This post was originally published at Novelicious.com and is now at WritingTipsOasis.com. WritingTipsOasis.com acquired Novelicious.com in June 2022.
Sareeta Domingo’s romantic novel, The Nearness of You, was published earlier this year.
1. Force yourself to carve out an unshakeable routine (or as unshakeable as you can make it), and ruthlessly say to yourself and those around you that this is the time you write. Once you get into it, it will become a force of habit.
2. Write every single day if you can, even if it’s just for twenty minutes – or five!
3. When you’re starting a writing project, never forget the mantra ‘It’s only a first draft’! Half of writing is re-writing. But you can’t re-write something that’s not on the page. Don’t give up if what’s coming out feels like utter dross – you can make it better later.
4. Don’t get caught up in thinking about who is going to be reading what you write. You need to express yourself and your story as truthfully as you can – people can tell if writing feels self-conscious, or dishonest.
5. When you’re reading other books (and of course you can’t be a writer if you’re not a reader), make sure to think about what you love about the books you love AND what you don’t like about the books you don’t. This will help you enormously when you come to write, and challenge you to match the good and avoid the bad.
