Can Anyone Write a Book? The Short, Honest Truth.
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Are you wondering, “can anyone write a book?”
No.
Sorry.
But can you write a book? Probably. I’d call it a really good bet—if I had money to throw at bets, I’d throw money at the likelihood that you, person reading this, can write a book.
Writing a book comes down to 3 things:
Want
Perseverance
Skill
It isn’t more complicated than that—it’s really that simple. Let’s unpack each of these.
You have to want to write a book—badly
This may seem very obvious, but as a writer for many years and, more recently, a writing coach, I’ve met many, many people who say they want to write a book, but I can sense that they don’t...not really. They want to write a book the way I’d like to learn French: enough that every 6 months, I spend $14.99 on a language app subscription that I use for two nights then abandon.
If I really wanted to learn French, I’d learn it. I’d make it a priority.
If you really want to write a book, you know it.
You think about it all the time. It’s not just something you say as a “maybe someday”… it’s something you actually believe can come true.
I’m not saying that if you haven’t made time to write your book, you don’t really want it.
There are definitely things I really want but haven’t done yet—I want to see the Northern Lights, write a poem I’m really proud of, and have another kid. I haven’t done these yet, but I know that I want them badly enough that, when it’s time, I will make them happen. I’ll sacrifice other things to try to make them happen—I’ll forgo the vacation that isn’t to the north; I’ll take the requisite classes to improve my poetry; I’ll track my fertility.
How badly do you want to write a book? Because here’s what it is likely to require of you:
→ Years of your life
→ 5+ hours a week
→ Working through your inner demons (Am I worthy? Am I smart enough? Am I creative enough?)
→ Letting go of control in a way you haven’t before
→ Accepting the possibility of failure (none of us know if any book we write will be published)
→Vulnerability: You’ll need to tell the world about something deeply personal
If reading through that list makes you cringe, I’m with you. It’s brutal.
(And guess what? It doesn’t get easier… each subsequent book requirers just as much work).
But if you read through it and still think, “But I still want to do it,” congrats, you have the Want...and can probably write a book. :)
You need to be able to persevere
I don’t mean to sound condescending—I know you know this. But we’re going through criteria for being able to write a book, and this is one of them.
Unless you’re in the .00000001% of writers, writing your first novel is going to take you longer than you want it to. That’s been the case for every writer I know.
This is why you need to like writing—because if you don’t enjoy the process, you won’t keep doing it.
Best case scenario, your timeline might look something like this:
→ Months 1-3: Write your first draft
→ Month 4: Let your book sit
→ Month 5: Revise your draft
→ Months 6-7: Query literary agents
→ Months 8-10: Work on your draft with your agent
→ Month 11: Sell your novel (yay!)
→ Months 12-20: Work on your draft with your editor
→ Month 21-23: Wait nervously for your book to come out
→ Month 24: Start promoting your book, and never stop…
In other words, best case scenario (assuming you write, revise, and find an agent quickly, plus sell your book quickly) it’s a 2-year process.
And for most people, it’s slower—the entire process I’ve listed above was, for When You Read This, 6 years for me, and 4 years for Privilege. And for Privilege I already had an agent and an editor.
Like with the first criterion, if reading this timeline makes you cringe but doesn’t make you second guess whether you want to write a book at all, that’s a good sign. (Want to start today? Join us! :))
You need to have skill
If you want to write a book, you need to know how to write a good sentence, and you need to know how to put sentences together well so that the rhythm of your writing is readable. In other words, it doesn't feel like the reading equivalent of an automatic weapon, or cause the reader to have to do so much work to understand what you're saying that by the fifth paragraph, they're exhausted.
I also don't want you to mistake knowing how to write a good sentence and how to string sentences together for "being educated."
I have worked with people who don't have a high school diploma who are stunning writers.
I've worked with more lawyers and PhDs than I can count who have to unlearn grammatical rules that only cripple their fiction, like the usage of "whom", and stilted rules about infinitives.
So if you don't have an MFA in Creative Writing—or if you don't have a college degree—trust me: it doesn't matter. But you still need to learn how to write.
The best way to learn is to read, and then to emulate the writing you love.
The second best way to learn is to read and internalize this tiny book. The Elements of Style is classic, digestible, and will take you under a day to read.
Everything else, you can learn—and quite quickly; I teach it in my course.
When it comes to writing a book, there are as many things you don’t need to do as there are things you need to do, which is one reason I created my course.
You don’t need to make yourself miserable.
You don’t know to know everything about every character before you start.
You don’t even need to write every day.
But you need to know where you’re going, and why you’re writing.
You need to have a purpose.
In sum
So can anyone write a book?
Writing a book is like any other long-term, ambitious goal—the mere effort of pursuing it will change you. It’s the best growth experience I’ve ever had, and one of my favorite parts of being alive.
If you have the three things I’ve talked about here, you have it in you to write a book. If you’re ready, join us—we’d love to welcome you into our community!
