form the outline of a book, story or scene?

  Things aren’t always what they seem in dreams, of course. There are lots of books available that try to ana
lyse their meanings. One of these could make a useful addition to your bookshelf. It’ll also give you something interesting to browse through when you need inspiration.

  Try discussing your dreams with your friends, and see if you can come up with your own interpretations. It doesn’t matter how absurd the dreams are, or how accurate your interpretations of them are; they’re fun to talk about and you’ll generate lots of fantastic ideas for things to write about.

  How about drawing or painting pictures of your dreams instead of writing them down? No one else needs to see them, so it doesn’t matter if you can’t draw. Use plenty of colour and make them vivid. Images can help you remember much more about your dreams than words alone. But you might want to add some words too – perhaps some labels that explain what’s going on. A vivid drawing of a dream could inspire hundreds of different stories.

  It’s worth looking at other people’s drawings of their dreams. Search online for “drawing of my dream”. If you use Google as your search engine, click on the Images tab or go to images.google.com.

  Most of us have several dreams each night, though we don’t usually remember much about them. According to sleep researchers, we have our first dream about ninety minutes after we go to sleep, and we spend more time dreaming at the end of the night than at the beginning.

  If you don’t think you have many dreams, try setting an alarm clock to wake you up a couple of hours before you normally get up.

  Put your alarm clock under your pillow to avoid disturbing anyone else. Or wear a smart watch or fitness tracker with a silent alarm – it vibrates instead of making a noise.

  If you were dreaming when the alarm went off, write down what it was about – or draw or paint it if you like. If you weren’t dreaming, go back to sleep and try again the next night. If it doesn’t seem to be working, try setting the alarm to go off a little earlier or a little later, and keep adjusting it until you find a time that works for you.

  Don’t wake yourself up more than once a night though, or your sleep will become too disturbed.

  Eating certain foods just before you go to sleep can encourage dreaming. Things that are difficult to digest, such as hard cheese, have been shown to work. Bread and rice can also work well as they soak up fluids and make you thirsty. When this becomes too uncomfortable, you wake up desperate for a drink, often immediately after a dream that you can still remember. The opposite approach is to drink lots of water before you go to bed, and wake up in the middle of the night needing the bathroom.

  I’ve tried both of these methods and found that they often lead to really weird dreams – much stranger than the ones I have using the alarm clock method we looked at above. These dreams are potentially more useful too – depending on the type of books you write.

  Normal dreams tend to be more useful for solving problems, whilst weird dreams are more useful for creating stories.

  If you wake up desperate for a drink or needing the bathroom, write the dream down first, or draw a quick sketch so you don’t forget it. Add the vivid colours and more description after you’ve had your drink or visited the bathroom.

  Drawing and doodling

  Try thinking about a problem or an idea with a pen or pencil in your hand. Write down the key words and draw lines to link them together. Add more words and lines and see where they take you. Add little drawings, doodles and diagrams to explain how things connect together – or just draw anything that comes to mind.

  Doodling lets your subconscious mind communicate directly with the outside world. You should find that the solution to your problem comes faster and more easily than it would if you tried just concentrating on it. You’ll also generate lots more ideas.

  Getting Ideas

  Getting Ideas is part of the ideas4writers ideas collection. It describes 218 clever ways to find ideas for your writing, including:

  How to train yourself to spot the ideas all around you.

  The different types of brainstorming and how to use them.

  Getting ideas to come to you.

  Different ways to use your dreams.

  How your emotions and thoughts can generate ideas.

  Eavesdropping and people-watching tips.

  Behind the scenes visits – easy ways to get access and permission.

  How to use complications, options and alternatives.

  Why the things you can’t remember might be better than the ones you can.

  Getting other people to find the ideas you need.

  Easy ways to remember your ideas.

  Situations where you can’t fail to find great ideas.

  What to do with your great idea once you’ve had it.

  And much more.

  Getting Ideas is available from Amazon’s Kindle store or as a PDF e-book from the ideas4writers website.

  I’m gradually updating and reissuing the thirty-five volumes in the ideas collection, and making them available in paperback for the first time. Getting Ideas will be renamed 218 Innovative and Inspiring Ways to Find Writing Ideas when it’s reissued.

  You can claim a free PDF copy of any one of the thirty-five volumes in the ideas collection – including Getting Ideas. Turn to the last page in this book for full details.

  Gossip

  Gossip can make an excellent starting point for stories, plots and subplots, as well as characters and dialogue. If you write fiction, start collecting gossip as soon as possible.

  Ask your friends to listen out for gossip too, and get them to call you if they hear anything really juicy. At the very least, they should write down what they heard, and tell you about it when they next see you.

  People love listening to gossip, and this gives them the perfect excuse. The more friends you have out there collecting it for you, the more ideas you’ll have.

  Guidebooks

  If you want to include a particular location in your book, see if you can find a guidebook that tells you all about it.

  Guidebooks usually tell you about the history of the place. That means you can include real events in your story, as well as famous (and infamous) people from the past. Even if the people and events don’t appear in your story, your characters could discuss them, which will add interest and intrigue.

  Guidebooks often include surprising facts about places you thought you knew well. These can make wonderful additions to your book.

  The author of the guidebook will probably live in that area, and might even be a member of the local writing group. He might also be active on Facebook pages and groups connected with that area. So if you need more information, you should be able to contact him quite easily.

  Guided tours

  Most towns and cities have guided tours. These are always well worth going on, even if you’ve lived there all your life. The guides will probably take you to places you’ve never visited before, and they’ll tell you about the unusual histories of buildings you pass every day. Many guides are also excellent storytellers and they’ll tell you intriguing tales of local characters, villains, misdoings, ghosts and legends.

  It’s worth having a good look at the factories and industrial buildings near where you live too. Some of them will be worth a visit, and they might offer guided tours too. If they don’t have official tours, ask if someone could show you around. If you tell them you’re a writer, most of them will happily oblige.

  Who knows what you might discover? They might use chemicals that would make effective poisons, for example. Or they might have machinery that could maim its operators. You might hear some real-life horror stories about that – and it could be just the thing you need to bring a scene in your book to life.

  The buildings might make interesting settings for your story too. If they’re particularly old, what else have they been used for in the past? What sort of atmosphere do they have when you visit them? For the sake of a good story, you might like to imagine them being used for different purposes.

  You could also consider writing a book about the company, or a history of th
at particular industry.

  Horoscopes

  Look at several different horoscopes for the same day. Do they agree with each other? Almost certainly not – and that could give you several ideas.

  You could also use a character’s horoscope to help decide the outcome of an event in your story. Perhaps someone is taking an exam, and you can’t decide whether he’ll pass or fail. His horoscope says his mind will be elsewhere that day, so you decide he’ll fail. Problem solved. But what will happen to him next? Turn to his next horoscope to find out.

  Or perhaps you’re halfway through planning your story and you run out of ideas. What should your character do next? Again, have a look at his horoscope in several different publications and see if you can find anything interesting for him to get involved in.

  Biorhythms – which tell you where a person is on his monthly physical, emotional and intellectual body clock cycle – can also help you decide how well a character is likely to perform on a given day.

  Biorhythm calculators and charts are widely available online, and there are plenty of free apps for smartphones and tablets. If you enter your character’s date of birth, it will tell you how physically strong, emotional and intelligent – or how weak, stupid and accident-prone – he’s likely to be on the date you’re interested in.