'Starting is the hardest bit, so just get some words down on the page' Kate Raworth, economist and author of Doughnut Economics (Random House Business, paperback £9.99)īUY NOW The Break, £14.00, Amazon 7. So if you find yourself stuck, try stepping away from that keyboard and playfully express your deepest convictions." It worked, bringing a sudden big-picture clarity, after which there was no stopping me. So instead of trying to write more paragraphs, I drew pictures, wrote imaginary tweets for each chapter’s core message, and rode about on a bicycle nattering to myself. "For fourth strained months I was on the verge of giving up on writing my book, but was pulled through by the generous listening of friends, for sure, but also the deep conviction that I had a message worth sharing. 'Step away from the keyboard to remind yourself why you're writing a book' Allie Esiri, writer and author of A Poem for Every Day of the Year (Pan Macmillan hardback £16.99) 6. Secondly, don’t be afraid to give your work to someone else to read for a fresh perspective, but you might save this for when you have more than one line… Finally, when your book has all its lines down, research which literary agencies or publishers are the right fit for your manuscript and find out which real-life human is best to address. "Firstly, you have to make a start: get a line down - even if you don’t like it - you can edit it later. 'Don't be afraid to show your work to other people' Bettany Hughes, historian and author of Istanbul: A Tale of Three Cities (W&N, paperback £12.99) 5. For whatever reason - hormones, hangovers, annoying neighbours, children - can get in the way, so write like a wild thing while the going is good." If the Muse is with you then write furiously while she's your companion. Read with fresh eyes in the morning and ask yourself whether this will be as interesting, moving, game-changing to a wide world as it felt to you the night before. 'Take regular breaks, but write furiously when inspiration strikes' Suzanne O’Sullivan, author of Brainstorm: Detective Stories From the World of Neurology (Chatto & Windus, hardback £16.99)Ĥ. Every time I go over three hundred words I feel like a superstar and it spurs me on further! And do the maths - three hundred words a day is a first draft in eight months." But the real psychological trick is that the bar is set low enough that I often exceed it. To solve that problem, I give myself a small daily writing goal - I usually aim to write three hundred words every day, which feels so achievable that I never dread it. It can be hard to start and harder still to keep the momentum going. ![]() Juno Dawson, author of Clean (Quercus Kids, £7.99) Agents and publishers can only acquire finished manuscripts, so the depressing reality is that you need to turn the wifi off and get writing." ![]() "You actually have to sit down and write all ninety thousand words and they have to be really good - unless you're Beyoncé, no-one is interested in your 'idea', even if your idea is the best idea there ever was. 'Publishers won't buy an idea - you have to show them the finished manuscript' Laura Bates, founder of The Everyday Sexism Project and author of MisogynationīUY NOW Misogynation: The True Scale of Sexism, £7.59, AmazonĢ. Get a thousand words on the page, even if you only end up using 200 of them in the end. If you let yourself self-censor constantly you'll find yourself stuck and struggling to move forward. If you think something is terrible, save it somewhere in case you want to come back to it later on. Try not to think about pleasing everybody who is going to read your work, because you'll end up pleasing nobody and most importantly not pleasing yourself. "My best piece of advice is to listen to your gut and write exactly what you feel, not what you think other people want to read. 'Listen to your gut and write exactly what you feel' And who knows? It might end up being a bestseller. Here, 11 published authors, who will be at Hay Festival between 24 May - 3 June, share their tips and tricks for starting your next masterpiece. While it's easy to romanticise writing a novel on the side, knowing how to actually write a book and where the F to start can be a little daunting.
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