How Long Should My Book Be?

This week, 25 Ways to Beat Writer's Block is free on the Kindle. To celebrate that fact, we're going to look at some of the basic questions new writers ask. I've addressed this next question before, but things have changed.

How long should my book be?

Figuring out how long a book should be is one of the more complicated aspects of starting out as a writer, by and large to the amount of varying sources online. Let's look at it this way:

A novella is anything from 15,000 to 40,000 words. Most publishers of novellas actually expect them to be in the region of 25,000 to 35,000 words. It's more obviously a book than a short story, but not long enough to be a novel.

A novel is, technically speaking, anything longer than 40,000 words. (This is the adult market, by the way. Books for young readers have considerably less words.) In general, publishers look for work that's at least 65,000 words in length, but different genres look for different word/page counts.

A safe bet is to aim for about 90,000 words for a novel. It's on the lower end of expectations by a lot of publishers, but still long enough that no one will turn their nose up at it as being a "short book". (Take this from a guy who works in a bookshop - the reading public expect shorter books to be cheaper, when that's very rarely the case.) Keep in mind, some books you'll see on the shelves are near or beyond the half-million word mark.

It really does come down to one thing: how long is the story you want to tell?

There's no point writing a longer book for the sake of writing a long book. It will become painfully obvious that you're writing just to add words, and most publishers would require you to cut out anything like that before publication. Write the book you want to write, and see how long it ends up being afterwards. If you want to write a long book, then make sure you have the story to back up your aspirations.

For a better idea of how long other books are, I'll point you in the direction of this website: http://commonplacebook.com/culture/literature/books/word-count-for-famous-novels/

But what about non-fiction?

Typically, non-fiction books are shorter than fiction (though, again, it depends on how much has to be said on a topic.) To put it simply: depending on the field you're writing in, your book could be extremely long (History books tend to be quite long) or short (short for a novel, typically looking at some health or relationship books.) Books at about 50,000 words are common - shorter still when they're from dedicated ebook publishers - but they tend to target a more niche market.

The best thing to do is to consider how much you have to say on a topic, and write the best book you can. Plan it in detail, do your research, and let the word count figure itself out.

About 25 Ways to Beat Writer's Block:

Have you ever struggled with writer’s block? Have you sat at your desk, looking at your work in progress, wondering what to do with a character who just won’t budge, or a poem that just won’t take form, or an article that just won’t work for you? Have you ever joined thousands of authors in the search for a way to beat writer’s block? 

From the author of Planning Before Writing comes a solution to the problem of writer’s block: 25 ways to tackle one of the biggest issues facing writers, each with an exercise to help you to develop as an author and improve your writing skills. 


With exercises to suit every writer, and drawing on over ten years’ experience in the craft, 25 Ways to Beat Writer’s Block is a must-have reference for your collection.

Available on Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00HYMVZJ2
and Amazon.co.uk: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00HYMVZJ2

How Do I Start My Book?

This week, 25 Ways to Beat Writer's Block is free on the Kindle. To celebrate that fact, we're going to look at some of the basic questions new writers ask. We've looked at planning, but now for the age-old question:

How do I start my book?

Different writers have different things to say about this one. Some suggest writing any scene first, just to get yourself going. I prefer to follow a more linear route: start at the beginning. Don't worry about making it perfect. Find a point to start. One of the following usually works:

- Describe the setting, if it's important for the book. In terms of plot, this is only a useful way of starting if something significant is going to happen at the very start of the book that you'll then go on to describe.

- Describe an important character while they're doing something of significance to the plot. The fun thing about this is, they don't necessarily have to be doing something remotely similar to what they'll do in the rest of the book. Having the "ordinary life" before the events of the book is important, if that's the sort of story you're going to tell.

- Describe an event that's of importance to the plot, but that doesn't focus on your main protagonist. In Eragon by Christopher Paolini, the book opens on a woman walking through a wood about to be attacked - not the "hero" of the book.

- Introduce your protagonist. The reader should know who they are at some point, anyway, so why not from the word Go? Again, focus on the plot. If your protagonist is at school, there needs to be a reason. If they're on the bus, there needs to be a reason. Make your protagonist do something while the readers gets to know them.

The important thing is to start as you mean to go on. Keep the tone consistent. Establish certain rules that will be kept - in Harry Potter, the rule is that magic exists. Just because Harry doesn't know that, doesn't make it any less true. The rules are there, to be discovered if they're different to what we currently understand about the world.

Think in terms of how the world works. If your character goes to school, there has to be a good reason why they're suddenly abandoning their studies for a great big adventure. If your character has a job, they have bills to pay and can't just up and leave without consequences. If your character has a family, how will they feel if they leave? Those are all "rules" to be kept - not every hero in every book is a loner without a family or friends. Use your opening chapter to establish what's important in the regular life of your protagonist, and/or establish something important to the plot.

The most important thing, no matter how you start your book, is to give people a reason to keep reading. Make them want to know about your protagonist, or about the world you've created, or the events that open up the book. Read the first chapters of your favourite books for some clear examples of how others do it, and try figure out what made you want to keep reading.

Don't forget, you can get 25 Ways to Beat Writer's Block for free at the moment! Read more about it:

Have you ever struggled with writer’s block? Have you sat at your desk, looking at your work in progress, wondering what to do with a character who just won’t budge, or a poem that just won’t take form, or an article that just won’t work for you? Have you ever joined thousands of authors in the search for a way to beat writer’s block?

From the author of Planning Before Writing comes a solution to the problem of writer’s block: 25 ways to tackle one of the biggest issues facing writers, each with an exercise to help you to develop as an author and improve your writing skills.

With exercises to suit every writer, and drawing on over ten years’ experience in the craft, 25 Ways to Beat Writer’s Block is a must-have reference for your collection.

Available on Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00HYMVZJ2
and Amazon.co.uk: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00HYMVZJ2

I'm Releasing a Book!

Remember all those times I said I was working on an ebook? It was a project that began before Christmas, before I was working full-time under a part-time contract. Then, it stopped. In December, I stopped writing the book because I no longer had the time to write much. I wrote The Ice Queen & The Legend of the Winter Folk, and I wrote the poem The Winter Folk, and the flash story Snow Day, but I didn't write much else for all of December.

Recently, with the way things have been moved around in the house, I've been in a position to use my time more freely throughout the week. I've been able to write more often, and for longer, and I managed to get myself into a pretty good routine of writing different things several days in advance. I was able to return to my ebook.

Last week, I told you its name. 25 Ways to Beat Writer's Block (While Improving Your Writing Skills). This week, I can show you the cover. In a few days, I'll be releasing the book.

Keep in mind this is a low-resolution image. I like it, though. I like the vibrancy of the colours. I like the simplicity of the design. I like how it looks when I print it on photo paper, and I like how the thumbnail is still identifiable when I see it from afar. I really, really like this cover, and I really love the book.

The actual release date has not been set. Nor will it be. I'm hoping to publish it on Tuesday, but that's not a guarantee for a couple of reasons. 

1. I don't know if anything will get in my way as I put the finishing touches on formatting and all that jazz.

2. I can't tell in advance how long it will take Amazon to actually publish the book once I hit the "Publish" button. I window of 12-48 hours is all I ever get, and sometimes it's even quicker than that.

However, all things going according to plan, and Amazon keeping up with its track record, Tuesday 21st.

This book wasn't just fun to write. It was educational. It was a benefit in and of itself. It allowed me to overcome my own problems in productivity in the very writing of it. I'm very excited to actually be releasing it. It's been my first big project of 2014, to complete this book that I think can benefit a lot of people in many ways, and I really want to get it out into the world for it to have a chance to prove itself.

If you've been following me on my writing journey from early on, since before the Balor Reborn days, you know I'm taking this seriously. You know that when I publish something, it's because I really love it. This book is no different. It's the start of something big for me, not just because it's a new type of book, but also because it sets a new standard for covers. I'll be re-doing my older covers, re-branding my books to make them look more vibrant and alive.

I needed this book. I needed to write it. I know other people will need to read it. A lot of what I've learned over the past ten years is in this book, from my very beginnings as a writer to one who's received an Undergraduate Degree and published several books of his own. From reading, from listening to mentors, and from trial and error, I've picked up a lot of different tricks along the way. This book, I hope, will help people on their own writing journeys.

Let's leave it there before I start getting too preachy about the book. It's coming, people, and I can't wait, and I think that should say a lot about how much I believe in it. Peace out!

Guest Post, by A M Jenner: It's All in the Details

Sixth stop on my international blog tour, Dublin Ireland. Thanks so much to Paul Carroll for hosting me; it’s good to be here.

I'm sure we’ve all heard the old adage, "The devil is in the details". I've certainly found this to be true when writing novels. Some days it is devilishly tricky to strike the proper balance between too many details and not enough of the little beggars.

As an author, my job is to keep my reader totally engrossed in my story. I don't want them to put it down until they’ve finished it. When a reader finishes a book in one session, they become completely convinced that the book was "too good to put down". This leads to them telling their friends about the book that was too good to put down, which leads to more people who want to read my books.

As long as I can keep the reader's mind entirely inside of my story, there’s no danger of them putting the book down voluntarily. If they do have to put it down, I want them to be thinking about it, with their mind still in the story, until they have the opportunity to pick it back up.

In order to keep a reader that involved in a story, the place has to seem like a real place. The characters have to seem like real people. And the reader has to be able to relate the problems facing the hero.

What does that have to do with descriptive details? Everything!

If I put my characters in a car and send them someplace, it’s not very interesting if they’re traveling through a blank, gray wasteland. My readers’ minds will be wandering off, trying to figure out those background details I haven’t given. To keep that from happening, I have to provide some of the details of what is happening outside of the car.

Think about it. If you’re a passenger in a car, even if you’re involved in a conversation, you are peripherally aware of what is going on outside of the car. You’re aware of the landmarks you pass, red lights you stop at, and the idiot on the motorcycle who just cut you off. If I put some of these descriptors in between the lines of dialogue, it’s much more interesting to read and seems more like a real conversation.

At first novice writers might think that the more detail that’s included, the better the story will be. This is not true. Too many details are just as damaging to your readers’ attention span as too few. For example, if my character walks into an office for an interview, time is not going to stop while they examine every item in the office and describe it in their mind in loving detail. They’ll pick up the details a little at a time as various objects come to their attention.

As they first step through the door, they’ll notice the color and lushness of the carpet. When they greet the interviewer across the desk, they’ll notice the size and placement of the desk, and possibly what it’s made of, if it’s an unusual material. No one is going to consciously notice a plain metal office desk with Formica top, when they are busy being concerned with their upcoming interview. However, they might notice the beautiful hand-carved oak desk with a glass top to protect the carvings, simply because of its unusual construction.

They’ll probably not notice what the interviewer is wearing, unless they were worried about their own appearance earlier, and are comparing the two outfits in their mind. They will notice the one outstanding physical characteristic of the interviewer, however, whether it’s hair of an unusual length, style, or color, an overly large nose, eyes that don't match, or a prominent wart. Most characters should have one outstanding physical characteristic, which is mentioned often enough in the narrative to assist in identification.

What’s the right amount of detail to include? This is probably one of the most difficult questions to answer. A lot of it depends on the setting, not just of your novel, but of the particular scene within the novel. For example, most people have seen enough historical movies, that if the characters are in a large manor house, and I state they walk into the library, the reader can provide a picture of a large room full of books, probably containing a fireplace with a grouping of chairs nearby. However, if I have the character walk into the buttery, the reader is likely to conjure a picture of a small room with a wooden butter churn. A buttery is actually a small room near the dining room where plates, silverware, and other serving implements are kept handy. In this instance, a quick description of either the appearance or the use of the room is in order.

When I sent The Siege of Kwennjurat out to my beta readers, there were several places where they asked me for more details. There were also several places where they noted the action was too slow, and I therefore removed some of the details. In one place, I knew I had the mix exactly right, because one reader asked for more details while another was complaining there were too many. Learning how many details and where to put them is an ongoing process for every author.

About the book: The Siege of Kwennjurat is the second book in the Kwennjurat Chronicles. Alone in Kwenndara, Princess Tanella cares for the refugees from war-torn Jurisse, while she worries about her loved ones’ safety. Her new husband Fergan is two days away in Renthenn, coordinating the business of two kingdoms.

Kings Jameisaan and Fergasse join forces in Jurisse to pursue the war against the Black Army. They know Liammial hasn't played his last card, and are willing to give their lives to protect their people and their children.

Who will triumph and claim the throne of Kwennjurat?

About the author: A M Jenner lives in Gilbert, Arizona, with her family, a car named Babycakes, several quirky computers, and around 5,000 books. A self-professed hermit, she loves to interact with her readers online. Her books are available at www.am-jenner.com, as well as most major online retailers.

Learning to be a Writer

You might be wondering by that title if, perhaps, I left that a little bit too long. However, I find it's never too late to learn - to really learn. Since I got out of college after exams, I've been working on learning new ways to develop myself. As far as the actual writing aspect of my life goes, I think I've gotten to a point where I can't really get away with calling myself terrible. As far as getting a lot of writing done, I'm an on-and-off success.

But that's only one part of being a writer. Aside from the quality and quantity of words I produce, there's the way in which I share them that has always been a weak spot for me. I'm not afraid to admit that, because it's the truth. So I took up a study in another aspect of being a writer: business.

For me, it started with marketing. I read a book about it, and got a lot of advice from some people in the industry. It helped to build a foundation of understanding, onto which I could then add more knowledge. Since then, I've started watching webinars and video presentations on this, to develop the business side of my writing career.

I should point out: this isn't an Indie Author thing. Just because I plan on self-publishing certain titles doesn't mean that's all I'm restricting myself to, and this learning isn't just for that aspect of my writing life. Authors who go down the traditional route still need to learn to manage themselves as if they were working in a business, albeit the best business in the world. (Maybe not financially, but I think you get my point - writing is awesome!)

As part of this learning process, I've been introduced to some amazing thinkers and I've developed a few new ideas for non-fiction books. My aim isn't to get rich from this. I want to help writers - new ones especially - who want to learn more about their trade. This isn't just the craft side, but the business side as well. Admittedly, the latter will take some time to develop towards, given my limited understanding of it, but that's the point of my website: to teach.

With that, I should point out something I've added to the website: a video. It's the first of what will become a series of videos and associated products, aimed towards writers. The first video, 5 Essentials for Writers, went live yesterday, accompanied by an exclusive document on website creation. If you're serious about being a writer go to this page: http://paulcarrollwriter.com/5-essentials-for-writers/

When you're there, watch the introduction video, or move on to the full video for free - all you have to do is enter your email address in the box beneath the video where it says 'Subscribe!'

You'll get a confirmation email about the newsletter. Click on the activation link and you'll be brought to a page with a password and a link. Highlight the password and copy it (either by right-clicking on the highlighted word and clicking on 'Copy', or by holding on Ctrl and pressing C) then click on the link.

There will be a password box on that page. Paste the password (again, right-click in the box and select 'Paste' or click in the box, hold on Ctrl again and press V.) You'll then have immediate access to the full length video, 5 Essentials for Writers and a free PDF file Setting Up A Website With Wordpress.com. It's a step-by-step guide that makes it easy for you to have a professional looking website, all for free. It's helpful for everyone, too, not just writers, and works mostly in the same way with Wordpress.com as it would with Wordpress.org. (If you don't understand the difference, that's okay - Wordpress.com is perfectly fine for websites.)

It's that simple, and it's the started of the journey for both you and I. I aim to release new material like that every month, aimed at different aspects of being a writer - from the creative to the business to the psychological. You simply need to stay signed up to the website.

I anticipate an average maximum of four emails a month (newsletter, new download availability, micro-surveys to develop new material for you and product release - you have no obligation to buy, either!). Given my own limited schedule, I don't think I even have time to send more than that. You can be sure, though, that everything I send will be relevant to the journey of learning.

It doesn't get easier than that to start learning more about your business and helping me pick up on what you want to know about.

If there's anything you're really curious about that you want to learn more about, leave a comment below. I'll pick a couple of comments for next month's free release and video, added to the list of ideas I already have growing on Google+ and Facebook.

Good luck on your writing journey. Together, we can go somewhere.

Website is a Go!

My website is launched! It can be found here: http://paulcarrollwriter.com

It's been a relatively long road. Well, six weeks. I decided, at the very end of July after finished Camp NaNoWriMo, to set up a website. The idea was simple: I would write articles on the website, I would post short stories and poems, and that would be that. I would run it through Wordpress.com.

That's how it started. I set up a Wordpress.com account, and I got things on the roll. Then I thought, I could run other things through this! And that's what I will be doing. I have ideas in place, some of which will appear sooner than others, that will be ad supported. I'm not a fan of ads on my own personal space, which is what this blog and the main part of the website will be, but when it comes to these other ideas, ads will be fine.

But that's way into the future (in one case, but not necessarily another). For now, I've got a set list of features on the website.

It functions like a blog, categorised and organised neatly so that it represents the two sides to how I work: with my head and with my heart. The "head" work is the articles under Writing Advice. The advice ranges from (very) basic legal advice to the basics of writing that I picked up over the years to a guide to what I call 50K in 30 Days, which is essentially NaNoWriMo. I've done it enough to know how to do it properly, and my "win" this summer in the Camp version was the final piece of encouragement I needed to try help people do it too. First drafts are important.

The "heart" work, then, is the Writing Samples section. This includes short stories, poems and Doctor Haik-Who. The last one is for a bit of fun and variety. I have specific niche talents and especially nerdy hobbies, and if I hide that fact from the world I'd be lying through my teeth (or fingers...).

Two ideas I have for expanding on what I offer the world - the ad based things I mentioned - also play on the "head" and "heart" of my writing. One will be an article site, the other a fiction based site, both attached directly to my website. For now, they will remain hidden (though I think some people can already guess the fiction based site!).

Combining the "head" and the "heart" is the Free Downloads section. I'll be adding downloadable pieces to the website through this section. Already there are opening chapters from a novella I wrote in Summer 2010, called Stepping Forward. I won't even attempt to explain it to you. The .PDF file features the opening five chapters, which should give you a pretty good idea of what the book is about, without giving away too much! It's short, of course, being a novella, but it's a fun book as far as I'm concerned! It didn't bore me in the editing process, anyway, and I normally can't stand to look back on things I've written!

There will be other things added to this section of the website, which you can find out about through my Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn pages (links in the sidebar!), as well by checking out the News section, part of About. This About section has an author bio (er... my bio), the News section and a Writing Progress section. That last one is just a short page on what I'm working on. It's generally for larger projects than, say, my latest article for The Phantom Zone.

Aside from that, though, the website is like any other, right? I mean, the Free Downloads section isn't on every website, but it's not unique. I wanted this to be a new type of experience. Yes, there are plenty of ways to get in touch with me that make me a little more accessible than some authors, but I wanted to personalise my website more. So I set up a Skype account.

Yes, Skype.

In the sidebar of my website, you'll see three buttons. The first is to add me to your contacts list. I will generally accept all requests. The second button is to see my status - you'll know when I'm online just by looking at my website. The third button is to call me. It's as simple as that.

This enables people to meet the author! I'm not published, but I've seen lots of people who aren't published and who have websites and one thing you can't do is meet them unless you know them. I've spoken to dozens of authors online, but rarely face-to-face! I want to give people that option. My face is already on the website, so I don't have to worry about that aspect of it. And I only have to appear online when I'm free to talk. It's as simple as that.

One last thing about the downloads, though. They're free, but they're password protected. The passwords will be available on the website. The point isn't to stop people accessing the writing, but to stop spambots accessing it easily. I figured this was the best way to do it. Sorry for the inconvenience, but hopefully you think it's worth it!

So there it is, my website is launched and ready to go. I hope you enjoy it, and feedback is appreciated!

Review - Writing A Children's Book

I picked up this book, Writing A Children's Book by Pamela Cleaver, way back when I started working in the bookshop. We’d ordered it in especially for our Reference section, and I just bought it straight out. I didn’t read it. The sticker on the back says it came into three and a half years ago. So, bear that in mind, then also bear in mind that the original publication of this book was in 2001. This is an old book (as far as books go, yes, this is old). This book will be filled with inconsistencies in how we do things these days. It uses words like Postcard instead of Email. And it has a couple of errors in it that some wonderfully helpful YA authors helped me deal with. The corrections are at the bottom of the review, so you don’t get caught out.

What did you think of the book?

Okay, two things: it was easy to read (I got through it in a day... a day I was also in work for six hours with only a half hour break for eating!) and it did contain lots of helpful advice on writing fiction for children. It went through the basics of what different stories there were to be told (genres, etc) and it warned against a number of different things when submitting (like looking at the current market and thinking it has to be the same... or avoiding the market completely and thinking you’re revolutionising it; My book is so much better than every other book on the shelves at the minute, even the stuff you commissioned. That’s a big NO. If you take anything from this book it’s that you should read more. I advise checking out my reviews, which split Kids books up into categories – you might not have heard of some of them.) In saying both of those things, I will also advise you to check out the corrections department at the end of this review to make sure you don’t do the very, very stupid things Cleaver advises. 2001 or not, she was just wrong, and it almost spoiled the book. Twice.

Have you found the book useful?

Like all books I read about writing, it has given me an idea. Or three. So, yes, I found it useful. I have yet to actually write anything on these ideas (I’m still waiting for a way to start them to work its way to the front of my brain, which is currently on backlog with various other types of fiction), but the book has given me a way of sorting through the ideas easily enough. And, in researching the faults in the book (one in particular), I have a better idea of how to plan these books properly. The tips Cleaver gives are actually quite useful, and not just for children’s books (just especially for them.)

C

Who would you recommend this book to?

The obvious target market is the large group of people who think they want to write for children because it’s clearly so easy. Let’s smash that illusion right now, shall we? It’s not easy. It’s damn-well difficult. Picture books, despite their size are hard to write. YA books, despite being closely related to the more advanced books in the adult section (i.e. general fiction, Sci-Fi, Fantasy and occasionally Crime Fiction), are even harder to write than their adult counterparts, because they have to limit themselves to the maturity of the audience and, if they’re really daring, try to teach the reader something without being preachy (think John Green and every one of this books!) and entertain without being too creepy (think Twilight, minus Stephenie Meyer making a guest appearance as Bella Swan and the 120 year old stalker looking at the minor...)

As well as that, though, anyone who wants to write any sort of fiction can benefit from this. Nowadays, many adults are reading books from the children’s section without realising it such as Twilight, The Hunger Games and His Dark Materials, to name but a few. Getting to grips with how stories are aimed at different ages and interests can help with developing ideas for different markets in the adult world.

Now, what were those dreaded corrections?

Cleaver makes two big mistakes that I saw: one on the word count of teen fiction, and one on submitting to publishers/agents. Nevermind the outdated use of the word ‘postcard’, we’re talking stuff that will really change the way you use this book. And this is bad change, we’re talking about.

My problem, in tweet form: What's the average length of a YA book? @realjohngreen @maureenjohnson @barryhutchison - a book I'm reading says 35000 words.

Ken Armstrong's response: It's a piece of string question - 35k sounds awful short to me. Would guess 50-60k min. I know nothing obv. You could flog that length as a novella perhaps

Barry Hutchison’s response: As long as it needs to be. Fiends are all about 45k. Horseman is 60k. Think Dept 19 is 120k+. Depends on the story.

John Green’s response: I'd say 60-100 thousand. (Alaska is 228 pages--very short--and it's 65,000 I think.)

Maureen Johnson’s (hilarious) response: YOUR BOOK IS WRONG!

So, that was kind of vital. Hutchison’s books are aimed at slightly younger readers, hence the lower word count on the Invisible Fiends books when compared to John Green’s book (Looking For Alaska). If someone followed Cleaver’s advise, the result would be a book that is far too short for publication. Do not follow her advice. Mine is clearly better (and that is to listen to Hutchison, Green and Johnson, even if the latter isn’t so much helpful as comical – that’s helpful in its own way!)

But Cleaver wasn’t done ruining your career. So, without further introduction:

My problem, in tweet form: On submitting the MSS: book suggest putting the copyright notice at the end. Thoughts? @realjohngreen @maureenjohnson @barryhutchison

Barry Hutchison’s response: I've never done that. The fact you wrote it means you have copyright and pub knows that.

Brendan McLoughlin’s* response: I think if u [sic] submit to agents, they'll be able to make the copywrite [sic] decisions

Maureen Johnson’s (hilarious) response: Okay, what is this crazy book?

*Brendan went on to make the point of this all being pretentious, particularly for unknown authors such as myself and him. The last thing we need is to insult the publishers we're submitting to.

Again, follow my advice: leave out that nasty copyright symbol (©). Publishers are not thieves nor are they stupid. If you really feel that insecure about your work, you shouldn’t be submitting it anywhere. Get over your insecurities about someone stealing your work by doing the smart thing: print a copy for yourself and put it in an envelope. Go to the post office, a very old form of email for those of you who find the concept alien in its entirety, and send that envelope with your complete book (and your name, details, etc...) to yourself or a trusted friend. Hold on, we’re not done. When it arrives, DO NOT OPEN IT. Look at the top of the envelope. There is a postage date. This is government approved. This is guaranteed, 100%, proof that this envelope was in existence at this date. When you submit, no one can steal your work, because if they do they’ll have a nasty law suit on their hands for breaching copyright – you have a date to prove when you had it, they don’t. No matter how big they are, you win.

A word on that, before you go mad: ideas can’t be copyrighted, and someone may have had an idea very similar to yours that was accepted when yours wasn’t. This does not mean the publisher stole your work. Do not sue everyone who publishes something similar to what you wrote. Do the mature and smart thing: write a book that is even more unique and amazing than your other book, and keep writing to get both published.

A further note on copyright: once you write it, it’s yours. The copyright symbol (©) is just clarification of the year of copyright. The envelope in the post is just your proof that you are the author. They do not seal the deal. They are essentially irrelevant, until someone challenges the authorship of the book. (This also applies to music, paintings, and pretty much everything that people create, though products require patents to prevent theft – I am not a patent expert, ask me no questions on it.)

So, what next?

Again, lots of reviews to come from me. And lots of writing. I have to catch up on Camp NaNoWriMo. It’s not a children’s book, though. I couldn’t figure out how to start Brilliant Idea 1 or Brilliant Idea 2. I’ll figure them out while I’m writing my fantastic Science Fiction novel. (They say self-praise is no praise. That’s stupid. It’s just not worth anything to anyone else, which is why modesty is preferable.)

Disillusionment

While sitting at my laptop on Twitter (as you do) a link to this video popped up. If you can't view it right now, I'll just explain (sorry if you've watched it). One character in the video wants to write a novel. The other character asks him why. The set-up is that the aspiring novelist believes that he will become rich and famous very quickly with his book that he's only written one page of. He doesn't read, he's never attempted writing before, and to make matters worse he just quit his job. The other character tells him that the process is quite complicated. It really is, mind you. She warns him about contacting literary agents in bulk and tries to stop him being so disillusioned about the craft of writing.

To make things a little more interesting for me, I went through the comments a bit and found this:

"I asked a classmate what she was doing after graduation...she said to me "Oh, I am gonna write a novel." ??? WHAT ELSE?? I mean, I am an English major but I am not so disillusioned that I don't realize that there is a certain small, saturated market for traditional English major work. Some of us get into teaching, freelancing and or business, the rest of us return to the coffee shop we were working at during college, and VERY FEW of us become famous. Reality check! Only hard work reaps benefit!" (username: tulip2111)

There are actual people in the world who believe writing is a path to guaranteed success. I will tell you now, from having looked at all sorts of lives of authors and reading all about the business of writing, making money from it - a lot of money - isn't a guarantee, it isn't commonplace and it isn't something we should believe we can do from the offset. This isn't a suggestion not to try write, but sacrificing the rest of your life to write a book that you think will become a best-seller is disillusioned and frankly quite stupid. (Note: the person is not stupid, unless they ignore my advice to come).

Every writer I know, unless something is stopping them, works. Now, that something can be children or illness or simply a lack of jobs available to them that suit other things they might have going on (children, college, extra-curricular activities that make them a better, well-rounded person). No writer worth his or her weight gives up their job before they've even started writing. At least, not one I've heard of doing it.

My advice, if you want to write and think giving up your full time job is the way to do it: get a part-time job instead and use the extra time. But that's long-term. If you have bills to pay, go to bed later. Or wake up earlier. Or stop watching so much television. And use the extra time to write. You might find that you can get a good bit done a day - and that's all that matters - and when it comes to the stage where you're in a rhythm of writing or, for example, you're able to earn a slight income from selling articles and short stories, then the part-time job will suit you better.

In my case, I work part-time (mostly weekends, but more hours at Christmas) and I attend a full-time college course with enough assignments to keep me busy through the days. I get three and a half months off during the summer.

So, for people like me and like the student mentioned in the quoted comment, ideally I have time to write. People in my situation, attending college through the year, have the blessing of time off to write a novel. Really, a first draft, if done without wanting to be too meticulous (that's what rewriting and editing is for!), only takes a few months to write, and that's a stretch for some people. I wrote Meet Sam in a month - 50,000 words - while working weekends and going to secondary school, and going to the cinema with my friends at the weekend, attending three birthday parties and having a couple of sick days off. Last summer I wrote a 20,000 word novella in 72 hours, during which time I also slept and ate and watched some television, and I possibly went to the cinema. And I had a six hour shift in work.

What I'm saying is that people have time to write and they shouldn't wait until they're done in full-time education to give it a shot, nor should they quit their jobs in the hopes of making a living from writing very early on. It does happen to people that they make money from writing and don't have to work an office job anymore, but it doesn't happen straight away and it doesn't happen to everybody.

Meanwhile, bbphnix writes:

"wait wait wait wait wait.....
can't you just sell your book yourself? why go through the horrible experience of using a publisher? ..... publisher=corporation; corporation=evil ergo: publisher=evil;
either do it manually... or by the INTERNET! give it about the same price as an app or something; over the internet enough people might buy it to get you a relatively large amount of money"

Slight problems with this... first of all, I wouldn't say corporations are evil. Corporations, unfortunately, make the world go round. Apple and Microsoft have revolutionised the computer industry, and it's likely the comment wouldn't have been made with them. Publishers are corporations that specialise in releasing books to the market, and with these books some people make a living, some get an income and many readers are affected in very powerful ways to encourage them to change their lives (and I don't just mean self-help books!) I wouldn't say that publishers are necessarily evil. Disagreeable, in some cases, but not evil.

And as for the doing it alone remark (i.e. "by the INTERNET!")... well, it's not that easy. Well, it is that easy. It's very easy to put something in the market online. So easy, in fact, that people are releasing both trash and masterpieces into the market, and sometimes it can be hard to tell which is which. A word of advice, though: if you can find an author that hired editors (or at least didn't edit alone) and that had somebody else design the cover and that is serious about their trade, then the odds are the piece of work they release themselves isn't going to be entirely dreadful. That's not a guarantee, in any of the cases (because there are exceptions), but it is a good thing to go by when trying to determine whether or not a book will be any good when you buy it.

And for people looking to do it, even if they go for self-designed covers, aren't that well known, and receive help from friends editing, the important thing to remember is: don't price yourself out of the market. Also, don't do as one Indie author did and tell a reviewer and his commenters to, and I quote, "Fuck off". Remember that it's not just an author's book that people see, it's the author too. Etiquette and professionalism should be observed, especially when attempting to portray yourself seriously.

By the way, I'm aware that keeping a personal blog and using it to talk about problems I have with other people doesn't seem professional. But that's why I call it personal, and it's why I don't name and shame people. Or even just name them, even if they're awesome and I don't have a problem with them. But I avoid being overly bitchy about people, and only using particular language when trying to convey a particular point (such as this one).

So, to sum up: don't be disillusioned by writing success; write in your spare time (and make your spare time, don't just complain you have none); don't give up your job before you've started; hone your craft; take into account all the work that goes into writing and getting published (even Indie authors - and actually, especially Indie authors - have a lot of work to do). And remember: write for fun, sell for money. Unless it's non-fiction, in which point you may just be writing to get a point across or inform people, but in that case just choose what you write about carefully.

Let's Get Ready to Wrimo!

In about twelve hours, NaNoWriMo begins. Yes, twelve hours. In that space of time, I need to get lots of college work done, in between the regular stuff for the day like showering and eating. I plan on doing my tutorial work ASAP, then getting to work on the reading for my essay from the books I have from the library. I have approximately one quarter of my plot planned for my novel. Whether or not this will equate to 12,500 words in the first week, I have no idea. Hopefully it'll be more than that, so I can write more than 50,000 words for this book.

So, very little time left. Anyone reading this who's mad enough to attempt NaNoWriMo, here's my advice for the month ahead:

• Plan in advance. Maybe not the whole thing, but at least know where you're going to start, where you hope to end, and a couple of things you want to happen in the middle of the novel.
• Stock up on snacks. This doesn't mean you have to spend a fortune, and it doesn't mean it has to be all unhealthy stuff, but you'll need to have something beside you for when you get hungry; if you can rely on someone else to cook the dinners but you have to wait a few hours, nibble on something while you write. And while you're at it have plenty of tea/coffee/water and allow for toilet breaks when you need to go - you won't be able to write on a full bladder, because you'll be moving around in the chair too much.
• Plan your time. I, for one, have a busy month ahead of me. I've got about three birthdays to attend to, three essays due in this month, three pieces of tutorial work, and stuff to do for December that I should make a start on. My drama workshops will probably take place in November, too, following the unfortunate postponements a couple of weeks ago. I'll be writing on the bus, doing college work at lunch time and whichever one I have time for and need of will occupy any free evenings.
• Don't assume you need to write for hours on end. What this means is that you can write in ten minute segments throughout the day if you have to. Once you get your average of 1667 words a day, you'll be fine! If you're in school and have weekends off, try get your homework done quickly, and add a chunk of words to your novel to compensate for missing out during the week - this will happen at some stage.
• Remember: quantity over quality. NaNoWriMo isn't a test of your ability to write brilliantly; it's a way to get you to write a lot. Write as much as you can, even if it's not all good. You have plenty of time later to edit the novel and make it good. In case you didn't realise, this is more or less what every book you've read has been like - very rarely is the first draft so excellent it's publishable.
• Have fun. NaNoWriMo isn't about driving you crazy - we're human, so we're perfectly capable of doing that to ourselves anyway. NaNo is about having fun while you write, getting the words done that you might not convince yourself to do otherwise, and doing something that so many people put off for so long. You know those people who say "I could write a book but I don't have the time"? Well, you can turn around to them and say "I made the time and had fun doing it."

It's one month, people. If you can't do something for one month, then how do you think you can do it for the rest of your life? Believe me when I tell you, the NaNoWriMo experience is about finding yourself as a writer; I wrote a lot over the summer because I was used to writing a lot in a short period of time. You can do it, too.

Best of luck, everyone! And hey, add me as a buddy on the NaNoWriMo site and we'll keep track of how each other are doing!

So You're Writing a Book

So you're writing a book. Well done! That's takes some guts and a lot of patience. You want to know why? Well, there are a few reasons. Firstly: it takes a while to write a book unless you have a lot of free time on your hands and you write very quickly. I mean, it's easy to get a lot written very quickly, but you actually need to time to do it. Many people do not have this time, so it can take a long time to write the book even writing very quickly.

Secondly, the questions. Also thirdly, the questions, but I'll get back to those ones later. The first set of questions are the ones you need to ask yourself. And trust me, asking yourself questions that you then have to answer can make you seem like a crazy person. But you need to ask yourself: What is the plot of my novel? When is my novel set? Where does all the action take place? Who is my main character? Why is my character behaving in this way? How will my character resolve the predicament he/she is in? And many other questions revolving around the five Ws and the H. Basically, if you can't answer a question like that, your novel isn't making much sense to the reader.

BUT you have to remember something. First drafts don't have to be great. You can get away with writing a lot very quickly when writing a first draft if you don't stop to ask yourself questions about everything straight away. When it comes to challenges like NaNoWriMo, you need to avoid stalling like that. Just write like crazy. Ask the questions when you're editing, instead. Just make sure you can answer them, and fix everything up to make things work well as a whole.

Now, that second set of questions: the ones other people ask. The worst one, by far, is 'What's your book about?' Oh. My. God. This is by far the most annoying question; how is an author supposed to sum up his/her novel in the space of a few words, when in a writer's mind the book is a larger piece? Also, 'about'? A lecturer of mine despises that word regarding literature (and probably movies, too.) You know why? Because 'about' can make it too easy to summarise a piece incorrectly. Hamlet is about a prince out for revenge. Right? Yes, but it's also 'about' a prince whose father has been killed, who may or may not be feigning madness, who mistreats one of the most lovely characters, as well as being about the relationships between parents and children, brothers and sisters, lovers, employers and employees, and about the concept of revenge outside of Hamlet's endeavours. So when a writer is asked what his/her novel is about... there is no easy answer. My book Meet Sam is about a writer with a narrator in his head. That's the 'Hamlet is about a prince out for revenge' explanation. Meet Sam is also about insecurities, relationships with various people, underlying depression, writing, a city and various significances that I don't have the time to go into right now. Can I say that to someone asking the question 'What's your book about?' No. No I cannot.

People refuse to accept the easy answer but they get bored with the longer one. And unfortunately for the aspiring author, many people also ask, 'Is it published?' Now, I could easily respond by saying, 'Have you heard of me before now?' or 'If I was published I would be trying to sell you the book, not trying to evade answering a thousand questions about it', but people generally don't respond well to things like that.

So... still writing that book? You should! Not every writer that wrote a book was patient all the time; personally, I'd rather not wait until NaNoWriMo started to do my novel for it, but I wouldn't be able to add on another 50000 words to whatever I write during my reading week. Also, I kind of have essays to prepare for, too. And as for the questions..? Well, you learn to get past them when all the people who care have asked them. I get them every now and then, but generally it's because one or two people were told and then others found out through them. I think it's just the idea of writing a book that people like, because not everyone does it. It's like when people have a high grade in a musical instrument; suddenly that person is very interesting, because not many people have high grades in an instrument.

And you know what else? Writing a book can be fun. If you're doing NaNoWriMo, just keep your head down, get your words for the day (and thensome, if you can manage), plan in advance (unless your style is to wing it!) and when it comes to people making plans, and school/college/work stuff coming up, arrange your writing time around it (so that you don't fail at school/college or lose your job/friends). If you find your motivation lacking (particularly around week 3), just remember to Power Through! It works, trust me. Just keep on going, keep on writing, and don't worry about quality. You can always edit the book when it's finished.

So you're writing a book; the plot bunnies are running free. Good luck!

Daily Writing

This blog post comes as a response to Alison Wells' blog post on the same topic; writing every day - good or bad?

During Lent, I gave myself the challenge of writing something every day. A lot of this was blog posts, poems, college work and editing (the latter being stuff I was adding to the draft). The book I was working on, mostly, was Meet Sam, which is, by now, my case study on writing. I wrote that during NaNoWriMo 2008; come 2009, the same challenge was quite as fun.

This brings me to my point - if we start to write every day, we might like it. If we force ourselves to, then the odds are that we most likely will stop liking it, because it will seem like a chore. Nerd as I am, I don't like chores, and I don't want to make writing a chore. Heck, I started writing to avoid trouble, to avoid doing things I didn't want to do, to say things I couldn't say otherwise.

Most days, I do write. But I write as the ideas come to me with the correct words, not when I get an idea and think it has to be written down straight away. And, oftentimes, an idea won't have the right words for a while. Sure, one of my lecturers gave me tips on how I might improve Meet Sam, based on her reading of it and other books (many other books), and I agreed with her; one of the areas was in the development of some of the other characters, especially the father, the mother and the cousin.

Ignoring the parents for now, as I'm yet to work them out properly, I only recently, last couple of days stuff here, figured out how I might expand on the cousin's story. The answer has been right there with me for months, talking to me, telling me all about itself - even before I met him, my friend Liam was the cousin in the book. Freaky stuff to realise, but very useful to know, if he's willing to help me get this done properly. (note: based on an excited and hilarious text, I think he's willing)

That's the best example I can give for letting ideas settle: it can take a long time. That book was written a long time ago, and I didn't know then how to fix it, or how to fix it when I'd first met the guy. It wasn't until a year and a half later, still thinking about the book, that it came to me. Now, I'm not going to say it's always like that. Even for me, it's not always like that. I get words to poems in my head spontaneously, and an hour later they fit together in the right order. Once it was just an image in my head that turned into words. Another time a feeling in my gut. They didn't all take a lot of time to come to fruition.

The point I'm making is that if we push ourselves to write every day, it doesn't necessarily mean you'll write what you wanted to. Part of being a writer is not writing. It's in the living of an event, of life, to get the answers you're looking for. I had all but stopped looking for ways to improve on the character, until the realisation hit me. I know that if I'd tried to force it, it would be rubbish. That's a fact. My 2009 NaNoWriMo novel attests to that. It became over-ambitious drivel, because I attempted to write a book I just wasn't feeling, every single day of November.

So what's my advice? Well, if you plan on doing NaNoWriMo, be prepared to write something you're not happy with. Once it's written, find someone whose reading you trust and ask them to read it and give you some sort of advice to help towards making the book more complete. If they find a character is lacking in, well, character, then you know where to try improve upon. If they find that something is too weakly expressed, or that something could do with more attention, then you know what to work on. Plan your novel in advance, if that's how you work, or go by spontanuity that hope for the best. All I can say is, if you plan on forcing yourself to write every day, not all of it will be great fun. Eventually you will burn out, and you'll have to take a break.

Let yourself rest.

Writing burn-out sucks. It can take days, even weeks, to recover properly. The bad part? Regular-life stress can do the same thing. After exams, I recommend writers to take a destress period. But try write something small every day. Something insignificant, by the way. It will be just something to keep words in your head. Keep a diary. Then, when the ideas slot themselves into place, and "the muse" comes back around, write. Write until your heart's content. Don't over-do it, though. (Over-doing it, by the way, is forcing yourself to write when you really can't think of anything. Unless you're coming up to a deadline you're contractually obliged to, I don't recommend it.)

And with that, and my own lack of being able to write anymore for increasing exhaustion, I bid you adieu, and good luck. May you write freely and happily for all of your days.

Work Ethic

I thought I'd continue on this "I'm writing about writing" thing, and talk about Work Ethic. Now, this isn't a lecture on Ethics and Morality, so you can relax. What I speak of is getting yourself to work.

Like many people who join Facebook, I became slightly addicted to the games there, like Farmville, Petville, Fishville and Cafe World, as well a number of other games online, like Elements on Kongregate.com. Now, there's nothing wrong with these games, except when you let them control your life. I decided yesterday, since I hadn't been on my laptop much on Saturday, to give up the Facebook games. So what if my cute blue dog thing goes to the pound? So what if the fish die and the crops wither and the food goes rotten? It's all virtual!

And today, literally as I was getting ready to write this blog, I decided, "To hell with Elements!" And so, I'm writing to you earlier than I would have. Importantly, I'm writing, not playing an online game. See, this is the point where my work ethic failed. Sure, I promised myself that I'd write something every day of Lent, but I often put it off because of games. Well, I say to you that you can do the same thing as I just did and put the writing first.

Prioritising is important in life, I know. I'm the first to admit that I'll choose to go the cinema than write something, because I know that I can write around the cinema time, but I can't see my friends whenever I want. (We're in different colleges, so going to the cinema is the best contact I get with them). The decision is easy when they're taken into consideration. You see, it's important that writers young and... not so young... don't forget about their lives outside of the writing too. It's a lonely world out there, and locking ourselves up is only useful when we're struggling to get some peace. If you have a reasonable number of invites to events and enough time to write even when you go, go to the events.

When you do sit down to write, however, you better make sure you write something. Close off Twitter if you have to. I know, it's a heresy that we eliminate virtual conversation as well as our families, but it must be done. However, you can always take short breaks every few hundred words! I recommend http://writeordie.drwicked.com to get some work done while giving yourself some breaks. Plan your writing session for ten or fifteen minutes, 400 or 600 words respectively, and when you've done your writing, save it, take your wee break, max 10 minutes, and get back into another session of similar size. Twitter will still be there for you after that little burst too.

I encourage that you use your time wisely. Find ten minutes every day to write, at the very least. I tend to spend longer writing my blog than that, but my family generally leave me to it when they see me typing away. They understand that I like to write at this hour, and they don't understand an awful lot about me sometimes (like where I get all my ideas... to quote my mum, "I don't know where you get it from." << see!) So find your writing time and write. No excuses. You can't say you have writers block, because I've shown you your Tools of the Trade already. If you missed that post, go back one day - you can't miss it. 1400 words of me telling you that you can write because you have lots to write about!

If that post still isn't helping you with your novel, take a break from the novel and write something else. Write a short story if you can, or keep a blog to make sure you're always thinking about what words to write. I find this keeps my writing brain going throughout the twenty-four hour period of when I finish and press Publish.

And don't forget - if you're going to write, you have to read. If you write short stories, read them too. If it's novels you're in to, there are more than enough of them at your local library or bookshop for you to keep your self amused - just remember to write too! Screenplays and theatre works are always available too - bookshops, libraries and the Internet will supply they for you. The BBC even posts them online for you! Poetry is even easier to come across - a lot of poetry is posted online, under the Creative Commons Licence. As a writer, we more or less have an infinite stream of words to read to suit our craft. Don't waste it, and don't save it thinking it will run out. It won't. There are always writers looking to get published.

And with that, I bid you adieu once more, writer. Keep working, and good luck. If I can think of more to write about from my own experiences, you'll know with more blogs. Toodle pip for now.

Tools of the Trade

I suppose there's always a few tools of the trade that a writer needs to get by. There are a couple of obvious ones, which I'll go into shortly, but there are also more complex tools that people don't quite understand are theirs for the use.

To begin - you can't write, physically write, without either (a) a pen and paper or (b) a computer of some sort. One or the other will do, but you can use both. Now, the paper is best with lines, to make sure you write in a uniform way (i.e. so you don't write at a slant...), unless you're doing a comic of some description, in which case blank paper is best. Pens should be black or blue, or at the very least a dark colour. You need to be able to read what you write. As for the computer - you don't need the most up to date software on it, and in fact you can use a typewriter instead, but you just need to be able to save it, change it, and, preferably, be able to format it. Formatting it easy - most publishers request double-line spacing, to make it easier to read. If you don't plan on submitting, however, you don't even need to worry about it!

As for those complex tools... the pen and paper and computer are all useless without these. The first one is your imagination. Too obvious? It's a tool you can't refill like a pen, you can't just switch on like a computer, or load with paper. Your imagination can wear thin, and it's important to remember that it's okay. Most people call this "writers block", and it's possible to beat it with a number of different techniques.

Over the years, I've gathered a few of these techniques. One recommendation is to try a new type of music - it can stimulate your brain in a different way. You might listen to a rap artist for the first time, ever, and realise that your story is somewhat lacking in the problems of every day life. You might realise that maybe your London based novel doesn't need to be a peaceful story of boy-meets-girl, but can be a story of boy-meets-girl-but-is-in-a-gang-war-with-her. Okay, that's a little over the top, but it's true to life in that these events can happen, and that you're not following the same pattern as everyone else. Although, if you're using that idea, I might recommend reading Romeo and Juliet first so you know exactly what not to write - that story has been told over and over again, and a gang-twist isn't original for it (the movie adaptation of Romeo and Juliet is proof of this.) But my point still lies - you can take an idea you get from a song, any song, and use to change your story.

You can also go for a walk - fresh air does the brain good, and if you take a different route than you usually do, your imagination will thank you for it later. You can even use the little coincidences of your walk as the formation of a story. I did it before, where all the characters, nameless if I remember, were based on the actual people who I'd seen or interacted with on my way to choir.

Listen to conversations on the bus. You might find that you can make a story out of two people talking to one another. Or, if someone's on their phone, you have the basis of a conversation you can fill in to suit your story. And, while we're discussing phones, did you ever notice how people like to play music through their phones at the back of the bus? Just saying... (there's a story in there too)

Other options that will help your imaginarium come to life again are to look at the pre-existing ideas already available to you - look at some television, watch a movie, read a book. Or look at your own stuff, old, discarded ideas, and shift the context of the events around to suit your current Work In Progress.

Following up your imagination, you've got your experiences. I've touched lightly on this with my cures for Out Of Imagination, but I feel it could do with some more work. However old you are, nineteen or ninety, you have experiences at your disposal. If you think, "I'm too young," think again.

I'm nineteen years old. I've been bullied, friendless and depressed. And yet, I've also made some of the best friends in the world, started an anti-bullying campaign, been happy for weeks at a time (and it usually takes something really to bring me down again). I've been to Barcelona twice, and it was a different city both times. I've been to Portugal once, Menorca once, Lanzarote about seven times, and every time we did something different, or did things very much the same and felt different emotions each time. I've been in a Mini-Company in transition year, ran a Young Social Innovators project, had a job in a bookshop for two and a half years, sung in my primary school choir for four years and my friend Niamh's choir for two and half, been to three institutes of education (primary school, secondary school and, now, college) and I've made new friends at each one. I've joined a number of social networking sites, and with the exception of Facebook, I've made great new friends on each one. And I've lost three grandparents, seen my great-grandmother go through dementia, felt my heart ripped out by a girl. But I've found happiness in a number of great television shows, I see a new movie almost every week, and I've read more stories than I can even remember. All that, and I haven't even mentioned the writing, which in itself gave me a new outlook on life, a hobby, friends in the writers group I set up and something to talk about every time it happens to come up in conversation.

And I'm only nineteen! That's not even a complete list of the things I've done, and yet there's so much to take from. A lot of that I did by the time I was sixteen! You have no excuses, only experiences. You just need to start thinking about your life and you'll realise that you've done things. They might not stick out at first - you might think you've had the same job for ten years, had the same friends, and done the same thing every single night, and been with the same man or woman for all that time and say, "That's not an experience." But I tell you this, everything is an experience, and every experience is something you can write about. Remember, context in your experiences is everything!

You've got your voice to go along with all of this. Now, this might seem a bit strange, but a lot of writers don't write the way they talk. They make their language more posh and try to be someone they're not. You don't have to do that too. You can write the way you want to write, because at the end of the day, it's your writing that you should be concerned with. Roddy Doyle, for example, wrote an entire novel in colloquialisms and look where he is! Use your own voice, or at least establish one for yourself that you're comfortable with. Don't try to write like everyone else if that's not what you want to do.

Now, you'll have to excuse me - ironically enough, while writing this I lost my train of thought and can't write any more. Go figure. But I think what I have here should help any writer out there understand what they have. Remember - you have your physical tools, but you also have you imagination, your experiences, your voice, and, and these are things I don't have time for detail, you have your own decisions for the story, and you know the characters. Believe it or not, even those fictional beings you made up can help you craft your tale.

Writer, I wish you good luck.