I am SO pleased to say this week I have moved on with my own word count well, I have managed to get to the 30,000 words mark! It has not come easy to me, to say the least. Writing a book in a year is not easy, especially as I don’t just mean to write that first draft! I want a polished novel done, finished by the end of 2019.
I am also trying a change in the layout of my blog post to make them less ‘texty’.
So please let me know if you find it easier to follow.
Tip seven
Accept that your writing will not be the best thing ever, and move on.
When writing the first ever draft of a novel, you sometimes feel that it has to be perfect, even get ideas of grandeur, but the truth is if you have never written a book before, you are learning still. This means that the first draft of your first ever book is going to need a lot of work!
Alexa Donne – explains it a lot better here.
It sounds really harsh and even Alexa’s video here is called ‘Harsh advice for newer writers!’
However it is the truth!
My writing really, sucked when I first started and probably still does quite a bit now, (I Have read the start of my book, and yes it needs an awful lot of work!)
I remember submitting my first ever finished piece of work (I had only reviewed it all of two times). I felt overwhelmed at how brilliant then concept was, how thrilling and heart-breaking the tragic prose was.
I re read it recently It wasn’t good, if you want to, you are even welcome to have a look yourself, note it down somewhere in you folder of ‘How not to write a book in a year’
I was absolutely gutted that it didn’t win the Dorset Fiction Award. I had convinced myself, I wasn’t going to win (while secretly hoping and thinking I might)
The reason I didn’t win was because, the other entries were better! And that’s ok, because I can get better.
The only way to get better is to keep writing!
I do this by writing my short stories, I am not blowing my own trumpet by any means; I know more than anyone that I still have a long way to go, the only way forward is through a flurry of pen slashes and words.
Tip Eight
Write what you want to read!
It is sooo easy to write something that you want to read!
People get bogged down with trying to write something that will ‘sell’, and yes I guess the majority of people (including myself) want to be successful, but you aren’t going to be successful if you’re writing something that you find boring.
First of all it will be really hard to write, and maybe if you are stuck in writer’s slumps or blocks regularly, ask yourself, would I read this? Am I interested in it?
If the answer is no, then it may be worth revising your idea!
If the answer is yes, push through, read books of a similar genre that you enjoy. Reread books. Get some more inspiration!
Even C.S. Lewis, one of my favourite authors! (Who wrote the Lion the witch and the wardrobe) said,
“I wrote the books I should have liked to read if I could have got them. That’s always been my reason for writing. People won’t write the books I want, so I have to do it myself,” (Green and Hopper, C. S. Lewis: A Biography, 169).
If you write, with an idea in mind that you have always wanted to read, it will be much easier for you to write it, because you want to read it! Think to yourself what do I enjoy, what would I want to read?
Extra Motivational Tip:
Join a writing competition!
I did this in 2017, it was actually quite fun, and I plan on entering a few this year too, so maybe we will be competing together?
There are so many advantages to doing this!
First of all, it forces you to write to a deadline, this in turn means you are more motivated to write, because you have more of a reason to write, other than as a hobby.
Secondly, your writing will get better, you are increasing your writing the more story’s you write the better! As I have said in earlier posts the best way to get better at writing is to,
just get on with it and write!
Write as much as you can!
Thirdly, there are some really awesome prizes if you do decided to join one.
For example in the last competition I joined, there was a £500 pound prize, plus your short story was published in an anthology.
Now the getting your work put in an anthology part, may not seem that exciting, but having published work and a competition under your belt, gives a little more power when it comes to the end game of writing; getting published.
A few short story competitions
Some of these are yet to begin so keep checking in!
Hope these tips have been useful for you, I am continually watching every YouTube video about writing tips, reading every pin I can find on the subject and sat listening to podcasts in my spare time.
So these posts are going to be the tips I have found most useful in spurring me on, or the tips that have intrigued me, and helped.
Obviously it is also the journey I am going through with my work in progress; in which currently I have left my main character having a panic attack, in a dark field, somewhere in the peak district (I do feel bad).
If you fancy checking out my other posts in this series have a look here at my previous post. Let me know what you think and if you have enjoyed reading I would love you to subscribe!
Photography by Victoria Langford
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