If you haven’t started writing a book, this post is for you. If you’ve started and not finished your book, you’ll probably find some of this useful for you, but I’m specifically writing today for the women who have yet to start. There are a lot of reasons you might not have started writing the book you so want to write. You might have been focused on your small children, or your career or both. You might not have anyone in your life who encourages you to write. You might not trust yourself to tell the story you have in your heart. Keep reading, and I’ll show you what you need before you can get started.

A lot, and I mean many, many women over the years when I was a professional writer, asked me the question: how do I start writing? They had an idea for a book but they just didn’t know how to start. I always encouraged them to write their book, but at that time, I didn’t really know what else to say.

I’ve read a lot of advice from successful novelists about this subject and I have my own opinion. My take involves asking yourself a series of questions, answering them as honestly as possible and using these answers to make your start. I encourage you to take the first concrete steps in this post and become a writer.

A common thing writers say is that you just need to start, to get some words down, in a computer or on a page, and this is a valid point, I mean there’s no writing unless you write, but what if you really cannot simply start like this? We humans are individuals. Yes, we have a lot of similarities, but the most interesting thing about us is the way we differ from one another. If I didn’t know how to eat and someone told me it was as simple as peeling a banana and taking a bite, that would fail spectacularly because I really hate bananas unless they are in a cake or a smoothie. So how can there be a solution for a wide range of people wanting to be writers, when we differ so much? The answer is simple, and notice I didn’t say easy, but definitely simple.

One thing I want to suggest to you before we go on is that all women who want to write a book have something I call a Frustrated Inner Author, or FIA. This is the part of you that feels driven to write a book, the part of you that knows you have a book in you, the part that dies a little each day you don’t start writing. That sounds a bit dramatic, but thinking about your writing drive as a real part of you with a name can help you to start to get real about writing.

Here are my first three questions for you, and they deserve real, written answers. Use a journal or an online writing file to respond to these questions and keep your answers.

Question 1: How to you talk to your Frustrated Inner Author on a day to day basis, what are you telling yourself about the lack of writing in your life? This is no easy question to answer and requires some thought.

Question 2: What is your wildest writing dream? Your ideal writers life? Ask your FIA, your writer self, don’t hold back.

Question 3: When do you see yourself starting to write? Your answer might be something like; after my kids go to school, or once I live in my own place, or when I know a publisher will publish the book I write. Be honest with yourself and write as many answers to this question as are relevant for you. Listen to your FIA, dig deep.

I hope your answers gave you a fresh perspective and a clearer picture of who you are as someone not writing. Send me a message here, or find me on Instagram, and let me know what happened for you when you answered these questions. I’d love to know what you came up with, so I can help you take the next steps.