I had a great writing week recently. Over 1,000 words each day, more than 9,000 in total, pretty much half the first draft now written. Thanks to everyone who has been asking. The daily target and reward approach is still paying off.
In other news, as if to satisfy my appetite for writing advice from real authors in digestible chunks, the Guardian recently published the top 10 rules for writing from 29 successful authors.
Misunderstood the assignment?
The most useless rule – apart from Philip Pullman’s ‘say no to things like this, which tempt me away from my proper work’ (who says atheists are no fun?) – came from Zadie Smith. She recommended: ‘When still a child, make sure you read a lot of books.’
Great. Next time I get to still be a child, I’ll remember that. In fact even before that, I might preselect some literary parents too, to give myself a head start.
Richard Ford’s ‘don’t have children’ also comes too late. But the most bizarre advice predictably hails from Will Self, who said nothing about plastering your walls with Post-It notes, suggesting instead:
Hold a Christmas party every year at which you stand in the corner of your writing room, shouting very loudly to yourself while drinking a bottle of white wine. Then masturbate under the desk. The following day you will feel a deep and cohering sense of embarrassment.Or perhaps get out a bit more, Will?
The 4 big rules for writing
The Guardian published the lists all at once, which was an opportunity missed for a weekly series, but handy for looking through and seeing which tips recurred time and time again across the spectrum of authors. A spot of meta-analysis if you will.
If Hilary Mantel, Roddy Doyle, Neil Gaiman and Jeanette Winterson all say it … well, it’s got to at least be worth considering. So here are the four tips that appeared many times:
1. Read lots
I feel like a kid at school who got one of the answers right. Although it is rather obvious. This is one of my golden rules for inspiration. PD James says to ‘read widely and with discrimination’ because ‘bad writing is contagious’.
I’m reading more than ever these days, but mostly blogs and newspapers, a few books to the children and a bit of poetry before bed. I’ve also been dabbling in Theology and Content Strategy but when it comes to fiction, I will admit shamefully that I stalled in the middle of Satanic Verses several months ago. I need to either pick it up again or ditch it and start something else.
2. Write lots
It’s Rushdie’s carpentry simile again. If you make tables for a living, you go out and make tables. If you’re a writer, you go out and write. Lots. One word and another.
You’re only a writer if you’re writing.
I’m beginning to realise that for all the advice in the world from other novelists there is a lonely path to be walked for each person learning how to write, and that is to spend hours and hours in solitude actually doing it, eventually discovering how to navigate publishing and praise and criticism and success and failure, but always to return to the act of writing again. We’ve just got to do it.
3. Edit, edit, edit (cut, cut, cut)
I’ve not got to the editing process yet. I’ve found a new freedom in writing my draft my treating it simply as that – an imperfect draft that will be edited later. I only read enough of what I’ve already written to pick up the threads again, or to remind myself how much a character has previously divulged or some other aspect of the plot. This brings freedom to face forward and write fluently, but I’m apprehensive about the editing process when it finally arrives.
I know I will have to be merciless (‘cut until you can cut no more’ says Esther Freud); I’m worried that nothing will survive.
4. Read your work aloud
This was a common rule that I would not have anticipated. It makes sense, and I do it to a small extent already, but I was surprised at its ubiquitousness among the established writers. Diana Athill explains, ‘prose rhythms are too complex and subtle to be thought out – they can be got right only by ear’.
So there we have them – the four overarching rules for writers. I was also struck by how many of the other tips I am already doing, and some that I am deliberately not. There were many obvious rules, and many helpful, perhaps fewer that provided insight into the actual craft of writing that will change my practise. Of all those I will blog more later. For now, I have a chunky novel to either pick up or supercede – I'll keep you posted.
It's been really encouraging to read how your ploughing on. My new year's resolution was 'creative courage'. The hardest part for me is owning up to an idea or a project in the first place, nailing my colours to the mast, giving others the chance to shoot me down. By some miracle I have managed it and now find myself in the middle of two huge and exciting undertakings - a film and a stage show (albeit it small ones!). I have no idea how it happened....except finally deciding to take some responsibility and do something rather than pining away. Thanks for the inspiration.
So all the best with the film and show. Keep me posted – and be stubborn when you hit the dip.