Hints for aspiring Author's
By: Christian Author Curtis Simonson
I have been asked dozens of times since I started writing books questions like: How
do you write a book? Why did you choose to write Christian books? Is writing hard?
Where do I start? And- please, please, please can I have your autograph? (Okay, I
made that last one up- hopeful thinking- Ha!) So I thought I should add some helpful
insight into writing...
One of my favorite things to tell people is that the first step to writing IS Writing. That
might sound funny but there is a lot of truth to it. Put your thoughts onto paper, keep a
log of ideas in a notebook, but above all write- write- write. The great thing about
writing is that you can always go back and change it, but you can't improve on
something that isn't there on paper. Most people let themselves down because they
don't believe they can finish a whole book or they don't know enough technical stuff
about grammar, nouns, verbs, where to put commas, and so on. But I have the answer-
who cares! Are not the thoughts, the stories, the meaning behind the writings more
important? At some point in time some people came along and said that a comma
needs to be here in a sentence to separate this and that and so on. Now don't get me
wrong, I fully believe there has to be a base of organized writing or else everything
would sound funny and no one would take you serious, but to begin writing you should
be more focused on The Writing itself. Point is: Write if you want to and worry about
fine tuning it later.
It is very important to write about your passions and keep your writings focused on
the things in which you have experience with. This is why I write about Jesus Christ; I
am passionate about the Savior. But in order to make your work stand out try to put a
twist on it, use a new idea to catch your reader's eye. Like my book entitled Spiritual
Ninjas 'the path to Jesus Christ'. Although there are Ninjas in this book (which I have
always thought intriguing) the book is still about Christ. I simply call the daily dedicated
followers of Christ Spiritual Ninjas because of their Ninja like characters with their faith.
Pretty awesome right? I thought so and so has many others thus far. Stories always
sound better when you have your heart in them. And the readers can feel and relate
more vividly to those stories when you have put your all into them.
I admit not everyone can write, because there is often a poetic sound to the words as
they flow across the page that only some people are gifted with achieving. And thats
okay because God gave us each our own talents and own purpose. But if you truly
want to write, and are not that good at it, you can learn. You can learn to write good
poetic stories by simply writing just as you would play an instrument over and over to
learn to play stronger, more beautiful music. When I was just a youngster (not that I am
old now) I won a Young Author's Award for writing the best short story out of the entire
school about a young Indian brave who became a mighty warrior. My reward: a field trip
to a college where I got to hang out with the famous Author R.L. Stine who wrote the
Goosebumps series. All throughout school, whenever I would write a story, my teachers
would always leave notes that said, Great Job, and Never Stop Writing! So naturally
when I decided to write books years later I thought how hard could it be? And now I get
it- to write a book takes long hours, sometimes grueling hours searching for that next
perfect word or phrase or idea, but the whole process is fun and at the end when you
hold that first book, or run up and down the street cheering like I did, you are filled with
a humble AWE. You take a sigh of relief and gratitude and can thank the Lord for
making your dream into reality. Since it was God who gave you the ability to begin with.
So sit back and relax, take a load off, grab some hot cocoa a pen and paper and get
to it; get to putting words on the pages. For the journey is long but the reward is simply
priceless.
Final thoughts: There are two hats you put on when it comes to writing books, the
writing hat and the selling-advertising-promoting hat. Selling your books requires a lot
of time, maybe even more than the writing itself. Talk to bookstores, search all over
online, word of mouth, make a website, create advertisements everywhere,
newspapers, online book reviews and chat rooms and ect.... The possibilities are
endless. What I do know, by making the mistake myself and continuing to struggle with
this today, is that you have to stick with it or nothing will happen. Your books will simply
be words on the pages with no meaning and no fruitful results. If you are pretty sure
your book is amazing get some feedback from other people and ask them if anything
can be improved. But above all never give up and never give in until your dream has
surfaced from the shadows and become reality. So go out and do it, because with
Christ anything is possible.
Author Curtis Simonson
I welcome any questions or feedback to my books, my website, or to writing in general.
do you write a book? Why did you choose to write Christian books? Is writing hard?
Where do I start? And- please, please, please can I have your autograph? (Okay, I
made that last one up- hopeful thinking- Ha!) So I thought I should add some helpful
insight into writing...
One of my favorite things to tell people is that the first step to writing IS Writing. That
might sound funny but there is a lot of truth to it. Put your thoughts onto paper, keep a
log of ideas in a notebook, but above all write- write- write. The great thing about
writing is that you can always go back and change it, but you can't improve on
something that isn't there on paper. Most people let themselves down because they
don't believe they can finish a whole book or they don't know enough technical stuff
about grammar, nouns, verbs, where to put commas, and so on. But I have the answer-
who cares! Are not the thoughts, the stories, the meaning behind the writings more
important? At some point in time some people came along and said that a comma
needs to be here in a sentence to separate this and that and so on. Now don't get me
wrong, I fully believe there has to be a base of organized writing or else everything
would sound funny and no one would take you serious, but to begin writing you should
be more focused on The Writing itself. Point is: Write if you want to and worry about
fine tuning it later.
It is very important to write about your passions and keep your writings focused on
the things in which you have experience with. This is why I write about Jesus Christ; I
am passionate about the Savior. But in order to make your work stand out try to put a
twist on it, use a new idea to catch your reader's eye. Like my book entitled Spiritual
Ninjas 'the path to Jesus Christ'. Although there are Ninjas in this book (which I have
always thought intriguing) the book is still about Christ. I simply call the daily dedicated
followers of Christ Spiritual Ninjas because of their Ninja like characters with their faith.
Pretty awesome right? I thought so and so has many others thus far. Stories always
sound better when you have your heart in them. And the readers can feel and relate
more vividly to those stories when you have put your all into them.
I admit not everyone can write, because there is often a poetic sound to the words as
they flow across the page that only some people are gifted with achieving. And thats
okay because God gave us each our own talents and own purpose. But if you truly
want to write, and are not that good at it, you can learn. You can learn to write good
poetic stories by simply writing just as you would play an instrument over and over to
learn to play stronger, more beautiful music. When I was just a youngster (not that I am
old now) I won a Young Author's Award for writing the best short story out of the entire
school about a young Indian brave who became a mighty warrior. My reward: a field trip
to a college where I got to hang out with the famous Author R.L. Stine who wrote the
Goosebumps series. All throughout school, whenever I would write a story, my teachers
would always leave notes that said, Great Job, and Never Stop Writing! So naturally
when I decided to write books years later I thought how hard could it be? And now I get
it- to write a book takes long hours, sometimes grueling hours searching for that next
perfect word or phrase or idea, but the whole process is fun and at the end when you
hold that first book, or run up and down the street cheering like I did, you are filled with
a humble AWE. You take a sigh of relief and gratitude and can thank the Lord for
making your dream into reality. Since it was God who gave you the ability to begin with.
So sit back and relax, take a load off, grab some hot cocoa a pen and paper and get
to it; get to putting words on the pages. For the journey is long but the reward is simply
priceless.
Final thoughts: There are two hats you put on when it comes to writing books, the
writing hat and the selling-advertising-promoting hat. Selling your books requires a lot
of time, maybe even more than the writing itself. Talk to bookstores, search all over
online, word of mouth, make a website, create advertisements everywhere,
newspapers, online book reviews and chat rooms and ect.... The possibilities are
endless. What I do know, by making the mistake myself and continuing to struggle with
this today, is that you have to stick with it or nothing will happen. Your books will simply
be words on the pages with no meaning and no fruitful results. If you are pretty sure
your book is amazing get some feedback from other people and ask them if anything
can be improved. But above all never give up and never give in until your dream has
surfaced from the shadows and become reality. So go out and do it, because with
Christ anything is possible.
Author Curtis Simonson
I welcome any questions or feedback to my books, my website, or to writing in general.
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