Any advice on how I learn to write a book?

Were you good at writing essays at school? And were you taught to make out a plan of what you wanted to discuss and in which order you should do it?

If so, you shouldn't have any trouble.

Any book-seller near a college or university should have one or two handbooks on how to set out a dissertation or report.
Your local library probably has some too, or can get them for you from another library. It might be an idea to look though a guide of this kind.

Otherwise I suggest you start with one of the typical smaller incidents of caring for those with dementia that you feel the public should be aware of.

Relate what happened -the reactions it caused - the solution you came to, and either briefly describe the difficulties you had making others aware of the problem - or if that was as long and hard a road as I suspect, say just that and refer a detailed discussion to a later chapter.

When you have written a chapter or two, get someone else to read it - preferably someone involved in the kind of work you had to do - you could also start contacting book agents and publishers asking if anyone would be willing to look at your trial chapters and plan for the work and give an opinion on it.

Your local library should have information about writing groups and classes.

Why not start with writing a blog about your experiences?
This way you can learn as you go and see how well received it is.

Have you searched for writing groups in your area, Freda65, or evening classes for aspiring authors? If you have an annual Literary Festival anywhere near, they invariably have a session or two on how to write for publication. I found myself at one once, just because I was interested in the subject, and everyone there had a novel or several stories half-written, and was already a member of a writing group. That's when I found out that there were quite a lot of them in our area.

Best of luck with your writing!

I’m sorry you’re having to cope with this, Freda65 - I do know all too well how very hard it can be.

As regards the book, have you read anything similar? A good general ploy is to read a few of the sort of books you want to write.

There are plenty of ‘How to write’ books on the market, but three things they will nearly always say are:

1. Just get on and write it, make a start. You can always go back and edit.

2. Cut all possible waffle and padding.**

3. Grab your reader early on - nobody is going to wait until it starts getting interesting halfway through chapter 3.

In your case that might mean starting with some reasonably dramatic dementia-related incident - not with the day you first realised that there was a problem. You can then go back.

I say all this as a multi-published author who has seen a great many amateur efforts, and who also has also had many years’ experience of dementia in two relatives.

**Most of the amateur efforts I’ve seen could have done with drastic pruning!

It’s many years ago now, but I do recall a very successfully published book called ‘Guppies For Tea’ - about dementia in the case of the author’s grandmother. I can’t remember the author’s name though. IIRC it was her first published effort - though not necessarily her first effort. Many published authors will have had a number of rejects beforehand, so when you read about someone’s ‘first’ novel, it may well be their 6th or their 11th.
A very famous and successful author (can’t recall his name either!) had 16 rejections before he finally made it.
Good luck!