FINALLY - a blog post with some writing stuff in it! A piece of Advice! Writing is just kittens, all the way down...

Last week I was v v busy, in a 'totally non-busy' kind of way, going to the pictures to watch The Cornetto Trilogy being top of the list, driving support for my lovely workmates who were running in The Race for Life, visiting my gorgeous grandson and his equally lovely parents - that sort of thing. You know, where you're not actually doing useful stuff, but are having a great time anyway.

And, as part of that, I found myself offering Advice on Writing. And it struck me, I haven't done an Advice post on writing things for ages! I think the last one I did mostly offered 'eat biscuits' as a valuable tip, with a possible sideline of 'stroke kittens'.

Well, who wouldn't?

So, since I find myself once more desperately short of anything much to blog about (other than - I feel contractually obligated to mention, the fact that my short story 'The Curious Incident of the Cat in the Night Time is in this month's Your Cat magazine...
And an interview with me is this month's 'Autograph' feature in the High Summer edition of Living North. Yep, I made it into a Lifestyle Magazine!  Me! I don't even know what a 'lifestyle' is! And I'm not sure I could afford one anyway! But there I am.) you're getting A Piece of Writing Advice. So there.

Okay, so you've written A Thing. You think it might be a novel, probably romance, because that's all I'm at all qualified to talk about, what do you do next?  Good question...

 Put it away. Honestly, somewhere you can't see it, or think about it. I recommend a drawer in a public room (ie not your bedroom, unless that is a public space, I'm not judging you here, just saying...). If it's somewhere other people are, it will prevent you from doing the 'I'll just take a sneaky peak..' thing. Because they will shout at you, and possibly throw things, but that might just be my house.  Leave it there for - and I cannot stress this too much - at least six weeks.  I know, I know, you're desperate to just check whether that phrase you thought was so brilliant is still brilliant, but trust me on this. At least six weeks. You need this long to get some objectivity.  During the six weeks, write something else.

No, honestly, just keep trusting me. Something else. Short story, or start another novel.

Right, the six weeks is up.  Carefully remove your manuscript from the Public Drawer. Take it somewhere private, and read it, with a pencil in your hand. You can clamp it between your teeth if some of your phrases make you want to scream, if you must, but generally use the pencil to make notes.  Immediately. If something strikes you as you read, note it down.  Read as though you were reading a book you'd just taken out of the library (only, obviously, you wouldn't make notes on that, even in pencil, would you?  WOULD YOU?). Then, you can go back to the computer/typewriter/block of stone and make your changes. And, because you've started something else and, in those six weeks you are probably quite a long way in to your 'new thing', you'll find that you can read your 'old thing' with half your mind saying "well, it's not bad. Not terrible, anyway, but the new thing, ah, that's so much better..." and hence get a bit of perspective.  Like...umm...like the new kitten is always so cute, and so sweet, and the old cat, yes, he's lovely too, and cuddly and adorable and everything but...the new one is just...really really adorable.

Yes, it all comes down to kittens, in the end.  Writing - it's just kittens, all the way down...

Oh, and by the way... you might find this useful.  It's a link to the American site Dear Author. Every Saturday they do something called 'First Page', where people send in the first page of their manuscripts for critique by the community. I'm not so much suggesting you do this (they do have an immense number of things to read and you might have to wait until your book is actually published before they 'do' you), but read the comments. Read what other people have to say about style, about format and content. You may be able to relate some of it to your own writing. Or, alternatively, you may be able to indulge in some pleasant Schadenfreude... 

Oh look, it's been way too long since we had a picture of kittens...

There. Do you feel advised?  If not, I'd just go back and look at the pictures of kittens again...