Writing Your Own Book

I feel like a lot of my blogs have started with the same paragraph going on about the 'abundance of time' we have on our hands. I mean it is true, what better time to work on some of your goals than a global pandemic? If you haven't done so already, make a list of your goals and stuff you'd like to achieve during this shitty time of life; In doing so, you can turn it into a positive experience and even provide yourself with a bit of structure to get you through the day.

A few things managed to make the cut on my lockdown list: I wanted to complete my teaching English certificate, Facebook/Google ads exams, and I wanted to write a book.

Of course, the first two are just career-related and don't really have many reflections on my personal dreams and goals (they may help in the long-haul though).

It's the novel writing I care about here.

I have been trying to write this one story for at least 8 years at this point. There's been hundreds of amendments and thousands of rewrites, but I've just been unable to get it past 30,000 words let alone get it to develop into a full plotline. 

Since my last attempt, I've grown a lot as a writer. So I think I'm ready to try again! I'm going to share regular updates about my progress on here and on my Instagram where possible, but I thought I'd share a few things I've learnt while planning out this latest instalment of my book. So if you're like me and hoping this lockdown means you can finally put pen to paper and get your story out there... I hope this helps!

Set a writing plan

I feel like for the more organised of us, the idea of setting out a plan for your writing may feel rather obvious. Yes, once the inspirational juices start to flow, you may be able to write a few thousand words in one sitting. When setting a daily and weekly word count goal, you're providing some structure to your writing process and allowing yourself to feel creative during set times of the day. If you've set a personal deadline for yourself, it pushes you to actually achieve it. It's essential to be realistic with these goals, nobody can write trustworthy 50,000 words of quality content in one day. 

It's helpful to establish a set time of day for writing and create a 'creative space' that is exclusively used for you to write or feel inspired. This helps you get into the right mindset and be a little bit more productive!

Find some support from friends or professionals

Just like going to the gym, you're more likely to reach your goals and deadlines with the help of a friend. But if you're anything like me, the idea of letting your friends or family read something you've written feels overly intimate and a bit of a privacy violation. If there is someone you trust to provide feedback, send your work to them regularly and ask for honest feedback. If there is nobody you feel like you can show your work too, there are a plethora of writing resources available to you online. The internet really does come through for budding writers looking for support. My favourite articles are the How To Write A Novel-Medium and 7 Things That Will Doom Your Novel.

One of the professional tools I'd recommend regardless of whether you're willing to peer review or not. 

NANOWRIMO stands for National Novel Writing Month and usually runs throughout October. But I recently discovered that their advice and support materials are available all year round! If you want somewhere to be able to monitor your writing progress and find tips and tricks from writers going through similar struggles, then sign up for an account. It's free, so if you don't use it, then there's no wasted time or money.

Summarise your story in one sentence

There is a huge difference between having an account set out in your head and having it set out in the paper. This exercise helps you begin to think about your account and the plotline. What bits are worth being talked about? Who are your key characters, and what life lessons will they have by the end of the book? These are all things you begin to think about when you summarise one whole novel in a few small words.

Expand it into a synopsis

This is the next step in planning out your plotline. But my marketing brain prefers to think of this more like a pitch for the book. Imagine you've already written your bestseller and a publishing house is showing interest. How do you describe the book to them? How do you make them think that the world needs to read this book? Compared to summarising your story in one sentence, writing the pitch allows more wiggle room and the chance for context. I've also found that the pitch is a beneficial reference material throughout the writing process if you're worried your stepping away from the beaten path.

Pre-plan your character/critical location descriptions

The key really is in the organisation. Making lists or cards listing all your characters key traits, features and backstories are handy for when you're deep in the writing zone. Imagine getting 40,000 words in and you mix-up your characters, all of a sudden your lead is a blonde instead of a brunette and has blue eyes instead of green. Making little notes about critical events in the story is time efficient and saves you scrolling back through countless pages if you're feeling unsure.

The same applies to critical locations in your story. If you're likely to get your characters to regroup at a specific area, make sure, you've got that essential information listed.

Why not make character top trumps? Then it's more of a relaxing activity than a dull note-taking process.

Connecting the dots

One of the main issues I encountered in my writing was the inability to connect key plot points with filler. In the first few versions of my story, I felt like I had to the squares to make a quilt (the critical plot points) but no thread to work them together ( the other bits). If you experience the same issues when writing then perhaps you need to micromanage your plot a little more. I broke up my story into the critical plot points and made each one a chapter within its own right; If I needed to expand on the section more I'd summarise what was going to happen with the Who? What? Where? Strategy. This approach allows you to think of the other bits as smaller chunks but also helps you keep on track with your personal deadlines and daily writing.

Hopefully, this helps! It would be nice to come out of the lockdown with a tangible product to show hard work and perseverance during this time. You never know, it might be the start of a new career path or a newfound hobby. 

Personally, it would be nice to finally have the story finished and out of my mind. Growing up, I always wanted to be a novelist, but I struggled so much with my SPAG, I put the dream on hold. Now I'm in the mindset of learning everything I possibly can, I'm getting my qualification from TEFL (Which allows me to teach English as a foreign language) and I'm making sure my writing is faultless. So why not give the book another go?

Due to the current situation, I've got quite a backlog of blogs to upload and schedule, so updates on my writing maybe monthly. But there's loads of exciting content going up in between that, including the Coffee Guru segment.