1. TELL NO-ONE! You put yourself under a lot of pressure when you try to write your first novel. You don’t need other people constantly asking you how it is going. There is also the possibility – remote, I know – that these other people might not want you to succeed!
2. Get up early and write with a fresh mind, before you go to work, as it’s very difficult in the evening when you are tired. Plus, if you do it in the morning you feel incredibly virtuous all day!
3. Don’t drink when you are writing. I know the likes of Dylan Thomas and Evelyn Waugh just got better with booze. But ordinary mortals just feel sleepy and write rubbish!
4. Do it as often as you can and keep going. 500 words a day regularly is 10,000 words a month and the average novel is about 120,000 words. You can have written a novel in a year!
5. Listen to how people really speak and note down phrases, especially if you are writing comedy. I review a lot of novels and stilted, unrealistic dialogue is amazingly common.
Wild & Free by Wendy Holden is out now.