Hello!

I first finished my book in 2012, about three and a half years ago, which is actually a really long time ago! Since then, I’ve barely touched that book but it’s still my favourite thing I’ve ever done.

So I thought I’d write a list of tips to writing a book! To inspire myself to rewrite my book as much as to inspire other people!

Number 1 – make a plan! Even if that is a sentence to describe the beginning, the middle and the end write down the plot of you book. Ideally, expand it, write excerpts out in full but try to map out the entire novel.

Number 2 – sounds silly now, but condense the plan, make character sheets and make sure you know every detail. The book you are writing is taking place in a universe that you’ve created so create every detail (this also helps with continuity errors in the long run).

Number 3 – the next step is to actually start writing, make a note of important details as you go along (such as character traits and other little details) and adapt your plan if you need to as well. I find this helps with avoiding continuity errors as well!

Number 4 – keep writing! Even when you lose faith in your idea or you run out of motivation keep going because losing motivation and slowing down writing is a really easy way to let yourself stop and give up.

Number 5 – just remember that it doesn’t have to be the best writing in the world, it doesn’t even have to be good but that’s what a first draft is for – just getting the words on paper.

Number 6 – when you’ve finished, remember to step back and just acknowledge that you wrote a book! A whole book! From start to finish you have this creation that you wrote and it’s a proper book! Good job! Well done! I’m trying not to sound patronising but I feel like exclamation marks make it seem like I’m a primary school teacher!

Number 7 – and now for the next steps! I recommend taking a break for a while (maybe not three and a half years…) and start again – go back to the planning stages and get the post it notes out again. That’s my next step anyway!

And then repeat the process until you think it’s good enough! Unless you don’t actually plan on getting it published, then just be super happy you wrote a book!

A blog post full of exclamation marks and writing tips, what a wonderful blog post.

Thank you for reading,

Sophie xx

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