To begin your book project, make sure that you have the tools and resources that you might need. For example, make sure that your office or work area is outfitted with any necessary office supplies, from notepads and copy paper to pens and a wall or desk calendar. A three-ring binder and some file folders can also be useful for saving notes and research, as well as for displaying your work as you progress. In addition, you may want to have some grammar or style guides handy, as well as a dictionary and thesaurus.
You will also want to arrange for the inspiration and support that you will need during the course of writing your book. For inspiration, collect a few books or movies that will help to encourage you toward your goal in some way, such as a movie on the same topic or a book in the same genre. For support, enlist a few close friends or your local writing group to serve as accountability partners and sounding boards for the duration of the project. Even a simple email or phone call to connect you with members of your support group will help you to navigate the challenges of completing a manuscript.
Research can be an important step for beginning to write a book as well. How much research you will need to do will depend on the type of book that you are writing. For example, if you want to write a young adult science fiction novel, the research needed will be considerably different than that needed for a nonfiction book about the development of social media. Once you have determined the amount of preliminary research you need to do, you may also want to create a writing schedule. This schedule could be as simple as committing to write 500 words a day for five days a week, or as complex as mapping specific page and chapter goals strategically on a calendar.
In addition, brainstorming and outlining can prove a valuable way to clarify and refine your ideas. One easy brainstorming method is creating a cluster sketch. With nonfiction, this sketch might show the primary ideas you want to cover in your book. With fiction, this sketch could highlight the primary experiences of your central character. Outlining, similarly, can help you to create a flexible overview for your book, such as a way to distinguish the subtopics that will be covered in each chapter of a nonfiction book. Or, if you are writing a novel, an outline can help you to explore how the book's plot may unfold, giving you a strategic view of the story.