Your novel needs a sexy concept

Sure, a classic plot line may make a novel perfectly readable, but it won't necessarily be enough to make people pick (or click) it. (The seven main story plots in literature, as summarised in The Seven Basic Plots: Why We Tell Stories by Christopher Booker, are overcoming the monster, rags to riches, the quest, voyage and return, comedy, tragedy, and rebirth). A bestseller needs a winning concept. Consider this:

Think of your book's sales blurb. Or what would be on the movie poster? Sarah Lotz signed a six-figure deal with UK publishers Hodder and Stoughton for her novel The Three and another book. The Three's tagline reads, 'Four simultaneous plane crashes. Three child survivors. A religious fanatic who insists the three are harbingers of the apocalypse. What if he's right?'

Daydream about a fascinating world. British author Sally Green signed up for a creative writing course a few years ago, and hit on a concept which led to a bidding war for her first novel, a supernatural young adult thriller about witches living in contemporary Britain. Twilight producers acquired the film rights to her trilogy. 'I became obsessed,' she told Woman and Home. 'I wrote and wrote, and spent 24 hours a day thinking about it: I was weeding, I was cooking but, in my head, I was living this story, which was about witches and set in the same witchy world that became the setting for my book Half Bad.'

Gather the ingredients. Susan Hill, author of The Woman in Black (now a film, in which Daniel Ratcliffe starred after his stint as Harry Potter), told the UK press how she'd been reading ghost stories and wondering why there were so few full-length ones. 'I wanted to see if I could do it and began listing what seemed essential ingredients: a ghost, human, not monstrous; haunted places, especially a house; mists, a thin, moaning wind and, for me, ancient churches and graveyards which are traditional settings.' Characters appeared: 'I did not really have a plot at this stage, but one morning the woman in black arrived in my mind. Within six weeks, using pen and paper, The Woman in Black wrote itself, as if by magic'.

Look out for unusual objects. Jessie Burton's debut novel The Miniaturist is set in 17th century Amsterdam, in which a wealthy merchant who refuses to sleep with his young wife, Petronella Oortman, buys her a miniature version of their townhouse as a wedding gift. Soon, it becomes clear that the characters' lives are being influenced by the movements of their replicas within the cabinet. An actual cabinet in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, once owned by a Petronella Oortman, sparked the concept for the mystery novel.

Find the cocktail that excites you. Brainstorm a list of all the topics you like to think and write about, anything from chocolate to taxidermy. Keep a file or box into which you regularly throw magazine clippings and notes, such as that riveting story you overheard at the hairdresser and jotted down for its plot material potential. Then close the lid, put it away, and let it simmer.

Listen to your body. It'll signal you when The Concept arrives. In an interview with Oprah Winfrey, Joanne Rowling recalled the moment she hit on the Harry Potter concept: 'I wrote compulsively but I'd never really found the right thing. And then I was on a train – I was 25 – and it came: boy doesn't know he's a wizard, goes to wizarding school, bang, bang, bang! And that was it. I don't think I've ever felt so excited.'

Catriona Ross is the creator of The Peacock Book Project: write the novel of your dreams (www.peacockproject.net). Her books are available in the Kindle Store: Little Diamond Eye, The Presence of Peacocks or How to Find Love and Write a Novel, The Love Book, Writing for Magazines: Absolutely Everything You Need to Know, and The Happy Life Handbook.

5 tips to get your novel written

Now that we're over halfway through November – NaNoWriMo, or National Novel Writing Month – how's your word count looking? While NaNoWriMo enthusiasts try to crank out 1,667 words for 30 days straight, completing a first draft by 30 November, I prefer writing rather more sedately. I'm at the 55,000 mark on my new novel and it's taken me some months to get there, but my plan works and it doesn't require me to press pause on the rest of my life for a month. Here's how.

1. Set aside two writing sessions a week

Just two. For two afternoons a week, I commit to sitting at my screen for at least an hour, opening up my manuscript and typing something. That's it. I write fiction because I find it fun, creative and relaxing, so I allow myself to spend an hour writing whatever part of the book I feel like. But I try to make an extra half-hour to an hour available, in case I get on a literary roll and want to write more. I aim to write 1,000 words at a session but usually write more.

2. Switch off distractions

This really, really works. The time when I'm working on my book is sacred, so before I start, I crawl down behind my desk to unplug my internet cable, then switch my cellphone onto flight mode. People, it's frigging miraculous what you can achieve in an undisturbed hour. A single email or social media check-in can bomb an idea, derail a train of thought, vaporise that mood that could have been the beginning of an amazing scene. Try using a tool such as Freedom to lock yourself out of the internet for pre-set durations, say 90 minutes.

3. Leave judging and editing your first draft till later

Whether what you've written is good or not isn't relevant at this point. Write first; edit later. Your book won't be perfect now, and parts of it may be downright laughable, but it's important to get the story down while you feel that rush of inspiration. Editing and judgement can kill the excitement you need to make it to the finish line of your first draft. As my writing buddy (and fellow swimming-class parent) Byron agrees, unexpected things happen when you're writing. In his case, a sinister character appeared, seemingly out of nowhere. 'I just went with it,' he told me. His book needed this character to the balance the others, he now feels. Half the thrill of writing lies in the unplanned developments that happen while you're writing. Don't think, 'I didn't plan this so it's wrong and it's not going to work.' Leave it in; relook it later.

4. Don't talk about your book too much

Avoid revealing too much about your story to those who ask. Hone a one-sentence description or elevator pitch to give them enough to satisfy them. Don't go into details or they'll give you their opinion, which may ruin the magic for you. It's vital that, while writing your first draft, you stay true to your vision. Once you're happy with your completed first draft, get feedback from trusted friends or colleagues who love reading novels and whose opinion you value, or from a professional editor. But don't open yourself up to criticism too soon, or someone's offhand comment may make you divert completely from the shining idea you really want to pursue.

5. Save your work after every session

I learnt this the hard way. Rewriting a large chunk of my mystery novel Little Diamond Eye that had come to me as if channelled (you know?), three days later, was not nearly as fun as it had been the first time around... Make backups each time you write. Save your work in two different places, ideally emailing the latest version to yourself on gmail.

Let me know how it goes, and share your own tips for getting your novel written, on The Peacock Book Project's Facebook page: www.facebook.com/peacockproject 

Catriona Ross is a journalist and author. Find her books in the Kindle Store: Little Diamond Eye, The Presence of Peacocks or How to Find Love and Write a Novel, The Love Book, Writing for Magazines: Absolutely Everything You Need to Know, and The Happy Life Handbook.

'I (heart) The Love Book'

 A book gets written and published. Sometimes, a reader is moved to write about it.

 

I saw this reader review of my first novel, The Love Book, on Google Books recently, and was so touched. Thank you, whoever wrote it! By the way, The Love Book is a part-prequel to The Presence of Peacocks, the Peacock Book Project novel. 

'The only book to bring me to tears, The Love [Book] has restored my faith that a novel, scripted so beautifully, can change lives. Catriona Ross's novel has certainly changed mine, she has inspired me, beyond belief, through her emotive words and whimsical images.
A single mother who once pirouetted in tightly lace ballet pumps, now raises her three daughters, sultry rebellious Margot, observant and untamed Clare and young willowy Paulina. The story follows the four Carmichael women, each one gifted with their own unique beauty. We accompany them as they travel life's path, making mistakes, creating memorable moments all while lending each other support and the unspoken understanding, hoping to mend their broken home.
Clare is however, the ugly duckling a midst a flight of beautiful swans. She notices the evident beauty in her mother and sisters, but it is in the novel that we are able to see her discover its true meaning. With beauty comes the lovers of beauty: men. And there are many - they flit through the house, some re-appearing, other never to be seen again. Clare sees everything, and we are able to experience as she grows to understand the irrationality and surprises that accompany love. She allows us to view the lives of those around her and the effects they have on a household of four women. The way with which she views the lives of her family is insightful and intelligent and will reel in any reader with the power of tantalizing seduction. Clare's growth within the novel will uncover the memories of one's own childhood and realisation.
It is as though The Love Book were sitting on the library shelf, waiting for my grasp, so that it could lend the power held within its enchanting tale. The seeds were sown the minute I read the first page. Catriona's way with words is magical. She paints pictures in your mind, so vivid it's as though you were experiencing life through Clare's observant eyes. It is a breath-taking novel, enticing, evocative, captivating and so beautiful that turning the last page was both an excitement and a dread, for I couldn't wait to find out what happens, yet I couldn't bear the thought of it ending.
I can't wait to read it again.'

Write the novel of your dreams with The Peacock Book Project: www.peacockproject.net

Getting started: what's stopping you?

You know you want to write a book. You have a notebook full of scribblings and 4am insomnia ideas that could just work. You even possess that fabled hour every weekday to write, and the knowledge that if you actually used your daily hour, you'd have written an entire book by the end of this year. And a book might get you a pulisher, and a movie deal, and, and, and.

So what's stopping you?

Truth number 1: Writing is scary.
Yes, uh-huh. You actually have to put words down, and some of them might be crap. A lot of them. Maybe even all of them. The author's ego is delicate. Thoughts of being a writer who writes crappy words causes intense pain. My advice is that it's better to write something than nothing. 'Something' you can at least work with - say, edit it, polish it, give it a nip and tuck or even a whole makeover; 'nothing', however, will remain nothing.  

Truth number 2: Writing is hard work.
I've just finished reading a novel by one of my favourite authors – On Green Dolphin Street by Sebastian Faulks – and a wry passage on the process of writing fiction rang true.

' … From what he could gather from novelists' own diaries and letters, the urge that was common to them all was a need to improve on the thin texture of life as they saw it; by ordering themes and events into an artistically pleasing whole, they hoped to give to existence a pattern, a richness and a value that in actuality it lacked. If after reading such a novel you looked again at life – its unplotted emergencies, narrative non sequiturs and pitiful lack of significance – in the light of literature, it might seem to glow with a little of that borrowed lustre; it might seem after all to be charged with some transcendent value.
These poor writers depicted themselves engaged in this heavy task: from people they knew or met, they gathered characteristics for their imaginary humans; from conversations, they pulled out thoughts that could be developed into themes; houses they had visited were relocated and refurnished; other writers were absorbed, assimilated for what they could unwittingly donate; from some less recognizable source the power of pure invention was mobilized, while over it all the artistic intelligence shaped an entity that would thrillingly exceed the sum even of these rich parts.
To Charlie it looked like very hard work. …’
  

Writing is the best sort of work, if you ask me. A week ago I started writing my new interactive novel, The Last Book in the World (um, hopefully not), and every time I sit down to write – in that precious hour before I fetch my daughter from daycare – I feel anew the rush of creating a whole world, of having the freedom to write what what I like. But it’s still work. I always have to force myself a little to sit and write (after all, it’s not compulsory, not like freelance journalism deadline) but I find it’s always worth the effort because of the way it makes me feel: mischievous, empowered, mysterious, interesting, interested, alive.

The trick to getting started? Start anywhere – at the end, at the beginning, somewhere in the middle, or with a key scene that keeps squatting in your mental space. Go, go, go! Sorry to have to remind you, but one day you’ll be dead and you won’t be able to write. Nope, not at all. So sit at your PC every day. Make it a habit. And start writing anywhere.

Write the novel of your dreams with The Peacock Book Project: www.peacockproject.net