LLast year, Simon in our team started writing his first novel. He’d been writing non-fiction for years and was convinced that the transition would be, well not exactly easy, but simple.
After a few months, what was his verdict?
In a word: Idiot.
He might as well have said that he should be able to ride a horse because he can drive a car. It’s a completely different skill.
However, like any skill it can be learned and–with the right focus, patience and determination–even Simon should (will) be able to produce a great novel.
Now at the last count, there were about a trillion guides and top tips across the World Wide Interweb on how to write your first novel. We’re not going to just add another bunch of words onto that pile. Instead, we took a group of our authors out for a drink (please drink responsibly) and got them to wax lyrical on their advice to a new author….
…Unfortunately, the notes from that night were incoherent verging towards insane, due to the heady mix of alcohol and conversation (again, please drink responsibly) BUT, piecing together the advice on offer, like a literary CSI, we managed to compile the following seven top tips:
1. Just write
At the end of the day, the only way you’re going to get your book written is to…well, write.
It can be very tempting to hold off until you’ve done every last bit of research, know your characters inside out, got the absolutely perfect first line, have finished the dishes, have got the temperature in the house just right…
But while many of these might help you get in the right space for writing (you don’t want smelly dishes…), are any of those things actually getting words on the page?
If you want to write your book, here are the single most important things you can do:
- find some time,
- sit down and
- write.
That’s it. Don’t fall into the trap of worrying about getting in the right frame of mind. Just sit down and write.
Many of our authors swear by the techniques taught by prolific author Chris Fox in his book ‘5,000 Words Per Hour: Write Faster, Write Smarter’. Challenge yourself to a writing sprint, where you write a set number of words in a set time – say 500 words in an hour, without stopping. Then try and beat that. Before you know it, you’ll have a book!
2. You need ideas: lots of them
Many of those with the bravery to start a novel, have one, maybe two, good ideas that form the basis of their plot.
That’s not enough.
Challenge yourself to gather as many great ideas as possible to throw into the mix of your novel, probably at least five. Don’t believe us? Think of your favourite novels –even the ones with the massive twists at the end still have lots of other great elements, sub-plots, little details, and the like.
Don’t use this as an excuse to stop you starting to write (see tip 1!). But challenge yourself to think up as many ideas as possible before launching into a plot that runs out of fuel half-way through.
Don’t stress about having all of your ideas set out before you even start writing – sometimes the best ideas will come as you write, a sudden twist occurring to you out of nowhere, a character simply dying to do something you never even thought of before.
Again, just write!
3. If you’re bored or confused, then your reader will be too
We’ve all been there. You want to get on and write the next suspense / action / romantic bit, but first you’ve got to set the scene and develop the character, and you’re just a bit bored of the whole thing. Well, here’s the rub, that boredom seeps into the text and chances are your readers will be equally uninterested in what they’re reading.
Same thing applies if you get stuck and confused. Writing your first novel is a lot like walking through your house during a power cut: you know the layout–hell, you created the layout–but even so you can still get stuck and not know where to go next. The temptation to throw in a McGuffin or just muddle through confusedly can be very strong, but not as strong as the temptation to throw your hands in the air and storm off in frustration.
It happens all the time, no matter whether it’s your first or your hundred-and-first novel.
If you find yourself in this sad place, you have two options.
You can stop and either walk away from the whole thing. Take a rest and come back a bit later with fresh eyes. It might be you’ve just run out of steam—you’re only human, after all.
Or you can skip it and plough on with the rest of the story, leaving a placeholder to remind yourself to go back and write / rework it later. Either way, don’t get stuck; keep on writing.
When you do come back and look at that troublesome section with new eyes, ask yourself whether it’s really boredom that’s holding you back, or something else? Does your story definitely need it? Could you provide the information in a different way? Should it be in a different part of the book?
One of our authors insists on killing a character off every time they get stuck, but we think that’s a little extreme and we’re now a bit scared of her, but that’s a whole different story…
4. Research is like filling a car up with petrol
Almost all novels require research.
The good news is that with the internet that information is readily available for you to access.
The bad news is that with the internet that information is readily available for you to access.
You can spend hours, days, weeks just researching the finer points of your story. That’s great, but it can consume a huge amount of time. Research fuels your writing, but it’s not your writing.
We think it was Zadie Smith who said she turned off her internet connection in the morning so that she could only ever do research in the afternoon (apologies, Zadie, if this wasn’t you!).
A great quote here is from Jonathan Franzen, who said:
“It’s doubtful that anyone with an internet connection at his workplace is writing good fiction.”
So, our tip here is: manage the time you dedicate to research and switch off that internet. So you can focus on writing (anyone noticing a common theme developing here…?)
5. Avoid editing on the move
OK, so this one is controversial. Lots of writers continually adjust what they have written as they go along, fixing plot holes and changing narratives, but our view is to avoid this.
Why?
Well, especially for the new writer, this can mean that you never reach the end of the first draft. And that can be seriously demotivating. Our opinion is to crack on with the writing, get a first draft down as quickly as possible, and then go through it revising and editing it to get it into the shape you want it.
Otherwise, you’ll end up with a killer first chapter to an unfinished novel.
6. Walking in my shoes
Nothing hurts a novel more than poor characterisation. Readers hate it, even if they don’t know exactly why.
One of our authors takes a single character out of the story and thinks all the way through their life story. What happened to them before the story starts? What are they thinking and feeling in each scene?
Sometimes they’ll write this all out on separate character cards, or even write a novella setting it all out like a mini story which will never see the light of day.
Having done this, they then re-read all the scenes in their book featuring this character to check that their behaviour and speech is credible and consistent.
It almost goes without saying: but believable characters are essential to a great book.
7. There are no rules
There are loads of different ways to write a book, libraries full of texts which will preach one method or another. None of them are wrong, none of them are right. There are only ones that are right for you.
Pretty much every single one of our authors has at some point or another fallen into the trap of spending more time researching how to write a novel than actually writing the damn thing. I’m willing to bet you have too.
Go back to tip 4. Don’t confuse research with writing.
Now go back to tip 1. Write!!!
It’s good to do some research, pick up some tips, but what works for one person won’t necessarily work for others. Some people plot every single aspect of their novels meticulously; others prefer to just make it up as they go along (cough: Pete!). Just this one question split our authors straight down the middle, more than if we’d asked them whether pineapple has any place on a pizza*.
At the end of the day, writing is hard, solitary work. Keep yourself motivated by congratulating/rewarding yourself for your first word, first sentence, first page, first chapter, first draft.
Keep going: you can do it.
No blog on writing would be complete without the hallowed words of Sir Neil de Gaiman, so we’ll leave you with this:
“Remember: when people tell you something’s wrong or doesn’t work for them, they are almost always right. When they tell you exactly what they think is wrong and how to fix it, they are almost always wrong.”
— Neil Gaiman
*The answer, in case you’re wondering, is no, never.**
**But Simon disagrees…
Photo by Da Kraplak on Unsplash
