Writing Advice

Just write.

If you’ve written a novel and want to make it seem like an arduous task, it’s easy to do, and any search for writing tips will inundate your screen with cringing humblebrags about how tough the whole thing is and lists of ‘the 10 things you must do/avoid when writing a novel.’ Invariably, such advice is nothing more than repetition of what anyone that has ever read a book already knows, or worse, an arbitrary set of rules that promises to give the secret for how to get your book ‘noticed by an agent’, or ‘fit into the marketplace’. Rather ironic, then, that such things are always written by A N O’body.

Worse still, these are only the articles that pop up high on the list when you search. It’s tempting to think,

Well, they’re just writing any old rubbish to get eyes on their book. I’m sure there’s a vibrant community of writers bubbling around on social media and dedicated forums that have productive and supportive advice.

Wrong.

Every industry, sporting pursuit, artistic pursuit, you name it, contains a stratum of people that never made it and hung around like a bad smell, sneering at those that become more successful and dispensing atrocious advice to newcomers—but this phenomenon seems particularly bad among writers (comparable, perhaps, to their equivalents in academia). Be warned before delving into these forums, it’s like Hades but instead of monstrous, terrifying hounds you find stone cold losers in floral shirts.

And the truth is, well-meaning or not, no-one knows whether any piece of writing is ‘good enough’. If the publishing industry knew, they’d be raking it in. Instead, they’re clinging on to their celebrity writers’ cookbooks and ‘cosy crime fiction’ as desperately as a shipwrecked wretch would cling to a buoy adrift in the freezing North Atlantic Ocean. Some publishing agent delivering a talk on ‘how to write a successful novel’ is no different from someone popping up on YouTube ads selling dropshipping courses.

So, like most things in life, almost everything that almost everyone says on the matter can be safely discounted. If you’re looking for sound, practical advice on the writing process and mentality behind it, I’d recommend reading what authors who are actually successful say about it. For instance, Bernard Cornwell’s website has an excellent article on the topic, striking a much more optimistic tone, without doom and gloom or prescriptive notions.

I couldn’t improve on what he’s already said, but having gone through the process of writing a fairly long novel and doing many rounds of editing, my message would be… it’s honestly not that hard!

Writing a novel takes a while, so there’s vested interest in those that have done it to talk up the difficulty. They usually do this in subversive, cloying ways that feign a supportive tone. I’m paraphrasing, but they’ll say things like,

You want to write a novel? Great! Did you know 99.7% of people that start writing a novel never finish it? But I totally believe in you! Bear in mind these 7 steps that are critical for success...

There’s two main reasons they say things like this: 1. To put others off the idea of writing a novel, and 2. The kind of people that write novels are disproportionately likely to be insufferable. Occasionally, I suspect someone of genuinely believing their ‘7 steps’ are helpful if not universally necessary, which is frankly more disturbing.

In truth, if you really want to write a novel, you’ll do it. There’s nothing special about writing a book vs anything else. Some people write diary entries every day and think nothing of it. It’s the same thing. Write 500 words a day and you’ll have a full-length novel in six months.

Yes, there are complications. As the story unfolds, you develop characters, you find bits you like and others you don’t. You rework stuff. You have days where you do nothing because you can’t think how to smoothly transition between two different scenes, or whatever. Your first draft will probably be too long and filled with clunky language that you’ll subsequently edit out, and so on, and so on.

None of this is hard.

It looks hard at the outset, but that’s a perception issue. You might be assuming your future self is a demotivated dimwit who won’t be able to overcome a wrinkle in the story. You will handle it. In fact, the further you get into the draft, the easier some things become. You learn who your characters are and, often, when you’re stuck they’ll tell you what to do next. If not, random inspiration will hit you eventually. If you persist, you will finish it regardless of your perceived skill (and whatever your skill level, you’ll get better as you go).

Another perception issue is time. When you start, it can be overwhelming to imagine the time it will take to write, then edit, your work. Again, it doesn’t feel overwhelming when you’re in the midst. Quite the opposite—you’ll enjoy those moments where you cut a long-winded sentence, or when you suddenly think of a new character that can help a scene that feels flat.

Finally, there’s the worry that your own writing just isn’t up to it. Or perhaps you’re offering something slightly different or taking a non-standard approach to certain things because that feels natural to you, and it flies in the face of all ‘advice’. Don’t compromise your vision. It’s far easier to write when you like your own stuff. Pour your mental energy into making it good rather than making it fit others’ prescriptions. After all, this is your work, and if nothing else you’ll be able to look at it on your own bookshelf and be proud you wrote it.

Now, as I sign off, I want to clarify something. If you happen to be an author and have felt some offense at anything I’ve said, then… yes—I was talking about you, and I meant every word. It’s not just a bit of a joke.

Also, please buy my book, The Norman Sun. Or not. I don’t care. I’m happy with it and that’s all I care about.