About a year ago I had a really vivid unusual dream. When I woke up I wrote down briefly what it was. I know it will make the most amazing Sci Fi book because it was so far out I have no idea how my brain even dreamt it in the first place! Anyway i've started writing it, I even did a lot of book planning pre starting to write it! But i've come across writers block because i've never done this before! So if anyone can give me some advice on how to continue I would be grateful!
some questions/ideas/tips. determine what it's gonna be about - seems you've got that - that's usually one of the hardest parts. work on it every day - set a daily word count goal. set aside time to work on it every day - lots of people say 'oh, I'll skip today and catch up tomorrow' and then wind up sunk by that. set aside a specific place to write - back porch, coffee hut, zoo, etc - doesn't matter where, after a while just being in that space puts you in the writing frame of mind set a total word count - 75k words is typical for a novel give yourself weekly goals/deadlines - generally a word count, so it keeps you honest and objective. get feedback, and get it early - get a trusted friend to read your stuff, tell them you want them to note if there are plot holes, if things don't make sense, etc and tell you about it. no matter what - finish the book. nobody cares about what someone 'almost' wrote. once you have a finished manuscript, then you can do cleanup on it, tidy it up a bit, polish it. but you've got to have something to work /with/ first. commit to selling it. - finished manuscript and final draft does nothing sitting in a drawer. - and you're gonna have to embrace failure on this, a lot of publishers won't even bother to look at a new author - doesn't matter. keep shamelessly promoting it - if someone eventually picked up twilight and 50 shades of grey, someone's going to buy yours. write another one. most people are wholly embarrassed by their first book - so write another one. it's like any other skill, the more you practice, the better you get.
My advice is just write anyway. Write something you know probably won't even make the book. Write it as if you're ten and don't care whether it's good. Write an in-depth description of one of the characters or locations, including details that don't need to be in the final story. Keep doing this until you're inspired again. It works for me anyway : )
I especially like that bit. I used to get totally stuck if I got stuck.. Then I learned to just carry on. That dialogue that sounds stilted can be re-written later.
there's a lot to be said for that method as well. keep a diary or notebook of random ideas that you can scribble anything in. when you get stuck, flip to a random page, point at something and go 'can I use this? how?'
Look for anything similar to what you want to write, such as a move, song, or whatever. Whenever logic fails, think of how you can assemble it more like a puzzle and allow the book to reveal its own words.
As Kipling wrote:- "I keep six honest serving-men - They taught me all I knew; Their names are What and Why and When - And How and Where and Who". .A good reference point that also works also as inspiration.
Thanks for the good advice everyone! I’ve tried to write a bit more over the last few days and although I haven’t done much I do feel a bit more confident about it. I definitely overthink the story so I have tried to chill out and let the words flow more..... I’m determined to finish this book one day!!! For those who have written a book how long in general does it take you to complete?
first draft usually takes 3-5 weeks, if you've time to commit every day. editing (and doing it well, with rewrites of certain parts, spelling, continuity, etc) another 2-3 weeks. so overall, anywhere from 6 weeks up. I look at it like cooking.. 'It's finished, when it's finished, and not a moment before.' don't rush, just keep a steady pace. Rushing is a good way to burn yourself out.
It took me ten years and I'm still making tiny adjustments : ) I only got serious for the last four of those years though.. I sometimes find really old bits of writing with the same characters in, but they're different from where they ended up.
