Part 1 - Your first(?) book begins here
Are you stuck on the first line? Have you Googled all manner of tips about writing? Did they make you start your work with enlightened enthusiasm, or just shake your head in frustration?
I am like that. Have to know how to be perfect before I even begin. It stalls everything. I am slowly learning my lesson. It has been arduous. Just one more tip. Just one more novel-length book about what I should be doing, what I should avoid if I want to be successful. Aargh.
I put “popular writers tips” into Google. My first ten page of links on the screen — apart from ads for shampoo, a new car and a health club sign up — would take me to 25, 50, 23, 10, 15, 30 tips, the essence of interviews with 150 writers, 25 writing manuals, and another 10 and 21 tips. Seemed to be a great way to procrastinate and push my author career back while I digest yet further expert fare.
I have resisted doing that, except when I want advice about a particular thing. That may be a thesaurus hunt for a stronger word, a grammar search for the correct order of adjectives, some historic information about my setting. Whatever it is I try to make it focused. I still often fail, but I am aware of my urge to find out absolutely everything. The need to do those deep searches is part of my make up. I frequently need to remind myself to get words on the pages.
Do you really need tips from other writers about writing?
I do not mean structure, spelling and grammar. I mean the actual meat of the story. Do you know what excites you about books you have read? Do you quickly put books back on the shelf? Me too. Write for an audience or audiences, people who you would like to enjoy your finished product. Input from others can be useful. Sometimes it just clogs the channels through which your creative juices want to flow. Do not look for too much input from others. You want to be a writer not a member of the audience. As you fill the pages, your work will let you know when it needs a polish or more substance in a scene or chapter or, even more amazing, if characters start queuing up to get a mention
Advice, hints, tips, best ten lists can be reassuring or advisory, but keep it low volume. If you read all twenty-five manuals mentioned above, followed by a sprinkle of the “best of”, do you think you would instantly be able to write a masterpiece? Of course not. Nothing skillful is achieved without some trial and error. So get trialing and erroring. It is best to just get going and build your writing muscles by writing. You can’t build writing muscles by reading.
Do you think you have a story or two in you? Are you flooded with ideas for one or more epic pieces? You have, right? OK, let’s write. Together.
First, I need you to think about those stories in your mind for a few minutes. Take a break, make a coffee. Take your time. Jot down a few notes about your ideas. Brief notes. Whatever comes out. I’ll wait while you think about that. I’ll go and make a coffee too. I’ll be back in, say, twenty minutes. Enough time to get some juices flowing. All we want is a sprinkling of plot ideas and/or character ideas and/or setting ideas. Brief. Nothing you write is wrong, you are just getting warmed up. Let it flow.
Done? You definitely will not have written down all you could. You have written all you need. From those notes we are going to find, and start to build, your first/next novel.
Put these notes somewhere where you can revisit them a couple of times before we begin the next session. Put them somewhere safe. They contain words of great value.
