I've been working on a novel since last February and finally have a completed my first draft.
Also just completed a 10-page script which I've sent off to It's My Shout 2013. I only got an e-mail notifying me that they were taking submissions last week, which meant I more or less had to write, proof and post it it overnight. Not much fun, but I locked myself in my study and everything just came together. Don't think I could have managed it unless I'd already had the idea plotted out in my head.
My less important advice is that you should write for your own amusement and assume no-one will ever want to read a word you've written. You won't be disappointed if you stay true to that.
Don't listen to people who tell you that writing more will make you better. Reading more will make you a better writer. Writing more will make writing easier. It may well be crap but it'll be easier crap. Only critical analysis of your writing will actually make it better. And if writing is ever easy, you're doing it wrong.
Publish your writing freely at first (it takes, on average, ten years for a writer to be published and the accepted rule is that you need to write a million words of crap before you know what you're doing - own this. What you write at first is worthless as anything but a springboard for improvement). Welcome opinions. Value criticism, and dismiss praise. People are wormy sheep and don't want to upset you. One valid criticism is worth a hundred people's empty praise.
Keep writing. Write like your life depended on it. Only by writing can you make yourself happy. These are just three lies wannabe writers tell themselves. Get a hobby, meet people, do things. Then write about it. If writing is your life, your life sucks.
This is all great advice for anyone out there wanting to write. It's taken penning five novels and twenty years for me to get a reputable publishing contract, so if you believe in your writing don't ever give up.
And yes, always write for yourself and only write what you enjoy writing. If you're not enjoying what you're doing, no one else is going to enjoy reading it.
I've written a couple of poems lately which is unlike me - I like poetry but have hardly ever felt the need to write anything.
I've written other stuff in the past but recently have kept a little note book and if anything seems good in whatever I'm reading I write it down. It seems to help sometimes day to day.
I've been writing a novel, but haven't been spending as much time on it as I would want to. I have pretty much got a complete treatment for it, but in terms of the actual novel itself is still very much in the early days. Can see it taking me a few years to get finished.
I've been writing a novel, but haven't been spending as much time on it as I would want to. I have pretty much got a complete treatment for it, but in terms of the actual novel itself is still very much in the early days. Can see it taking me a few years to get finished.
I'm the opposite, I know how it ends and the major events that happen but no complete treatment. The words are still coming fairly easily though. Now about a third of the way through the book.
I've just finished my radio script, will be starting my sitcom tomorrow.
Anyone written one before and have any tips?
I'm trying to write a sitcom too.
It's based on a scene I wrote and performed last year, but I've found fleshing it out into a longer arc is proving more challenging than I'd have thought!
Almost finished novel number eight, which is Part Two of a sequel trilogy to my original trilogy, 'A King's Head'. I also have a couple of crime thrillers and a satirical comedy out. The new book: 'A Queen's Heart - Part Two: The Shattered Realms' should be on sale within weeks.
As soon as it goes live, I intend to begin work on Part Three. There is also a spin-off novel that I want to create for one of my supporting characters and a third crime thriller to write. That should keep me busy for the next eighteen months or so.
I am writing a series of very boring paragraphs to slot into my book, this week. Technical stuff we had forgotten, missed out or things that need clarifying. So it is just half a dozen stand alone paragraphs that someone else will slot in to the text. By 'boring' I mean, technical stuff is boring to write esp if you are trying to make something clear - but hopefully not boring to read.:D
Also this week, I have an article to write for a magazine. It is about something really interesting - history stuff. When researching something else, I stumbled on this fascinating story. Sold it to an editor I work with a lot, so should be in next issue. Not sure when deadline is but is a quarterly and I think quite a way off.
Then, for yet another book - not just mine but one I am contributing to, alongside a bunch of other people - I have to write a piece (about article length) about a rather random man from the 1840s, I had to trace and write about.
So a few paragraphs of technical writing, an article (which is researched but not yet written a word of that), and a piece to slot into a book. I'm aiming at having em all done by Friday. Luckily, I write fast - procrastinate forever.
I am also kind of committed to write a piece for another magazine but I am pretending I have forgotten about this, for this month (evaded signing a contract so nothing they can do to make me!)
I like to write in my spare time but I don't publish any of my stories. I have a few stories planned, which are inspired by dreams or real life people/events. I haven't had time to write then yet though as I've had to write essays and presentations and stuff for university.
Now approaphing the half way point in my book, I've been making very slow progress on chapter 9 but it should pick up again on the next chapter as the main action of the story is just beginning now. Just over 38,000 words now.
Hmmm. Not that many posts on this topic - only two pages! I guess everyone's busy writing (though not it seems writing posts on this thread.)
Here goes:
CHAPTER 1
It was a dark and stormy night......
Damn I have writer's block!
7 words though! It's a start....
Seriously ladies and gentlemen and others, I am currently researching for a book I want to write. Whether or not I ever get there, I am thoroughly enjoying all the reading. Some interesting and entertaining thoughts above. Let's keep them coming.
Amazingly, I managed to hit all those targets last week despite having two days out for dental appointments - (not both for myself!) This week, have picked up the slack for a poorly editor so have been dealing with someone making a sample for my book. She hit a technical problem which I wasn't sure I could figure out the answer to - but then, last night I had a brain-wave and sorted it.
I also managed to talk myself into having to write an appendix, with some last minute stuff that has come in, whilst the editor is indisposed. But I'll put that off til tomorrow.
One of those articles last week, I wrote it in half a day and then word counted over 3500 - and it wasn't even finished. Spent the rest of my dental day in town researching, afterwards and turned up even more. So now a re-write and then that one will end up being split into two articles in successive issues, I think, as it is too impossible to edit down. I won't decide where to make the break in it, though, someone else will do that! Then, that one needs picture research.
In two successive days last week, I wrote two articles utterly from scratch (all the research was done for both but not a single word written). On top of that, two more blog posts.
This week will probably aim at just doing this brief appendix and, if time, finish up the monster article. Nice to set goals. No-one ever gives me word counts, and if I miss a deadline it just goes in the next issue as a rule.
I need to have my tv drama in for next week and I've decided to write a new plot/characters etc. so that's what my Friday and Saturday night will consist of mainly. I'm a bit peed off with my lecturer over it due to length as I want it to be longer but it needs to be 20 mins so it's going to be fast and basically crap but I'll write two versions of it anyway.
Finished how I want my short stories to develop/end so just a matter of writing them.
I've not had much time to write this week, but I'm happy with the few pages I have managed.
I'm writing two short scripts for a theatre project. I procrastinated for a whole month, but I've managed to turn scribblings in my note books into something resembling two first drafts. In a few weeks I'll take them over to the writers' workshop I'm involved with. We were told to write one script, but I couldn't decide between two characters - so I realised I had to write a script for each of them. I'm looking forward to reading them aloud at the workshop.
Structurally, I'm happy with the first draft of my novel. The plot is all in place, but I'm expanding it in places where it feels under-developed.
Also, I heard that two scripts from the 'It's My Shout' competition have been sent to S4C. They don't want the scripts - they want to identify writers they may be able to work with in the future. I'm not getting my hopes up too much; but they were decent scripts.They were 'light entertainment' (not really funny enough to be classed as comedy) which I struggle to do. I wish I could write rom-coms and feel-good plots but time and time again I seem drawn to the 'dark side'. I'm naturally quite sardonic, even cynical, so my humor is usually dark too.
From last May, I finally got seriously started with my ambition to commence creative writing again. I had been considered a good creative writer at primary school, but creative writing did not have the same regular role in the secondary school English curriculum, and I wrote my last short story (until last May) at age fifteen or sixteen. In my twenties, I had a go at writing another story, about two boys who meet a time traveller from the future, but that did not get anywhere, and I gave up at age thirty. Four years ago, just after I turned forty, I began to get the ambition to write again. I developed plot ideas and wrote story snippets. Last May I got going properly, when I joined a writing net forum. Between last May and this January, I wrote a total of twenty-eight stories with a macabre or tragic twist in the tale.
Having exhausted most of my major ideas for short stories, I have now begun work on a longer work, which is going to be a saga stretching over many years. In this book, it is 1980, and a ninety-year-old man, whose younger years were throughout the turbulent period from World War One to the end of World War Two, writes about an old schoolfriend of his, and his adventurous and heroic exploits during this period. But, there is a final twist in the tale, when we return to the present time (1980, in the story) and the writer meets the elderly schoolfriend he has written of, who is still alive.
Writing a long-term saga is something I think will be very pleasantly challenging, and will allow you to develop characters far more than in a short story.
What's the book called? Might as well give yourself a free plug
Very true. The book is called Dead Letter Day. It's a fast paced, twisty serial killer thriller and is out now in both paperback and on Kindle. (Cheeky link below).
Interesting question for other authors.
We are essentially writers, yet it seems you also need to be great at marketing yourself to get your book seen in the first place.
I have been using Twitter and Facebook with fairly successful results. Are there any tips published writers can give on how to further widen your profile please?
And yet to be published writers, is this something you have considered? I would definitely recommend to anyone looking to get published in the next year to start building up their online presence now.
Hi all,
Anyone have any advance for a novice writing? I am starting a Literature and Creative Writing degree with the OU later in the year and in the meanwhile just want to get my writing juices flowing. What do people find easier, spending a few weeks researching your ideas and sketching out your full plot, or just getting stuck in and seeing how it goes. (Obviously my writing at the moment will just be complete nonsense and a way to gain experience)
Hi all,
Anyone have any advance for a novice writing? I am starting a Literature and Creative Writing degree with the OU later in the year and in the meanwhile just want to get my writing juices flowing. What do people find easier, spending a few weeks researching your ideas and sketching out your full plot, or just getting stuck in and seeing how it goes. (Obviously my writing at the moment will just be complete nonsense and a way to gain experience)
For me, once I have an idea I just go with it, as the characters come to life so does the story. Just go for it!
Hi all,
Anyone have any advance for a novice writing? I am starting a Literature and Creative Writing degree with the OU later in the year and in the meanwhile just want to get my writing juices flowing. What do people find easier, spending a few weeks researching your ideas and sketching out your full plot, or just getting stuck in and seeing how it goes. (Obviously my writing at the moment will just be complete nonsense and a way to gain experience)
It depends on how serious I'm taking it. Some things (such as the fantasy novel I'm working on) will require a lot of research as there's so many things that can happen then you need to think what is the best for what you want to get across. Then there's things like creating the world, the races, the religions etc. I like to have everything created but some like to just write and the world doesn't matter as most of it won't be mentioned anyway.
Other times, if I'm writing short stories, I'll have a rough idea what I want to happen and I'll just write and see how it goes. Sometimes it won't work, sometimes the characters won't co-operate with you and sometimes it will end differently and be better. You just need to be open to it.
No way is the correct way and it's about what works best for you.
Comments
Also just completed a 10-page script which I've sent off to It's My Shout 2013. I only got an e-mail notifying me that they were taking submissions last week, which meant I more or less had to write, proof and post it it overnight. Not much fun, but I locked myself in my study and everything just came together. Don't think I could have managed it unless I'd already had the idea plotted out in my head.
This is all great advice for anyone out there wanting to write. It's taken penning five novels and twenty years for me to get a reputable publishing contract, so if you believe in your writing don't ever give up.
And yes, always write for yourself and only write what you enjoy writing. If you're not enjoying what you're doing, no one else is going to enjoy reading it.
I've written other stuff in the past but recently have kept a little note book and if anything seems good in whatever I'm reading I write it down. It seems to help sometimes day to day.
Anyone written one before and have any tips?
I'm the opposite, I know how it ends and the major events that happen but no complete treatment. The words are still coming fairly easily though. Now about a third of the way through the book.
I'm trying to write a sitcom too.
It's based on a scene I wrote and performed last year, but I've found fleshing it out into a longer arc is proving more challenging than I'd have thought!
As soon as it goes live, I intend to begin work on Part Three. There is also a spin-off novel that I want to create for one of my supporting characters and a third crime thriller to write. That should keep me busy for the next eighteen months or so.
Guess I'd better get started on the next book!
Next plot for me involves a serial killer who recreates murder scenes from an author's book.
Also this week, I have an article to write for a magazine. It is about something really interesting - history stuff. When researching something else, I stumbled on this fascinating story. Sold it to an editor I work with a lot, so should be in next issue. Not sure when deadline is but is a quarterly and I think quite a way off.
Then, for yet another book - not just mine but one I am contributing to, alongside a bunch of other people - I have to write a piece (about article length) about a rather random man from the 1840s, I had to trace and write about.
So a few paragraphs of technical writing, an article (which is researched but not yet written a word of that), and a piece to slot into a book. I'm aiming at having em all done by Friday. Luckily, I write fast - procrastinate forever.
I am also kind of committed to write a piece for another magazine but I am pretending I have forgotten about this, for this month (evaded signing a contract so nothing they can do to make me!)
Here goes:
CHAPTER 1
It was a dark and stormy night......
Damn I have writer's block!
7 words though! It's a start....
Seriously ladies and gentlemen and others, I am currently researching for a book I want to write. Whether or not I ever get there, I am thoroughly enjoying all the reading. Some interesting and entertaining thoughts above. Let's keep them coming.
I also managed to talk myself into having to write an appendix, with some last minute stuff that has come in, whilst the editor is indisposed. But I'll put that off til tomorrow.
One of those articles last week, I wrote it in half a day and then word counted over 3500 - and it wasn't even finished. Spent the rest of my dental day in town researching, afterwards and turned up even more. So now a re-write and then that one will end up being split into two articles in successive issues, I think, as it is too impossible to edit down. I won't decide where to make the break in it, though, someone else will do that! Then, that one needs picture research.
In two successive days last week, I wrote two articles utterly from scratch (all the research was done for both but not a single word written). On top of that, two more blog posts.
This week will probably aim at just doing this brief appendix and, if time, finish up the monster article. Nice to set goals. No-one ever gives me word counts, and if I miss a deadline it just goes in the next issue as a rule.
Finished how I want my short stories to develop/end so just a matter of writing them.
Sitcom is still not happening as I'm not funny.
I'm writing two short scripts for a theatre project. I procrastinated for a whole month, but I've managed to turn scribblings in my note books into something resembling two first drafts. In a few weeks I'll take them over to the writers' workshop I'm involved with. We were told to write one script, but I couldn't decide between two characters - so I realised I had to write a script for each of them. I'm looking forward to reading them aloud at the workshop.
Structurally, I'm happy with the first draft of my novel. The plot is all in place, but I'm expanding it in places where it feels under-developed.
Also, I heard that two scripts from the 'It's My Shout' competition have been sent to S4C. They don't want the scripts - they want to identify writers they may be able to work with in the future. I'm not getting my hopes up too much; but they were decent scripts.They were 'light entertainment' (not really funny enough to be classed as comedy) which I struggle to do. I wish I could write rom-coms and feel-good plots but time and time again I seem drawn to the 'dark side'. I'm naturally quite sardonic, even cynical, so my humor is usually dark too.
Having exhausted most of my major ideas for short stories, I have now begun work on a longer work, which is going to be a saga stretching over many years. In this book, it is 1980, and a ninety-year-old man, whose younger years were throughout the turbulent period from World War One to the end of World War Two, writes about an old schoolfriend of his, and his adventurous and heroic exploits during this period. But, there is a final twist in the tale, when we return to the present time (1980, in the story) and the writer meets the elderly schoolfriend he has written of, who is still alive.
Writing a long-term saga is something I think will be very pleasantly challenging, and will allow you to develop characters far more than in a short story.
What's the book called? Might as well give yourself a free plug
Ironically, this made me laugh
Anyone have any advance for a novice writing? I am starting a Literature and Creative Writing degree with the OU later in the year and in the meanwhile just want to get my writing juices flowing. What do people find easier, spending a few weeks researching your ideas and sketching out your full plot, or just getting stuck in and seeing how it goes. (Obviously my writing at the moment will just be complete nonsense and a way to gain experience)
For me, once I have an idea I just go with it, as the characters come to life so does the story. Just go for it!
It depends on how serious I'm taking it. Some things (such as the fantasy novel I'm working on) will require a lot of research as there's so many things that can happen then you need to think what is the best for what you want to get across. Then there's things like creating the world, the races, the religions etc. I like to have everything created but some like to just write and the world doesn't matter as most of it won't be mentioned anyway.
Other times, if I'm writing short stories, I'll have a rough idea what I want to happen and I'll just write and see how it goes. Sometimes it won't work, sometimes the characters won't co-operate with you and sometimes it will end differently and be better. You just need to be open to it.
No way is the correct way and it's about what works best for you.