Claire Boston
I have three pieces of advice.
1. Set up a routine. Whether it is times of the day that you write, or number of words per week, make sure you are writing consistently. I woke up at 5.15am each morning, wrote for just over an hour before I had to get ready for work. Then on the weekends or my day off, I had set writing periods. My friends and family learnt that those times were sacred and not to disturb me or ask me to do anything at those times.
2. Read. Know what others writing in your genre are doing, learn from other authors - why did you love that book, or hate it.
3. Find a good critique group or partner. My critique group meets monthly and a week before we meet, we send each other 1-2 chapters of our latest manuscript. We then critique the work and give each other feedback in the meeting. One word of warning: make sure you're ready for constructive criticism and if you don't believe the critique is constructive, find another group.
1. Set up a routine. Whether it is times of the day that you write, or number of words per week, make sure you are writing consistently. I woke up at 5.15am each morning, wrote for just over an hour before I had to get ready for work. Then on the weekends or my day off, I had set writing periods. My friends and family learnt that those times were sacred and not to disturb me or ask me to do anything at those times.
2. Read. Know what others writing in your genre are doing, learn from other authors - why did you love that book, or hate it.
3. Find a good critique group or partner. My critique group meets monthly and a week before we meet, we send each other 1-2 chapters of our latest manuscript. We then critique the work and give each other feedback in the meeting. One word of warning: make sure you're ready for constructive criticism and if you don't believe the critique is constructive, find another group.
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