How I wrote my first book (by Lida E Quillen and Anne K Edwards)

(Amazon UK link)

I was on a flight, and had finished a book on my Kindle. I didn’t want to start another novel, so browsed through my unread non-fiction folder. When I spotted ‘How I wrote my first book’, edited by Lida E Quillen and Anne K Edwards, I decided to try that. I had apparently downloaded it at no cost as long ago as 2011, shortly after it was published when it must have been on a special, promotional offer. I see from Amazon that it’s no longer available for the Kindle at all, so the link at the side is to the paperback edition. 

I had little idea what to expect from this book, which is subtitled, 'The story behind the story', but hoped it might give some inspiration related to writing. I had assumed it would be a longish story explaining how one person came to write a book. It turns out to contain shortish descriptions by 20 different writers about the process they went through before their first books were published. These writers are quite diverse: old and young, male and female; some who loved writing since childhood, some who had never thought of writing a novel. 

I had never heard of any of the authors included in this collection. But the stories are mostly quite interesting, albeit some more so than others. Some are full of ironical humour, others more stilted. I found a few of them rather tedious, and completely skipped one of them; but thoroughly enjoyed others. I read perhaps three of them on my flight, and since, returning, have dipped into the Kindle book, reading one or two chapters at a time. I finally finished the last one this morning.

It was fascinating reading about these different people and their approaches to writing, and as a purely biographical/anecdotal book, I would rate it reasonably well. However as a guide to writing, it was less useful. There was no consistent pattern that emerged. Indeed, the styles are as diverse as the people concerned. 

Some of the writers wrote a book in under six months, some took over twenty years. Some planned everything, some did no planning at all. Some struggled to find the time, some wrote to fill in unexpected free time. One wrote on a boat, after being persuaded to write by others. Some were close to despair, some were confident in what they had written. 

The first chapter was possibly the most useful. The author explained that there probably needs to be about a million words that are discarded by a writer before anything useful emerges. This is a bit depressing, but probably true. Later chapters were more individual; what applies to one writer may not apply at all to another. The final one had a clever analogy with crystal-growing - possibly taken to extremes but quite thought-provoking. 

However the only thing that emerged overall is something I knew already (albeit not very often putting it into practice) - to be a writer, one must write. Regularly. Not necessarily at a set time or place, not necessarily every day. But still… without putting words on a page, either handwritten or typed, a book will not get written. 

As a free Kindle book, I thought this was worth reading once. I didn’t actually learn anything new, but it was interesting reading such a variety of experiences of writing. I don’t think I’d pay the paperback price; there are so many books about writing that if I had to buy one, I’d choose one with direct instruction and exercises rather than this anecdotal one.

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