Aspiring novelist?
Ten suggestions:
• Read widely, deeply, critically; study the craft.
• Observe, listen, pay attention. Keep a notebook; it helps you stay alert.
• Write a lot. Write a lot before you even think about competitions or getting published.
• Give away your TV.
• Study writers on writing. You might start with Stephen King’s On Writing, Elmore Leonard’s Ten Rules and The Way To Write, by John Fairfax and John Moat (out of print, worth tracking down).
• Take an Arvon Course. If you’re in London, try Maggie Hamand’s course. Steve Kaplan is terrific on comedy. Robert McKee’s Story seminar is brilliant but not for beginners.
• If you’re spending more time in writing classes than actually writing, don’t.
• Resist the urge to talk about your story.
• Between drafts, put it away for months; don’t look at it. Come back as a critical reader.
• When it’s as good as you can make it ask Booker-long-listed novelist John Murray for a ruthless critique.
Good luck!
contacts:
• John Murray: john@crookedholme.plus.com.
• Elmore Leonard’s Rules: www.elmoreleonard.com
• Maggie Hamand’s Complete Creative Writing Course at the Groucho Club: www.writingcourses.org.uk
• The Arvon Foundation has centres in West Yorkshire, Inverness-shire, Shropshire and Devon: www.arvonfoundation.org. Arvon, a non-profit, offers course fee grants to people who need them.