I’ve often heard that everyone has a book inside them. I don’t know if that’s true or not. If it is, that phrase still doesn’t mean that everyone can get that book to the outside.

For most of us, a book doesn’t come to mind fully developed and needing only to be transcribed. We have to research places and things for our stories. We have to not only create the main characters and supporting characters, but also their backstories, their personalities, their wants, their needs. Then we have to give them obstacles.

Even though some writers create a full outline before they begin writing their books, they don’t usually do that in one sitting and without any effort or angst. Others might figure out where they’re starting from and where they want to end, and then discover the rest of the plot as they write. Still others know only the…