Okay so I’m not exactly sure HOW I found this link (small kid you know, memories not the best at times) but if you’re at all interested in writing then you HAVE to read this blog post by Lesli Richardson…

http://leslirichardson.blogspot.com/2010/01/writing-how-to-you-are-not-special.html

There are so many true points in this it’s unreal and I can hear echoes of conversations I’d had with people who know what I do and ask me for advise on starting writing. A number of them irritate the hell out of me. They’re the ones, when I ask, ‘How long are you planning your story to be?’ answer ‘as long as it wants to be’.

Okaaaay, I can go with that maybe. Kinda. I’m anally retentive about planning. I study the market, decide what I’m writing next and what length. Most of the time I have a publisher in mind BEFORE I start writing, and at least half the time the story is pre-contracted. I’m lucky in that I can do that. Pre-contracting doesn’t work for everyone. At least one author I know doesn’t pre-contract because it puts too much pressure on, which I can understand, but I’m fairly sure she knows where she’s placing the story before she writes.

The next one ‘What is your story about?’ gets me more, especially when the answer is ‘whatever it wants to be about’. At this point my eyes are glazing and I can guess the next statement/question. It’s going to be about how much they’ll get for the story and how long do I think it will take one of the big-boy publishers out there to…get this..find THEM and offer them money. Here I’ll refer you to Lesli’s post as to my normal reaction, it’s fairly similiar.

Then we get the opposite end of the scale. The ‘how do I…’ers. These I don’t mind, they’re the ones who ask questions about writing and about making their writing better. What did I do to start off, how do I work…right through to questions about promotions and setting up websites. These people I have a lot of time for and I’ll help out as much as I can. When I started out writing it was a lonely business. Writing is a solitary endeavour and you can become very hermit like.

I was lucky. Very quickly I made friends with other authors a little higher up the food chain than I am and they helped me out so much. They still do (and not one’s told me to sod off yet with my incessant questions) and for that I am very grateful. In turn I try and help out as many new writers as I can.

My advice if you want to write…

1) Bum in seat. Don’t TALK about writing. Write.

2) Don’t give up. It’s hard work. But like any work, do it often enough and you get somewhere.

3) Don’t think you know everything. The instant you stop learning about the craft, you stagnate.

4) See point one again, then point two. Rinse and repeat as often as necessary.

5) Those Self-doubts that laugh at you. You know, the ones that say ‘why are you bothering? You’ll never do this. You’re a terrible writer.’ Yes, those ones. Ignore them, they lie. The only bad word is the one you don’t put on the page. Everything else can be worked with.

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