Getting Started

MAKING TIME TO WRITE

One of the first rules to remember is that writers write. You should write something every day, even if all you dowith the finished piece is tear it up and throw it away.

Writing something, anything, every day will enable you to build up the discipline and commitment required to ensure that you can produce a complete manuscript in whatever genre you choose.

Giving yourself permission to write

Due to a common misconception that unless you are a published novelist, you cannot be considered a ‘real ’ writer, novice authors often find it difficult to convince either their nearest and dearest or, indeed, themselves that their desire to write should be taken seriously.

 

However, even the most famous authors had to start somewhere, so don’t be put off by outside pressures. Be assured that your writing is more important than:

mowing the lawn
• washing the dishes
• cleaning, dusting, gardening

or any other similar activity that will keep you fromyour pen and paper.

Locking the door

One successfulMills&Boon author states that, once she had made up her mind to become a novelist, she turned one room of her house into a study, locked the door and forbade anyone to enter whilst she was working.

You may not feel you have to go quite this far but it is important to set aside both a space in your home where you can work and make a regular time to write.

Making time

Lack of time is, perhaps, the most commonly used excuse for not putting pen to paper. This can be justified with a number of perfectly credible explanations:

• You have a demanding full-time job.
• You have a large family.
• You have to get those seedlings planted.
• You have too many other commitments.
• You’re too tired.

Perhaps all these excuses can be rolled into one simple explanation:

• You don’t think you’re good enough.

Building confidence

Lack of confidence is amajor stumbling block for thewouldbe writer. There is no easy way round this but if you really want towrite, the onlyoption is to get on and do it.Taking the following steps can help:

• Set aside a corner in your home solely for your writing.
• Keep a notebook in which to jot down ideas.
• Select a suitable time to write each day and stick to it.
• Give yourself a time limit forwriting, say, an hour a day to begin with.
• Write something every day and even if you think it’s terrible, retain it until the next day.
• Begin by re-readingwhat youwroteyesterday; at the very least it will encourage you to rewrite. At best, it will be much better than you thought and spur you on to write more.
• Buy a good dictionary and thesaurus.
• Manuscripts intended for publication must be typewritten so, if possible, use a personal computer (PC). The more professional your writing looks, the more professional you will feel.

WHERE DO YOUGET YOUR IDEAS?

Having made the decision to write, the next step is finding something to write about.

Watching the world go by

Watch how people behave in everyday situations, jotting down ideas in your notebook as they occur to you.

The next time you go to the supermarket, for example, observe the behaviour of the other customers. Take a few seconds to chat to the checkout girl or the assistantwhopacks your shopping. Listen not only to the words they say but to how they say them.

If you commute to work, use your journey time to study your fellow travellers. Try to imagine what sort of homes they come from and how they might lead their lives. Whatever situation you find yourself in during your daily life, observe the people around you.

Not only should you watch but you must also listen.Writers are terrible eavesdroppers and will shamelessly listen in on the most private conversations. You can pick up some wonderful snippets thatwill effortlessly turn themselves into ideas for all sorts of things, from brief letters to your favourite magazine, factual articles explaining the apparently inexplicable, to lengthy works of fiction.

Keeping an eye on the media

Perhaps the richest sources of ideas are newspapers, television and radio. Keep your eyes and ears open for the unusual stories and quirky programmes tucked away between the major items. All kinds of things can capture your imagination.

For example, a BBC Radio 4 programme about the potentially dull topic of making awill inspired me to write a short story for Bella magazine’s ‘Mini Mystery’ page. The programme highlighted the legal pitfalls facing people whowish to make unusual wills and the idea capturedmy imagination.

Having gleaned the necessary technical legal information, I soon had the protagonist, beneficiary and terms of the will clearly formed in my mind. Fromthere, it was a short step to writing the story, sending it off to my editor and seeing it in print.

Sources of ideas

Ideas are all around you, if only you can train yourself to find them. Listed below are just a few possible sources:

• airports
• beaches
• buses, coaches, planes and trains
• cafe´s and restaurants
• clubs
• doctors’/dentists’ surgeries
• hairdressers
• school playgrounds
• shops
• stations.

The list is endless but as a general rule, ideas are to be found anywhere a number of people gather in one place.

WRITING AURALLYAND VISUALLY

Having developed your watching and listening skills, it can nevertheless be quite difficult to set them down on paper. More often than not, a phrase that sounded wonderful in your head looks dull and lifeless when it hits the page.

Later in the book,wewill be looking atways of bringing your writing to life and obtaining that vital ingredient, reader identification. You will learn how to stimulate the reader’s senses so that they identify with the people being portrayed, see and hear the sights and sounds you are attempting to convey.

Long descriptive passages, no matter how beautifully written, can be very dull without dialogue, action or interaction to liven them up. People enjoy reading about people, so even the most factual non-fiction article can be enriched by the inclusion of a brief interview with an acknowledged expert or a comment fromsomeone involved in the featured topic.

For fiction, too, there is no better way to convey setting, atmosphere, sights, sounds and scents than through the reactions of your characters.

Whatever genre you choose, be sure you knowthe true meaning of each word you use, consulting your dictionary and thesaurus whenever you are unsure about the spelling or context of a word or phrase.

DRAWING ON YOUR OWN EXPERIENCES

One of the first rules awould-bewriter learns is to ‘write about what you know’. If, however, this rule is taken too literally, few writers would ever gain the requisite knowledge to write an historical romance, murder mystery or science fiction novel. Far more practical is the advice from bestselling author Martina Cole to ‘Write about what you know and if you don’t know – find out’.

You don’t need to have lived in a previous century, be a murderer or travel in space to write genre fiction. Thorough research into the background against which your story is set should provide you with the factual information you require.

Expert knowledge is invaluable, of course. Years spent in industry or in the legal, nursing or teaching profession; seeing active service in the armed forces; bringing up a familyon a lowfixed income; working long shifts on a factory assembly line; running and perhaps losing your own business – any one of these and similar experiences offers a wealth of information on which you can draw, but factual accuracy is only one aspect of writing. You also have to find a way to breathe life into the characters featured in your articles and stories and this comes fromyour experience of personal relationships, both good and bad.

Fromour earliestmemories of childhood through our schooldays to adult friendships, romantic attachments, experiences at work and in our domestic lives, everything that went into forming our character has a part to play in our writing.

LOOKINGBACK INTOYOUR PAST

There is little doubt that anyone with a chequered past will have plenty towrite about but many of us feel we have done very little in our lives worth committing to paper.

On closer inspection, however, this is very rarely the case. Take yourself right back to your earliest memories. How did you feel when:

• you were told off for being naughty?
• you were picked on by other children?
• you missed out on a treat?
• your parents argued?
• you got detention at school?
• you had to have treatment in hospital?
• a family trauma made you realise that nothing at home would be the same again?

These are just a fewexperiences many children share, but try going up a notch in age and see if you can recall how you felt when:

• you left home
• started your first day at work
• travelled abroad on your own
• got your first cheque book
• bought your own car.

Seeking reader identification

By now, you may be wondering how such very ordinary, everyday experiences can possibly be relevant to creative writing. Surely writing is all about escapism, original ideas, unusual situations, not about opening a ‘Young Saver’ bank account?

Of course, you’re right. Originality is a vital ingredient in any piece ofwriting, fact or fiction, but then so is realism.Without realism, you cannot have reader identification and it is this element that brings your work vividly to life.

Observing everyday life

Michael Green, professional journalist and author of many humorous non-fiction books, offers the following excellent advice to would-be writers:

 

‘Observe everyday life with a writer’s eye. There lies your material. Carry a notebook and jot down any ideas that come or incidents you can see.’

READ, READ, READ

Whatever your writing interest may be, fiction or nonfiction, literary novels or specialist articles, you should read anything and everything in your chosen genre.

Reading with a writer’s eye

This book is designed to help you understand how to read with awriter’s eye, taking the time to analyse how an author manages to grab your attention and hold it so that you keep on reading through to the end.

Your notebook will become a valuable source of reference. Failure to write ideas down can result in you losing them altogether. Committing them to paper helps commit them to memory and stimulate new writing projects.

Use the questionnaire in Figure 1 to analyse published examplesof yourparticularwriting interest.Whether youintendto write non-fiction articles, short stories or novels, you will discover that the same basic principles apply.

As your critical faculties develop, you may find your reading enjoyment is spoilt by the way technical points you were previously unaware of suddenly become glaringly obvious.

Gradually, however, as your new-found understanding helps you to appreciate the skills being employed, the sheer pleasure of reading something that is both beautifully written and well-constructed will return and increase.

By the time this stage is reached, your own writing will be showing a marked improvement.

CHECKLIST

• 1. Do you read extensively?
• 2. Have you set aside a time to write each day?
• 3. Do you keep a notebook of ideas?
• 4. Do you have a good dictionary, thesaurus and access to reference material?
• 5. Have you considered how the use of computers impacts on your own writing ambitions?
• 6. Are you writing about what you know?

ASSIGNMENT

Take your notebook and jot down 10 ideas for articles or stories. By the time you have finished reading this book, you should have developed at least one of those ideas into a workable outline.