12 Tips To Write
a Book by Author Emily Hourican
1
Write. Just do it. Try and write every day, even if it's only a few lines,
because stories require continuity of thought.
2
Do what works for you. Do you need a daily word count, to keep you at it? If
so, set one. Be realistic, even conservative - start with 500 words - then if
you exceed it, you can feel very smug.
3
Read. Read everything, particularly within the genre you aim to write in. If
you like something, admire something, ask yourself, how did the author do it?
4
Get feedback. Be careful who you get it from. Not everyone will get what you're
trying to do. Not everyone will want you to succeed. Pick your first readers
very carefully.
5
Get a good chair/ cushion/ desk. Seriously. If you plan to do this long term,
the wear and tear on your hands, wrists, shoulders etc is ferocious.
6
Not everything is procrastination. You don't have to be physically at your desk
in order to be thinking. Some of my best ideas have come while loading the
dishwasher. But, keep the book in mind, even when you are not writing.
7
Say what you mean. This sounds easy. But in a way it's the hardest thing of
all. It's very easy to get lost and forget what you were trying to say, or
settle for an approximation.
8
Show, don't tell. This appears in every writing guide ever written, for a
reason. It's the Alpha and Omega of fiction writing. What does it mean?
Literally, what it says. If you're finding this hard, try taking one scene and
writing it and rewriting it until it reveals itself, rather than you the
writer, revealing it.
9
Be ruthless. If you start to wander off, bring the story back on track. It is
very easy to get lost in your own book.
10
Kill your darlings. All writing advice contains this bit - for a reason. Find
the bits you are most in love with, and put them under rigorous scrutiny. Does
that really belong? Is it self-indulgent? Out of place? Nicely written but
secretly a bit boring?
11
Write as a writer, read back as a reader. This is connected to killing your
darlings. As a reader, look back over what you have done. There is a good
chance that those very bits that the writer-you was so proud of, are the bits
that reader-you will have to admit don't fit.
12
Be careful - just because it's yours, doesn't mean it isn't someone else's too.
Indeed, lawsuits may be taken.
Obviously,
you must not sit there and think about writing 90,000 words, because chances
are, if you do, you will crumble under the weight of all those many, many words
and see nothing but the impossibility of it all. Just write a sentence, then
another. Watch as those sentences become a paragraph, then a page, then a
chapter, and so on.
How
to write a novel? Well, there's the short answer, and the long answer.
The
short answer is - just write it. Sit down, write one word, then another, then
another, until you have written around 90,000 of them. Once you get to 90,000,
cut that back to about 80,000, and, technically anyway, you have a novel.
In
fact, really, you should not be thinking about word count at all. You should be
thinking about your story, your characters, what you want to say, what you want
the reader to feel and understand. Get those things right, and word count will
fall into place.
But
now we are veering into the long answer, so let's go back a bit.
First,
maybe 'Why' is a better question than 'How'. A startling number of people,
asked what one thing they would most like to do, instead of saying 'surf the
Banzai Pipeline', answer 'write a book'.
There
is a need in all of us to tell stories, the stories we have within us, that are
us. Writing a novel is high on so many New Year To Do lists that it is fighting
'Exercise More' for the top spot.
And
yet, for so many, it stays there, on that list, year after year. It doesn't get
ticked off. Because writing books is not easy. This is why so many people have
the outline of a novel, the first 40 pages of one, or perhaps even a first
draft that they know simply doesn't work and needs to be rewritten, but not a
finished manuscript. Writing novels is hard. It's not coal-mining hard, but it
is hard. Writing good novels is even harder.
Before
we go further with this, and despite the very deep reluctance that I, like all
Irish people, obviously have when it comes to self-promotion - if I'm going to
give you tips on writing a novel, you need to know that I have some
credentials.
I
have published three novels so far, with the fourth coming out in June. My
first novel, The Privileged, was short-listed in the Best Popular Fiction
category at the 2016 Irish Book Awards, and all three have sold well and been
well reviewed, (a smattering of examples: "Beautifully constructed and
elegantly told", "gripping page-turner", "compelling,
cleverly-constructed page-turner", "as with most great writing, this
packs plenty of truth and social commentary beneath its story",
"character-driven drama in the vein of Maeve Binchy, a Circle of Friends
for the 21st Century").
So
that's me. Trumpet-blowing aside, the thing I am proudest of with these four
novels? The fact that I wrote them at all. That I finished them, and delivered
them, rather than giving in to the panic of a blank page and the tyranny of
90,000 words to write.
I
have written around my regular work as a journalist and editor, with small
children, while sick (my first novel was published six months after a cancer
diagnosis), when I felt I had nothing to say. I have done edits from a hospital
bed and a radiotherapy waiting room, and while on holiday. Because really,
sometimes the short answer is the correct answer. How to write a novel? Just
write it.
That
said, there are things that will make the 'just writing' easier.
Every
writer starts somewhere different. For some, it's a character, and a desire to
see how that character behaves under pressure. For others it's a story, a plot,
a set of circumstances. It can be a sentence, an idea, one particular image.
Really, it doesn't matter.
Some
writers will have an entire book mapped out in their heads or on paper before
they begin. Others will have one line, and curiosity. Again, it doesn't matter.
There is no one way to do this. Find your way. Trust it, follow it. See what
happens.
That
said, keep to the way. Writing can be like crossing treacherous marshland lit
only by a will-o'-the-wisp. If you let yourself be distracted, it is all too
easy to be beguiled down different paths; paths that may be perfectly
interesting, but they are not part of your journey. Be ruthless about staying
away from them. A novel is different to old-style seanachai storytelling, and,
with a few notable exceptions, anything too digressive and wandering gets
boring. Ask yourself: does this further my story? Does this get me to where I
want to go? If the answer is no, scrap it (If the distraction is really good,
you can save it in a new document. Maybe it belongs in your next book?)
This
brings me to my next tip. Not all good ideas fit. It may be a brilliant twist,
but does it actually belong? Again, be ruthless. This isn't an old curiosity
shop selling bits and pieces of everything, it's a novel. Keep it coherent.
Who
are you writing as? Are you a first person narrator? Third-person?
Second-person (very tricky, but has worked well for Joyce Carol Oates and Jay
McInerney). Does the story you are telling, the character you are creating,
belong in the style you have given it? This is worth spending a bit of time
over in the very early days. How do you get that person on the page so that
they spring off it and into the mind of the reader? Remember, there are
strengths, and limitations, to each narrative form. Maybe try a couple and see what
feels best?
Hang
out with your characters. The more time you spend with them, in your head, the
better you will know them, and therefore the better able you will be to know
how they would behave in the situations you put them in. Think about them,
sketch out their homes, wardrobes, hobbies, early lives (in your mind, you
don't need to write this down). Go on walks with them, watch them at work, at
parties. Learn them.
Write
every day. Even if it's only a few lines. You need to stay in your book until
it is finished. If you take too long a break, you will lose your thread, no
matter how many careful notes you made. All good books have a thread running
through them, you need to keep hold of the thread, and keep stringing beads on
to it.
Sometimes,
what looks like writing is procrastination. Sorry, but it is. There are only so
many background notes that are worth making. Only so many times you can tweak
your 'outline'. Eventually, you are going to have to dive in: "Once upon a
time there was…"
Don't
wait for inspiration. Obviously. Don't wait for anything actually - not
approval, not a book deal, enough time, an agent. If you want to write, now is
the moment to do it.
As
for inspiration, chase it. Open the doors to it. Create a benign environment
for it. How? By writing and thinking about writing. That's when it comes.
If
you are really stuck - mix it up. Go out and take a walk, listen to music,
paint a picture, cook something. Take your laptop into a different room, go to
a coffee shop, write longhand in the garden. Just don't get hung up on the idea
of the spirit moving you. Whoever said invention is 90pc perspiration (OK, it
was Thomas Edison), was right.
I
am not a fan of fetishising the writing process. There is no room in my writing
life for special notebooks and fountain pens with violet ink, with the moon in
a particular quarter. That said, I am a fan of having something - anything - to
make notes with, wherever you are. A phone, a notepad, the back of an envelope
and a biro. Have these everywhere: in your bag, by your bed, in the car. You
never know when an idea will hit, and if you're anything like me, no matter how
good the idea is, it may not stick around. Scribble it down.
Not
everything is fixable. This is one of the most gutting of realisations.
Sometimes, no amount of rewriting will sort that chapter or section out.
Sometimes, you need to chuck it and write it all over again, from scratch,
using perhaps a different angle, a different perspective or tone. It's painful,
but often you will find that, on a second go, you really nail it. (If you doubt
the power of this, read Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird. Then read Go Set A
Watchman, essentially a first draft. If that doesn't encourage you, nothing
will).
How
do you know if something isn't working? You know. Even if you are having a hard
time admitting, it, deep down, you know.
This
may be a little controversial, but I am against the using of a thesaurus. My
belief is that if a word doesn't spring to your mind, it isn't your word. If
you are looking up five news ways to say 'disappointed', you aren't being
authentic, you aren't being true to yourself.
If
you really think your vocabulary is too limited - read more, and differently.
Read non-fiction books to broaden your technical vocabulary, read writers known
for their innovative use of language (John Banville is amazing at very
unexpected words), but don't go grabbing for elaborate synonyms to fancy up
your writing style.
Accept
that, in the heat of the moment, you are not the best judge of quality. I have
written pages that have felt like squeezing blood from a stone, thinking to
myself 'every word of this is crap!' and loathing every second, only to read it
back a few days later and realise, 'hey, that's not bad'.
Equally,
I have woken up in the middle of the night, grabbed a notebook and scribbled
down what I think are lines and thoughts of pure genius, only to read over them
the next day and see that they are banal, or absurd. This, ultimately, goes
back to the first point: Just do it. Just write, even if you aren't happy with
what you are writing, keep going, see where you end up.
You
DO have time. Everyone has time. We all know people who have written novels
around full-time jobs, small children, sick parents, at 6am and at midnight, in
between all the demands of daily life. It can be done. You do not need to 'set
aside' time to write. You just need to write.
Pick
the one or two people, show them, then steel yourself. Having the book you have
slaved over critiqued is hard and can feel very personal. But you need to be
tough. The point here is 'how can I be better?'
As
Teddy Roosevelt said - and this is the one that has saved me time and again -
'Do what you can with what you have'. You don't need three clear hours for it
to be worth starting. You don't even need one clear hour. If you have 20
minutes, write for 20 minutes. You may not get a whole scene, but you might get
half of one. Get used to being on your own, but know when you need back-up. At
a certain stage, you are going to need feedback. Choosing the person you show
your work to is an art-form in itself. This needs to be someone who will be
encouraging, honest, ambitious for you, discerning, and able to communicate
clearly. They need to know books, and you. I wouldn't go scattering your work
around - everyone you show it to will have a different opinion; you can't,
realistically, cope with more than two or three. It just gets confusing.
Finally,
my best advice - write because you love it. Expect nothing in return except
that the book may find a handful of readers who also love it. Be proud of your
work - you did it! So many do not! - and allow yourself to be disappointed, a
little, with each book, because that fuels ambition for better.
And
remember, if you don't, you disappoint no one but yourself. The world doesn't
know it's waiting to read your masterpiece - only you know. It's up to you to
get it out there.
The
paperback of Emily Hourican's 'The Blamed', published by Hachette Ireland, is
out now
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