1. Donât go out to lunch.
2. Donât go online until lunch.
3. Donât start writing your novel until you know your characters very, very well. What theyâd do if they saw somebody shoplifting. What they were like at school. What shoes they wear. Spend days â weeks, months â being them until they thicken up and start to breathe. VS Pritchett said, âThereâs no such thing as plot, only characters.â Once you know them well theyâll lead you into their stories. If you start too soon you wonât have a clue what theyâre going to do and all is chaos.
4. However hopeless and inadequate you feel, leave that self behind. Psych yourself up until youâre confident that the world will be interested in what happens to your characters. Confidence is key.
5. Donât âwriteâ. âWritingâ is about showing off, or imitating other writers. âWritingâ mistakes solemnity for seriousness. Just write. Have courage, be truthful, be true to your characters.
6. Donât be daunted. Writing a novel is a huge adventure; when itâs going well itâs more fun than fun. When it stutters to a halt put it aside. Go for a swim, go for a walk, take a week off. Donât panic or be afraid; you and your characters are in it together. Trust them to come to your rescue. Of course itâs a long haul, but you always knew that, didnât you?
7. If a character stubbornly refuses to come alive, switch to the first person. Suddenly theyâll be speaking to you. Later you can change it back again if you need to.
8. I have to know the ending before I can begin. Map out as much as you need but donât over-plot or you can constrict your characters. Let them change it as they go along.
9. You donât have to know the ending.
10. In other words, you donât have to listen to anyoneâs advice. There are no rules to break. Thatâs the pleasure of it. Read The Paris Review interviews with writers â everyone has their own methods and if a novel is truly alive it will break all their rules too.
11. Discover the times when youâre most creative â mornings, nights, afternoons â and clear the time to work then. Many writers find the mornings are best, and the afternoons are only good for editorial corrections, or getting the washing done. Others can only work through the night, drunk.
12. Sort out your priorities. Donât clean your home, other than as a displacement activity. There wonât be time. Youâll probably neglect your friends too, and even your personal hygiene. If you have children, however, try to keep them fed.
Deborah Moggachâs rules for writing. Complement with rule sets from Henry Miller, Margaret Atwood, Neil Gaiman, Helen Dunmore, Zadie Smith, Kurt Vonnegut, David Ogilvy, and John Steinbeck, and wash down with the essential collected wisdom of famous writers. (via explore-blog)
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