Hi guys,
So as many of you probably already know (and if you don't you will now) I'm an aspiring author and have been for a very long time. If you follow me on Twitter you will see me constantly writing tweets about how my efforts at writing a novel is going so much so that I got a #followfriday mention a couple of weeks ago with the description "she writes a lot" so yeah.
So I was thinking what post could I do today, and since I have just started the second draft of my 'novel' I thought I would share some of my basic tips.
Please be aware that I by no means consider myself to be a professional so take these tips with a pinch of salt, this is what has worked for me in the past, but it may not work for you all you can do is try! I wanted to write this because I'm forever getting questions of how I stay focused long enough to actually finish a full length manuscript well now I'm going to tell you what I do!
2.You can have lots of ideas, some people are lucky this way (I myself have a couple of ideas floating around in my head right now) this is were the question of how do you focus on just one story comes in. Well here's what I do, I get a new idea I write it down straight away, then I write a very short very basic plot outline a blurb if you will, that way I find I can get back to my original project knowing that that idea is waiting for me when I'm ready it isn't going anywhere.
3.Read. Read a lot. You may find that you love reading YA or contemporary romance but that isn't enough. You need to be able to tell the difference between good and bad writing, so if you only read a certain level of book you'll never know the difference. For example read Fifty Shades of Grey or Twilight, and then read Charles Dickens or even John Green if you prefer something more modern, if you can't tell the difference between the level of writing, then there's a problem.
4.PLAN! I can't stress enough how import planning is, I have run head first into writing a book without planning properly and trust me when I say it's soul destroying, you'll find you will hit that brick wall more often if you don't plan because you don't know where your story is going. Write character profiles, include everything from their hair colour, their favourite food and most importantly their story arc, always know your characters story arc! Write down your basic plot idea, then develop it. World build! Write down as much as you can about the world your setting your story in, if your setting it in present day earth for example do your research, you don't want any discrepancies in your work it makes you look less credible.
5. The eight point story arc! This is not my idea it's something I found whilst scouring the internet for tips when I first got started. You can read more about this HERE and trust me you want to read that, I pretty much swear by it now when I'm writing my story, it has everything in it that you would need to plan out your plot, you shouldn't start writing your manuscript unless you can fill out this eight point arc in detail. Trust me it helps and it's great to flick back to when you're struggling.
6.Think of your novel as backpack you are using to go on a hike or a camping trip. This ties in to your character development. There's only so much you can fit into the back pack before you need to start taking the unnecessary things out.
For example one of the my past manuscripts I had to completely re-write because I realised there was a completely unnecessary character, (this is the one I didn't plan properly, it caused me a lot of stress and I got a bit disheartened by how difficult I found it.) I realised that this character made an appearance at the start, then she completely disappeared until the very end. To me she seemed integral to the story, but I had to decide whether to just erase her from the book or write her more parts if I really felt she was necessary. In the end I got rid of her character because if she was really that integral (and not just appearing to move the plot along) then I would have written more about her in the first place, and I didn't.
7. Don't write in chronological order. I must stress that this will not work for everyone. You will only be able to do this if you have planned thoroughly beforehand. I always start writing at the beginning and try writing chapter by chapter but eventually I always hit a brick wall and no matter how much I try I can't get past it. I get asked a lot by people in the same situation how I got around this. Well I wrote the end. Yes I stopped writing the beginning of the story and went and wrote the end because that was the bit I felt I had a lot to write about at that moment in time. So I wrote different sections at different times and from there all I had to do was go back and tie them all together, I found I didn't hit the dreaded brick wall as often this way.
8. Something that has absolutely nothing to do with writing, but I make a playlist of songs on my I pod that I think suits the tone of the book I'm writing and I find that this really helps me to focus on what I'm doing. I rarely change out the songs in this playlist until it comes to editing and re-drafting. The book I am working on now I found that I listened to one song Atmosphere by Joy Division on repeat for at least an hour as I wrote one particular scene because it fit the tone, and helped me focus.
9. Just write. This may sound stupid but I used to find that I would write a couple of pages and the perfectionist in me would what to go back an edit them because something didn't feel quite right. The best advice I can give you is to ignore this urge, if you are constantly going back to edit what you've written before you've finished you'll never get anywhere because you'll never be happy with it. Save the edits for when your first draft is finished then you can tear apart your manuscript as much as you want.
10. Set yourself targets and stick to them. Make time to write. I tend to give myself the target of writing at least 2500 words a day. If you don't set yourself a target, you'll never finish. (by never I mean it will take you forever) Tell yourself, I will have 10, 000 words down by the end of the week, and when you've done that you'll get a sense of accomplishment and feel like you're getting somewhere. Having constant targets to hit will always make yourself feel better. Even better set yourself a target to finish but make it a realistic target, give yourself 6 months at least, if you're only just starting out don't set yourself a target to finish by set yourself daily or weekly targets, you'll feel better about your writing that way.
Once again I would just like to say I am not a professional these are just the things that work for me when I am writing, so take it with a pinch of salt.
That's all for today I hope you enjoyed this post and I hope that some of these tips will help you on your quest to finish your manuscript, happy writing!
I shall see you all on Friday!
Don't forget to comment below and let me know if any of these tips help you or even what you do to help you write, I would love to hear from you!
Don't forget to subscribe to my blog so you don't miss a single post!
Or if you're a Bloglovin user you can now follow my blog on there too, where you will be instantly notified on when there is a new post. All you have to do is click on that button at the top of the page on the left hand side! I promise you won't regret it!
X
Love the idea of setting a playlist to match the tone. It has already been very helpful :)
ReplyDelete