Writers thoughts about writing fiction
Writers thoughts about writing fiction
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| Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash |
Some wonderful advice here, that I couldn’t resist sharing. It's from an article in the Guardian where famous writers shared their ten rules for writing fiction. I recommend reading the whole article.
Helen Dunmore - Finish the day's writing when you still want
to continue.
Very sensible advice.
I like Doyle's idea that it's fine to just use ordinary words.
Sarah Waters - Treat writing as a job. Be disciplined. Graham Greene famously wrote 500 words a day. Jean Plaidy managed 5,000 before lunch… My minimum is 1,000 words a day – …. I will make myself stay at my desk until I've got there, because I know that by doing that I am inching the book forward. Those 1,000 words might well be rubbish – they often are. But then, it is always easier to return to rubbish words at a later date and make them better.
I'm not very good at the being disciplined bit, though I like her idea of it been easier to 'return to rubbish words' then nothing at all. Though sometimes those words can be unleashed, as Jane Clamp recently shared in her excellent blog post.
Sarah Waters - Don't panic. Midway through writing a novel, I have regularly experienced moments of bowel-curdling terror, as I contemplate the drivel on the screen before me.... Going for a long walk almost always gets me thinking about my manuscript in a slightly new way. And if all else fails, there's prayer. St Francis de Sales, the patron saint of writers, has often helped me out in a crisis.
I never knew there was a patron saint of writers, not that I'd pray to him, but it's cool to know.
Margaret Atwood - Don't sit down in the middle of the woods. If you're lost in the plot or blocked, retrace your steps to where you went wrong. Then take the other road. And/or change the person. Change the tense. Change the opening page.
This sounds like excellent advice. I do far too much sitting in the woods, so much sitting that I'm surprised that brambles and bracken haven't grown around and covered me.
Now it’s your turn, please do leave any of your favourite tips/thoughts in the comments.
Martin is a writer, baker, photographer and storyteller. He's been published in the ACW Christmas anthology and Lent devotional. He's currently honing his craft at flash fiction and you can find him on Twitter here.
Brilliant, Martin! I absolutely love a list, am a life long Guardian reader and a big fan particularly of Helen Dunmore and Margaret Atwood, so this has really done it for me. Great advice and very appropriate as I have three books on the go (no idea how this happened). One of my very favourite novelists, Trollope, was looked down upon in his lifetime as he shared his tips for good writing. He would wake early, sit at his desk and write a certain number of words and only then go off to work at the Post Office. Here's the quote from his autobiography: "Every day for years, Trollope reported in his “Autobiography,” he woke in darkness and wrote from 5:30 a.m. to 8:30 a.m., with his watch in front of him. He required of himself two hundred and fifty words every quarter of an hour. If he finished one novel before eight-thirty, he took out a fresh piece of paper and started the next. The writing session was followed, for a long stretch of time, by a day job with the postal service. Plus, he said, he always hunted at least twice a week. Under this regimen, he produced forty-nine novels in thirty-five years. Having prospered so well, he urged his method on all writers: “Let their work be to them as is his common work to the common labourer. No gigantic efforts will then be necessary. He need tie no wet towels round his brow, nor sit for thirty hours at his desk without moving,—as men have sat, or said that they have sat.” People were snobbish and preferred Dickens who didn't reveal the hard grind behind writing a novel. I loved that - and what a word count!!
ReplyDeleteWhat a lovely response, thank you, Ruth, I'm so glad you liked it. I've never read any of Trollope's work. What would you recommend?
DeleteI've recently taken to getting up at six to do some writing, but sadly, seldom does any writing get done. What I'd give to have an oz of Trollope's discipline and determination.
Atwood's sense of humour made me smile. I wanted to include many of her tips but didn't want my blog to be far too long.
These three made me smile... Take a pencil to write with on aeroplanes. Pens leak. But if the pencil breaks, you can't sharpen it on the plane, because you can't take knives with you. Therefore: take two pencils.
Take something to write on. Paper is good. In a pinch, pieces of wood or your arm will do.
You can never read your own book with the innocent anticipation that comes with that first delicious page of a new book, because you wrote the thing. You've been backstage. You've seen how the rabbits were smuggled into the hat.
I really did like it! Yes that made me smile too and I love your writing tips. Well, he's got a rather unfair reputation as the novelist of the reactionary Tories, but he was incredibly subversive. I'd always start with either The Warden or, my personal favourite, Barchester Towers, the second book in a series of 6. This contains the fabulous Mrs Proudie, the Bishop's wife, arch-enemy of most of the clergymen in his new diocese. There are also the Stanhopes, a funny old bunch who provide probably one of my favourite Trollope quotes: “The great family characteristic of the Stanhopes might probably be said to be heartlessness, but this want of feeling was, in most of them, accompanied by so great an amount of good nature as to make itself but little noticeable to the world. They were so prone to oblige their neighbours that their neighbours failed to perceive how indifferent to them was the happiness and well-being of those around them. The Stanhopes would visit you in your sickness (provided it were not contagious), would bring you oranges, French novels, and the last new bit of scandal, and then hear of your death or your recovery with an equally indifferent composure.”
DeleteThanks Martin. I love Margaret Atwood's advice but not so sure about Roddy Doyle's. I'd want to avoid pretention but I love a thesaurus (especially the one my dad left me). It helps me be more precise in my language and really think about the nuance I want to achieve, as well expanding my vocabulary.
ReplyDeleteI did too, what a wonderful dry sense of humour she has. It makes me want to read her work now.
DeleteReally glad you enjoyed it :)
Margaret Atwood is one of my very favourite novelists
DeleteI agree with Liz about the thesaurus being vital, not for the long, pretentious words Roddy Doyle is probably thinking about, but for choosing the precise, exact, specific, particular word you need ;) And, yes, it's great to know there's a patron saint for writers, although I won't be praying to him either. If he could just hang about and help out here and there without being prayed to, that would be lovely.
ReplyDeleteThat sounds like a very helpful saint, or is that the same as a muse? I'd like to book him from 6-7 in the morning. I do like a good thesaurus and have nothing against them. Brian Bilston wrote a brilliant, wonderful, marvellous, delightful, fabulous poem about them :)
ReplyDeleteGreat writing tips, Martin.
ReplyDelete