The hardest part is the start

Just how do you start a book?

There is no right way or wrong way of starting a book. It goes without saying that you are going to need a character to start with. Some people like to create a biography for their character as a point of reference while they are writing.

A good biography will start with a name, gender and age or date of birth. From there, you can go on to really explore your character as a person. If he were real, what would his likes and dislikes be? Does she have any phobias or special abilities? What are his hobbies? What is her dress sense like? If you want to, you can even break out the pens and pencils and draw him or her.

If you are going to build a biography for your character, it's important to note that you are looking more for a list as opposed to pages of detail at this point - you are the only one who is going to see your biography.

Even if you choose not to write a biography for your characters, you'll still need to have much of this information mapped out in your mind before you put fingers to keys.

As I said above, there is no right way or wrong way of starting a book - which is why I personally do a mix of the 2 options above. Naturally, that means that sometimes, my characters will have a biography while at other times they won't. Typically, that depends upon how I've managed to bond with the character. If I'm confident that I have a good bond then I won't bother with a biography. If there's a chance that the story might run out of steam or I don't feel that I've bonded with the characters in a firm way, I'll write a biography - at least that way, if the story doesn't work out, I can place them up for adoption by fellow authors or simply save them to play around with different storylines with. Just because one fails doesn't mean that the character wouldn't fill a role in a different storyline better.

Now is also a good time to check those facts - if your character is going to commit suicide by jumping or starve to death on a desert island, try to get it factually correct. We all know that jumping from the 1000th floor of a high rise will guarantee death without a doubt... but what effect would it have on the body or the environment around your jumper? How long would it take for someone to starve to death in a halfway believable way? They won't still be alive 6 months later.