If I had to advise new writers how to start writing I’d list out four plans to put into action.
FIRST Write
Write every day. Sounds obvious. Writers are people who write. Not people who think about writing. Writing is not a spectator sport – it’s an action taken, a path to walk. Start simple – keep a diary. By writing a journal the writer develops muscle and fluency. Professional screen-writer Julia Cameron, author of ‘The Artist’s Way’ advises all creative folk – actors, playwrights, novelists, executives, to write three pages every morning on waking. Write in long hand on an A4 pad. No planning necessary – let it all stream out. This is called stream-of-consciousness writing. I call it a biro-blether. The important thing is to write.
As part of this get-writing strategy, embrace every opportunity that comes along to write. Need a letter writing, an entry for the parish magazine, web copy for a local business, a friend’s new website? Say yes to writing. Do it. Make yours the writing life. Do not worry about payment. Never get precious and say: This is not my kind of writing – I am a novelist, a playwright. You’re not; you be writer.
Few people professionally know how to write good, clear, concise English. Even in these days of AI there is a burning need for clear copywriters. Take a job as a hack journalist, an advertising copywriter, a PR agent drafting press releases, a comms manager producing in-house staff, magazines and company newsletters. All this forms the weightlifting, the training runs of the competitive athlete – the writer.
Many years ago a publisher of luxury magazines, the sort seen in jewellery stores and up market hotels, contracted me to write copy. “All you need to do is mention the products we’re pushing now and again,” he said. With great seriousness, I wrote a long screed about a lovelorn company director driving home. Jamie parks up on a high hill tuning the car radio into a French radio station. His wife works as an announcer on France-Inter. They missed each other very much. Reminiscing about how he proposed to her he dives into a jewellery store and buys her a bracelet. The publisher never bothered to read the copy; he just ran it as it was. Having written largely about technical and engineering affairs I needed feedback. It never came. In the end it was simply a couple of women working for the jewellery chain and some of their customers who reacted favourably. This is the point publishers and business people don’t take what you’re writing seriously. You can enjoy quite a bit of latitude as long as you stick to the spec.
Write, write every day, work at the craft. Bon chance!
SECOND Read
Read widely and with new focus. Read every day and read with new eyes. Years ago I was working as a hod carrier on a building site. One afternoon walking with a bricklayer down a street in central London he paused by an old building. “Do you see that,? That’s Flemish bond.” We were looking at a brick wall, attractive enough with old timber window frames. I asked him what he meant: Flemish bond is the way the bricks are laid. He pointed out another house. “That’s old English bond,” he said. The point is this man looked at the brick wall in a completely different way than I did. Similarly when you read a magazine article or a book, read it as a writer, not just as a leisure-reader. Ask yourself how the journalist does that. How does she get a natural disaster, a war, or an actor’s downfall into a paragraph or two? An odd literary recommendation, I know but the tabloids provide the best example of this.
However, read books. Few people read books. Be different. Stand out. Read. Ease into this by reading novels and biographies that appeal to you. As an aspiring writer up your game by reading the great classics – Dickens, Scott, Tolstoy, Hardy. Treat it as a job of a work. Put an hour aside. Set to with a cup of strong tea – perhaps a stiff scotch if it’s Dickens. Make notes. Start with A Christmas Carol and A Tale Of Two Cities – Dickens at his best and most accessible. The Pickwick Papers are well worth reading and can be taken a tale at a time. Modern novelists in my opinion do not come much better than Ernest Hemingway. Check out James Lee Burke, Charles Cumming and John Connolly. These are personal recommendations. There are hundreds more.
As part of this process read poetry and see plays. Make an effort to see Shakespeare live. The Bard’s work has to be seen live to be fully appreciated. Check out reviews to avoid PC mash-ups.
By reading we redeem the piles of bricks and cement piled up in the rubble of our imagination. From this construction site we build the solid edifice of our stories. Inspired work, squared away in well aligned Flemish bond.
THIRD Adventure
Standing on the side of a sea loch in the north of Scotland an aging paratrooper looking out across the water said, “Live a life of adventure.” I took him at his word. Sound advice for every man, woman and child. Whatever profession, role or vocation it will go better the more you push the bounds of experience. Push out into adventure in rain, snow, broiling sun, ice-fields and deserts. Challenges, both physical and mental, vouchsafes inspiration. Too many live lives of quiet desperation trapped in front of a screen. Turn it off. Get out and live life at first hand. Writers must manures their experience with a wide range of unusual and eccentric activities.
Maybe mounting an expedition up Kilimanjaro or hiking across the Alaskan tundra is a step too far. However, adventure lies closer at hand. Take that trail run through the woods, hike across the moor, sleep in a car on the seafront. How about an expedition under the stars night walking, or a cycle ride down a forgotten railway line. Every medic in the land will tell you to exercise more. To succeed the only rule is to make it interesting. Trail running through a forests is an adventure. Cycling over distance builds the imagination. Wild water swimming provides excitement. Let the wold teach you again the harsh reality of how little we matter in the face of eternity. Breakout from the quiet desperation of 20th century schizoid man. Adventure takes the bricks and mortar of our wandering minds and lays the brickwork of our new stories. We pause to marvel at the clean lines of our own Flemish bond.
FOURTH i-faith
‘i-faith’ means the whole business of building up confidence in yourself and your own abilities. Writing every day, wide reading and living a life of adventure will greatly assist. However, the most sure fire way of succeeding in any given field is to identify the mission as being of divine providence. To quote the Blues Brothers, ‘we’re on a mission from God.’ The writer is part of an unfolding act of creation – as is any other artist.
The idea of the divine relates to the Logos, the word, that is the logic, the rationale, the explanation for the universe. It is the truth behind all that was, is and will be. By writing we join in an act of cosmic creation unfolding ever since the Big Bang exploded our universe into existence every single constituent DNA part of which knew what to do because of logos. In this light do not doubt your abilities or indeed how good you are at writing. A quick look at the top ten pulp fiction titles, movies and comics will reassure even the most hesitant artiste. Writing is not the preserve of lofty intellectuals or academics.
This is one field where you do not have to be good or great to succeed. Compare this to being an army sniper or a neurosurgeon to see what I mean. By education, grit, guts and determination a self-proclaimed writer can write good credible, publishable material.
To this end get into personal development. The best self-development book in the universe has to be the Bible. Start a structured investigation of these books of wisdom. Back this up with the work of motivational trainers like Jack Black of Mindstore, Tony Robbins, Norman Vincent Peale and Jack Canfield. Watch Rhonda Byrne’s film, The Secret.
I also recommend reading biographies of people who have succeeded against the odds. Check out David Goggins, Cameron Haynes, Jocko Willink and others who inspire. The works of Stephen Pressfield – The War of Art and Julia Cameron – The Artists Way are must-reads. Best-selling author, Joanna Penn has written several books for independent authors on everything from marketing to writing. She runs an excellent weekly podcast: ‘The Creative Penn.’