How to Write a Book Worth Reading

First of all, who has the audacity to tell you that they know how to write a book worth reading? Here are my books, and here are some kind things readers have said about my work. I’ve been writing for publication for a little over 20 years now. Let me be candid, friends: I am kind of tired of reading stories about chosen ones and half- baked magical systems and star-crossed cis-het romances with bland protagonists and contrived misunderstandings. I want to see more aspiring writers striving to write original stories—”original stories”—stories that don’t feel like a pale imitation of someone else’s. The advice I’m about to share applies whether you’re writing fiction or non-fiction. Fine-tune your input.

You may have heard that classic adage in computer science, “garbage in, garbage out”? 01:10 - The poet Saul Williams offered a variation on this advice to his writing students at Stanford: “…being like, what you read is your diet. What you watch—channels, dumb [ __ ], is your diet—what you listen to, is your diet. What you talk about, what you allow to be talked about in circles around you, that’s your diet. That’s what you’re ingesting…” You’ll find the link to this lecture in the top right corner of your screen. “There’s no such thing as originality” is one of those yes-but truisms.

As adman John Hegarty 01:46 - writes in his book Hegarty on Creativity: There Are No Rules, “Originality is dependent upon the obscurity of your sources.” You can still write something that feels original to your reader, but you’ll have to take a closer look at the creative content you consume. To this end, here is a fun and practical exercise to begin reflecting on your diet. If you were to make an influence grid of all your favorite authors, filmmakers, and other creative influences, who and what would be on it? If the storytellers who inspire you are the same storytellers creating the greater share of 20th and 21st-century pop culture, then the story ideas you come up with are likely to be derivative of those influences. I’m not saying you have to stop watching Marvel movies or you have to donate your Harry Potter novels to the local Little Free Library.

I’m just 02:49 - suggesting that you train yourself to notice when the ideas you’re coming up with borrow too heavily from those well-known characters and tropes and plot lines, and I’m suggesting that you seek out literature and art and music that is under-appreciated in current Western culture. Here is an influence grid I made for myself. You’ll likely recognize at least two or three of these influences. Octavia Butler and Connie Willis are Hugo- and Nebula Award-winning authors, they are household names in science fiction circles, and George Bernard Shaw is one of the most famous playwrights and drama critics in Irish (and English) history. Other than these few authors, I tend to seek out work that has been undeservedly overlooked or under-appreciated, and that’s a big part of why I’m able to come up with premises that you’re unlikely to find anywhere else.

03:47 - Tell a story that hasn’t been told before—at least not in the way that YOU can tell it. During my master’s year, I had a conversation with my fiction professor that was tremendously helpful. He had read the early pages that I had written of what would become my debut novel, Mary Modern, which is about a scientist who clones her grandmother. Mike said, “You are writing at this intersection of science fiction and technology, identity, and family”; he said, “that’s really good, because there aren’t really that many other writers who are working at that intersection. You are going to be able to make space for yourself on the shelf”—and I did. Tell the story that won’t let go of you.

Before you commit to a full- length writing project, 04:40 - ask yourself this question: “who cares?” Why does this story matter to you, and why should it matter to your readers? Why have you spent hours thinking about these characters—real or imagined—and all of their hopes and all of their challenges? What essential pieces of yourself have you encoded in this story? In other words, don’t write for the market; write what author Nova Ren Suma calls “the book of your heart.” Take your time. If you haven’t published yet, you may be feeling a lot of pressure to prove yourself as soon as you possibly can, and no judgment here, I have been there, believe me, I wrote a whole book about it! I suggest you journal your way out of your wunderkind syndrome. In the meantime, read ravenously and reflect on what you’re reading. When you write, let your curiosity guide you toward unfamiliar perspectives. If you come up with a premise or concept that hasn’t been done yet, and you know because you’ve Googled every permutation you can think of, and you get really excited, do right by that sparkling new idea: research, organize your thoughts, and put your manuscript through several drafts with breathing time in between before sending it off to your beta readers.

06:07 - And be willing to write a book that’s NOT worth reading. This is another tough one, I know, but hear me out: the sooner you let go of your hunger for recognition, the sooner your work will acquire the ability to resonate and inspire. Before Mary Modern I wrote a novel that didn’t sell (I had tried to publish it traditionally), and in hindsight I’m really grateful for that, because it gave me the space to develop my style and explore the themes that make my later work worthwhile. If you found these tips helpful and inspiring, check out the full article linked in the description box below, and I’m about to launch a new course called the Bright Idea Kit, so sign up for my mailing list for previews and a launch announcement when the time comes. You’ll also get access to the Bright Idea Kit preview workbook, with powerful exercises to clarify your purpose and sensibility, so you can feel confident that you are writing a book worth reading.

How will you 07:12 - implement these tips in your own writing practice? I’d love to hear your reaction in the comments below this video. Thank you for watching, and I wish you great joy in your writing and reading! .