This post was originally published at Novelicious.com and is now at WritingTipsOasis.com. WritingTipsOasis.com acquired Novelicious.com in June 2022.
1) If you can’t get started at all, read Natalie Goldberg’s book, ‘Writing Down the Bones’.
2) Once you’ve got into the daily writing habit, then read Stephen King’s book, ‘On Writing ‘ – he really tells it like it is.
3) Read my novel Happy Endings – the heroine, Tina Devino, is a novelist who also runs a manuscript critique service and there are letters to and from aspiring novelists throughout the book. You will learn a lot about what – and what not – to do!
4) Read a lot of recently published novels in the genre you are aiming at. Consider what length they are and what the readers of that kind of book expect from a novel.
5) You will know your main characters are three dimensional when they start having conversations with each other in your head. This is usually just as you are trying to go to sleep and you must switch the light on and immediately write down what they are saying, because you will have entirely forgotten it by morning!
Trisha’s latest book Twelve Days of Christmas is released on the 26th October. You can buy it here. Also stay tuned for an interview with Trisha coming very soon!