Writing Tips
Hi everyone!
I’ve had a few people message me now, asking for writing tips for beginners. I thought it best to handle it in a blog post, so here we are!
My first piece of advice is:
FINISH!
You must get to the end of your first draft. It doesn’t matter if it’s too long, too short, or badly written. You just have to finish. You need to write “The End” and know in your heart you’ve written an ending sequence and done your best to round off the plot.
For me, editing is where the magic happens. I recently took this picture of some of the drafts I went through for Every Line Of You. I wrote my very first draft in a hot and messy two weeks, and let me tell you - the first draft was hot and messy. But that’s okay. I’d done it!
You will go through SO many drafts, but the most important one is the first. It doesn’t have to be perfect. Allow yourself to write badly in order to get to the finish line. Jojo Moyes hit the nail on the head when she said:
“You can’t edit a blank page”
She’s absolutely right! Finish it first. Celebrate. Then, make it better.
My second piece of advice is:
Read. All. The. Books.
Some people have said to me they never read because they don’t want it to affect their own writing voice. Reading will only ever make your writing stronger. It’s also the best way to learn. Pick up a book, read it, dissect it, scribble in the margins if you’re that way inclined, but read as much as you can.
Reading in your own genre is also really important. If you want to write a middle grade book, read a middle grade book. If you want to write a sci-fi book, read a sci-fi book. If you want . . . you get the picture.
If you don’t read in your own genre, how can you ever conquer it?
My third piece of advice is:
Share your work.
Find a critique partner - another writer who writes in a similar vein to you - and swap your work. Alternatively, ask a beta reader to read your work and ask them to provide feedback. (Some people make careers out of this and a good beta reader can be expensive, but if you’re lucky you can find someone who’ll do it for free.)
Feedback is so important as a writer. A good critique partner or beta reader can hone in on the finer details of your plot/characters in ways you might never have considered. Getting feedback can be a steep learning curve. (Spoiler alert: if you think your CP/beta reader read it “wrong” and you find yourself explaining to them what the book is really about, your writing was not clear enough.)
Sharing work also helps toughen you up for the editing process, where an agent or an editor may ask you to consider writing out something you love, or adding in something you’d never considered before.
Moreover, reading other writers’ work will help develop your editorial eye. By this I mean you’ll learn to weigh up the mechanics of a book - character arcs, climax, pace, etc - and take everything you learn back to your own writing.
If you’re not sure where to find a critique partner or beta reader, I would advise looking to social media. Facebook has lots of beta reading groups where you can find people to swap with, and Twitter has a wonderful writing community to tap into.
My fourth piece of advice is:
Read your work aloud.
Do you have a partner? A dog? A pet sheep? Read your work to them if not to yourself. Not only does this help you see your writing in a new way (sentence structure, rhythm and word flow all jump out at you when read aloud) but it will also alert you to errors you might not have noticed before (word choice, grammar, etc.)
If you can read it aloud without stumbling, you know you’re writing coherently.
Did I read aloud every page of every draft of Every Line Of You? You bet I did! And it’s SO much better for the effort.
So there you have it, my top four tips for a beginner writer! I’ve also listed a couple of books below if anyone is looking for more of an in-depth “how to” guide.
Good luck!
Naomi x
P.S. If you found this useful, I would love your support by pre-ordering my book:
Writing Books
There are SO many “how to” writing books out there, it’s a bit of a minefield. Sometimes too much advice is not a good thing, and as a beginner, it’s hard to know what to take on board and what to disregard.
Below are a couple of books I really recommend. These are still books I flip open every now and again myself and have been worth every penny.
One of my personal favourites is Save The Cat Writes A Novel by Jessica Brody. It dissects books and breaks their plots down into beats.
I definitely recommend it if you’re struggling to know what should happen when in your own book.
Beat sheets are extremely useful for a writer to rely on.
Another great resource is Into the Woods by John Yorke. This book goes into detail of what makes a story a story.
It covers a lot of the more technical aspects, like plot and characterisation. I consider it an essential toolbox book for any writer - no matter what stage in their career. You NEED this book!