8 Tips for Aspiring Authors

 1. Write like crazy

Write like hell. Write as often as you can, whenever you can. This should be 6-7 days a week for at least an hour. Don’t put it off, don’t procrastinate. Don’t say that you haven’t time, that you’re too busy. You make time. For yourself. This is your passion, your dream. Let the others give up and spend all their day on Instagram – you are going to commit to a schedule and get that book finished!

2. Stay focused

Don’t get distracted when you’re writing. Switch off your phone, turn off all your apps. You shouldn’t be reposting that meme on Instagram halfway through writing the climax of your book. You’re a writer. Stop wasting your time with that useless stuff. Focus on your novel, your dream. It isn’t cool and it isn’t smart. No matter what the Instagrammers might say. You don’t see Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo playing with their phones right before taking a penalty, do you? Writing is no different to a competitive sport – it’s survival of the fittest – time wasters need not apply. 

If you like what I have to say about writing, why not check out my podcast 'What! The Heys' where I take weekly deep dives in the worlds of writing and literature: 

https://www.buzzsprout.com/1021147

3. Quality, not quantity

Don’t get fooled by all that 2000 words a day nonsense – you have a day job, remember! It’s better to write 200 good words a day than 2000 bad ones. If you write 200-300 words a day, that’s still a moderate-length novel finished by the end of the year. It will make the editing process that much easier too as you won’t need to swing the axe on huge tracts of your novel.

4. Editing is not a dirty word

A great writer is also a great editor. This is, in the words of Neil Gaiman, “where you show the reader that you knew what you were doing all along”. This is where you make sure that the final draft is something that your audience will want to read, where you show them that you are a competent author. Your knowledge of plot, character, language and grammar will all improve as a result. Of course, the opposite is also true – if you neglect these things you stultify as an author. So, don’t pass the job off to someone else, do it yourself! Only when all this has been completed should you contact an editor or some beta readers.

5. Find the right balance

Every author has one simple task – to make sure that they are still writing in ten years’ time and not just ten days. You should be aiming to write most days, if not every day but not to the point where it makes you ill, or your appetite for writing dries up like a reservoir in a desert. There’s no point writing ten thousand words in one day and then not writing for the next ten. Find a regular rhythm that suits you and stick to it. Writing is a marathon, not a sprint. Your career will last longer that way. 

If you want to check out my novel - Jack Strong and the Red Giant - about a 12 year old boy's adventures on a spaceship check out the link below:

Jack Strong and the Red Giant

6. Read a lot

A great writer is also a great reader. So, read every day. But don’t just read new books, read the classics too. Read fiction, non-fiction, even poetry! Books give you new ideas, new vocabulary, and correct grammar structures. Books are a well of inspiration that never goes dry. They are your next project, and the one after that. If you give up on books, then your novels will give up on you. So, stop making excuses and read! Read! Read!

7. Market your Book

This is one of the most difficult aspects of getting published and/or securing the services of a literary agent. Marketing is difficult for a lot of authors, and the only ones it comes easy to are generally the ones that know a lot about the business in the first place. But you gotta do it. You gotta try. You have to convince the publishers and the literary agents that not only is your book worth their time, but that you are too. They want to know if you can market your book, if you are willing to go on podcasts, record videos, and have a presence on social media – anything to broadcast your talent to an increasingly competitive marketplace. So that means writing blogs, recording podcasts, making videos, livestreaming, and posting on Threads etc. Anything to get ahead of the game and make yourself stand out. Let the other guy sink into obscurity – you are going to conquer the world!

8. Success doesn’t come overnight

I’ll make a bet with you right now. Even if you follow all these steps and complete your first novel in record time, your first submission will be rejected. And the tenth. And the one hundredth. Heck, you might not have been accepted by the time you’ve e-mailed your one thousandth query letter. But that doesn’t mean that you give up – hell no, you keep on writing, keep on reading, keep on editing. You do what it takes to get published, and here’s the thing – you learn from it. You learn to write better, read different novels, and seek out new experiences – anything to improve the quality of your writing. The same goes for queries, elevator pitches and book blurbs. Because that’s what it takes to get one project over the line. A bit of luck, for sure, but also a truck load of hard work, creativity, and determination.