Writing a book

[LastThursday]

I have a dream to write a book of some sort, either fiction or non-fiction, and see my name on the spine of a book in a bookshop.

Are you thinking about or actually writing a book, and what genre is it and why? How do you keep up the motivation? Have you written a book, what's it about and why did you write it?

Any tips on getting started?

Edited October 3, 2021 by LastThursday

[JosephKnecht]

4 minutes ago, LastThursday said:

Have you written a book, what's it about and why did you write it?

Wrote 3 books. They are hard to categorize because they exist on the border between duality and non-duality. 

Wrote the first book in 10 days. Enjoyed the insights and the experience of writing so kept doing it. 

6 minutes ago, LastThursday said:

How do you keep up the motivation?

My rule is to write at least 1000 words per day. There are days when the words just flow on the page and you get into a flow state. That is really motivating.

9 minutes ago, LastThursday said:

Any tips on getting started?

Read a lot.... Develop your own style... and just DO IT. 

[Tim R]

@JosephKnecht A whole book in just ten days??? How many words in total? What is it about? 

[JosephKnecht]

10 hours ago, Tim R said:

How many words in total?

I think it was 40, 000 words.. When the words flow, they come through you, not from you.  

10 hours ago, Tim R said:

What is it about? 

It's a story of a Father and Son, told through the voice of the Spirit. You can read it for free on Medium: https://medium.com/the-way-of-being/book-description-synopsis-7e004c5092d8 

[LastThursday]

13 hours ago, JosephKnecht said:

13 hours ago, LastThursday said:

How do you keep up the motivation?

My rule is to write at least 1000 words per day. There are days when the words just flow on the page and you get into a flow state. That is really motivating.

I had a light bulb moment that I could just dump my journal on here into a book. I'm not sure it's quite a 1000 words per day, but I've been surprisingly consistent the last year. Maybe that's why it's playing on my mind. It would certainly be rough and incoherent for a book though. I think that's why I was asking about genre, and the reasons for choosing it.

55 minutes ago, JosephKnecht said:

I think it was 40, 000 words.. When the words flow, they come through you, not from you.  

Sounds doable. When I read The Alchemist (a slim book), I thought to myself that I could write something like that.

[AndylizedAAY]

14 hours ago, LastThursday said:

I have a dream to write a book of some sort, either fiction or non-fiction, and see my name on the spine of a book in a bookshop.

Are you thinking about or actually writing a book, and what genre is it and why? How do you keep up the motivation? Have you written a book, what's it about and why did you write it?

Any tips on getting started?

Maybe ask @Leo Gura for advice since he is creating a book. I would not expect me giving him good ideas but try your best to see what is most important to you. 

[AndylizedAAY]

@LastThursday I just sent you my reply about asking Leo. 

[HypnoticMagician]

If you are asking what I am planning related to books. I am planning to create my own religion that has its own holy book. And additional books of less quality catering to the needs of low consciousness people. This will gradually lead people to enlightenment of all kinds. And finally to being connected to singularity biologically,spiritually and technologically. What I mean by technology is AGI(Artificial General Intelligence). You don't need technology to become intelligent and happy that much. But why not maximize the output you could get in your practical life. We might head for a disaster or create a true utopia. It is totally up to us. So why not do our best? My system is hopefully gonna be a solution to this. Why not give it a try? It is gonna be like some kind of pyramid layer by layer, stairs of which will be determined according to the level of understanding of my potential followers in the future. It is not all about self-development but also about the development of the whole society. I am planing to take over the world but with good intentions. To end wars, hunger, injustice. I am not doing these to elevate only my nation but to become a light to other nations too. I had had lacked the leadership skills required to help anybody who deserves to be given a hand at the time. I had only high IQ. But intelligence isn't enough. Over the years, I eventually learnt to be act more smartly thanks to God/infinity or whatever you believe in

(I am agnostic. It sounds really naive that some people think they found the truth. It is impossible or close to impossible to understand the reality fully. You can only approach it.)

Edited October 4, 2021 by HypnoticMagician

[LastThursday]

1 hour ago, AndylizedAAY said:

Maybe ask @Leo Gura for advice since he is creating a book.

I was half asking out of getting ideas for myself, and half out of curiosity. I mean I was just wondering with all this writing flying about on the forum, there must be some writers or aspiring writers amongst them. I was wondering what drives people to write books. If @Leo Gura wants to comment, then that's great.

@HypnoticMagician that's an unusual reason to write a book, a holy book in fact. So for you writing a book would be part of your overall life plan? Interesting.

[Guest EmptyVase]

20 hours ago, LastThursday said:

Are you thinking about or actually writing a book, and what genre is it and why?

Totally.

Before actually writing it, I first want to mature, become a trained psychotherapist, and really understand "I".

The books I will be writing will most likely be about psychology, spirituality, and psychedelics.

But hey, my plans often get cancelled by dear Life because it wants to give me something even better.

Maybe I'll map out every fucking type of chair in my book, tackling the topic from all angles.

Oh shit. Angles. Angels. Perspective. An angel could use it's wings to fly above all the perspectives, to look at them from the bird's eye view. ?

@mandyjw You might like the last paragraph.

[LastThursday]

@EmptyVase cool. What value do you see in writing a book? To impart knowledge or to scratch an itch or just to show yourself can do it?

[Sine]

My best advice is to make it a habit to write every day as much as you can, no matter what it is, even if it is just thoughts or other people's conversations or descriptions of what you can see, feel, smell, etc. 

Set time off to write for a longer period of time each day, this could for example be working on your story, maybe for an hour (I do it the first thing in the morning).

But more important is to carry a notebook with you all the time and place tiny notebooks all-around your house -  then every time you have a thought related to the story (or something relevant for it - or even something that is not relevant for it at all!) write it out. EVEN IF YOU HAVE TO STOP YOUR CAR OR YOUR BIKE WHILE DRIVING. This is extremely important. make it into a habit! It needs to get out of your head immediately or your inner judge will kill it!

The trick is to get your body used to use this form of communication. Then, at last, it will not be difficult for you to write at all, because you do it all the time anyway!

After I started to do this, writing has become more of a lifestyle than something I just do once in a while. And there is also more room in my head for being present in the - now because all the characters talking get out into the notebooks haha. 

Another piece of advice is that if you are sitting down and want to work on your story but finds that you can't - then just write some diary stuff and then surprise yourself, suddenly moving into the storyline. So you take yourself by surprise, tricking yourself into working.

Also - NEVER USE A BEAUTIFUL NOTEBOOK! You will feel that something beautiful needs to be written in it. NO. You need to write shit! shit-writing is so important because that is where your true voice will emerge from, instead of just you trying to be something else. Shit is gold. You are gold. Golden-shit. But first when you let yourself be shit. 

Last thing - when you write in your notebooks - write like no one is watching, literally, don't write on the lines, shift directions, write in a circle, write on top on other lines and backward. The trick is to surprise yourself, so you will be distracted from self-judging thoughts. And also it will help you to feel that you shouldn't feel shy towards the notebook and that it will accept you even if your writing is messy and not perfect. 

Be aware that you are writing with your body, not your head! We need to distract the head so the body can work in peace - therefore - work in the morning when you are still clean in your head or at night when the head is empty, write quickly when doing first drafts, write stuff out as soon as it arises during the day, write shit and write in messy ways. 

And meditate daily and don't eat bad food. 

Hope this helps. I wish you the best and you are awesome for wanting to write! I hope you will find great joy in it! 

[Zakaria]

Good luck

[gettoefl]

some guy i follow on twitter shared this today

 

[mandyjw]

@EmptyVase  Angles of a pyramid, angels peer amid. 

[LastThursday]

@Sine  great advice, thanks for sharing your method. I have written in notebooks, especially when I was backpacking. I guess the takeaway is to get into a regular writing habit. I do journal here and that's it, but actually writing in a notebook means I can do it anywhere anytime. Have you written a book?

[Sine]

4 hours ago, LastThursday said:

@Sine  great advice, thanks for sharing your method. I have written in notebooks, especially when I was backpacking. I guess the takeaway is to get into a regular writing habit. I do journal here and that's it, but actually writing in a notebook means I can do it anywhere anytime. Have you written a book?

I have written a small one some years ago, but now I'm writing a big one! (fiction based on real-life stuff) 

Yes, it's really much about getting it in as something natural you just do. You talk all the time without thinking about it, it just comes natural to the body, because you practiced as a child and did it more and more often - this is what you need to do with writing now. Maybe some days you should write more than you talk! Then it will start to flow easily. 

Yea I find notebooks so useful because on a computer it looks so serious, and when I'm just sketching scenes, trying stuff out, it's easier if it's low-key like in a trashy notebook. - and yes then you can take it with you all the time!

When you write your journal try sometimes to focus more on the sensations and feelings instead of getting what actually happened down in every detail. Just make stuff up that fits with the emotions you had - it's your notebook, you are not obligated to tell the objective happenings of your day, you can make stuff up (this is if you want to write a fiction book) 

[Sine]

4 hours ago, LastThursday said:

@Sine  great advice, thanks for sharing your method. I have written in notebooks, especially when I was backpacking. I guess the takeaway is to get into a regular writing habit. I do journal here and that's it, but actually writing in a notebook means I can do it anywhere anytime. Have you written a book?

I have written a small one some years ago, but now I'm writing a big one! (fiction based on real-life stuff) 

Yes, it's really much about getting it in as something natural you just do. You talk all the time without thinking about it, it just comes natural to the body, because you practiced as a child and did it more and more often - this is what you need to do with writing now. Maybe some days you should write more than you talk! Then it will start to flow easily. 

Yea I find notebooks so useful because on a computer it looks so serious, and when I'm just sketching scenes, trying stuff out, it's easier if it's low-key like in a trashy notebook. - and yes then you can take it with you all the time!

When you write your journal try sometimes to focus more on the sensations and feelings instead of getting what actually happened down in every detail. Just make stuff up that fits with the emotions you had - it's your notebook, you are not obligated to tell the objective happenings of your day, you can make stuff up (this is if you want to write a fiction book) 

[LastThursday]

@gettoefl it's good to see the process from the other side too.

[gettoefl]

38 minutes ago, LastThursday said:

@gettoefl it's good to see the process from the other side too.

yes he is a smart cookie, will make a bundle on that