Posted on March 29, 2008
Filed Under Uncategorized |
… cultivate write habits
“We are what we repeatedly do.
Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit” - Aristotle
Jessica Gregson, whose debut novel The Angel Makers, published by PaperBooks, reveals the top tips required to be a successful writer and novelist.
- Don’t be superstitious - develop the ability to write anywhere, under any conditions. Having a writing ritual can be an excuse not to get anything done.
- Don’t edit as you go - it’s a sure fire way never to finish anything. When writing I tend to save each day’s work in a new document, which helps me resist the temptation to go back over what I read the day before.
- Set concrete goals and time limits. Writing’s a job like any other and requires concentration and discipline. Deadlines help concentrate the mind.
- Keep rejection in perspective (there’s likely to be a lot of it). Trust your own judgement, and remember that the opinions of the people you’re submitting your work to may carry more weight than others, but in terms of the quality of your writing, their opinions are no more right than anyone else’s.
Jessica stumbled upon the inspiration for The Angel Makers in 2000 when she came across an encyclopedia of serial killers at a railway station. It described how a group of women in a small village in Hungary started killing their husbands after the war.
Jessica claims that the idea for the book ‘took a couple of years to percolate’. She abandoned the project after writing 20,000 words, but picked it up again and finished the first draft at the end of 2003. The second draft was completed toward the end of February 2004.
‘I decided to concentrate on my writing, so quit my job and moved to Nottingham, working part-time in Sheffield,’ she said. ‘Much of the writing was done clandestinely at work, or on trains between home and the office.
She believes she took her writing more seriously after telling friends that she was working part-time to write a novel, a clear statement that she was making a commitment to produce something.
Sacred habits
Susan Santucci author of Pathways to the Spirit: 100 Ways To Bring The Sacred Into Daily Life, shares these tips on the power of forming habits.
- Habits establish routine, structure, continuity, reduce tedium, and give meaning to our routines. Turning what is tedious in life into a habit gives meaning to otherwise meaningless things. Even bad habits offer the reassurance of the familiar.
- Learn to turn good habits into rituals by performing them with awareness.
- Examine your life. Identify which of your habits are beneficial and which are destructive.
- A bad habit may give temporary pleasure, but it only creates more misery in the end.
- You have the power to unlearn old patterns and develop good habits. Are you having trouble breaking a bad habit because you’re a “creature of habit”? You have “an addictive personality”? All right, admit it and now substitute the bad habit with the good one.
- Find a partner to help you break bad habits. Company is stronger than willpower.
- Good habits are the ones that make us feel good about ourselves. Letting go of old patterns increases our self-confidence, sense of control, and hope for the future.
Writers resource
Inspiration Running Low? Is Your Muse out to Lunch? Need a Nudge to Channel Your Creativity? Next time you’re stuck, check out The Writer’s Block where you’ll find ideas and exercises that will jump-start your imagination. Many of these assignments come straight from the creative writing classes of celebrated novelists like Ethan Canin, Richard Price, Toni Morrison, and Kurt Vonnegut.
Learn how Joyce Carol Oates uses running to destroy writer’s block. Elmore Leonard describes how he often finds ideas just by reading the newspaper. E. Annie Proulx discusses finding inspiration at garage sales. Isabel Allende tells why she always begins a new novel on January 8th. And John Irving explains why he prefers to write the last sentence first.
Fresh, fun, and irreverent, The Writer’s Block also features advice from contemporary editors and literary agents, lessons from the awful novels of Joan Collins and Robert James Waller, a filmography of movies concerning writer’s block (i.e. The Shining, Barton Fink) and countless other surprises. Check out this resource
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