Novelicious.com | The Women's Fiction Blog for Readers and Writers

@CescaWrites' Beat the Block #11 (Video)

Cesca Major brings you a bi-weekly tips video on how to beat writer's block, overcome procrastination or time management problems, and make sure that your work-in progress is actually making progress! 

You can email Cesca with any Beat the Block questions or suggestions at Cesca@novelicious.com

This week, Cesca talks about keeping track of the pace of your novel.

 

Do you have any tips for pacing your story? Join the discussion in the comments below...

Tracy Bloom’s Top Five Writing Tips

Tracy Bloom's debut novel, No-One Ever Has Sex On A Tuesday, is still riding high at the top of Amazon's Kindle Chart. Here Tracy shares with us her top tips for writing.

1. Don’t think about it too hard. The harder you think the less you write.

2. Sometimes you’ve just got to write it down even if it’s rubbish. If you write for long enough something good eventually pops out.

3. If you hear someone say something that strikes a chord in some way, write it down. They are little golden nuggets that always come in useful.

4. Join a writing group/class. Really helps to work out if you are any good or not before you plan your retirement based on your international best-selling novel!

5. Enjoy it – when you write something down that you know is exactly what you were trying to say – take a moment – today you were a great writer.

My Writing Room – Alice Peterson

Alice Peterson is the author of two bestselling novels, 'Ten Years On' and 'Monday to Friday Man'. Her new book, By My Side, is published as a paperback on 18th July.

 

© Paul Donnellan

 

In an ideal world, I’d love to have an office – my own little space that’s separated from the rest of the house. However, that’s not possible so I have divided my sitting room into two by placing two sofas back to back to give the impression part office/part sitting room.

The Secret Dreamworld of an Aspiring Author by Anna Bell – Devil's in the Detail

Every reader hates typos, we all know that, but there’s a kind of typo that, as a reader, throws me over the edge. The wrong detail. I was reading a ‘big six’ published book this week and the heroine went to meet her new father-in-law-to-be, only he had her surname, rather than the hero’s. Cue head scratching and me having to go backwards in the book to try and work out if it was the heroine’s father acting very strangely, or whether the surname was wrong. What might seem like an innocent oversight made me wonder about the entire quality of the book. So just how do we try and make sure all the details in our books add up? 

Now, I’m no stranger to the odd wrong detail in a novel. We all know I made mistakes when I first self-published Millie and the American Wedding, and I’m sure it wouldn’t surprise you to know I had written a scene in where I’d put the wrong characters’ name in. Embarrassing, confusing for the reader, and very hastily changed.

Write Your Novel – Chasing Silence

There is one thing that is absolutely essential for writing, especially for writing something as arduous and complex as a novel, and that is silence.

I don't mean actual silence, I mean mental silence. A quiet space in which your imagination can breathe. I mean the focus that comes when your gaze is turned thoroughly inward and the real world is but a shadow.

As a novelist you have to chase that silence and, when you find it, guard it fiercely. It's no good trying to write your magnum opus (or even your crappy first draft) while your muse is competing with Twitter, Facebook, your to-do list and that argument you had with your sister/boyfriend/postman.

Some writers, like Virginia Woolf, require a room of their own, others just a pair of headphones. Some people like loud music or the television on, some people need complete quiet. There are writers who like being surrounded by humanity and find the gentle hubbub of a coffee shop perfect for concentration.

Novelicious Chats To... Cathy Marie Buchanan

Today we're talking to Cathy Marie Buchanan author of The Painted Girls and The Day the Falls Stood Still. Her most recent book, The Painted Girls is set in belle époque Paris and is 'inspired by the real-life model for Degas's Little Dancer Aged 14 and the era's most famous criminal trials'.

Can you tell us a little about your average writing day?

I generally try to put fingertips to keyboard to work on my novel in progress at 8:30a.m. five days a week and write for at least four hours before moving onto the many other tasks—posting on facebook, tweeting, organizing in-person and skype visits to book clubs, preparing for events, participating in interviews, etc.—that can easily fill up a writer’s day,

When you are writing, do you use any celebrities or people you know as inspiration?

My two novels and my work in progress are all inspired by lesser known historical figures—The Painted Girls by Marie Van Goethem, the model for Edgar Degas’s sculpture Little Dancer Aged Fourteen, The Day the Falls Stood Still by William “Red” Hill, Niagara’s most famous Riverman; my work in progress by an Iron Age druid, preserved in a bog until modern times. None qualify as celebrities.

Mary Grehan’s Top Five Writing Tips

Mary Grehan is an Irish author whose debut novel, Love is the Easy Bit, has recently been released. You can read our review of it here. Mary's top tips for writing are...

1. You don’t have to repeat yourself. Repeating yourself is nagging and the reader does not want to be nagged. The astute reader will get it first time.

2. Vary the pace of your writing, from slow to fast and back to slow.

3. Read your writing aloud, all of it, not just the dialogue. This will tell you if it is flowing. It will also show you the pace of the writing which you may want to vary.

4. You can use dialogue to expose the quirks and ticks of human behaviour, show how people don’t listen to each other, how they say one thing and do another, how they say one thing and think another, how they repeat themselves, how they contradict themselves…

5. You might have written the most clever, lyrical piece of prose, but if it is not serving the story or your characters, it will have to go. Sorry!

The Secret Dreamworld of an Aspiring Author by Anna Bell – The Motivation Factor

Last week I wrote about what makes a good book deal, and the overwhelming response I had on Twitter and in the comments section, was that aspiring authors didn’t seem to care how much money they were offered, just as long as they became a published author. So if money isn’t the motivation for being traditionally published, what is?

As terrifying as it is as a writer to let your book be read, ultimately writers want their books to be enjoyed by lots of people. With my books, I want to make as many people smile or laugh as I can. I love that people tweet and email me to say that they loved my book or that it made them cry; there is nothing nicer than getting that kind of message. Yet, as a self-published author, I’m lucky enough to get those comments already without being traditionally published. I’ve got Millie and the American Wedding on Wattpad, and that’s had over 400,000 reads hundreds of comments from readers. With readers able to be reached by free platforms and self-publishing, the lure of the reader can’t be our motivator for trying for the traditional deal.

Write Your Novel – The Three Act Structure

Whatever I may have said about writing advice being a 'choose what suits you' buffet, I do think there's one thing a novel has to have – structure.

I don't care if your structure is based on a spiderweb or a patchwork quilt, the hero's quest or the colours of the rainbow, it just has to have one.

The most commonly used structure, certainly in genre fiction and screenplays, is the three act structure. This classic framework was described by Aristotle and is still popular today for a reason. It follows our instinctive understanding of stories: beginning, middle and end.

The first act (the beginning) includes the event that kicks everything off (often called the inciting incident), plus an introduction to the characters and the world of the story.

Wendy Wax’s Top Five Writing Tips

Wendy Wax is the author of eight novels, and has been published in ten countries! Her newest book, While We Were Watching Downton Abbey, was released last month.

1. Put your butt in chair as often as possible.

2. Turn off the internal sensor and write. Get it down on the page without worrying about how good it is. You can fix anything but a blank page.

3. Know your characters. Understand where they came from and where they’re going. It’s all about their growth. Understand that this can take time.

4. Seek out a community of writers. Nothing is better than the support of others on the same path.

5. Be prepared to do the work. Study your craft and develop as a writer. There are no shortcuts or easy paths.

My Writing Room – Lucy Diamond

This week Lucy Diamond shows us around her office. Her latest novel, Me and Mr Jones, is released on Thursday.

I have had many writing spaces over the years: a tiny folding table in our basement Brixton flat; up in the attic of our Brighton house (accessed only by a pull-down ladder, i.e. total health and safety nightmare) and now, at last, I have a proper office in our current home in Bath.  A room of my own. I love it.

The Secret Dreamworld of an Aspiring Author by Anna Bell – What’s a good deal?

As an aspiring author, there’s a longing to be a fully-fledged published author, and despite the research we may do on how to write the novel and how to approach and find agents, one of the things that remains elusive is how much authors get paid. Do we know how much money authors make? 

There aren’t many careers that you can’t get a feel for what you should be paid. For a normal job you usually get adverts which come with a nice little hourly rate or annual salary. When I used to work in the museums industry, the Museums Association even published expected salaries for different positions at certain skill and experience levels. But have you ever tried to google what an author makes? And have you actually succeeded?

Write Your Novel – A Word On Advice

Without wishing to get outrageously self-referential, I'd like to have a word (okay, several words) about writing advice.

Despite writing to you every week with nuggets of writerly wisdom, I think it's important to say that I'm not offering a set of rules or instructions. In fact, if anyone does claim that their particular method is the One True Path, then I respectfully suggest that you run in the opposite direction. 

There's no right way to write a novel. It's all about figuring out your own process (and trying not to lose your mind when you realise that process might differ from book to book).

Also, the end result is the thing. Once you have a finished book, nobody needs to know that you wrote the first draft in Alphabetti Spaghetti or that the main character was originally a fish.

Charlotte Betts' Top Five Writing Tips

Charlotte Betts is the author of The Apothecary's Daughter - winner of the 2013 Romantic Novelists' Association RoNA for Historical Romantic Novel - as well as her latest book, The Painter's Apprentice, recently gave us her top writing tips.

1) I always go for long solitary walks, while I’m working on the plot. The rhythmic pace seems to unlock the creative side of the brain.

2) Write every day – even if it’s only a sentence. That way the story is always in your mind and it’s not hard to start again.

3) Write an outline. I prefer an outline as a writing tool to a synopsis. You can write the whole novel in miniature and it makes it easier to see where it doesn’t work. You can make changes here without losing chapters of work.

• 4) Join a writing group. My own excellent group, WordWatchers, will give me truthful feedback and cheer me on when I can’t see the way forward.

5) Keep a notebook with you at all times. If you don’t write a brilliant idea down immediately, you’ll have forgotten it by teatime. I keep old notebooks and find them a useful source of inspiration.