If you missed Chapter 1 of “The bomb in the shed…” read it here
Hi Everyone
Today I thought I’d share my experiences of starting creative writing… what I found hard and what worked. I think I’m still at the beginning of my journey and I have so much more to learn. But my hope is that what I’ve experienced so far is interesting and helpful to anyone else wanting to do something similar.
So here are my 4 top thoughts on how to start creative writing (if you think that could be your thing)…
1. Be clear why you’re doing it
One thing I’ve learned for sure is that creative writing takes time. A lot of time. I’ve been lucky to have more time to put into it recently, but for a long while I was having to fit it in around a full time job, family and life in general, which is the norm for most writers, even published authors. It takes a degree of dedication and sacrifice.
So it’s good to be clear on why you are doing it and what success looks like. What kind of writing you want to do and why. This can change over time of course, but you need to be asking the question of yourself from the start. For me I knew I wanted to do something more creative after years of being analytical and mired in Powerpoint decks and Excel spreadsheets (ok, I love them). And I knew I wanted to do genre writing; mystery thrillers. I didn’t want to create literary art (I wouldn’t know how), I wanted to create accessible entertainment.
As time has gone on and I’ve done more and more writing (short stories and on my second novel) I think I’ve got an even clearer idea of the kind of stories I want to write; about ordinary people, struggling to deal with the consequences of living in a not-quite-ordinary world. Speculative fiction that combines the day to day and mundane with sci-fi and the fantastical. That’s why I call my newsletter ‘Just Beyond Ordinary’.
2. Just write
This is a bit of a writing cliche, but I think that’s because it’s true. It’s all to easy to think about writing, to plan to write, to talk about writing. But until you get into the habit it’s really hard to actually get on and write. I spent years and years thinking about it but not actually doing it. That’s why a lot of authors and teachers advise people to ‘just write’.
And it doesn’t matter what you write, just get used to getting things down in words and go from there. I think one of the biggest barriers to ‘just write’ is the worry that what you write won’t be any good. Don’t worry it probably won’t. That’s normal.
There’s a famous quote attributed to Ernest Hemingway that sums it up for me…
“The first draft of anything is shit.”
Expect it to be, and expect to have to work on it to make it not shit. That’s the craft and that’s the joy. “Writing is editing.” (Apparently the twist in the the sixth sense didn’t make it into the screenplay until something like the 16th draft.)
Some people advise keeping a journal, I never did (I’m not sure anyone’s quite ready to read my diary), but I can see how that would help. For me short stories were a good way of getting started. At 1,000 words or so it’s less daunting than taking on a full novel and you can experiment with a range of stories, genres, styles and characters really quickly. Short stories are an art form in themselves and distilling a complete story into so few words is tough to master. Even so I think they’re great for getting going and I didn’t start my first novel until I got to the point when I had a long form story I was bursting to tell.
3. Be ready to learn
This isn’t the first time I tried writing a novel, I had a go about a decade ago and it was a complete disaster. Why? Because I thought that I could just sit down and write well, with no-one to teach me how to do it properly. That’s kind of ridiculous.
I like to compare it to golf (which I’m shit at, so I don’t play). If you wanted to get good at golf you wouldn’t go out there and just hit ball after ball and expect to get better (unless you were some rare golfing genius). You would need someone to teach you how to hold the club, the technique for a good swing, to give you feedback on what you’re doing wrong and right so you can adjust and form good habits. The same is true of writing.
This time around I was determined to do things differently. I was going to do a creative writing MA, but then decided to get 1 on 1 coaching instead, which ended up suiting me better . I also had a couple of people giving me feedback from a reader’s point of view, which is helpful too. However you do it I think getting lessons, and in particular regular feedback on your writing from someone with expertise, is vital. It can be daunting to open yourself up to criticism and have someone tear apart your writing line by line, word by word (and believe me, that’s what happened), but when you embrace it it’s also valuable.
4. Have homework, targets and deadlines
Ok, that doesn’t sound very exciting. The whole point of doing something more creative is for it to feel free and spontaneous, right? Maybe it’s just me, but I don’t get much done if everything’s too free and spontaneous. I really benefited from giving myself some structure and routine.
Finishing a novel is a LOT of work, the writing and then the continuous editing. You’re doing well if you finish within a year, I think the most prolific authors take at least six months. So I think some discipline is needed to get through it.
This is where having a tutor helped. With a catch up session booked, homework set and a deadline to submit your writing you have to get things done, or waste everyones time and your own money. After a while goal-setting becomes a habit, so many hours writing a day, a word count target, the number of chapters a month. You’re not going to hit every target you set, but as your body of work grows I think the satisfaction of getting stuff done and making progress far outweighs the fear of giving up freedom and spontaneity for routine.
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I would say creative writing is a great craft to get involved in if you throw yourself into it and really embrace it. And the skills you learn can influence other part of your working life too. After all, a lot of what we do as story telling of one kind or another. So if you’re interested give it a go.
That’s it, hope that was interesting. Any comments or questions let me know.
Jonathan
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