Top Ten Writing Tips

How are you all? 

A lot of writers have been posting about the inability to write - how do you create fiction when reality is incomprehensible? It's exactly ten years since I had 'the call' from my brilliant agent saying that our debut, The Beauty Chorus, was going to be published. After years of trying and failing and trying again there was a bittersweet irony that the call came the night before I had to ship out of the UK with two small children to an unknown future. The universe certainly has a sense of humour. So I thought it might be helpful to reflect on ten years of publication  - if you're just starting out on your writing journey, I hope you find something here:

1) Writers write. As someone said, if you want to be the noun you've got to do the verb. If you can't write fiction now, write something. The Corona journal we talked about. Letters to friends. A love letter to your partner. Writing - keeping head and hand connected - takes daily practice. You're no different from a musician or an athlete. Use your writing muscles.

2) Writers read. Read in your genre. Read what's hot. Read classics. Read the books you love most in the world. If you can't read, listen. I have The Leopard (my favourite book), all of Henry James, the new Elizabeth Strout stacked up on Audible - but because I'm not driving anywhere I'm reading Proper Books, which are comforting. My gigantic TBR pile has come into its own at last. We talked ages ago about Julia Cameron's idea of 'filling the well' - if you want to produce good work, you have to replenish the flow.

3) Which brings us to Writer's Block. There have been immense highs over the last ten years - nothing beats opening the box with your first hardbacks inside. Or sitting on a panel at a Lit Fest with a writer you've admired your whole life, or launching your book in Oslo, or seeing your work in the top ten bestseller lists, or being amazed how your words can be translated into languages you can't read and will be enjoyed by people you've never met. Writing historical fiction still feels like an enormous privilege - I am grateful for the chance to share worlds with readers and say: did you know this happened? Weren't these people incredible? 

However, the lows can be very low. A couple of years ago I went through a period of time when I couldn't read, let alone write. I couldn't put my finger on why - it was distressing and perplexing. Reading and writing are like breathing. I was listening to David Lynch's audiobook on creativity driving back from school one morning and he said: 'if you feel like a flop and a sell-out it's a double death. Some people never write again.' I had to pull over. It helped, knowing that it wasn't just me. And that was a turning point. It's not just you. Not every book is going to be a stellar success. Keep going. Learn from it. Do better next time.

The thing is, I can't not write. Maybe you are the same. Having traversed and come out of this spell stronger, I'd say this: be patient, if you can't write, work. Ask yourself, so what do you want? See where your attention settles. Go back to basics. Keep your hand moving with morning pages. The words will come back to you, I promise. Remember Beckett: Fail, Fail Better. Keep going.

4) If you wait for inspiration, you will never write anything. As Jack London said: go after it with a club if you have to. I write every day, regular hours, but have never had a 'room of my own' until recently - it's always been a small table in the corner of the living room often with a cat on top, a dog below and a small child on the computer. (Who else feels like a PA with home schooling at the moment - Muum can you print this ..?). You don't need a room, but you do need to guard your time. When we were renovating the house I hung a 'Do Not Disturb' sign on the bedroom where I worked because the builders had the uncanny knack of popping in to ask questions about sewage pipes just as I was writing a love scene. Carve out your time, even if it's half an hour when the children are napping. Books are written a sentence at a time. It adds up.

5) You are never not working as a writer. At times like this, I am immensely grateful to leave the real world behind. But if your proofs arrive just as you reach the UK for a longed for holiday in Cornwall, you do your proofs. Writers navigate life with one foot in the real world, and one in their fictional worlds. When the work is going well, it is hard to keep up with the flow of ideas and that is wonderful. That's why we write. But writing is a craft, and you have to learn it. You can always do better. Which brings us to:

6) Every book is a team effort. It begins with you, but it becomes the best book it can be because of all the energy put into it by agents, editors, copy editors and proof readers. By designers, and publishing teams. It's success is contingent on sales teams, and PR, and marketing, and booksellers, and bloggers. It depends on reviews, and critics (yes, you never remember a good review but you can quote the painful ones word for word years later). So:

7) Don't read reviews. Good ones are lovely, thank you, bad ones can have you hiding in a darkened room. I've learnt that two people can read the same book and get entirely different experiences from it. That's because every reader brings themselves to the book. Once your work is out in the world, it belongs to the readers. I do love seeing where the books end up, though - like these beautiful #bookfacefriday photos from Otter Books in Canada.

8) Do listen to trusted readers. Rejection is part of writing. Remember Vadim Jean's advice: zip up your rhino suit. One famous writer carries two suitcases of rejection letters on stage at her events. I used my early rejection letters for kindling in Spain. There is a difference between standard rejections, and thoughtful advice - listen, learn, improve. 

In London, I belonged to Women's Ink, a writers' group which met in the basement of Nomad bookstore once a week after work to write and critique. This blog was set up twelve years ago to be a virtual writers' group, for people like me who were working full time, and had young children, and no babysitter. Then my MA group became friends and readers - we still meet monthly to critique work and read together. Find your tribe, a local group, and join up. Writing is an intense and solitary job - it's good to get out/online and talk to people who get it. They will spur you on to keep going.

9) Which brings us to: finish the book. Finish what you are working on. The world is full of people who think they 'have a book in them' - the key is having the stamina and dedication to get it out. Until you have a first draft, you have nothing to work with. Every first draft is rubbish. Ignore the siren call of the next book which is glittering away in your imagination and finish the book you are working on. There is always going to be a gap between how beautiful you know the book should be, and your ability to produce it. Every next book is better, is The One. Keep working. I'm just beginning - the best is yet to come. You are always learning, and every good book isn't written, it's edited. Easy reading is damn hard writing. Edit, edit, edit.

10) Someone (Stephen King, On Writing, I think?) said: life doesn't support art, it's the other way around. After ten years I have stacks and stacks of papers, and it has been really interesting over the last month taking stock, and seeing what's next. What stops me in my tracks aren't the press clippings or reviews, it's little notes scribbled in the margin like this: 

That's what counts. Writing is wonderful, but put down your pen and go and spend some time with the people you love, or zoom them, or write them that letter. 'Don't forget to smell the flowers' as my lovely, late Dad used to shout after me when I was racing for the school bus. We will all get through this together.

After ten years, and a lifetime of reading and writing I still believe in the power of good stories. I still feel like I am just beginning. There are so many stories waiting to be written, and so much I hope to achieve, with a little luck. And luck, I think, plays a big part in writing as in life. Be ready for it. 

Times like this, we could all do with reading some Up-Lit, so I'm delighted to be launching a new blog tour - over the next month some wonderful writers will be sharing the stories of the One Small Thing which is getting them through lockdown at home. Look out for the posts over the next few weeks, and if you'd like to subscribe by email just click on the menu bar.

Stay well, stay safe, stay home x

WRITING PROMPT: If you've also been writing for a while, why not share in the comments your top tips?