5 writing tips from novelists Alex Smith and Maire Fisher

It was exactly the sort of event I love: two authors in conversation in a coffee shop on a balmy weekday evening. Alex Smith, author of the young adult novel Devilskein & Dearlove, and Maire Fisher, author of Birdseye, dispensed writing wisdom:

The inspiration for a novel can come from anywhere – a moment, a name, an intriguing item. For Alex, her interest in antique keys was a catalyst: 'I knew my heroine ended up with a bunch of keys, and that meant she'd opened a series of doors.' For Maire, a fellow guest at a braai mentioned a relative called 'Ma Bess' and Maire decided to use this gutsy name for a character.

Fit your writing into your schedule. No matter how busy you are, you can find a gap to write. Alex wrote a commissioned novella between the hours of two and four in the morning when her toddler son was a baby! But these days, she writes when he's napping and after 8pm when he's in bed.

Let your story evolve. Have a general idea of where the story's going, but be prepared to change course. Allow your story and characters to take on a life of their own and develop naturally. Maire replaced her elderly narrator with a young girl, Bird: 'I realised she was trying to come out and tell the story.' (So she lost 40,000 words of her manuscript, but the book is all the better for it).

Find a friendly 'first reader'. Show your first draft to one or two friends or relatives who love reading, both authors advise. Ask them specific questions, as these yield constructive criticism: for example, 'I'm not sure about the ending. How do you think I could improve it?'  

The main thing is to enjoy the process. The writing of your first draft is the truly fun, creative, anything-goes part, they agreed. When you feel that 'urgency to get the story down', go with it. Write.

Read the novel that teaches you the art of novel-writing: The Presence of Peacocks or How to Find Love and Write a Novel is available in the Kindle store.

Work your diary – you might find a book in it

Writing fiction is a gloriously self-indulgent activity. (Well, the first draft anyway). Why? It allows you to gather the moods, places, characters, issues and items that intrigue you most, and write them into a world you can share with others. All the other stuff you can just ignore. (Well, until an editor has had a look at your manuscript). And one of the easiest starting points is a journal or diary.

John Berendt, author of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, offers this practical advice: 'Keep a diary, but don't just list all the things you did during the day. Pick one incident and write it up as a brief vignette. Give it color, include quotes and dialogue, shape it like a story with a beginning, middle and end – as if it were a short story or an episode in a novel. It's great practice. Do this while figuring out what you want to write a book about. The book may even emerge from within this running diary.'

This overlaps a little with the 'morning pages' advocated by Julia Cameron, author of The Artist's Way, as a way for burnt-out writers, artists and other creatives to rediscover their inspiration and sense of purpose. She recommends filling three A4 pages with handwriting – just stream of consciousness: thoughts, worries, weirdness – first thing each morning, to release them from your headspace. The idea is that you once you've written about how you're going to sort out your blocked drain, for example, your mind is free to pursue higher thoughts.

A useful exercise, after 12 weeks of morning pages, is to take a highlighter and go through them to mark recurrent ideas: these trends show you what keeps coming up for you. For me, buying an easel kept surfacing in my morning pages. What was stopping me from buying one and starting to paint again? They're expensive, duh. And if I bought an easel I'd actually have to, er, paint. But I bought one, finally. Then I wrote a novel.

I've also written in a journal every couple of days since the age of ten. Occasionally I dip into one. Doing this a few years ago, I saw some trends emerge and started writing a list of the things I realised I enjoyed writing about: Cape Dutch houses, farms, history, politics, human rights, self-development, books, sensuality, sumptuous meals, opera, wit, offbeat moments in everyday life, chocolate, lists… In fact, I decided to create a whole fictionalised world around those things I love and write about naturally: The Presence of Peacocks or How to Find Love and Write a Novel was the result.

In your diary, you might just find yourself as an author.  

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

What writers can learn from the lives of artists

I've been reading about the life of Impressionist artist Edouard Manet this week past. His paintings delight me with their clean lines and satisfying contrasts, their masterful brush strokes and perfectly considered daubs of light and dark. But what really struck me were his letters, which reveal the reality of life as a creative person: translating idealism into practicality; trying to create something beautiful and meaningful; and frequently dealing with cash-flow problems. Manet was from an affluent family but many of his fellow artists were not, as this letter shows:

To his friend, artist Theodore Duret, he wrote, circa 1875,

'I went to see Monet yesterday and found him in despair and absolutely broke.
He asked me to find someone who would take between ten and twenty pictures of their choice for 100 francs apiece. Shall we do the deal ourselves, putting up 500 francs each?
Of course no-one, and least of all he, should know that we're in on this. I thought of trying to find a dealer or collector but suspect they might refuse.
Unfortunately, it takes people as knowledgeable as we are to do a good piece of business, in spite of the repugnance we may feel, in order to help out a talented artist. Send me an answer as soon as possible or suggest a rendezvous.'
E. Manet 

From 'Manet by himself' (Macdonald Illustrated) Edited by Juliet Wilson-Bareau

Monet! Broke! If only Claude had known the international stardom he'd later achieve, the zillions of office walls his avant-garde poppyfields and haystacks and sunrises would populate more than a century later. But thank heavens for his friends, no? As creatives following a personal vision, we all need a community of supporters. We need those people who'll give us a pep talk when our work's not selling, who'll convince us not to throw in the paintbrush or pen or PC but to continue doing what we love. If you're feeling broke and desperate today, phone a fellow creative. There's no such thing as an overnight success in art or writing - or anything worth doing, for that matter. Keep going, people. Keep doing what you're doing. The hard times are as valuable as the successes in turning you into the person you will become one day.

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







 

Is this the year you write your novel?

Writing a novel is an intensely personal, intimate experience. It's just you, your imagination and the magic of words. When you sit down to write and find yourself in the creative zone, you may experience timelessness, a feeling of flow, the sense of universal energy swirling around you - and the ability to draw strands of that energy down onto your page or screen, as required...

Sound a bit too esoteric for you? Well, keep writing, keep plodding on, and from time to time you will experience writerly flow. Promise. Don't expect it all the time, though. Mostly, writing a book is a mundane matter of forcing yourself to sit at your computer and write something. Anything. But if you do that, rewards come: the gold dust sometimes descends, making the boring, practical side of writing worthwhile.

As for that blank screen staring back at you while you try to construct an opening line: could there be any greater freedom available to anyone? There you are, poised to create a whole new world using words; a world that is a mental construct filled with sensations and scenes of peculiar significance to you.

And one of the bonus outcomes is the infinite number of ways your work will be interpreted. Each reader of your novel mirrors your creative writing process by using his or her imagination to conjure up the imagery and meaning provoked by your words, turning your book into something of unique significance to him or her. Which, I think, is creative and cool in itself.

Author Jonathan Lethem wrote in O magazine, '...one of the things that defines reading is its intimacy - which is what I love about it. Even if you have a train carriage full of people, all of them reading The Corrections, they'd each be on a different page. It's not like watching a movie; you're not having a collective experience.'

Here's to writing, to reading, and to the personal experience of words. (If you're ready to start writing right now, go to www.peacockproject.net and use the free Writer's Template.) Happy 2013.