Writing, by Jenny O'Brien

Before you start

Stephen King reads 100 books a year. He writes one.

Read, read and then read some more. All genres. Read the newspapers and magazines too. These are great breeding grounds for ideas. Only by reading can you learn what you want to write and in what genre. Writers tend to write in the genres they read in.
Visit bookshops. Physical are better than online for this. Which books are grouped together on the same shelf? Which shelf would you like your book to be on?
Check out online resources. Local writing groups. Facebook ones. Substack. Writing is the loneliest of professions. It ranks beside living on a desert island. Making friends in the business will make it easier. Yes, writing is a job like any other.
Do your research. How long is the book going to be? Genres have set word counts. Search them up before you start.

Planning your writing

There’s no two ways about it, you’re going to be either a Planner or a Pantser (someone who goes by the seat of their pants). Pantsers don’t plan. They start with a blank page and write. Don’t knock it. Ever hear of Philip Pullman? He describes writing as moving from the shadows into the light. Lisa Jewell is one too. As is Valerie Keogh.

There’s nothing wrong with either route and you’ll quickly discover which one you’re going to take. For planners there are lots of tricks and techniques to help you along. For pantsers there are no rules.

How to start

Just start. That’s it. It’s like jumping off a cliff but with a great big safety net to stop you from damaging yourself. That initial jump is also the hardest part. Once you start, you’ll find it’s difficult to stop.

There’s no need for a creative writing course. There’s no need to tell anyone. Sometimes it’s easier not to. Stops all those “how’s it going?” questions.

Set up a routine. Writing is an easier hobby in that there are always a few minutes you can squeeze out of your day to write. You might just not know it yet. Some people set their alarm 15 minutes early. That’s 300 words, over 2,000 a week. In nine months, that’s a first draft.
Set some goals. A daily word count is a good idea.
Don’t limit yourself to only writing on your laptop. Keep a notebook by your bed, in the car and so on. Use phone tech: Siri and Alexa note functions, voice dictation on your mobile. I use all these and more.

You’re a writer now. Yup. A writer is someone who writes. Only that.

What to write

Come up with a loose plot. It will be more detailed if you’re a plotter; one line for pantsers. There needs to be a start, an entry point if you like. It might be that it doesn’t prove to be the right entry point. Don’t worry about that. This is the first draft: throwing paint on the wall and seeing what sticks. Quick and dirty. Don’t worry about any rules you may have read. Most writers break them anyway.

There are some basic How to Write Rules that are important though. Important in that editors and agents value them highly, so listen well.

How to Write Rules

Head hopping. Stay with the same protagonist’s voice per chapter, or section break. There’s nothing worse for the reader than hopping around characters’ minds.
Avoid too many speech tags. Mostly he/she said/replied will suffice.

‘Oh no you’re not,’ he exclaimed.

‘Oh yes I am,’ she shouted back.

‘Oh no you’re not,’ he retaliated.
Not every line of speech needs a tag. The rule is you can go back and forth between two characters up to six exchanges before the reader is at risk of losing who said what.
Avoid too many adverbs, the “ly” words. Some are fine, but peppered as opposed to ladled.
Avoid too many characters and, if you have to include them, please not all in the first chapter. Think of the poor reader. Yes, you must. There are always two people when writing a book, and the reader is by far the more important.
Instead, layer your characters in throughout the story. A strong central protagonist is a must. Think Elizabeth Bennet, Poirot, Sherlock Holmes. A few supporting ones: Mr Darcy, Captain Hastings, Dr Watson. Some characters don’t need to be named. The plumber. The maid. The car mechanic. No need to assign them one.
Names. Avoid too many characters with the same-sounding first name or starting with the same initial. Jack and Jill going up that hill these days would have been Jack and Gloria!
Again, think of your reader having to work their way through a whole cast of Jacks, Jills, Jameses and Joannes. In Pride and Prejudice the sisters were Jane, Elizabeth, Lydia, Catherine and Mary. It’s all about a positive reading experience for your audience.
First person or third. Pick one and stick to it. You can have different chapters in different styles, but it usually means the chapters are from different protagonists. Remember what I said about head hopping!

Chapter One · First person

I’m Jack. Oh, look. A hill.

Chapter Two · Third person

Jill couldn’t believe that Jack was stupid enough to fall down the hill. It was certainly big enough.
Show, don’t tell. I hated this part of writing, basically because I really struggled to understand it. Back to Jack!

Telling

Jack climbed the hill to fetch a bucket of water. The climb was tiring, but he reached the top without trouble. However, as he leaned over to pull up the water, he lost his footing on a loose stone and fell, tumbling head over heels down the hill.

Showing

Jack’s shoes thudded against the dirt path, sending up little puffs of dust with every hurried step. The rope handle cut into his palm as he adjusted his grip.

Then, his foot slipped. A loose stone, half-hidden beneath the dry grass, sent him reeling backward. Arms flailing, he tumbled down the slope, the bucket flying from his grasp. The world spun in flashes of blue sky and blurred green until pain exploded at the back of his head.

This is immersive, putting the reader into the situation instead of just telling them what happened. Here, the reader is in Jack’s shoes. They feel his emotions and his pain.
Pacing matters. Every scene should serve a purpose, whether driving the plot forward or deepening character development. Murdering your darlings has to be done. Cut anything that doesn’t contribute. Yes, even that beautifully written paragraph you love but doesn’t fit.
Avoid info-dumps, especially on the first page. Readers don’t need a character’s entire backstory in one go. Drip-feed information naturally. Dialogue is a great way for this.
Clunky dialogue is the thing to be avoided at all costs. It must sound natural, be natural. Dialogue is conversation. Listen to it. Take notes. What works, what doesn’t? People don’t speak in perfect sentences, and they interrupt each other.
Consistency is key. Keep track of character ages, seasons and key events. Nothing pulls a reader out of a story faster than inconsistencies.

Submitting to traditional publishers

Money only flows one way in publishing, and that’s towards the writer.

If any publishing house asks for money, that’s a huge red flag. There are houses that perform a vanity publishing service, where the writer pays to have their book published, but these days, with self-publishing, that shouldn’t be necessary.

If you want to be traditionally published, you’ll need to submit your work to agents or publishers. Most major publishers only accept submissions through a literary agent, so that’s often the first step. However, in my opinion it’s easier to get a publishing deal than it is signing with an agent, and there are some publishing houses that do allow writers to submit without an agent.

Finding an agent or publisher

Which writers do you admire? Who is their agent, their publisher? Do not Google publishers or, if you do, avoid the first five or so adverts, which will always be for vanity publishers. Publishers are inundated with manuscripts; they have no need to advertise.

You can check out the Writers’ & Artists’ Yearbook, but it won’t tell you who their writers are. A little bit of research at this point goes a long way. It all goes back to the start of this ramble, and visiting bookshops. Which books do you see your book next to on that shelf?

How to submit

Get your manuscript in the best possible shape. No typos. Properly laid out with a title page, chapter breaks and so on. Spending time double and triple checking at this stage is important.

Every agent and publisher has different requirements. You will not get away with copying and pasting the same query letter and manuscript en masse. Each one has to be tailored.

A query letter is a business letter. Follow the rules on this.
Get the agent or editor’s name right!
No typos. I can’t repeat this enough, just as with getting the name right.
Reference the book you’ve enjoyed that they publish.
Be polite. Even if they reject you. The publishing world is tiny. Everyone knows everyone else. Word gets around.

There’s no point in waiting to hear back. Mostly they don’t even bother replying. Have a list of all the people you want to target and just target them.

Synopsis

They’ll ask for a synopsis. That’s your story, the start, middle and end, on one A4 side. There are horror stories about writers having had their ideas harvested by unscrupulous publishers. That’s why it’s important to choose reputable industry professionals. Do your research.

Self-publishing

In effect, self-publishing is setting up your own publishing house. You outsource the parts you can’t do yourself, the upside being you get 100 per cent of the profits.

Editing and proofreading

Hire a professional editor (structural, line editing and proofreading).
Consider beta readers for feedback.

Cover design and formatting

A professional cover design is crucial. Readers do judge books by their covers.
Format your book properly. You can learn it all on YouTube. I did.

The best way to sell book two is to have it written, or nearly written, before publishing book one. Then book one sells book two and so on. The main point here is that there’s no rush. Take your time. While you’re trying to get book one published, write book two. Then, if you decide to self-publish, you can put book two on pre-order. When I self-published Missing in Wales (now called Silent Cry) I hadn’t finished book two (Stabbed in Wales, now called Darkest Night). By the time it came to publishing book two, I had a contract with HarperCollins and over 1,000 pre-orders for book two.

Marketing

Marketing comes with whichever route you take. I wish I knew all the answers to that side of the business. I feel I know very few. The key is word-of-mouth selling, and I have no magic wand for that. Write the best book you can and ensure that it’s presented properly. After that, there’s a lot of luck involved.

Best wishes,
J O’B