This post was originally published at Novelicious.com and is now at WritingTipsOasis.com. WritingTipsOasis.com acquired Novelicious.com in June 2022.
1. Be organised. In some fashion. Make notes, have a picture board, put multicoloured post it notes all over a cupboard door and plot your storylines that way if you fancy it. Whatever works. Writing is a creative process but it requires structure.
2. Don’t be afraid to cut something if it’s not working. If something feels clunky, lose it. If it’s not flowing, you are probably trying to force it and it will jar. It hurts sometimes … it can even make you cry, but if it needs to be done, do it. If you don’t, your (lovely) editor will do it for you. And that definitely makes you cry.
3. Find your own voice. This is a bit of a cliché but it’s so true. It’s great to keep an eye on the market and you might be drawn to specific authors, but you MUST develop your own style and your own voice. There is room for you in the market … just be yourself.
4. Talk to other authors. Go to Facebook, go on Twitter. Connect, chat, share, enjoy. It helps to talk to other people who might have been through the very thing you’re struggling with. Then you can get back to writing again.5. I am the queen of clichés today but just … write. Put pen to paper, put fingertips to lap top and get on with it. Write, write, write. Even if you write a thousand words of pap, you might write two hundred that are glorious and novel-worthy. But thinking about writing a novel won’t make it a reality. Writing it will. (Also, when you get a book deal, you HAVE to write. To a deadline and everything. Yikes). It’s all good practise …
Pieces of You by Ella Harper is out now.