This post was originally published at Novelicious.com and is now at WritingTipsOasis.com. WritingTipsOasis.com acquired Novelicious.com in June 2022.
Suzy Cox is the Deputy Editor of Cosmopolitan magazine and author of The Dead Girls Detective Agency. Here are her top five writing tips.
1. If you get to a section where you’re stuck, just keep going. If you try to make every sentence Pulitzer-perfect as you go along, you’ll never finish the thing. You can re-draft, re-write and describe the flowers on your characters’ wallpaper later.
2. Enlist three good friends. One to brainstorm with, another to read chapters blind, and a third who has NO interest in your novel whatsoever to take you to the pub, get you drunk and take your mind off (in my case) dead teenagers.
3. Know your characters inside out. What they wear, where they shop, the worst track on their iPod, and what they secretly do when no one’s watching.
4. Sometimes you produce your best work when you really didn’t think you were in the mood. Just turn on your laptop and get to it!
5. Back everything up. Twice. It saves a lot of tears and swearing. Oh, and beware Wikipedia – it’s a time sponge. Evil YouTube too. In fact, just switch the internet off.