A bad week of writing…

I wasn’t having a productive week of writing. But yesterday I sat down and just wrote without really knowing what I was going to write. I not only smashed my word count target, I got another plot twist out of it that I didn’t know was going to happen.

Hooray for me! 🙂

The magic of writing without a plan

So, you might be asking – how does a breakthrough happen in the story you’re writing? How can you get that lightbulb excitement of realisation… ‘That’s what she’s going to say/do/have happen to her!’ 

A certain amount of planning, certainly. It has to come out of your head, after all. But it’s not about cudgelling your brains until you force it out of the logical bits of the grey matter. A great deal of the work is done using the bits of your brain that handle subconscious thought. In other words, relax a bit.

The most important (and the most successful) thing you can do to write a story or a novel is to write. Put yourself into the situation where your brain is able to give you the ideas. That means relaxing and just writing.

How do writers know what to write about? Where do they get their ideas?

Not by some winged inspiration fairy whispering in their ears, that’s for sure. Wish it was. In my head she looks a bit like me… only her pixie-cut hair ALWAYS behaves itself and she’s got a perfect cheeky grin.

Writers know what to write about by writing it. There’s often a bit of daydreaming, sure – the three-day Take Five Writing Anti-Challenge that’s available with my writing partner-in-crime is where you can give that a go. But the real story? The details? The order of things and the why and the how? That comes about by starting to write. It grows as you write it. Then you get other ideas – they multiply like alien spawn. (Unpleasant simile, maybe… but you get my point.)

I am doing that myself. I’ve been sitting on the ideas for my second novel for a while. (First one an historical thriller set in the Tudor era called The Heretic’s Servant… go look it up!) Now I’ve properly got going with it, writing a bit every day, and taking that action is making the story come to life. Before, I was trying to get my little inspiration fairy to tell me what the story was going to be like and making a promise that when I knew what was supposed to happen, I’d write it down.

Big mistake. And I knew it was wrong. But I was letting my fear of writing the ‘wrong’ thing stop me from writing at all. No more.

Fear of writing? No more!

I’ve got my motivation, my simple rules (write 200 words a day, five days a week), my tools (Free progress tracker from Book Forge, my plan and reminders of what works for me) and my support network. If you don’t know what to write about, do one simple thing… write. Even if it’s about what happened when you went to the supermarket. It doesn’t matter. Just. Write. You can absolutely do this on your own – writing is one of the lowest cost activities there is. And if you want support, motivation, encouragement, community, it is here, waiting for you.

Perhaps you have ideas for novels that you’ve started but put away saying you’ll come back to them when you’ve got more time. Or you’re making painstaking, stop-start progress on your book. People keep asking how it’s going and you feel a bit embarrassed or guilty that you don’t have much to report. Maybe it’s not you that’s the writer but your nearest and dearest and you’d like to know how to help them.

Meeting your writing goals in 2024

Here is the solution. More than the awareness of the problem of your time shortage. You know that. You also know that the book will only get written if you write it. Hazel Hitchins Author and I have a brand new offer for you that supports you to actually write it. You can carve out the time, get your head in the right space, and develop the habits that will see your writing progress take hold. You can be one of our founding members. There are loads of writing groups on Facebook. You’ve probably joined some (or your writing friend has). They’ve got their good points but they don’t help you sit in the chair and write. They don’t help you carve out the time to put words on the page.

And that deadline creeps ever closer, like an assassin in the night. You feel anxious. Your writing speed is too slow. You worry your writing won’t be good enough, and you spend time fretting about that instead of making progress by getting words on the page. You doubt you can complete your project on time despite your best efforts. Your word count grows in tiny, infinitesimal notches, and your daily writing target swells beyond your capacity. 

You may have been there before. You want to avoid getting there again. But what do you do about it?

• Break down the task into smaller steps. One of the reasons a deadline can be overwhelming is because it makes us think of the task as a whole, as if we have to complete it in one big chunk. This can lead to procrastination, anxiety, and lack of motivation. If something seems like an impossible mountain, maybe we can’t climb it and shouldn’t even try. To avoid this, I like to break down the task into smaller steps that are more manageable and achievable. For example, to write a blog post on a topic, I divide it into steps such as: research the topic, outline the main points, write the introduction, write the body paragraphs, write the conclusion, edit and proofread. Then, I would assign a mini-deadline for each step and focus on one at a time. For a novel, come up with some key scenes that have to be there and write those. They don’t have to be perfect. They are bound to change in the edit. That’s fine. It’s progress not perfection.

• Use tools and resources. I overcome deadline challenges by using tools and resources that can save me time and improve the quality of my writing. I use online and offline resources such as blogs, podcasts, books, and courses to learn new skills and get inspiration for my writing. It’s not cheating to get help.

• Create visual cues as reminders of goals and achievements. I use post-it notes, wall planners and calendars to display my deadlines, milestones and tasks. These help me to keep track of my progress and plan ahead. I like to log how many words I’ve written of my novel so that I can look back and see how far I’ve come, not just how much further I’ve got to go. When the mountain starts looking neverending, look backwards. You’ve come a long way. I also celebrate small steps of success, such as revising a scene I knew wasn’t working or getting feedback that tells me what’s good and suggests exciting improvements. Writing about these moments in a journal can help, so that you can look back later to motivate yourself, boost your confidence and encourage yourself to keep writing. 

Support, guidance, accountability and community for new writers

Fiction Academy is an end-to-end programme to help you get a novel into the world. It is ideal for new writers and those who have written short fiction.

Long-form fiction writing – typically novels – requires particular knowledge and skills. You also need support, guidance, accountability and a community that wants you to succeed.

You also need honest feedback so you know when you’re ready to publish. Then comes the challenge of publishing – cover design, manuscript formatting… and the tech side, such as adding categories to KDP.

I have teamed up with Authors & Co., a fabulous partnership publisher. We would like to offer you Fiction Academy to take care of all those needs.

First, you will learn all the essentials of writing a novel through a full digital course. How to write a scene, character creation, plotting, narrative perspective and voice are some of the lessons you will get to grips with. This will give you confidence and a whole range of lightbulb moments to help you begin creating your novel.

Then, you receive twelve months’ membership in my Storytellers Elite group. This is a supportive community based on hivemind learning and support, including monthly group sessions and one-to-one sessions, writing challenges, feedback and writing sprint sessions, all with the aim of keeping you focused on making progress with your project.

How do you become a successful novelist?

Perhaps you expected me to say ‘talent’. You hear authors being praised for being talented. It’s written in buyers’ reviews and newspaper reviews, it’s said when awards are being given out, and it’s mentioned when someone recommends a book to a friend.

Writing talent is overrated. In fact, the word ‘talent’ is unhelpful. Talent suggests that a particular author can ‘just do it’ naturally, almost without thinking. It makes new writers think they can’t become authors because they aren’t good enough.

The writer who is willing to learn and who sticks with it will do better than the writer who tries to get by on talent alone. Every single time.

A writer with a little bit of natural ability with words, plus a willingness to learn and keep at it will do better than someone who imagines fantastic scenes but hardly ever writes them down and never seeks to deepen their understanding.

That little bit of natural ability lives in all of us because we are all people. That means it lives in you too. Telling stories is fundamental to being human. The difference between those ‘talented’ authors with fantastic stories on offer and the rest of the human population is just those two things: learning and practice… unglamorous as that might sound!

How do you become a successful novelist?

You can do it too if that’s what you really want. You can put a novel (or several novels) out into the world. Perhaps you’ll read reviews about how ‘talented’ you are!

By working with a fabulous publisher, I can offer you something that gets you from beginner fiction writer to published author. First, a full digital course teaches you all the essentials of writing a novel. You’ll understand structure, character creation, and how to write a scene that speaks to your readers’ imaginations. You’ll develop confidence and experience lightbulb moments of understanding.

Then, you continue your journey with me in my small, supportive community of writers, learning in a hivemind manner through monthly group sessions, weekend writing challenges, feedback sessions, writing sprint sessions, as well as monthly one-to-one sessions with me to discuss your project and keep you on the right lines. This is a whole year of support.

Many writers stay with me much longer than twelve months. You have the option to continue if you wish – but there’s no obligation.

By then, you could have your manuscript ready to begin the publication process. You receive a copyedit of your manuscript from me to make sure it is the best it can be. The wonderful team at Authors & Co. take care of your book’s professional formatting, beautiful cover design and publishing.

You’re stuck in the middle of your novel?

You’ve written the beginning (Act One) and you’ve got at least an idea of how the novel will end, but the middle is all wobbly? Perhaps your novel outline for the middle just says, “Stuff happens.”

You start writing the beginning of the middle, trying to plough through. A few chapters or scenes in, you run out of things to say. You create events that you hope are exciting or dangerous just to fill pages before you can start writing the climax. You invent a new character to keep things going. Sound familiar?

One of two scenarios takes place. Either you get it done or you don’t.

Character Goals 

The way out of this cycle of unfinished novels – or manuscripts you can’t sell – is to focus on the goals of your characters. In particular, make sure you know the goals of your Lead and your Opposition. Or Protagonist and Antagonist, if you prefer. Identify exactly what your Lead wants to achieve by the end of the book. Also identify exactly what your Opposition wants to achieve by the end of the book. 

Here’s the key… make sure your Lead’s goal in the story is the exact opposite of your Opposition’s goal. There’s a reason the Opposition is called Opposition. When you tie your Lead and Opposition in such a way that one of them has to win and the other has to lose, that drives your story.

The middle of your novel is all about your Lead trying to achieve their goal. At every turn, your Opposition has to try to thwart that in order to achieve their goal. 

So consider exactly what your Lead wants to achieve. Make it difficult for them. Make the Opposition be the reason it is difficult. A novel’s middle is about the power play between the two. It moves in logical steps, like a dance. Then the climax is the point at which they meet – the showdown – and one of them wins while the other loses.

Scene Goals

Your characters’ goals for the whole story helps you plan out the story in big picture terms. Getting through every scene means you need to consider scene goals. A scene goal is what a character wants to achieve in that specific scene. Identify exactly what it is they want. Make sure it is related to their character goal – it’s a single step in the dance. Then they either achieve that scene goal or they don’t.

By breaking the middle of your novel down into single scenes, and viewing them as steps towards the big showdown rather than ‘stuff’ that happens in order to fill pages, you can keep your motivation and sense of purpose high. 

Escape that cycle of half-finished manuscripts. Focus on goals.

Should I get an editor before a publisher or agent?

Before you start querying agents or publishers, you should write a great book. Whatever means you use to achieve it, you need to write the best book you can. That is the simplest answer possible. Publishers in the traditional publishing industry want books they can publish with as little extra work as possible. Literary agents want books they can easily pitch to their publishing contacts. No traditional publisher or literary agent wants to take on a book or a writer who hasn’t already come a long way on the road to being a polished author.

Your job as author is to show them that your book is ready for that. This is true whatever genre you’re writing: general fiction, women’s fiction, speculative fiction, children’s fiction, non-fiction, memoir… 

If you want anyone to be interested in reading your book you need to go through editing. Professional editing highlights problems with your manuscript you won’t spot yourself. Plot holes. Weak character arcs and development. Narrative viewpoint problems. Style issues. 

Write a Great Manuscript 

Editing is highly valuable. Before you query publishers and agents, you should get a professional edit of your manuscript. You can learn a lot from getting an edit too. You can take this learning with you into the next book you write. 

That sounds frustrating to any writer, though. You want your manuscript to be sellable, don’t you? You don’t want that story and all those hours of writing to be just a learning experience.

The Business of Writing

Writing can feel pretty lonely. It can feel like you’re meant to figure it out all on your own, especially when you listen to some of the ‘advice’ in writing forums and groups. This couldn’t be further from the truth.

Being a writer doesn’t have to be a solitary lifestyle. Being a writer doesn’t mean you have to learn through slow, painful experience. Investing in support means you can get where you want to be faster. You can get through the uncertainty about how to structure a novel, create great characters with strong motivations and goals, and hone a style and voice that your readers will love. You can make progress in leaps and bounds, not just in tiny steps.

This doesn’t mean you don’t need an editor before you try to land yourself a publisher or agent, if you’re planning to take the traditional publishing route. You still do. But it means that your editor will be able to help you tweak your manuscript enough to give you the best chance of attracting attention with it.

Do I Need An Editor For My Book?

Yes, you do need an editor for your book. That’s the simple answer. Whether you’re writing fiction, children’s fiction, non-fiction, memoir… if you want anyone to be interested in reading your book you need to go through editing.

There are other useful stages of the writing process too which can help you control the financial cost of hiring an editor. These include alpha readers, beta readers and self-editing. 

There’s a massive elephant in the room, though. Let me explain.

“The first six chapters are unnecessary worldbuilding and backstory. Start the story 20,000 words later.” …

“I can’t really care about your lead character and your reader won’t either.” …

“The plot of the novel isn’t driven by any significant character motivation. Your character needs a much stronger reason to go after their goal and go through all those difficulties.” …

“The style isn’t engaging yet. There’s a lot of ‘telling’ in places where ‘showing’ would be much more effective.

The editor might go further and say, “The premise of your novel is severely flawed. It just doesn’t work.”

Not a great feeling.

You’re pretty much back to the drawing board. Unless you decide to ‘publish and be damned’ and discover the hard way through terrible reviews that the editor was right.

Learn to Tell a Great Story

Editing is valuable. Actually it is invaluable. You should definitely get your book edited. But that isn’t the first point at which you should seek support. When you write with support, learning and developing your awareness of structure, characterisation and style, you’ll create a much better first draft than you would have all on your own. 

While writing can be a lonely business, being a writer doesn’t have to be. The act of writing is often solitary but learning about it and developing your skills can be a highly sociable thing.

Investing in help and support doesn’t mean you won’t need an editor. It does mean your manuscript will be in a much better state when it does go to an editor. This makes the editing process less painful, you’ll understand why the editor points out certain things – and it’ll certainly make it cheaper and quicker. In the long run, you’ll also get better reviews on your book and greater success as an author. Win, win, win.

It’s sort of like knowing the cheat codes to a game. You end up further ahead of the others by working smart.