Master Grazia’s life skills
The first step to writing that novel is giving yourself permission. You don’t need an agent or publisher to descend like a fairy godmother; you need to take yourself seriously as a writer.
Likewise, waiting for inspiration to strike could mean you’re waiting forever. While it’s great if an idea appears fully formed, it is absolutely fine (and most writers’ reality) to put effort into working it out. What can be helpful is to distil it into an ‘elevator pitch’ – what you would tell a stranger about your novel in a few sentences. When you’re starting out, it can be tempting to pack in every twist you’ve ever conceived, so this can help your idea from becoming too tangled.
Then, at some point – the earlier the better, before you scare yourself too much – you start to write. While many writers talk about getting up early to tap away, it’s about what suits you. If all you have free is two hours on a Sunday morning, that’s what you use. That said, ‘writing’ in front of the TV is a surefire way to finish with a blank page.
You may be a ‘plotter’ (sketching out your novel in advance, which I do over a few pages, before sticking index cards marking plot points on a pin board) or a ‘pantser’ (writing by the seat of your pants, which others swear by). Either way, you’ll likely reach a point where you are wondering what happens next. If you’re stuck, get away from the screen. Walking and, yes, sleeping can both encourage your unconscious to work on a knotty problem for you.
The key thing is to keep going until you have a finished draft, before you go back to the beginning and start to refine it. As for getting published? That’s another story...
Emma’s novel ‘Where The Missing Go’ (Orion) is out now