Monday 12 September 2016

The only tips you need to finish your novel

  • Stop browsing Amazon for books about how to write a best seller.
  • Stop writing blog posts about being a writer.
  • Stop spending four hours a day voting in polls/looking for gifs to post for Twitter's #WritingCommunity.
  • Stop chatting to your friends on Facebook writers groups about your lack of motivation/time.
  • Open the document.  Write.

17 comments:

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    1. Written after seeing tons of #MondayBlogs post about how to find the perfect article to help motivate you to write the blog post that will spur you on to decide your writing style so you can then choose the best post to read to help you find the time and the will to ... finish your novel.

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  2. Hahaha! Yes! I love these. Especially this one "Stop reading blog posts about writing." Also, using too much time writing about writing. O_o I just wrote a post about this. (I know. Irony is fun.)

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    1. Yes... as my friend Carol Hedges says, in order to write a novel, apply bum to seat and open laptop. Or words to that effect! As the online writers community gets ever bigger and more helpful, it's all too tempting to suddenly realise you've spent yet another would-have-been-a-writing-day commenting on blog posts on the mechanics of writing, instead of actually doing it. Done it myself!

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    2. I DO say this! The reading blog posts/commenting/being on Twitter etc is important POST writing your novel though, or nobody will be aware you've written it!

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    3. Indeed! I think so many (newer) writers don't really get this writing thing, and think it's about internet community... not actually writing the book!

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  3. Oh the good resolutions I start with every morning!

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    1. Never mind, Jo, you have several good 'uns under your belt - and I'm as bad at Twitter browsing as the next person!

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  4. All true, but I'll add one...or maybe two...stop messing about with boats (okay, maybe not too many guilty people there) and stop teaching. Any job that you have to take home with you will stop you writing...sad but true.

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    1. Val, those are reasons you can't get on with it, not daft delaying tactics, like the ones I outlined!!!! You can go away and do boat stuff and teach with a clear conscience!!

      I wrote this after reading several posts with titles like ' 10 reasons why you aren't finishing your novel' and 'How do you find the motivation to finish your novel', and 'How do you decide on your writing 'voice' and all sorts of stuff like that, that you could spend all day reading, and end up having written.... precisely nothing!

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  5. AKA procrastination at its best! ;) Popping over from #MondayBlogs

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    1. I think what some new writers get slightly skewed is that writing is essentially a lone, rather than a community activity, Carol!

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  6. Great post! And so true. Thanks also for keeping it short, so we can all start writing...now.

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  7. Brilliant! I think that probably happened to us all at the start of our journeys, though most of us shake it off pretty quickly.... hopefully most of us do.

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    1. A look at Twitter each morning makes me wonder, though!

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