My entire life I have absored books as fast as I could read. Growing up I always had my head stuck in a book. Any book. As an adult not much has changed except - I wanted to write a book. How hard could it really be? I have read enough books in my life I should be able to just spit out a story in the snap of my fingers!
WRONG. My first hurdle was learning there are several different ways to write. There are technical writers, poetry writers, script writers, children's writers, how-to writers, chapter writers, business writers, ad writers, etc. The list is endless. Each one of those types of writers has to have their own skill set to write for that specific need or purpose.
In my professional career I did a lot of writing. Techincal writing. Meaning I created manuals that would provide clear, specific, exact, detailed steps to achieve the end result. That is great when you are trying to teach or demonstrate how to accomplish a task. Not so much when you want to tell someone a story.
That was the first thing I had to overcome when I wanted to write a book for a reader's enjoyment. You see I wanted to start my story at the beginning. I didn't want to miss any of the details. I wanted it to be ordered and easy to follow. BUT that is not what someone who is reading for enjoyment wants.
At the time I was fortunate to have someone to teach me there are other ways to write. Once a week for a year I went to my friends house and we read out loud what I had wrote over the last week. She helped me to restructure my sentences to not be so matter of fact. To allow my reader some imagination as they read. She taught me to by my readers guide through the story.
Its ok to not start at the beginning. In fact it is better to start somewhere in the middle and then use 'memories' to help build the back story a little at a time instead of spewing everything about a character up front.
It is also important to tell your story through conversations by the characters. Readers want to see the characters interacting - it makes them more real. See what you think about my first chapter book, Konner Khronicles: Back to the Past.
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