How to write a novel
Last month, we talked about finding your plot or, more specifically, why you shouldn’t despair if you haven’t. My advice was to play with characters, scenarios or settings that interest you. The problem is that this can feel rootless. It is hard to have faith if you don’t know where you’re going. The best way to keep believing is to carve out a regular writing slot.
You will have heard this before. Writers always advise you to ‘write every day’. This used to chill my blood. I wasn’t a ‘proper’ writer because I didn’t feel a burning need to write daily. I didn’t have the time, or the energy. I still don’t. Mostly, I write during school terms, on weekdays. I head for my writing shed in the garden and stay there from 9am until 12.30pm. Later, I do other work – but the morning is for fiction.