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5 Tips That Kickstarted Me Writing My Novel

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I've tried to write novels for around the last 25 years - plus I wrote short stories before then. But somehow I never got far enough to move from writing, to writing a novel. That changed in February 2020. My daughter, The Angelic One, asked me to join her at an event at Waterstones in Liverpool that was featuring 3 women authors. As one of the writers works in a genre I enjoy, I agreed. What transpired was that Mama Bear bought tea at Pizza Express before the evening event, and Mama Bear bought all 3 books of the authors, with one of them being specifically for The Angelic One, and Mama Bear asked a question that lead to tips number 1 and 2 that kickstarted me writing my novel.

Since then I've listened to podcasts and Instagram Live sessions, and I have found that 5 tips resonate with me, so I thought I'd share them with you in case you find them helpful too.

  1. Just write, have a go. You can't write something if you don't get started. This is a valid point - I would often say I wanted to write a novel, but it you don't do the writing, how are you going to turn it into a novel?
  2. Never finish your day's writing at the end of a chapter or scene. Start writing the next scene so that you've got somewhere to start from the next day. I find this incredibly helpful and possibly the most important tip I've picked up (thanks Amanda Brooks, author of The Widows' Club, which I loved).
  3. Have an idea and see where you go with it. I've had ideas before, but they didn't go anywhere. Now I realise that's because they were probably the idea for a paragraph or a scene, if they truly were an idea at all, and most definitely not the idea for a whole book, which is possibly why the ideas went nowhere. This time around I have a strong idea that I've built the novel around, and it's been much easier to turn my writing into a novel.
  4. Create your outline by starting with a sentence, then turn this sentence into a paragraph, the paragraph into a page, the page into a synopsis. I've found by outlining in this way I can be in the happy medium of being a 'pantser' who has a plot. What this means is that I can produce a stream of consciousness that has a starting point on that particular day.
  5. Editing is writing too. I'd never thought of this before I heard it on an IG Live session. I now start most of my writing sessions by editing the writing I put down before, which then seems to open my mind to writing new parts to the novel.
Have you picked up any ideas along the way? In my work life I've always created the 'shitty first draft', the one that is likely to go in the bin. I've never approached my writing with that in mind. Last week I heard Lucy Atkins, author of Magpie Lane which is in my TBR (to be read) pile, saying that she works with a crappy first draft, and that you never send the manuscript to an agent until you have worked on developing your crappy first draft. I think I'm going to need to see how that approach impacts on my writing next. 

So I'm constantly picking up new tips that help me progress my writing. I'd love to hear your favourite writing tip either in the comments below, or on Instagram - find me as @zoerichardsuk
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