Last week, Celia Brayfield answered a few questions for us – here's the link – this week she's kindly given us her top five writing tips.
I’ve been a writing tutor at university for 8 years now, and seen a lot of my students win awards and get their novels published. So based on that experience:
1. Every writer works differently. Some people plan, some don’t, some start at the beginning, some more or less make a collage of the book. There is no right way, only the way that works for you.
2. Know that your writing is important and demand respect for it. I think it’s easy for women to feel that their writing is self-indulgent hobby. Don’t let interruptions, duties, obligations, guilt or other people’s foolishness de-rail you. A clean kitchen never changed the world.
3. All creative work is lonely at the point of creation, but before and after that moment you’ll benefit from sharing your writing – after all, if it worked for Shakespeare, the Brontes and Tolkien, it’ll probably work for you. Join a writing group, a workshop or a course.
4. Do you love reading? If yes, good. If no – consider that you may not be a writer after all.
5. Writing is a bit like being pregnant – you get so much advice and none of it is a blind bit of use when the chips are down. You really learn to write by the process itself, so close this screen and get to work now.
Celia Brayfield is a novelist, journalist and cultural commentator. A selection of her novels, including her first novel Pearls, are published by Bello and can be purchased at http://www.panmacmillan.com/author/celiabrayfield. Celia can also be found tweeting at performingceel