It’s day thirteen of National Novel Writing Month. Today, Michele Gorman, the author of Single in the City and Christmas Carol, talks about recurring characters…

Hi Laura, thanks for asking me on the blog today, and best of luck to everyone participating in NaNoWriMo!

Writing recurring characters is a bit like visiting an old friend. Of course you love her, but you also know all about her flaws. And so do your fans.

Plus: You already know the character. This makes it easy to put her into a new situation and know how she’ll behave.

Minus: You already know the character. It can be difficult to sustain your enthusiasm for the book over 80,000-100,000 words.

Plus: Continue reading →

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Freya North

Day twelve of National Novel Writing Month. Freya North gives us her writing advice. 

Write because you want to tell stories, not because you ‘want to be a writer’
Look after your posture – this is ESSENTIAL! 
Don’t spend too long faffing and editing – that’s just a fancy way of procrastinating.

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Matt Dunn is the author of A Day at The Office. On day eleven of National Novel Writing Month, he tells us how we need a good plot…

Whether you’re an author writing a novel, a gardener on an allotment, or an evil genius planning to take over the world, if there’s one thing you need, it’s a good plot. Assuming you’re reading this because you’re doing NaNoWriMo (so we’re talking about novels here), put simply, a plot is the sequence of events that make up a story – and while the order of those events (and of course, the events themselves) are up to you, getting that order (and the events) right is crucial if you’re going to engage the reader. I’m a romantic comedy novelist, and while everyone knows how romantic comedies go (girl meets boy, stuff happens, girl and boy end up together), it’s always helped me to think about my plots (the stuff that happens) not as HOW they get together, but as what STOPS them from getting together. Some writers plot their whole novels before writing a word, others just sit down, start writing, and see how the plot develops. I’ve tried both approaches, and probably prefer the latter. But if you like to plot beforehand and are having trouble, you’ll be pleased to hear seven ready-made ones already exist for you to choose from for FREE (don’t believe me? Just type ‘The Seven Basic Plots’ into Google). Presumably you know the start and end points of your novel – then ‘all’ you need to do is pick the one that applies to your story/setting/characters and get writing!

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Cecelia Ahern

Day Ten of National Novel Writing Month. Today’s advice comes from best selling author, Cecelia Ahern. 

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Day Nine of National Novel Writing Month. Julie Cohen, author of Dear Thing, talks about writing space: 

While I need to have a permanent writing space, somewhere I can spread out and make as much of a mess as I like, I often find that changing where I write can help me be more productive. Last week I spent eight hours writing in a cafe. I was stiff and hyper-caffeinated afterwards, but I got a lot of work done. My local library also has study carrels, which are great because they’re anonymous cubes with no distractions at all…though occasionally I think I startle the person in the next carrel by laughing aloud! Sneakily, against the rules, I smuggle a flask of tea into a carrel and spend hours making that bland space full of my imaginary characters.

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