So, I'm writing a book. Or rather, I'm trying to write a book.
I'm about 17,000 words in. I don't have a goal word-count wise, but I think It'll end up being about 100,000 words in total.
Over Christmas I was in Boston and spent the best part of a week just writing. For a few hours a day I'd sit there, headphones on, ommwriter open, typing. Some days were better than others.
Some days I'd get into the swing of things quickly: I'd find the right tone of voice, the words would flow and the words would just come from within. (Sounds a bit poncey but it's true). Some days it'd be more tough: I wouldn't fancy writing, I'd make lots of typos and I had to concentrate a lot more to get the words out.
During this process I kept tabs of things that I feel helped me throughout the process. Looking at them now, I think as well as some lessons to myself about how to try and write a book there are some lessons about Planning in there. And we all know how we Planners love to talk about Planning.
So here are my learnings - some tips when trying to write a book; and some comments about Planning.
There is no right and wrong method
Roald Dahl's setup when he wrote is pretty famous. He used to sit in a hut at the end of his garden and he had a little tray on his lap where he'd write. That was how he did it. For the first few days when I was writing, I made sure I had things set up. I had my desk, my mac and my headphones. The TV was off, and I listened to no music. I soon got bored of it.
Learning: Dahl loved his method because it was constant. I'm not a constant. I need variation in my work. Sometimes that's a desk; sometimes a coffee-shop; sometimes a museum; sometimes music; sometimes the sofa. If you can't get into it, get varied!
Know when to leave things
It's oft said that the first sentence is the hardest to write. When I work I find that starting the deck is the most difficult thing. When it's started the contents flow out of me. When I was writing over Christmas I found that I was aiming to finish scenes and chapters before calling it a day. The next morning it was difficult to get into it.
Learning: Don't finish stuff. When you think 'I'm really enjoying this, I'll just get to the end then I'll leave it' - that's the time you should leave it! Make notes on what you were going to do, and then leave it. You'll be itching to get back into it and when the next morning comes you'll be straight into it.
Fresh eyes are critical
It's easy to get drawn into something when you've got your head down and you're concentrating on one thing hour after hour. That's good because it means you're immersed in what you're doing. But that's also bad because you're so immersed you don't know if it makes sense to a stranger. It needs to make sense to someone that has never seen it before, otherwise it's a complete waste of time.
Learning: Get all the stuff out onto the page, however it makes sense at the time. Then, when you've had a break, go back to it and make sure it makes sense as if you'd never seen it before. When it's at a suitable stage, get a stranger to the project to sense check it.
Defining success is important
When you're Planning something it's usually pretty easy to work out what success is. It's usually getting more people to notice something; getting more people to buy something or getting more people to talk nicely about something. But what is success for a novelist? Success to Stephen King will be very different to what I deem success to be.
Learning: Before you even start make sure you know what you want to get out of it. Don't wander around aimlessly and then try and succeed at something part way through. I know what I want to get out of the book - I have some personal goals that I know I'm going to achieve if I put my mind to it.
Finding your voice is key
I talked about Roald Dahl above, and the way in which he worked. But what about the output? I spent a lot of time reading books looking at the sentence and chapter structure and wondering whether I wanted my novel to be like theirs or not. The simple fact is there are lots of voices in the world. James Frey's tone of voice is very different to George Orwell's.
Learning: Don't try and be anyone else. Be yourself. Don't be tied into any conventions. The length, timescale, tone of voice can all be a reflection of you as a person. Be yourself. Be original.
Procrastination is the biggest evil
The whole reason I'm trying to write a novel is because I thought one day about why I haven't written one yet. The simple fact is it's lazyness. There's only me stopping me. Sure, the output will probably be lower quality than a seasoned writer, but that doesn't matter to me - I just want to do it. I spent a long time waiting for everything to be perfect before writing. I was making excuses. One day I even found myself looking at Justin Beiber's Twitter feed and not writing because my headphones weren't the right ones! Ridiculous.
Learning: Don't put it off. Start doing it now. There's only you stopping you. You'll get more a buzz when you're 10% through the work instead of looking at Justin Beiber's Twitter feed.
So there you go. If I follow my own rules going forward (in writing and Planning) then hopefully I'll end up finishing the novel, being happy with it and how I got there, and not reading any more Tweets from a teenage pop act.
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