Tips and Tricks – One at a time please!

It took me 17 years to write a novel, so I wouldn’t call myself an expert at writing, but what I’m very good at is procrastination and self-doubt, and I know I’m not alone in this. Finally finishing my novel and sending it out for review got me thinking about what advice I would give to people struggling to put pen to paper or, most likely, fingers to keyboard).

Each week I’m going to write up a tip or trick I’ve learnt over the last 17 years that helped me grow as a writer and as a person.

Then once every four weeks I’ll set myself – and you, if you dare! – a 350 word mini challenge. We’ll have a week to complete it and share it, and if you want me to read your piece simply place a hyperlink in the comments for me!

Without further ado, tip one….

“The very reason I write is so that I might not sleepwalk through my entire life.” – Zadie Smith, autho

It’s a pretty simple tip, and every storyteller’s podcast or masterclass will tell you this. Let’s be honest, becoming a paid author is hard, and to make a living from it is even rarer, so you’ve got to love what you do. But it’s sometimes hard to love the creative process when your creative soul and ego get in the way and overwhelm you with self doubt. In \this blog I’ll look at ways to combat that super critical self, and maybe even use it to your advantage.

“The worst enemy to my creative writing is my self-doubt” – Syliva Plath

For me, I love love love the initial buzz of creation, but it’s the re-read and rewrite that brings the heartache and destroys the joy. I call this mean voice inside my mind Super Critical Self, because it’s the villain wanting to bring your creative process down, and it can often start when you’re still working on a story. It’s the one that re-reads the work that you’ve done and then whispers “it’s not good enough, you’re not good enough”. It can hold the creative process hostage and kill the story, or, more truthfully, your love for the story, before it’s even through it’s first write.

The biggest tip I can give you is the simplest:

Just keep going.

Even if you feel that the passion and joy has already been eaten away by the Super Critical Self, find a spot or a moment in the story where you can begin again. If you have an outline or a one liner, go back to that, check where you should be and make sure you get back on track. Often you’ll hear writers say that their characters have a mind of their own, but James Paterson has basically called bullshit on this concept, saying that if it’s in your outline then you need to pull them back into line. And I agree with this to a certain extent; sometimes you find a new twist or perspective on your story as you begin to write, and that’s ok too. But you should still know where you’ve been and where you’re going, and I think it would be really useful to revise the outline to reflect this new departure.

And if you are just lost in the maze of the story, use your outline or one liner to bring you back into check. Jump back to the moment where your characters began behaving badly and ask yourself why and how to change it. Or, just pick up where you left off, but this time following the outline.

The most important part of this process is to get that first draft down; then you will have something to look at, it will no longer be a concept in your in mind, and

You can always change it.

And you probably will; that’s why you have drafts.

If you’re like me, the second draft is your worst time. That first draft was written quickly and hastily, at the height of a mad passion for your story. But it’s when you go re-read your first draft that you see all the hastily formed sentences and concepts. In every line, paragraph and chapter I will find errors in my sentence structure, dialogue and plot. (I’d be a millionaire if I got paid by the dollar for every “Well” I have at the start of a dialogue piece.) It’s the most dangerous time for me, as my super critical self will eat away at my confidence until I want to give up. When I first wrote my novel 17 years ago, I hand wrote it over 6 weeks and then went into an electronic second draft immediately. It was the biggest mistake I’ve ever made, as I saw every tiny mistake and didn’t have perspective on the story. I began to hate the story with a passion, and even though I finished that first/second draft, I decided I never wanted to touch it again.

The story was ruined, and the story was damned.  

Of course, the story is never damned, and if I’d let it rest a few months I might have seen that.

After you’ve rested your draft, put that Super Critical Self to Work.

When I went back to the novel in mid 2017, I discovered that it was pacy and interesting. There were themes, story plot and it all moved along at a good clip. Yes, the characters needed fleshing out, yes there was no subplot, but on the surface it was a good story. I hadn’t ruined it after all; my Super Critical Self had simply ruined my love of telling the story.

The key here is to find a process that works for you and helps to silence that self-doubt. And the good news is that if you’re critical of your work, then you’re more likely to pick up on flaws and make the rewrite better.

So how do you put that super villain to work and help you out?

Even though it’s about tennis, there’s a great book called “The Inner Game of Tennis” by Tim Gallwey. In the book it talks about the critical self and teaches you how to silence that voice of self-doubt by putting it to work. So, in tennis for example, instead of having your Super Critical Self analyse each shot you play, which will make tense up your body and make you less likely to hit those good shots, you give that voice the task of analysing the game and your opponent’s strategy. I tell that critical voice to tell me where to put the shot, and I can honestly say it works a treat. I also believe you can apply this to writing.

So that Super Critical Self is wincing at your grammar, your spelling and your dialogue? Rolling its eyes at your descriptive scenes?

Ok, you say, help me make it better. Tell me where I’m going wrong.

All you’re really doing is simply reframing the process and changing its focus. You are accepting that it will need changes and trying to work out what works and what doesn’t, putting that little critical voice to work as your inner editor. For me I read through my story the first time without making any changes, noting down what I generally thought of each chapter or section and then writing up larger story notes at the end. Then with these in hand I dissect the piece and begin my rewrite, all the time thinking about structure and story. It’s also where I fix grammar, spelling mistakes and try and make my dialogue more dynamic, but I’d call this the finer details of everything. My Super Critical Self is there to ask “What’s the story?” or “What’s the point?” of every scene, description and dialogue and to help me make the story clearer. In my final draft of the novel, I lost half a chapter towards the end of the novel because the critical me didn’t think it fitted and it was simply repetitive. It hurt to lose it, but it was worth it in the end, as I was able to get to the finale quicker and spend more time on those moments. I find this process helps me understand my story better, but, more importantly, it gives me a renewed passion for the writing. I’m no longer fighting with myself, destroying my creative soul over a missing word or punctuation; Creative and Critical Me are working together to make my story better.

While this particular process might not work for you, find a creative process that does and challenges that self-doubt.  Make that Super Critical Self pay for its supper by challenging it to find the solutions, and you will find that it will aid you in crafting your story.

But most importantly, love what you do.

Don’t lose sight of your passion for the creative process, because it’s unique, and the only reason Super Critical Self is whispering in your ear is because of your passion about what you do and your story. You just have to learn to tame it and have it take aim at the piece and not at your sensitive creative soul.

And just keep writing, dammit!