So you want to write! by Chris Keys

So you want to write! by Chris Keys Author of Reprisal! The Eagle Rises!



So you want to write! That’s great, fantastic, beautiful, and incredible! So what are you going to write and who are you writing for. It’s easy to say I want to write. It’s harder to clarify what it is you want to write and who you think will read what you write.


Any agent or publisher is going to ask what genre you’re writing in and who do you think you’re target audience is. I knew even before I started to write that I wanted to write to entertain people. I was and still am an avid reader of action/adventure, thrillers, crime, mystery, self help and inspirational books. If I were to be pressed to put a number on the amount of books I’ve read and I’d have to say it’s probably in the neighborhood of 12,000 to 15,000 books. I never thought to keep track of just how many I was reading though. At times I’ve read as many as five books in five days.


I started writing for self entertainment after I’d read all the books I could find by the top ten action adventure writers and dozens of books by authors who didn’t quite write at the same level as the top ten did. After reading the lesser authors, I decided I could write a story as well or better than all of them except the top ten and I set out to do it, because I had nothing to read at the time.


Surprise, surprise! It turned out harder to do then I thought, but I did it. It was a challenge to keep the story straight. It was hard finding the time to write and even harder to find the time to do research. But it has to be done and I found a way. The type of book you write may require no research at all or it may require tons of it with footnotes.


The first book I wrote is not the first book I’m getting published. The book I’m publishing is actually my second book. The first is still in my computer and I’m still rewriting it, because I’ve had to write it on two different computers after my first computer died and I couldn’t recover the story. I learned my lesson and got a system to back it all up. Now if the computer should take a dive, I can just type in my info and code in the new one and presto, everything is restored. You should get this type of system right away.


Anyway, you need to decide what your genre is. Is it fiction, poetry, romance, non-fiction, thrillers, mysteries, sci fi, children, instructional, inspirational, technical, fantasy, religious, screenplays, television scripts, plays, comedy, political, whatever. Pick one to start and focus. Then you have to know who you’re writing for. What is the age group, the education level, maybe income level, the sex of the reader not just that they have it or want it. You may find, you want to write so you can vent about personal things rather write a book for others to read. That’s fine too, so figure it out.


Once I had done that I was ready to write. I knew what I was going to write and where I wanted it to go. You can do the same and then you’re on to bigger and better things. And your on your way to getting published.—Chris Keys-Spread the word!  Reprisal! The Eagle Rises! due out summer of 2010