Staying consistently motivated with your writing is absolutely key when it comes to finishing a novel. Finding ways to show up and write even when life gets in the way (or we just don’t feel like it!) is all part of making writing a priority and growing as an author, but it’s not always easy to focus.
Read MoreIt takes most of us a fair amount of time to finish writing a book. When you're writing alongside a job or other commitments, it isn't a project you can sprint through in a weekend, fuelled by that initial buzz of 'new idea' energy.
Read MoreI make a plan for just about every piece of writing I do. For a blog post, it's often just a series of bullet pointed notes or a few key headings to direct my writing, but for a full novel it's a much more in depth outline of the plot and characters.
Read More30 days of writing, 50,000 words - impossible? It does sound totally overwhelming, but taking part in NaNoWriMo is one of the fastest ways to go from 0 words to a finished first draft.
Read MoreWriting a book is a pretty big undertaking, and as a project it brings up all sorts of worries, doubts and questions before we even type that first line. Do we have a good enough idea?
Read MoreHave you heard the saying, 'Everyone's got a book in them'? I actually googled the phrase when I was writing my ebook, Deep Roots, and found that the majority of articles popping up in response were all about why not everyone should write a book, which was disappointing because I totally disagree.
Read MoreNational Novel Writing Month (often shortened to the catchy 'NaNoWriMo') is a month long virtual writing event and 30 day challenge, which takes place every year in November (and there are also sessions in April and July).
The aim is to write 50,000 words over the course of 30 days (around 1,666 per day), which is practically enough for a finished first draft (depending on what genre you write).
Read MoreSelf-belief is such an important thing to develop as a writer. When it comes to making a start on a big project like a book, submitting or sharing work (with the potential for criticism or rejection), or even just in having the will to keep at it when the words are slow and difficult, a strong sense of self-belief can give you the resilience you need to keep going.
But how do we cultivate that belief in the face of self-doubt, impostor syndrome and all the other wobbles and obstacles that pop up as part of the writing process?
Read MoreMost larger writing projects require a certain amount of research, whether you're planning a novel that needs some historical accuracy, or preparing for a piece of non-fiction that needs some up-to-date theory behind it. Understandably, this kind of work can quickly end up spiralling out of your control. Before you know it, you're months into a writing project, with pages and pages of research and no idea how to begin using it.
Read MoreWhen it comes to committing to a big writing project like a novel or book, I totally understand that feeling of resistance that pops up for lots of us. Doubt and fear play a role, definitely, but one of the more surprising obstacles can be a sense of guilt. How can we overcome this guilt and seek out a mindset which acknowledges the value in nurturing our creativity?
Read MoreLong term writing projects (like a novel, or even a collection of short stories or essays) can be very daunting before we take that leap and actually make a start. Like looking up at a mountain when you’re stood at the bottom, all you can see is the sheer scale of the work before you.
Read MoreAfter making good progress for a few solid weeks, I finally got the ‘fear’ with my current writing work-in-progress.
The fear for me comes in a few different forms, but this time it was the sheer overwhelm that comes when faced with the scale of crafting a whole novel.
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