“I’ve got an idea… but I haven’t got a clue where to start.”

If I had a penny for every time I’ve heard those words! What is that fear of getting started all about? It can be different issues for different people, but the most common reasons I dig out of people are as follows…

People sometimes don’t think they’re good enough to be a writer – as if writing a story, never mind a whole book is something only the elite can do. Remember this – every famous writer had to start somewhere. J.K Rowling was about as poor as a person can be without actually being homeless. Charles Dickens spent some of his childhood doing very unpleasant, dead-end work in a factory. They both had ideas. What made the difference was that they made a start. What you come up with first might not be very good – but I wouldn’t mind betting that those authors’ early attempts would make their famous later selves blush.

Often, that person with an idea hasn’t done any creative writing since they were in school. They feel they’ve forgotten the ‘rules’. How about marathon runners who only began running seriously as adults? It’s the same thing. We can train our brains just as we can train our bodies.

Some people worry that they’re going to get it wrong because they were ‘no good’ at English in school. Writing as an adult, when you get to choose exactly what to write, is completely different from writing in school. You’re not being given marks out of ten any more – you’re being given a chance to put your own voice out there… and having your work checked for you isn’t cheating any more – it’s called editing and proofreading!

Occasionally, it’s as simple as a nervousness about the blank page – that empty new document staring back at you. Just start writing. Write anything. You don’t even have to show anyone that first attempt. The point is that the page won’t be blank any more.

You can always get help. 

I can’t be the only one who is more interested in what a villain gets up to than the struggles of a goody-two-shoes hero.

We are taught from the time we are very small that we ought to be kind to others, aren’t we? That we shouldn’t take advantage of those weaker than ourselves? That it is wrong to cheat, lie and steal?

Of course we are. Of course it is right that we are. But when we write a story, we can have our ‘bad guys’ do anything we want them to do. We can have them commit audacious crimes, incite them to terrible deeds, and make them lie glibly through their teeth, all without any of the pangs of guilt a ‘normal’ person would feel.

We can make our creations do any, or all, of those things, without the risk of detectives knocking on our own doors.

The enduring appeal of a villain, from Count Dracula to Big Brother, Bill Sikes to Sauron, Moriarty to Voldemort, is his (or her) complete embodiment of evil in the story to which he belongs. Never sorry for his deeds, never tempted to mend his ways, he is the fascinating dark side of our own selves. Exploring this dark side within the safety of the covers of a book is a brave adventure.

A braver adventure still, though, would be the creation of a villain of your own. What heinous deeds could find their way from your brain to the page? Could you dare to explore the dark side?

Why you should never write a book

So what if you’ve always had that idea to write a novel? Big deal if the fabulous life events of a family member ought to be recorded for posterity in a book?

Nobody actually wants to read any book you could write, right? You haven’t written anything of that nature for years – not since you were in school. You don’t have the wit of Stephen Fry, or his vocabulary, come to that. Do you really think you could write enough? Books need to have thousands and thousands of words in them! Not to mention the effect it would have on your family and social life: everybody knows writers are loners; in fact, they mostly live tragic, isolated lives in a cold cottage somewhere on a blasted heath.

Actually, no.

How do you know nobody would want to read it? If the story grips your imagination, chances are it would grab other people’s imagination too.

School may be a long time ago (longer for some of us than for others!), but who says that learning stops when you leave formal education? School isn’t a place where all the knowledge and skills we could ever use are downloaded to our hard drives – it’s a place where we learn how to learn for the rest of our lives.

Why are you comparing your words with the words of other people? Of course you’re not Stephen Fry! Or Philippa Gregory. Or J.K. Rowling. Or… anyone else who isn’t you. Your voice is uniquely yours.