Textbook Method

• 1). Start with the book's thesis/main idea. What about writing a book do you want to discuss or teach your audience? The answer to this question is your main idea. Example: The process of writing a book is not difficult.
  
  
• 2). Outline your sections/secondary ideas. What points support your main idea? You also should consider points that disagree with your main idea, because a convincing essay addresses any opposing ideas. Secondary idea example: A book can be written in 30 days. This is proven by the National Novel Writing Month contest run by The Office of Letters and Light in San Francisco.
  
  
• 3). Write your first draft. This is not the time to worry about formatting, or even coherency. First drafts are meant to get ideas down on paper so that you can edit and shape them later.
  
  
• 4). Proofread. This is a good time to ensure you have adequately supported your thesis, answered the questions you have set up and have enough information to meet your essay requirements.
  
  
• 5). Using your edits, write your final draft.
  
  

Freeform Method

• 1). Ask yourself why you are writing about this specific topic. You are writing about writing a book-why? The answer to this question dictates the information you will want to include in your essay.
  
  
• 2). Consider your audience. The information you present should be different depending for whom you are writing. A class of professional writers will undoubtedly need something different from a class of 8th graders, and that is something you should consider when putting together your paper. This works well with the Pretend Interview Brainstorming technique.
  
  
• 3). Brainstorm. Brainstorming is the act of getting ideas down on paper and can be done in a number of different ways, such as building analogies, free writing, pretend interviews and/or drawing a diagram.
  
  Build an analogy: Using the word like, connect your topic to another thought. Example: Writing a book is like eating an elephant; you do it one piece at a time.
  
  Free write: Write down every thought you have, no matter how pointless it seems, because it may be the piece you need to get your narrative started.
  
  Pretend interview: Pretend someone from your target audience is interviewing you on your topic. Think of the questions they would ask, and answer them. Example: What is the hardest part about writing a book?
  
  Draw a diagram: Idea trees or spider webs are two ways to diagram, or visually represent your ideas and information. This method makes it easy to see how much material you have for each of your points. All you have to do is look at the number of branches or bubbles you have attached to a particular section.
  
  
• 4). Write your first draft.
  
  
• 5). Proofread and edit your first draft.