5 TIPS for Writing By
Sheena
Wilkinson
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Sheena Wilkinson (middle) with Elaina Ryan from CBI and Writer, Deirdre Sullivan
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1. Everyone will
say the same thing here; that’s because it’s so important. READ. Read
everything. Read in your favourite genre and outside it. Read to see how
stories work. Read to remind yourself that books are magic, and that you want
to create that magic for someone else.
2. Find out what
works for you. I faffed around with unfinished novels for years because I kept
stopping to edit as I went along, always aiming for that perfect first chapter.
For me, it’s better to write to the end of a rough first draft and then go back
and redraft, and redraft, and redraft. It’s less work in the long run, and for
me having a complete draft, even though it’s rubbishy, gives me a feeling of
achievement and something to work on. This seems to work for lots of writers.
It may not work for you but it’s worth trying if, like me until about six years
ago, you find it hard to get to the end. And the first drafts are getting
better.
3. Give yourself
goals. It may be that you’ll write for an hour a day, or that you’ll finish a
sort story by the end of the month, or that you’ll do a thousand words a day,
or 500 or even 100. You can move the goalposts as you get more serious. If I
think about the whole project of a novel, I feel a bit gulpy and want to go and
lie down, but if I think that I aim to do 6,000 words a week and that means
1,000 words day with a day off, that seems more manageable. I have printed off
a geeky calendar so I can waste time filling it in and adding happy/sad faces
accordingly. You can get software to do this for you, but why bother, when you
can use up hours of writing time colouring in and highlighting?
4. Fall in love.
With your book. I can’t get into something and spend a year – or, in the case
of my forthcoming novel, 2 ½ years (I took time off to write another book in
the middle) – on it unless I love it. So don’t follow the market or write about
something because you think you ‘should’: write what you love. It helps to have
a bit of a crush on at least one
character. BUT, however in love you are!
5. Don’t be
precious! You know how being in love is great, but it can make you a bit blind
to someone’s actual qualities? That. So when your editor/agent/writing
buddy/mum suggests that something in your book could maybe work better,
consider that they might be right. After all, you want them to fall in love
with your book too.
Sheena Wilkinson will be at Mountains to Sea 2014 on Saturday, September 13th @ 4.30pm for 'Going Too Far? Panel Discussion' with Elaine Ryan, Director of Children's Book Ireland and a panel of readers and writers.
