A writing fortress? You absolutely need one. OK, that argument done. A writing fortress is somewhere to get safely away and sit/stand/lie and write, free of distraction.

If you are new to the world of novel writing, do you need help with the construction of your fortress? Who do you ask? Where can a fortress be found? Who will guard the gates once I move in (friends, family, others (public librarian, dog))?

When readers pick up your book and settle into their reading retreat, you want them to read it right to the final full stop. How do you want them to feel? Hopefully, the worded magic has treated them well as they happily twist and turn at your every clever scene change, character interaction, tortuous emotional routes, and powerful action. Blend all these carefully as you propel the reader through the script. You can have too much of a good thing.

Finishing the words that your book will hold is a milestone worthy of some personal backslapping. Spending time and, often, a sizeable chunk of money ensuring all manner of language requirements have been met, seeking feedback on story and structure, and exploring possible markets are some of the many pieces in the writing puzzle.

Readers show interest in your work the second they carefully risk all and pick it from several thousand possibles and probables. The hard part is done. Why is it that readers do not become fans and eagerly search lists for another opportunity to read more from the same author? Some answers to that question are uncovered in this article.

Some of us are lucky enough to have time we can allocate to our dreamy world of writing and others long for such moments. To get that piece finished, you must have a firm commitment in your mind about why you want to finish it, what it will look like when it is done, what it will mean for you, what you want to do next.

What will be the discipline that converts your dreams of finished works into finished works? Invariably, if you want to reach your goals, you must incorporate discipline into your routine. Most of life’s goals demand this. You already know many on the list: get fit, pass an exam or two, learn lines for your role in a play, take better photos … You get the drift, hopefully without my boring you.

How many books have you read? Funny, as a writer, you will often be asked this. Some writers read so much they cannot find space in their manufacturedly busy day to add words to the new world they left abandoned and floundering, waiting (im?)patiently to be set free on paper or screen. In the life of a seriously productive writer, there is always time for writing. It is reading time that must become the product of your manufactured moments.

Once you have pulled the dusty, cobweb-draped, musty words of your first novel from your creative vault and plastered them onto page or screen, you have all you need. Just like that. Have any new, less dusty, certainly without arachnid house-weaving material and better smelling ideas forced themselves on you while you did this? Write them in before they escape.

Why not feel good about what you do? Writing is a creative process. Impossible to say otherwise. ‘Creative process’ describes the work of writers and other artists who work their magic in platforms built by the need to express — platforms with scope expanded by imagination. Those two words invoke thoughts of passion, pain and outpouring as artists bring whatever is in their mind to a life of its own.

Writing is a 24/7 activity. You never know when or where inspiration comes to you. Be ready and be prepared for whenever that inspiration arrives. Artists frequently carry a book in which to sketch scenes and outline elements for possible use in future works. They spend time capturing vignettes from their day — small tokens of experience or experiment.

You dream of becoming an author but are stalled at the start, worried about the acceptance of your final product. Sentences chatter and sputter as you try to bring characters to life. Characters who trip and stumble from scene to scene, leaving readers perplexed and bored. Is that what it feels like to you? Time to be realistic.

So, who is going to read your book? Who will form the biggest crowds at your book concert? If you write teen romance, is it worth writing in the language and style that suits someone who reads non-fiction books about car maintenance? No? Why not? Genre boundaries are not clear-cut. However, each genre has a set of norms to guide you. Make sure you know what they are, right up to the fence-line.