Yes, there are probably thousands of these on t’internet, advice you didn’t ask for from people you’ve never heard of. So, well, one more won’t hurt, I suppose. These few items are just a general collection of various ideas, none of which are necessarily sure-fire winning stratagems but, maybe, one or two of them might work for you.
A lot of people talk about starting with a plan, which might include a single sentence into which you can cram the whole plot or idea of your book. Once you have that down, try writing a paragraph about what will make your book unique, what it is about your tremendous story that is so compelling and so different from anything else anyone has ever read, ever. Then, once you’ve completed that easy part, you can start thinking about when you’ll write, where you’ll do it and how much you’ll be able to get onto the page each day.
I did recently find that using the ‘deadline’ tool in Scrivener made me stick with the story, even if I didn’t really know where I wanted to take it next. I know how the thing ends, I know roughly how long those last two or three chapters need to be, it was just I couldn’t quite decide where and how to pull those last few elements together. Having the deadline tool telling me I was 150 words away from my daily target made me start writing a little more, even when I didn’t know exactly what was going to come and it did, amazingly, take me forward. Things were appearing on the page that I hadn’t even anticipated writing, even at this late stage in the story, veering off in one or two directions I hadn’t foreseen.
So, once you finally get there, you have the first draft of your story written – and that is, just written, since the time for editing and rewriting comes later – it might be time to find someone who can give you some feedback. Heck, you might even want to get some advice and insight while you’re writing, chapter by chapter or chunk by chunk. Once the first draft is done, put it aside for a while, write something else or just do something else, just to give yourself some distance from it. You’ll only see the things you need to change when you return to it with fresh eyes, when it’s not something you already know so well that you’re thinking about what comes next, in the next line or the next chapter, while you’re reading it. And be ruthless with your editing; kill your darlings, as they say. You might think you need to delete or rewrite entire scenes, entire chapters. You might even want to despatch characters if they’re no longer working, no longer adding anything to the story. Maybe you’ll be able to return to them later, include them in another piece or write a whole new story focused on them, and that’s fine. Just get the story as good as it can be, to the point where you’re completely happy with it, where there’s nothing more you need to add or remove.
Then there comes the bit where you start thinking who might like to read your story. An important thing to remember here is that you’re not writing it for someone else, with someone else’s possible opinion in mind. You write for yourself and only yourself; there’s no other way to do it. But, once it is done, you might start to think about who will be attracted to it.
Next, you may want to consider marketing the story, to begin letting the world know that it’s done. In these crazy, fast-moving times it seems all writers need to have a website and a Tweeter and a Faceybook and an Instant-o-gram. Personally, I’ve never been a fan of all that. Never had Insta, never had a website, never tweeted and, although I have had FB off—and-on for years, I never looked at it, never wrote anything on it. Now, though, since Porcelain Shelter is coming out, I’ve had to start all these things, and it’s been weird and uncomfortable and I’m still not a fan of it. Maybe you don’t mind it so much, maybe you’re not so nervous about publicising yourself. Either way, ‘tis something it seems we all have to do these days.
When it comes time to finally, actually send your baby out there, all on its own, without you to defend it, to stand up for it when people are mean to it, you’ll need to start by researching publishers and / or agents. Obviously there’s no point sending your blood-splattered gore fest to Mills and Boon, nor your sweet and tender love story to GutSlasher Books, but more than just a casual read through publisher lists would be advised. When you find some you consider to be worth a punt, it then becomes prudent to see whether they list individual staff members along with their list of wants, to see who is most likely to be interested in, and open to, your work. The same applies when looking for agents to represent you; it’s kind of like the literature version of a dating app.
It won’t do to just send them your story. Oh, no. You’ll need a cover letter, one which addresses the particular person who you think might like your work, and you may also need to include a brief description of the story, perhaps a longer synopsis (500 or 600 words that tell the whole story and illustrate the principles of the work) and some details about yourself. Each can want different things, so be sure to read exactly what they’re looking for.
And then, when you’ve done all that, when the story is written and the website is up and the tweets are out there, when you’ve sent copies to publishers and agents (they say sending out three or four at a time, then waiting a few weeks to hear back from them before sending out more, is usually the best idea), that’s when you’ll start getting the inevitable rejection letters. Don’t let them get to you, don’t let them make you start doubting yourself or wondering if this writing malarky really is for you. Rejection is all part of the game and you need to use those ‘thanks, but no thanks’ replies to spur you on, to make you want to improve and to write something new, something better. It doesn’t make you a failure at all – it’s giving up that does that.
At this point I should also mention the self-publishing route, which is another option. Now, I don’t really know a great deal about that, the processes and whatnot, but there’s plenty of information about it online. Just be sure to avoid those vanity presses, the ones who say, yeah, we’ll publish your book; just give us hundreds of your pounds, we’ll print a handful of copies and then, if you’re lucky, we’ll sell a few back to you. There are plenty of horror stories about them and, while there may be some who actually are reputable and really want to help you, it is probably best to steer clear of them.
As I said at the beginning, these are just a few ideas that may help you and, if you want more and better advice, there sure is a lot of it out there. I think the main thing, though, the most important thing is to write what you want to write, exactly how you want to write it. Yes, there are all these rules about how to do it but, if it’s not 100% you that’s bleeding onto the page, you might want to ask yourself why you’re bothering at all. If you’re true to yourself, if you have a good story and can string a few words together then there’ll most likely be someone out there who’ll like it. And if there isn’t, well, hell, you just wrote a book. It’s a hard thing to do and you should take great pride in it. You had an idea, you worked and worked at it, you did the best you could and, maybe most important of all, you finished it. That puts you above a helluva lot of other people, for a start. So now, write another one. Then another one. If you love doing it then you’ll carry on writing, anyway, since you do have to do it for yourself. You will be a writer and, when you keep going, keep writing and keep reading, one day you may very well be an author, too.
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