Fourth Assignment - 500 Word Overview

For my fifth English Assignment, we were told by our professor Rick Metros to write a 500 Word Overview about our semester projects. According to him, this is supposed to be "the roughest rough draft ever" and I hope to accomplish that in this entry. I hope to not exceed 500 here, although 500 words is pretty much a full page on Word so I should be all right =].

Now, onto the overview. Remember, my project topic is how to write a novel...

We all have aspirations. Some want to become professional athletes in their favorite sports, some want to become fashion designers and some may want to be teachers someday. Whatever your goal is, whatever your dream may be, you need to learn about every nook and cranny about it to make it come true.

The same applies to me. My dream is to one day be an author and in order to do that, I have to write and publish a novel, which is what I am doing my project on this semester. Specifically, I'm going to be talking about getting started (coming up with ideas, etc.) and the process of publishing a book. Even if you're not planning to become a writer, it's possible that you may want to write a book about your current field of work (i.e., you're a scientist wanting to write a science book or something like that) and want to get something published so this is useful for those moments as well.

First, I am going to discuss coming up with ideas. If you have a knack for coming up with good ideas and have been writing for a long time this is usually not a hard step. If you're writing a book for the first time, however, this can be tricky. For starters, come up with a dramatic scene in your mind, as Deborah Owen suggests in an article she wrote called How to Write a Book: Generating Writing Ideas (read full article here). According to her, some ideas you could use are dramatic, such as two ice skaters are skating on a lake and one falls through the ice and drowns. Some ideas you could use are exciting, such as a school janitor winning a lottery ticket and wondering if he will keep his job or move forward to something exciting.

But one of the best things to do is to look for ideas in your everyday life. Read stories in newspapers and magazines and books to get ideas (this is also a good way to figure out your writing style). Something as simple as watching TV can help spark an idea. Many people write what's known as Fan Fiction and they use TV (or book) characters and write a story of their own using them. Situations in real life, whether they be good or bad, can also make good stories, just make sure you change the names of the people involved.

Once you have an idea, it's time to start writing. Patience is the key element here; it takes a very long time to get a book finished. Once you have the book written to your liking, it's time to get the book published.

According to an article written by Rob Parnell titled How to Get Published (read full article here), is to submit your book (in the publishing world, it is known as a manuscript) to numerous publishers and agents. To find publishers and agents according to Parnell, you can look them up in Writers Yearbooks, which can be bought at bookstores or checked out at your local library. If you're internet-savvy you can also look up publishers and see if they have a website. Once that is done, you look at their guidelines for publishing and you consider and follow them closely. According to Parnell, once you find the publisher/s that you want to send your work to, mail it off to them (using an envelope and stamps, not email), including a brief letter on why you think this manuscript should be considered for publication.

And that's my overview! =] I didn't include what comes after publication or a conclusion because I'm not sure what to write for those yet. Hope this works out for you, Mr. Metros!