Tag Archives: novel

Becoming an Author

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I’ve always fancied being an author. A novelist in particular. I love the idea of my work being read by others, though I never get around to finishing anything I start. In fact, it barely ever gets off the ground. I come up with half-arsed ideas which don’t lead anywhere and I seem to lack the concentration it takes to get to grips with such a large undertaking. I need focus.

I often go out and buy new notebooks with the intention of filling them with ideas; passages I’ve written which could make it into a larger work; character profiles; ideas for locations. But they never get filled. I carry them around with me for a while, before they start to be used for other, less artistic works. Such as the shopping list.

I bought one the other day. It’s a Moleskin clone from Ryman’s. It feels just as nice to the touch, but less than half the price. But that’s by-the-by. I’m not here to talk about the price of paper. I’m here because I want to write. I need to learn to concentrate and not imagine there are a million-and-one other things I could do instead. When it comes to fictional writing, I am the world’s greatest procrastinator. There is always washing up to be done, or clothes to be dried, or cushions to be straightened, or cats to be stroked. It’s the little things which continually distract me from doing what I really want to do. And by the time I’m distracted, it’s already too late; my mind has wandered. There’ll be no writing on those days.

Eventually, a few days will go by and I’ll never return to the story I’d started. Perhaps I need to give myself more opportunities to write. But I doubt a publisher is going to give me an advance to enable me to quit work and write full-time, especially given that I don’t yet have anything to show them. I know I can do it if I put my mind to it. I just need to beat my mind into submission first.

Although I’m fully aware that this blog isn’t read by a huge number of people, if anyone out there has any hints and tips for writing, I’d be very glad to read them.

Writing without purpose

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Books that I had no hand in writing.

I’d love to write a novel. This desire is probably the only thing that’s remained with me throughout most of my life. I would love to walk into a bookshop and see my name, my novel, my ideas and imagination up there on the shelves for all to see. I’d love to think that there would forever be that little bit of me locked up inside the British Library, sitting patiently amongst all of those others who have put pen to paper. Whether it were read, unread, fondled, creased, cracked, bent, broken, rebound, reprinted, stained, smeared or had pages ripped out for no other reason than someone needed a bookmark for a more important publication, I would still feel a sense of such great accomplishment at getting my words to print.

The trouble is, I have no idea what I want to write. I’ve started several times through the belief that I had an idea worth jotting down, though after a sketchy half a chapter I realise that it’s not going quite the way I had envisaged and I always give up rather quickly. I find planning to be a huge issue and would rather rush through without thinking ahead about characters, story progression and pacing. I end up in such a rush that I burn myself out and don’t have the ability to carry on. I need to calm it down and take my time. I wonder if software developed for novel writing would help me plan more successfully than simply attempting to work on Apple’s Pages?

But first of all I need an idea. A new one. A different one. Something that no-one has ever thought to write about before. The longer time goes on, the fewer and fewer subjects there are left to discuss without wishing to seemingly rehash someone else’s work or encroach on someone else’s genre. It becomes much more difficult to have an original thought. Try writing about a boy wizard, for example, and see what the general consensus would be about your work. Which is why I would love to find something new, rather than trying a new take on an established idea. I’m not saying my work wouldn’t amount to much in an over-exposed genre, but writing about something entirely new would more likely bring the greatest exposure. So long as it was good, of course.

For the timebeing there’s nothing at all in my head which I would like to write. In fact, this article grew from the fact that I didn’t currently have anything to write about and simply wished to do so without purpose. It’s certainly killed some time and given me a few ideas…