Finding Your Own Path

This week, I have been thinking a lot about my writing process and how to approach it. I have to confess that, at the beginning, I did read interviews with authors, looking at how they approach their writing, trying to pick up tips to assist with mine. If it worked for them then surely it should work for me, right? Not necessarily.

The belief that published authors will somehow have some magical formula; wisdom that they can impart that will suddenly help you produce your book all comes down to many of them, in my experience, saying the same thing. There is no magic formula, aside from sitting down and actually writing.

That’s half the battle with writing a first draft, at least with me and that’s finding what works for me. I am forging my own path, my own way of working – finding which elements work for me and putting them into practise so that I can sit down and write.

Take the planning and outlining. I started out not doing much but I am finding that a little goes a long way. Writing for a bit every day works for me. At the moment, I am aiming for five hundred words as a daily target. It keeps me motivated but it may work out that doing a longer stretch, three times a week will work for you.

Sometimes I prefer typing it straight onto a computer and then I will have an urge to write it longhand. At first, I felt that not typing it straightaway was a waste of my time but it can sometimes stifle the creativity if I’m not feeling connected to the keyboard. There is something great about writing longhand.

The important thing to remember is that, although writing a novel does have certain conventions, it is also your book, so your rules. If you want to write at night, then do it. If you work better in the morning, set aside some time. If you work better writing in bed, then do that and don’t feel as though your approach is wrong. Just find what works. That’s what I am trying to do, every day.

by

Laura

I'm Laura. I started Novel Kicks back in 2009 as I wanted a place to discuss books and writing - two loves of my life. As someone who has anxiety, these two things give me, and I am sure countless others, a much needed escape.
There is a monthly book club, writing exercises, prompts, reviews, author interviews, competitions and guest posts. I cover many genres and I hope there is something for everyone.
I grew up by the sea in Dorset and currently live in Poole with my husband, Chris and three cats. I love writing and have a BA (Hons) in Creative Writing from Falmouth University. I am writing my first book. If only I could stop pressing delete. Chris has threatened to stop it from working. Haha.
I have always loved creative writing since I was in first school and would very much like to meet my teacher, Miss Sayers, to say thank you for all the encouragement she gave me then.
When not writing, I love reading, cats, Disney, singing (I can't sing but this doesn't stop me,) and falling into a good TV show or film. If I could step into any fictional world, it would be amongst the characters in ABC's Once Upon a Time.
I love reading many genres and discovering new authors.