Tag: keep writing

Things not to worry about with your first draft

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When my first novel was published about twenty years ago (by a mixture of persistence and sheer luck), there were so many things I wish I’d known sooner. Jumping into the unknown can be fun.

But now a potential novel is grabbing me again and I’m up to my eyes in first-draft stuff, all those voices and characters, and I can’t help thinking how many of my worries then were were about things that really didn’t matter until later. So, if you’re writing a first draft too, here are a few of them:

The Perfect Start

Your opening sentence is the last thing you need to think about right now. Write anything and carry on. With a first draft, only one thing matters: at all costs, finish it. Then you have something to work on. There is no point in sweating about your first sentence until then, or even later. If something ideal comes to you, note it down but if nothing comes, don’t worry.

John Mortimer: ‘The only rule … in writing is not to bore yourself.’

Likewise, your title. All you need now is a title that keeps you coming back to your draft. You’re likely to change it later, when you have a fuller idea of what your novel’s really about.

Where to start

When you’re ready to start on those precious draft pages, start somewhere, anywhere and above all, keep going. In Medias Res (in the middle) is time-honoured and great, as Homer taught us. Tidy as you go, then press on. Keep notes of afterthoughts but do not let them hold you back. If you toil endlessly over the same chapter or section, you risk, and it’s a big risk, getting bogged down and demoralised. Ditch notions of perfection for now and enjoy the ride.

Your voice

Another needless dread is about ‘finding your voice’ as if it’s something you left behind on the bus. Your writing voice is nothing more than the way you put words together and it’s special to you alone. It includes all sorts of things like the sort of subject you choose, your personality, the words you think in and your unique way of seeing people. When we hear a turn of phrase on the radio and go ‘Ah yes, that’s Maya Angelou,’ even when you’re not sure which of her books or poems it comes from, that’s you recognising Angelou’s ‘voice’.

Your voice is everything and nothing and is not something you need to think about at this stage. The more you let yourself settle into your happy, low key writing place where you play with your characters and story, the more confident you will be with your words, whereever you are.

Occasionally you might produce something you know could work in your first draft. Off it goes into that first draft file, waiting for other pieces like it. In no time, your pages are building up, some of them spot on, some less so, but the trick is to keep writing. It is by writing plenty that the best can come.

There will be more in my new book, scheduled by Colorful Crow Publishing for publication next year. It’s what I’ve learned over thirty years – usually the hard way − about developing a robust writing process for life, one that acknowledges what is normal in this writing world and offers tricks and tips to keep our spirits up enough to keep writing at every stage through to publication.

Thinking of writing as our treat is a big help. Creativity does people good. For us writers, the simple act of writing, even a few lines of journal, makes the day worthwhile. Happy writing!

How do we get started/2

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How do we get started when our book is begging to be written and we can’t seem to get on with it? Yesterday I gave the usual answer: just write. Start, anywhere, anyhow. The only thing that matters is to get going and keep going. Well, that’s one way…

How about if, like me today, that still feels impossible? We can see other people in those waters swimming away but can’t quite make the jump? #startwriting

Another answer that’s worked for me countless times over the thirty or so years I’ve been writing has been to relax and write around the book. It can be as good for poems, a non-fiction chapter or a review as for fiction. I get a nice ordinary pen and some A4 – your favourite writing materials are perfect – and write to my heart’s content about questions like these: why do I really want to write this book; at its core, what is it about, to me and everyone else (not necessarily the same answer); why does it appeal to me; why am I the best person to write it; where do I want the story to go and why, and so on. You can dip back into this relaxed state of exploration any time you like if your writing stalls and you need to paddle in shallows again for a while. The more we allow ourselves to flow like this, the easier it is to glide into producing first pages, almost without noticing.

It’s a mixture of writerly wool gathering and potholing. More about these early stages of our process, and things not to worry about when you’re setting out as a writer, in my new book scheduled for publication next year by Colorful Crow Publishing. It’s about how we can start, rebuild our writing mojo and sustain a writing process for life. Happy writing!

Writers circling their novels before they #startwriting ?

Writing tips from #Homer

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Lovely day in #Cambridge yesterday with my Churchill writers. We wrote together, chatted about what writing tips #Homer can offer us, about writing in 1st, 2nd or 3rd person, & most of all we celebrated the group’s latest, brilliant anthology. Congratulations to every one of them for their courage, tenacity & talent 🙂You can buy their book here – unbelievably only £4.30. Many thanks to Gervase Vernon, writer & publisher, and Caity Ross, writer & editor https://www.amazon.co.uk/Churchill-writers-anthology-2026-writing/dp/B0H64D6CDC

Churchill Writers last Saturday in front of the college’s famous Barbara Hepworth sculpture

What storytelling tips can we take from Homer? Isn’t that all too many centuries ago to be any use to us now? Absolutely not and I look forward to seeing how master-storyteller Christopher Nolan handles it in his latest film The Odyssey. My father was a classicist and I grew up with Polyphemus terrifying Odysseus and Hector facing down Achilles as my bedtime stories. Polyphemus was hilarious, by the way. My dad was passionate about Homer’s two huge stories: The Iliad (the story of the Bronze Age war between the Ancient Greeks and Trojans) and The Odyssey (the winding story of one soldier’s return from that war to his home, his wife and himself).

I used to post here about how to start writing and keep writing in the face of life’s distractions and head winds. Essentially, how to build a writing process for life. Those posts have become the first of many refining drafts of my book Pebbles in Our Shoes scheduled to be published next year by Colorful Crow in the USA. Homer’s ten tips on brilliant storytelling will be there.

For now, three #writingtipsfromHomer are:

Start in the middle. The Romans talked about starting ‘in medias res’, literally in the middle of things. Preferably at a moment of peak anxiety, crisis and danger for all your main characters. Don’t worry about the back story, you can fold that in as you need it. Readers are surprisingly willing to help you on this; they’ve always loved it.

‘Start in the middle’ works for when you want to start writing your book and don’t know how. Start anywhere, just pitch in as freely and wildly as you like. You can tidy and rearrange later.

Second tip is that you can make your characters as complicated as you like. We are all full of contradictions and secret failures and desires, and the Ancient Greeks and Romans recognised that. Write what you feel to be true.

Third is that we have always loved magic realism (gods throwing their weight about, monsters, rocks that move, weird spells) so if that is what excites you, write to your heart’s content. We’ve always loved it.

Enjoy your writing group if you have one. The right people around you – understanding, supportive – are the finest support a writer can have. Happy writing!

Thermopylae, my photo