Write Every Day

As we’re currently in the middle of National Novel Writing Month, it seemed fitting to write a post about writing long fiction. And one piece of advice I’d give to anyone attempting to write a longer piece of fiction is to try to write a little every day. It sounds simple but it’s a lot harder to keep up than it sounds. Everyone comes up against writer’s block and everyone becomes disenchanted with what they’re writing if it takes a long time.

The important thing to remember is that all writing is in the re-writing. It’s one of those cheesy phrases that is continually repeated on creative writing courses but is actually true. As James A. Michener said ‘I’m not a very good writer; however, I’m an excellent re-writer’.

I often feel disinclined to write when I’m feeling uninspired. Because I know that, unless I feel inspired, my writing will be awful. But that doesn’t matter. You need to encourage yourself to write every day, even if what you’re writing is terrible, safe in the knowledge that when you go back over it and improve it, it will become a masterpiece. You need to remind yourself that a first draft is supposed to be bad. All writing is in the re-writing.

I came across a YouTube video entitled How To Write a Novel that completely outlines what I’m trying to say here so give it a watch.

The other temptation with writing longer fiction, especially if you're trying to write every day, is to jump ahead in the story to the bits that you, personally, find more interesting or exciting. I wouldn’t necessarily advise against that. But personally, I find that kills my motivation and I can never find the enthusiasm to fill in the gaps.

So what I’ve started doing is, whenever I feel the temptation to jump ahead, I write it in a separate notebook rather than in the actual word document itself. Of course, you may not write in a word document like me. But, whatever you write your stories in, I would strongly advise keeping a separate document or notebook to write in whenever you feel like jumping ahead in the story.

It sounds ridiculous but convincing myself that the idea I’m writing down isn’t part of the official story yet makes it easier for me to continue writing the bits I don’t find as exciting. It’s just an idea I’m jotting down that I’ll be able to insert later when I get to that part. Manipulating my own psychology in this way can stop me from killing my own motivation with over-enthusiasm.

Of course, this may not work for everyone but the purpose of this blog is to let you know what I’ve found particularly helpful in my own creative writing exploits. So those are my two tips for writing long fiction: 1) write a little every day, even if you think it is rubbish and 2) don’t jump ahead in the story unless you’re writing it in something that is completely separate from the actual story itself. Give it a go and let me know in the comments if it’s at all helpful.

Thanks for reading.