Someone has asked me to write down
my writing tips. So I have.
My first tip is: Write
This
is so bloody obvious it shouldn’t need saying. But it does. It took me ages to
realise that’s what I needed to do.
For
years, I wrote very little, preferring instead to prepare for that wonderful
day when I would be free from all encumbrances, released form inhibitions and
have the swathes of time I needed to write.
Poppycock.
Baloney.
This
was self-sabotage of the worst kind.
A
writer needs to write. The thing that has helped me more than anything has been
the development of a writing habit. This began when I managed to persuade
myself that writing was more important than watching Coronation Street. As soon
as the theme music started, I left the room, went to my quiet place and sat
down to write. My wife and family became used to it. They were distracted by
the TV and I claimed an hour or so of peace. This was my big breakthrough. I
‘came out’ as a writer as a result. I became a writer at last.
Now,
my practice has shifted to early morning but remains an overt one. My wife
doesn’t expect to see or hear from me until about 11am. By which time I have
done my writing for the day.
Writing
every day is good for my soul. It provides me with nourishment and contentment.
On days when I can’t write, the ensuing day seems to have less sparkle.
However,
if I don’t write, I’m gentle with myself.
Writing
every day (or most of them) brings another benefit. Productivity. A morning’s
writing can produce a thousand words. If I do that every day, we’re talking
about three hundred thousand words in a year. Five hundred words a day would
still produce the raw material for two or three novels.
The
maths are compelling if you write every day. Two hundred and fifty words, a
page, accumulate nicely to a novel a year proportions.
It’s
doing it every day that makes this possible.
Quite honestly, I couldn’t write
any more than I do. Writing is hard work. Exhausting work, physically, mentally
and, if you’re having a good day, emotionally.
My advice is to write, then.
Whatever you’re writing, write until you’ve finished it. Don’t look back. Don’t
try to judge it. Resist the urge to throw it all in the bin.
Put it away for a while. Some like
a month, me, I prefer a year.
