Does everyone feel like they have a book within them?

[canyourepeatthequestion]

I often think about this and have an idea I play around with in my head. I dont have the talent to write something that others would want to read but I'm tempted to have a go at writing it just because the process itself might be enjoyable. I am assuming it's a very common daydream.

Pandemic. Must be an opportunity for a prize for book written in lockdown surely, not of course about the crisis necessarily

I've had three books published. When people ask me about my work I can't count the number of people who've said that they're sure they could write a book "if onlyIhad the time"

Pisses me right off, tbh. As if the only difference between them and a published author is that I apparently have endless time. Writing a readable book takes skill, drive and commitment.

No.
I love reading fiction and a fair bit of non-fiction and I can write critically, but I don’t think I’ve got a book inside me.
I think a lot of people underestimate the skill and graft involved.
However if you think you have a book inside you, - get cracking. Every book that anyone has ever enjoyed was once “inside” the author.

Well, it comes up regularly here on threads about ‘dream careers’, so it seems so. On the other hand, when I point out that you can write a novel by getting up fifteen minutes early/ using your lunch break/skipping half an hour of tv/during your baby’s nap, every day, people are less keen.

Go for it, OP. It is deeply enjoyable, if also hard, solitary work.

Prawn - I agree with you. My late mum used to say things like that and yet never put pen to paper.
Many of the writers I admire wrote almost compulsively from childhood; plays, poems and submissions for magazines or school prizes, diaries, stories. They didn’t think “Ooh! I like books, I’ve got life experiences, books are about life experiences, - I’ll write a book!”
And yes the idea that authors are just lucky that they have the time to do it, as if that’s the main qualification.
Nothing wrong with wanting to write a book, but if you don’t make a start, there’s a time you should stop yourself mentioning it to others.
As we can all read and write, people can imagine themselves writing a book when they wouldn’t imagine themselves writing a film score or designing a hydroelectric dam. People don’t understand the craft and decisions in involved, and that a “great story”, won’t make a readable book without a great deal of skill.

I don't have a book in me. I don't have the discipline or the desire even though I write a lot for my job (articles, reports, etc) and am a decent writer.

I think it's like people looking at paintings in a gallery and saying "pssh, I could paint that."

My GCSE English teacher considered two sides of A4 to be the bare minimum for an essay. Considering how much effort that took, I can safely say I don't have a book inside me.

Definitely not. I read a vast amount - 30-90 books a year. I don't produce any.

I read author interviews where they talk about how ideas are easy (doing the writing is not!), or that they set up a scenario and just write how the characters work through it, or how they meticulously plan out the whole plot then construct characters who'll generate it etc... and just no, I have none of that in me.

I’d say more people like the idea of being published than the reality of writing but if you have an idea why not go for it?

Hell no and I love fiction. I hated having to write stories for English. Write an essay on Macbeth or war poetry- no problem. Write a short story ahhhhh... this is impossible! and throws work across the room.

I hope I have a book in me as I'm writing one. But I'm an academic and it's a reference book.

Fiction, no chance. I have ideas but there is a huge amount of skill that goes into writing fiction and, unfortunately, I don't have it.

Just do it, OP.
I dont have the talent to write something that others would want to read but I'm tempted to have a go at writing it just because the process itself might be enjoyable.

Honestly, yours is the best attitude (although you’re lacking a bit of self-belief that you’re ‘worthwhile’, but fuck it, if you’ll write anyway it’s fine, you’ll manage!) The absolute worst attitude is the one that’s all ‘I’ve written this and it IS BRILLIANT IF ONLY YOU’D RECOGNISE IT’.

Writing IS the process, and what you learn from it.

As a person who does this stuff, you’d want a really critical person on grammar & construction but ideas are the thing. If you think you’ve got one nagging you and you think it’ll be interesting just do it.

I’d say more people like the idea of being published than the reality of writing but if you have an idea why not go for it?

This is 100% true.

Loads of people fancy themselves for an author.
Most don’t put fingers to keyboard.
You decide which you are.

It isn’t talent, it’s hard work. So go for it, OP.

I have had a couple of books published, and have a book deal for more. Since this happened, many people have told me they’re writing a book/ would like to.

The difference between me and them was that I finished. I honestly think that’s all. And I did it with a full time job and children. I just didn’t watch tv. I know loads of authors now, and I don’t think any of them would say ‘talent’ was more important than effort.

I know how long my most recent book took, by the way, because I used 300 hours of childcare to write it, plus extra time in the evenings. Also, it’s based on an earlier book that I wrote which wasn’t published and that seems to be the way I work: I write one whole book (takes ages), and then entirely start it again. It’s not redrafting in my case- because I generally keep no more than a few sentences.

Go for it!

Sort of, but the 'Why Mummy Drinks' etc sort of beat me to it! I do write short stories for my dd.. We think of the character names and vague plot lines together and then I write them, but I'm not sure that counts!

I used to write and illustrate them to entertain my small children.

If everyone has ‘a book inside them’, then sadly my inner world would appear to be 12 pages about a hedgehog.

No, I much prefer writing non fiction and plays to writing novels. I can turn my hand to a decent short story if I must, and I am working on what will be a shortish non fiction book. But a novel is much too much like hard work for me, personally.

What a great thread. I don't feel I have a book inside me so much as I have characters inside me. I often think of characters - some are like me, some not - and situations they might be in, their thoughts, feelings and reactions. I have written brief descriptions and excerpts from these characters lives and sometimes have them interact with each other but what I don't have is any type of plot to turn these characters into a book, or even a short story. My imagination is just devoid of ideas for a plot or hook.

Someone suggested that I might be better suited to poetry and can turn my character vignettes into poems which is something I've been trying recently but it's not really coming naturally to me yet.

No, I definitely don't. I love reading, but dislike writing. I really couldn't force myself to write anything longer than a report for work. I've zero imagination too, so anything I did write would be very boring.

Everyone tells me I should write a book. I write very funny comedy extracts.... but these are short. I know I couldn't write a book. The format would get tired after a page or two. I'd struggle to keep a believable plot going. Even established well know authors struggle to keep a plot going. I've lost count of the number of books I've started to read, really got into, and then discarded as the story lost its way.

All credit to anyone who has been published.

Yes, and have a publishing deal for four books - but they are work related rather than fiction. Due for completion in June and publication around the end of the year.
Two done and two to go.

Halloumi, some sort stories are pretty low on plot. Maybe take a look at 'why don't you dance'. By Raymond Carver. He is considered one of the best short story writers.

Short stories can explore a situation or a theme or a dynamic or an idea rather than having a plot.

Congrats to all the working/published authors on this thread! I take my hat off to you.

Everyone might think they do, but really they don't. PLEASE don't write a book unless it's a burning need you've had since you could hold a pen. I'm a literary editor and I see so much dreck that people think is actually decent literature.

I have a really good sci-fi story in me, but I can't write for toffee. They are two separate skills that need to be present together, the imagination to build an entire, cohesive world in your head and the ability to describe that world in a compelling way.