My Writing Tips

I have read many writing tips over the past few years. I am always looking for good advice from those in the know. Only recently did it occur to me that I might be able to provide some tips of my own. So from my own experience, these are a few things that helped me:

1 - Make sure your day-job is compatible with writing. If you need to work to pay the bills, and who doesn’t, make sure it is a job that doesn’t leave you physically or emotionally drained at the end of the day. I thought I had obtained the perfect job working in a bookshop – it seemed a no-brainer for a book obsessed person like myself. However, anyone in retail will confirm that being on your feet for seven hours a day leaves you fit for nothing but the sofa and a glass of wine at the end of the day. Likewise, try to avoid a job that keeps you chained to a PC. You are less likely to want to sit at one to do your own work later on. The best kind of job is one that you enjoy, and that brings you into contact with people. You need social contact to keep you buzzing with ideas.

2 – Try to avoid sharing your computer with anyone else in the family. If you can afford to, buy your own laptop and refuse to lend it to anyone. Sounds mean, I know, but there is nothing more irritating than getting stuck into your work than being interrupted by someone who wants to see the cricket results, or to update their status on Facebook.

3 – Take your characters everywhere with you. At the start of your work when you are in the process of creating new people in your head, keep them close to you. Take them for a walk; to the beach; to the shops; to a football match or even out to dinner. Take them to work with you and let them sit next to you while you are busy. OK, if you are reading this and think I'm mad, perhaps I should explain. Your new characters need to become your imaginary friends. In order to get to know them well you need to spend time with them. So try having imaginary conversations with them (in your head please!). You will probably find you have more spare time than you thought possible, if you make it all count. When you are travelling, do some active daydreaming. When you can’t sleep, ditto. When there is nothing on TV, ditto. You get the picture right? Keep a notebook close by to jot down anything useful.

4 – Get stuck into your research. You may not think you need to research much if you are writing a novel. After all, it’s all in your head, isn’t it? Maybe so, but it pays to keep up with what is going on in the landscape of your novel. Make sure you don’t introduce a song in the book that wasn’t available at that point in time. Keep up to date with local news and gossip. It might be useful to know if something major happens in the town you are setting your story in. Try and avoid writing about a place you have never visited. It often shows – at least to the locals, so if you have to use a place you are unlikely to visit – the moon, for example, or Mogadishu, then make sure you do tons of research to get a feel for the place and the people.

5 – When you are still in the writing process, don’t get too hung up on editing it while you work. As the novel grows in length you will waste too much time if you try to go over what you have already written, in order to get stuck in to the story again. In all probability the editing process will take as long as the writing process. In my case it took longer. Editing is a tricky business, and it is not simply about weeding out typos. It is about making sure your structure works, and that the story starts in the right place. When I had finished my novel I was given the advice to cut the first three chapters. Being a novice I ignored this for a while, as so much hard work had gone into those chapters. But Carl MacDougall was right. A belated thanks here!

6 – Equally, don’t get too hung up on the publishing process. Everything takes a long time. You need to let your work settle in any case. Don’t be in a rush to get it out to the wide world, unless of course you are lucky enough to have got an agent and a book deal already. Put your manuscript away and don’t look at it for ages. Do something else instead. Read, redecorate, go on holiday, and pay attention to the family and friends you have neglected. Anything but pick away at your novel. When you think you have forgotten it, pick it up and read it again. If you have a Kindle you could try saving your manuscript into a PDF and emailing it to your Kindle account. Before you do, change the font size into something huge – 20 or 22, big enough so that there are only about two paragraphs to the page. That way it will fit on your screen in a way that you can read. There is no better way to pick holes in your work than to read it in the way that other people might. As you do, write notes about the plot, structure, characters etc. This is not the time to sort out the typos. That is a long job to be done with a printed version and a highlighter.

7 – Find a writing buddy. This could even be someone you have never met. One of my best writing buddies is someone I met online through my MA course. She is also writing a novel, so I can return the favour when it comes to getting a critical appraisal of my work. And you do need someone who is brave enough to offer serious criticism without fear of being crossed off your Christmas card list. It is lovely to get feedback from your friends and relatives, but they are very unlikely to give you anything other than a boost to your ego. What you need is the cold hard truth about your adverbs!

8 – Get into social networking. It has many purposes. You can find out what’s going on in the big wide world outside your writing room, and you can make virtual friends with other writers and readers. And once you have expanded your platform of social connections you will be in a good place to launch your book upon people who just might be interested enough to read it. Now if that sounds too much like jumping up and down and shrieking “look at me” then rest assured unless you are tweeting all day long about your book it won’t be seen as attention seeking. If you don’t believe me take some time to study twitter and the like. The chances are your attention will be drawn to some new film, book, or recording artist that you had never heard of before, and that you like the sound of.

Don’t you just love being given the name of a new author or book to read? Yeah, me too!

View from the Shop Floor

Jimmy Buchan - this week's must read

As someone who has spent a vast amount of time in bookshops – real and virtual - I thought I had a good idea of what kinds of books people liked to read. However, there is nothing like working in a bookshop to open your eyes to the purchasing decisions people make.

I always thought it would be great to work in a bookshop – and it is. It is absolutely fascinating to watch people browsing the shelves. They pick up books, read the blurb, put them back and reach for another. And then they make a decision.

To buy or not to buy – as a writer with my own novel to sell I would love to know what the magic formula is. I know what kinds of book cover get my interest, but everyone has different tastes. And in the past I have never spent much time in the Crime section or Horror, so I am now learning just how popular some genres are. It is interesting to observe that the fantasy/vampire genre is not so in demand here as it is elsewhere.

Crime novels are really popular in Shetland, so much so that I wish I could change my name to Jo Nesbo. Mr Nesbo’s bookcovers have a strong distinctive style that demands attention, and obviously he writes a good story too, as they fly off the shelves.

Another popular book this week was Trawlerman by Jimmy Buchan, a spinoff from the television series, that seemed to be top of everyone’s father’s day shopping list. It made me wonder what it would be like to have the type of job that inspires dramas, documentaries and bestselling books. Somehow I can’t see some of the job titles on my CV such as Bookseller, Internal Auditor or Civil Servant generating such interest.

Coming back home

The beach - just a short walk from our new house.

It is just over a month since we left Ireland and what a busy crazy month it has been. We spent our last night in Ireland staying with friends in Wexford. Friends that I hadn’t seen in over 13 years, so it was great to catch up and meet new children, and be amazed at how unchanged everyone is.

Then we caught the ferry over to Pembroke and had a quick explore around Tenby. We will be returning there in September when Kevin does his Ironman triathlon. Tenby has an amazing beach and it was a lovely sunny day, so we were able to walk along the shoreline and paddle in the freezing water. Hope it warms up a bit by September!

Then we visited my sister and her family in Newport. It was great to chill out for a couple of days and see Cardiff Bay for the first time since it was redeveloped. I lived in Newport many years ago and it has changed so much since then. It brought back quite a few memories – all good!

Then it was up to Peterborough to see my son’s Grandma which was lovely. Then up to Yorkshire to stay with my mother in law and then finally the long drive to Aberdeen to catch the boat to Shetland. By which time we were, quite frankly, exhausted. Not least because we were driving all the way accompanied by Tiger who complained bitterly in his own unique Siamese way all the way. You did not need a translator to know it was the cat equivalent of “are we there yet?”

We drove off the boat into a rather grey Shetland day and for a moment I felt a sense of anti-climax. But this did not last long. We drove straight to our new house where my first task was to get ready for a job interview at a bookshop.

Much to my amazement I got the job. Perhaps I shouldn’t have been too amazed given my qualifications, but after a year of getting nowhere with my job search in Ireland, my confidence was lower than usual. Much lower! And then an hour or so later I was offered another job. And a few days later I got invited to more job interviews. All of which I have turned down in favour of the bookshop.

Now as most people will realise, retail does not pay well. In fact I nearly fell off my chair in the interview when I was told how much (or rather how little) I would get paid. But working in a bookshop is one of those aspirations I have harboured for many years so I decided to give it a try.

And I am glad I did. It is rather fabulous to be surrounded by books all day. And because it was a bookshop that I have spent a lot of time in as a customer I didn’t exactly need much in the way of induction into where everything was.

The best thing about it is that it is only part-time, three days a week, so plenty of time to get on with my writing and my dissertation.

Reader – it is good to be back home. I can't tell you how fantastic it is to be surrounded by so many good friends. I realise now that I missed it all more than I ever thought possible.