Shahad
asked
Elan Mastai:
hey Elan, can I have tips? I'm writing my first book and I'm struggling...
Elan Mastai
Not knowing the specifics of your circumstances, it's a bit hard to answer. But generally speaking:
1. Give yourself permission to write badly. You're going to rewrite your book so many times anyway. It's always easier to rewrite something that exists than to create material from scratch. Just write it badly and fix it later.
2. Have you figured out your ending? Sometimes the struggle comes from not knowing where you're going, like packing the car for a road trip with no destination in mind. Why are you writing this book? What do you have to say, ultimately, about your character's journey? Choose an ending, even if you change it later, and then the book is all the things that have to happen to get you there.
3. Don't think about writing a book. Think about writing a page. Think about writing a paragraph. Small, manageable goals. I wrote my first draft 250-500 words a day for five months. I didn't think about writing a novel. I thought about writing 250-500 words a day. To put that in context, this answer is 188 words long.
Hope this helps!
1. Give yourself permission to write badly. You're going to rewrite your book so many times anyway. It's always easier to rewrite something that exists than to create material from scratch. Just write it badly and fix it later.
2. Have you figured out your ending? Sometimes the struggle comes from not knowing where you're going, like packing the car for a road trip with no destination in mind. Why are you writing this book? What do you have to say, ultimately, about your character's journey? Choose an ending, even if you change it later, and then the book is all the things that have to happen to get you there.
3. Don't think about writing a book. Think about writing a page. Think about writing a paragraph. Small, manageable goals. I wrote my first draft 250-500 words a day for five months. I didn't think about writing a novel. I thought about writing 250-500 words a day. To put that in context, this answer is 188 words long.
Hope this helps!
More Answered Questions
Tom Fletcher
asked
Elan Mastai:
Late to the appreciation party, but AOWT really is a superb time travel novel, both in concept and execution. Time travel is obviously a difficult sub-genre to make an original *and* believable story out of, but which would you say is the most difficult (either ones you plan to tackle, or do not)? Which would you say is your Everest... so to speak??
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Jan 03, 2018 08:36PM · flag