Here’s a guest post from Virtual Writing Group with a collection of highlights.

Self-doubt affects us all

There were a few questions about how to deal with ‘imposter syndrome’ and the worry that we’re not good enough as writers. Judging by the responses from the authors, this is completely normal and never really goes away. Although this might sound a bit demoralising, Suzanne Ewart has a great way of dealing with it:

Ha! I’m a bit obsessed with finding out famous authors’ stories about their road to publication. It helps so much to know that even successful writers face rejection after rejection and it’s just part of the process. Makes you think, if they’ve done it…

— Suzanne Ewart (@SuzanneEwart1) June 9, 2019

Juggling writing and life stuff is key

The Q&A authors have clearly put a lot of work into writing and continue to do so on their path to publication. They all carve out time between other things including childcare, physical challenges and work commitments. But they were also clear that you have to be kind yourself because guilt will just use up valuable energy that you could be using on writing.

There is no ‘single’ route to publishing

The authors have all taken different journeys on their path to publication. M.S. Clements carefully weighed up the pros and cons of traditional versus self-publishing before deciding to branch out. As she says about self-publishing:

It isn’t the ‘Cheats way out’. You have to look at it as a business. Be pragmatic and understand to do it properly means research, facts and figures. Not at all glamarous. @IndieAuthorALLI have masses of advice. I strongly suggest you start there.

— M S Clements (@MSClementsbook) June 9, 2019

Finding an agent doesn’t have to rely on ‘insider’ connections

Some of the authors were signed up by their agents through the slush pile, though a few had taken opportunities through courses and writing festivals to meet agents (and of course, other writers) when they could. However, Anita Frank’s experience shows that none of that essential:

I was slush pile. Never done comps or courses or 1-2-1s. I subbed to 12 in April and had offers by July. I had officially gone beyond ‘if you don’t hear within 2 months it’s a no’ for my agent when I had the full request, so don’t give up hope!

— Anita Frank (@Ajes74) June 9, 2019

Learning the craft of writing can come from unexpected sources

Although the authors made some book recommendations on the craft of writing, including The Emotion Thesaurus and Reading Like a Writer, they learn from all sorts of sources. As Sally Doherty said:

YES!! Everything I have learnt about writing so far has been through twitter advice, blog posts and through feedback. This is what works for me. Although I do feel ‘naughty’ for not reading craft books.

— Sally Doherty writes 👩‍💻 (@Sally_writes) June 9, 2019

Finding the right kind of beta readers can be a great help

Many of the authors had beta readers during their writing process and found it helped them hone their drafts. They said it was important as a writer to learn to understand what feedback to take on and when to follow your gut. And as Nikki Smith says, you have to find the right kind of beta reader:

I think if no one has read it yet ask someone, preferably published or an avid reader & perhaps start with the first 3 chapters. Ask them for what they think isn’t working & what is – no point if you just get positive feedback as it won’t help in the long term!

— Nikki Smith (@Mrssmithmunday) June 9, 2019

Learning to find the balance between research and story is crucial

The authors who needed to do lots of research talked about the importance of accuracy whilst always remembering that it’s the story that needs to come first. As historical fiction author Carolyn O’Brien put it:

Read, read, read keep a note of what you’ve read, try and verify from another source, repeat! And, eventually, when you feel you’ve repeated enough times, remind yourself you’re writing fiction! (Wow, why is it so much easier to give advice??!!)

— Carolyn O’Brien (@CarolynManc) June 9, 2019

This is just a snapshot of the Twitter Q&A, too see the full conversation, check out the Virtual Writing Group’s thread.

Thanks to Virtual Writing Group for this great blog post and for asking me on the Q&A. There were lots more questions about finding an agent in particular and I’ll be kicking off a series of blog posts about this soon, so sign up to the feed if you want to stay in the loop.

The post Writing and publishing a novel tips on the VWG author Q&A appeared first on Neema Shah Author.

Write every day.

Don’t worry about writing every day.

Pay attention to daily/weekly/monthly word counts.

Don’t worry about word count, just make every one of your words count.

Show, don’t tell.

It’s OK to tell sometimes.

Bewildering, isn’t it? So does that mean that half the advice out there is wrong?

I learnt through my own trial and error when writing my novel that there are probably as many ways to write a novel (or short story or non-fiction) as there are books in the world. But that’s what makes writing and reading so varied and exciting. I think the only way to know if the advice works for you is by trying it out and deciding whether it fits with the way you like to work – or at least, the ways that fit best around your life and commitments.

So, here are a few of the things that work for me.

Reading Into the Woods
I love Into the Woods by John Yorke. It helped me to understand structure and plot more than any other book or resource. It has lots of fun examples, mainly from film and TV, such as Thelma and Louise and The Godfather, but virtually all the advice applies to writing fiction of all kinds. It explores the structure of a piece as a whole, but also the structure of a scene or piece of dialogue and how to build conflict and tension throughout your story.

Trying to write every day
I found that writing a little every day kept me connected to the story and made it easier to jump back in again the next day. I didn’t manage it all the time. There were times when I felt ill or just wanted to veg out and read or watch someone else’s work all day. I’ve tried not to put so much pressure on myself. There’s no point giving ourselves guilt trips all the time, it just uses up the energy we need for writing, right?

Writing isn’t the only way to ‘write’
I set weekly and monthly word targets to have some sense of moving forward (not that I hit them most of the time), but I also needed time to just let things soak in. It’s the classic ‘in the shower’ moment, when you find your mind is quiet enough to let other ideas come to the fore. So, on those days when I just couldn’t face writing a word, I gave myself time to walk and cook and you know, live that thing called life, and let the story develop in my mind.

What’s on the page is only half the story, the reader does the rest
It’s important to world-build and create multi-dimensional characters, but I learnt that I also needed to leave enough space for the reader to fill in the gaps. If I give the reader every single detail, it slows down the pace and doesn’t allow them to emotionally connect with the story in the same way to them. Which brings me onto my final point…

Show and tell. Tell and show.
This was one of the most challenging things to grasp and if I’m honest, I still wrestle with getting the balance right. But I learnt, particularly during the excellent Jericho Writers’ Self Edit course, that you do need both. There’s a whole ton of stuff that I could write about this, which I’ll do another time, but if you want to vary your pace and get to the heart of a character’s experience, it’s sometimes OK to ‘tell’, or to skip detailing that entire journey on the bus and move straight to the juicy bits of the story.

And one piece of advice that doesn’t work for me…
In many ways, I pretty much ignore the whole ‘Write what you know’. My novel is set before I was born and tells the story of a family that are displaced from the country they call home. Never experienced that before, thankfully. I like writing about what I don’t know. Why? For the same reason that I like to read. To learn about new people, places and experiences.

So what’s the writing advice that works for you? And what’s the ‘popular’ advice that does absolutely nothing for you or your writing? I’d love to know what works for you so get in touch.

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