Education Write A How-To Book - Setting Up Your Office For You

There's a great load of advice available on how to set up an office perfect for writing how-to books. You can find advice on the internet. You can find it in writing magazines. You can find it in books. But it's often contradictory and often doesn't work in real life. Why? Because you need to know what your writing style is. Not the one on the paper but the one that gets those words to the paper. In this article, I'm going to give you 10 questions to ask yourself to discover your style of writing. 1. Are you going to write several how-to books or just one? If you are going to be a professional then you need to get the best setup you can from the very beginning. After all, anything you use will need to last through many uses. Your office and the tools you use are like a chef's knives. You will want to use the same ones for a large part of your career. Learning to use new tools every time you write a book is a pain. 2. What type of writing will you be doing? Writing novels, writing how-to books, writing textbooks or writing articles all involve different requirements. After all, each will require you to write for longer periods at a time. Taking a break after one article is rather different than taking a break after one chapter. Plans for a novel require frequently take up a whole wall. The plan for a how-to book can be limited to a single sheet. 3. Where do you get your inspiration from? Writing is a mix of creativity and craft. Where you get your inspiration from will depend to a certain extent on what type of writing you do. A fiction writer may get it from watching people. A non-fiction writer may get ideas, questions and answers from clients or other writers. 4. What conditions do you think best in? Writing isn't just a matter of sitting at a typewriter in a small garret in Paris cranking out poetry. Writing needs to be planned. What will you write? In what order will you write it? What characters do you need? What topics do you want to include? What points do you want to emphasize? 5. What conditions do you write best in? Once you have the idea, once you have the inspirations, once you've planned your writing, you need to put words to paper. Do you need quiet to write? Do you need sound around you? Do you need music to inspire you? 6. How do you handle interruptions? One of the problems with needing people around you when you write is that sometimes those people will try to talk to you. Of course, they'll do it at the worst possible time. Do you concentrate so hard you don't hear? Do you answer without breaking stride? Do you get all caught up in the interruption? How do your interruptions handle you ignoring them? If you don't handle interruptions well, or your interruptions get upset at being ignored, you will need a separate office. 7. What physical conditions do you need to worry about? None of us want to admit that we are overweight. But if we are, then our needs in seating will be affected. Are you short sighted? Then you need to worry about the size of your computer monitor. Do you need to change position frequently? Do you need to schedule exercise times? Again this may affect where you want to put your office and also the equipment you need. 8. Do you do embarrassing things when you write? No, this isn't a joke. When I wrote fiction I would often pace while thinking out conversations. Why? Because I was acting out the interaction. Fiction writers have been described as actors with a fear of the stage. If you do embarrassing things then you probably need to remove yourself to a separate room -- if only to avoid the even more embarrassing questions. 9. How will you write? Most of us use a computer, but that's not the only way to do it. You could hand write your book, and then send the result out for typing. You could dictate your book, and then send the result out for transcription. You could drag your computer along with you. Or you could leave it sitting at home. You could print manuscripts yourself or send them out to a quick print shop. Or you could do a mix of any or all of them. The answer to this question will give you a hint as to what equipment and types of equipment you will need. 10. How much can you afford? Let's face it; setting up a home office is expensive. Even if you are a creative decorator, the cost of equipment can set you back. A computer will run you at least $500 and a good LCD monitor another $200. And it's great to decide you need that $1000 ergonomic chair but if you've only got $50 you've got a problem. mobile phone ringtones downloads