So You Want To Be A Writer? Top 5 Tips

  1. Start writing.  There’s no better way to be a writer than to actually write.  In fact, there’s no other way.  Writing is a creative process.  You’re not a writer unless you have created some writing that is worth reading.  Just do it.  Write a blog, write letters, write articles and stories to sell.  Just practise and be prolific.  The more you do, the better you’ll get.  I like the old analogy of the ‘writing muscle’ – use it or lose it.  The more writing you do, the more developed your writing muscle becomes.  The stronger the muscle, the better the writing.

  2. Tell yourself that you are a writer.  If you want others to take you seriously as a writer, you’d better start to take yourself seriously.  Start to rethink your own identity.  If you’re longing to be a novelist/freelance writer/pro-blogger/all of the above, live that dream.  Believe that you are a ‘real’ writer: act like one, think like one, convince yourself that you are one and, hey presto, you are one.  Thoughts are much more powerful than most people believe.  If your internal dialogue tells you that you are a successful writer, earning an excellent income from your writing, then it will be so.  As Henry Ford said, “Whether you think you can or think you can’t, you’re probably right.” Believe it!

  3. Have confidence. There are no formal qualifications required for being a freelance writer.  Of course, you need good literacy skills but, assuming that you can spell and punctuate (and, let’s face it, your computer can help with a lot of that stuff) you’ve got what it takes.  Many would-be writers worry that they don’t know enough about formal writing conventions and might not be able to ‘correctly’ produce official-type documents.  I say the less you know about formality and convention the better. In your ignorance, you have the creative edge: producing quirky, memorable prose in your own inimitable way.

  4. Read.  Some writers refuse to read anything else when working on their own piece of writing.  They claim that it clouds their focus and makes the task of writing more difficult.  Rubbish!  Reading carefully constructed professional writing is a brilliant way to learn your craft.  It’s like having personal training from a professional.  Take every opportunity to read good writing and, in turn, your writing will improve.  Caveat: don’t spend so much time reading that you neglect point 1, above.

  5. Write more.  I’m not being flippant, but Top Tip Number One is at the top for a reason.  I’m amazed at how many of the people who tell me that they would like to be writers, when quizzed, reveal that they do very little writing.  They don’t have time, apparently, or they haven’t had a great idea yet.  Well get real!  You’ve got to make time.  Set aside even just ten minutes every day and write.  Keep your writing time sacred and make sure that you fill it with real writing.  And as for people who are waiting for inspiration to strike… *shakes head in despair*. See to it that you are inspired at 9 o’clock every morning. It’s the only way.

    6. Now, off you go!  Write!

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No Comments by RachelPattisson on August 24, 2010
filed in How To Be a Writer
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What Counts As Work? And Why You Need To Know

I’m not in bed, as such. I’m in my office. Well, kind of. Agreed, it’s not actually an office, but I am working. Yes, I’m wearing pyjamas. Is that relevant? I’ll put on a suit when I make business phone calls if you like but otherwise, it’s just me, typing away. It doesn’t matter how I look or where I am.

Nevertheless, working from my bed can be hard to explain. It’s akin to sleeping through a film whilst claiming to be ‘just resting your eyes’. I was sitting next to an old gent in church last week who was ‘resting his eyes’ or perhaps deep in prayer – until he started snoring. I draw the line at snoring. Snoring does not count as work, no matter how you look at it.

I do feel like a bit of a fraud sometimes when my husband comes home from the office. He’s done his working day, in a suit, with actual colleagues and meetings. I say goodnight to the children and then cosy down somewhere with the laptop. Or, what is worse, sometimes without the laptop. And since my work involves large periods of thinking, I look as though I’m doing nothing. I might be staring out of the window, going for a walk or sitting in bed but the claim, “I’m working!” does feel a little hard to justify, at times.

When your work is creative and imaginative, it relies on thinking space: you need time to generate random ideas and let sentences sneak up on you from all angles. Sitting (or walking or whatever) quietly, allows ideas to sidle up casually, when they might not otherwise have had the courage to appear. Many a great idea has been suppressed by the sheer pressure of having to arrive on time, looking presentable. Ideas are much more amenable in less formal situations.

But even though thinking time is of the utmost importance to a writer, it is all too easy to overlook. Family are prone to interrupting. It’s not as though you are sitting at a desk, typing frantically, is it? How busy can you really be?! And when hours go by without any actual words on the page, even the writer starts to feel a bit uncomfortable.

Which is why it is important to have a clear definition of what counts as work. It’s perfectly acceptable for thinking to count as work. Whether or not to charge your clients per hour for thinking time is a moot point, but in your own mind (as it were) hours spent in thought are justifiable. It has to be ‘on task’ thinking though: not daydreaming about your holiday or figuring out what to have for dinner. It is possible to be thinking whilst doing other activities too. I can attest that ironing is a great way to generate ideas, as is cooking. As I said in 5 Reasons To Step Away From The Computer, doing household chores is a brilliant way to free your brain for creativity. If you can cook a meal at the same time as composing some brilliant prose, so much the better.

It all comes down to attitude. You have to be disciplined with yourself and recognise whether you are truly working or, in fact, merely procrastinating. If you are, really working (by your own definition) then it’s fine to be ‘just’ thinking, digging the garden or going for a walk. If anyone else thinks differently, that’s their problem.

Once you take your work (whatever that means to you) seriously, it is easier to convince others. See? I told you I’m not in bed. I’m at work. Now, quiet please, I must get on.

2 Comments by RachelPattisson on August 20, 2010
filed in Creative Thinking
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5 Reasons to Step Away From the Computer

How much typing is involved in writing, really?  Not as much as you might think.  The bulk of the work takes place in your head – and the further away from the computer, the better.

I’ve realised that I work much more effectively when I’m away from the computer.

Being away from the computer doesn’t mean you are taking a break from work.  It actually increases your productivity in an almost magical way.

So here are five excellent reasons to step away from the computer and get more work done.

  1. Avoid distractions
    Separate yourself from the obvious distractions of email and Twitter*.  Come on, we all know that sitting at the computer doesn’t necessarily mean ‘working’.  And, unless you’re involved in some work that is Very Important, it is really not necessary to check your email again so soon.  No one has emailed you.  Look away and focus on something genuinely useful.
    *Other social networking sites are also to blame.

  2. Stop Pseudo-Working
    We’ve all done it.  You have a deadline to meet, a piece to write and yet, when you sit at your computer to start work, you don’t.  Not really.  You find things to do but somehow, having spent a day ‘at work,’ you don’t manage to get any nearer to achieving your work-goal.  The presence of a slightly challenging work-task means that you suddenly need to re-design your website, check your web traffic stats and make an elaborate spreadsheet of your business expenses.  I call this ‘pseudo-working’.  When you are pseudo-working, it feels like work, you can convince yourself and your family that you are working but you Are Not Working.  Genuine work moves you closer to achieving your goals.  Anything else is mere procrastination.

  3. Remove the Pressure
    The pressure, in the case of a writer, tends to be the notion that you ‘should’ be typing.  The cursor, flashing away on screen is the silent equivalent of a tapping finger.  I’m waiting…  And suddenly, faced with the pressure to produce something, Right Now, creativity runs away to hide.  The blank screen remains blank and it’s tempting to think that you might get some inspiration by surfing the net for a while or checking what your friends are up to on Facebook.  If the blank screen, the impatient cursor and the sound of time ticking away has you in a mild panic that causes instant mind-blanking, step away from the computer.  Go elsewhere to start the flow of ideas and only return to the typeface when you have something to type.

  4. Free Your Imagination
    When you step away from the computer, it’s important to choose your next task carefully.  You need to pick an activity that is going to allow your brain to relax and think, whilst switching the focus away from your work-project.  If you sit in silence and continue to beat yourself up about not having any ideas, you’ve simply moved the problem away from the computer.  The solution lies in giving your brain the right sort of sidetracking.  Going for a walk, ironing or vacuuming can be brilliant brain-freeing activities.  Once your brain is engaged in something practical (but not too complicated) you will find that it starts to relax and think creatively again.  Something amazing happens.  Ideas relating to your work will sneak in, as it were, from the side as though they had been waiting in the wings all this time, too shy to step into the bright spotlight of the computer screen.  And once one idea arrives, others follow in quick succession.  Within minutes of stepping away from the computer, you’ll be stepping back with renewed purpose.

  5. Increase Productivity
    You can spend hours not-really-working in front of the computer, or you can spend minutes walking away to find your inspiration.  Naturally, once you’ve had some great ideas and have rushed back to the computer to type them out, you are likely to reach the same situation again: devoid of ideas in front of the flashing cursor with the temptations of the internet luring you away.  The best tactic is to step away from the computer but not too far away.  Cooking, for example, with the computer beside you in the kitchen, enables you to record ideas as they occur whilst maintaining that freedom of brain that allows creativity to flow.  After an hour or so, you’ll not only have made some great progress at work, you’ll have made dinner too.
No Comments by RachelPattisson on July 26, 2010
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How To Produce Writing That is Perfectly Packaged

It’s all about antici…pation.

And long baths.

If you want to entice your reader through a whole piece of writing, you’ve got to wrap it up like a birthday present: neatly and prettily packaged.  And I’m not talking about fancy fonts and graphics – no-one is fooled by those.  I’m talking about the quality of the writing itself and the way it is delivered.

Like anything that you are trying to ‘sell’ to others, a piece of writing depends on its packaging.  If the message is delivered in nice wrapping, the reader will find it more inviting and exciting.  The ‘wrapping’ is, in many cases, separate to the main body of the writing, but is a way of carrying the entire piece to its audience.

It doesn’t matter what you are writing, the same applies to a novel as it does to a short article.  The bulk of the words – the main body of text – is always less important than the very beginning and the very end.  First and last impressions count.

First impressions.
Start by giving your reader something intriguing: the traditional ‘hook’ that makes them want to read on.  People are more likely to enjoy their reading experience if the first paragraph leaves them anticipating something worthwhile.  Make your first sentence quirky, gripping and enticing, then follow it up with a first paragraph that is fun to read.  Once your reader is engaged, what you write next becomes less crucial.

The Main Message
Of course it does matter what comes next.  The reader will lose interest and look away if the quality of writing deteriorates significantly but what I would say, here, is that you can get away with less editing.  If you’re trying to meet a deadline, you should bear in mind that paragraphs in the middle of the writing are quickly forgotten once the reader moves on to whatever you have said next.

Lasting Impressions
A good ending is crucial.  Not only does the final paragraph of your writing have to complete what you were trying to convey, it has to leave a positive impression.  If the last sentence is clever and witty, the reader’s lasting impression will be that your entire piece was clever and witty, even if the middle section really wasn’t.  It doesn’t matter how excellently written most of the work is, if the ending falls flat, the reader will be left with a dissatisfied feeling.

Whenever I am doing a piece of writing, I always write the bulk of the piece first.  I convey the main messages and impart all the information.  Then I think about packaging.

At that point, I probably go and have a bath.  I step away from the computer in order to do some creative thinking.  The ‘packaging’ has to be something quirky and interesting that ties the piece of writing together neatly.  I devise a catchy beginning and then I link it to a clever ending.  The beginning and ending are always part of the same idea.  The ending revisits the beginning and joins everything together.  It’s a bit like an interesting bow, pulling the writing into a beautiful, tidy parcel.

The packaging is the most challenging part of any piece of writing.  It’s fairly easy to organise your ideas into a coherent stream but to make a piece interesting and engaging takes extra time and effort.  You must be prepared to walk away.  Leave the work for a few hours or even days, until you come up with the perfect way to wrap it up.  Hence the long baths.  It’s worth taking some time over it.

And the best presents?  Aren’t they the ones that are truly surprising?

Boo!

2 Comments by RachelPattisson on June 22, 2010
filed in Writing as a craft
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Working From The Bath

At this moment, I am working from my bed.  Why not?  The children are asleep, the evening is All Mine and the laptop sits as nicely on my knee in bed as it does on the sofa.

I don’t usually work like this.  Every evening, I sit on the sofa with my laptop.  It seems more business-like, to be dressed and downstairs.  But if the truth be known, most of my work is not done on the computer at all.  It’s done in the bath.

Yup.  The bath.  There, I said it.

Most of my ‘writing’ is not done on the computer.  Of course, the actual typing is done on the laptop but the creative bit?  Not at all.  Put me in front of a blank screen and I go all, well, blank.  The place for creativity is not in front of a blinking curser with the temptation to ‘just check’ on Twitter/Facebook/Gmail etc.  Creative thinking takes place in a different space.  Somewhere, anywhere, else.

When I want to compose a new piece of writing, I switch off the computer.  I go and daydream.  Walking is a particularly good way to generate ideas and, as I said, taking baths.

I do feel like a bit of a fraud sometimes, shouting from my bath, “I’m working!”  And I never know what to write on my time-sheets.  Do I count the number of hours spent thinking or just the number of hours spent actually typing and editing?  Usually, I just charge for the time spent in front of the computer, but that doesn’t reflect the true nature of my work.

Anybody can sit at a computer and produce a piece of writing.  The computer will even spell-check and grammar-check it for you.  But it’s the creative thinking that makes a piece of writing original and engaging.  It takes time to think of an appropriate angle to write from, to get the tone right and invent a catchy opening line to hook the reader in.  So, although I don’t really bill my clients for long bath-times, I consider that the long bath-times are, in a way, what they are paying for.  My clients are busy people with a lot on their minds.  I have the freedom to think randomly, daydream clearly and, well, take long baths.  It all helps.  And tomorrow I might be working from my potato patch.

No Comments by RachelPattisson on June 16, 2010
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Writer’s Block? No Such Thing!

block“I write when I’m inspired and I see to it that I am inspired at 9 o’clock every morning.”

One of my favourite writing quotes, from Peter de Vries. For me, it’s not “9 o’clock every morning” – it’s more like “9 o’clock every evening,” actually, but that’s ok.  The important thing is to set a time to write and stick to it.  No matter what.

Of course, you’re busy.  You’re tired.  You have Things on your mind.  I know. I have two children AND a business to run.  I’ve used all the excuses.  But don’t be fooled, they are just that: excuses.  Poor, procrastinatory excuses.  If the writing has to be done, it has to fit into the schedule along with everything else.  Which is why Peter de Vries is right to call ‘times up’ on inspiration.

At the allotted moment, you have no choice but to sit down and write.  Write and write until something good emerges.  Some days, the words will flow easily and some days they won’t.  On the days when everything you write seems bad, you have to write even more.  When the going gets tough, the real writers get typing.

I appreciate that it’s easier not to.  It’s easier to stop and bemoan our condition.  It’s easier to have a cup of tea/watch television/go to bed and let ourselves believe that the writing will flow better tomorrow. But crying, “I just can’t!” and downing tools is a bit lame, isn’t it?  And giving the supposed infliction an official title such as “writer’s block” doesn’t make it any more worthwhile, does it?

Whilst you’re too tired/too stressed/too whatever to write, others are not.  They are finishing their best-selling novels, making money from their blogs and feeling good about their achievements as we speak.

Writing is not a whim.  It is a decision.  And it’s hard work.

Writers write.  So, if you’re going to be a writer, push aside the blocks or blast write through them.  Sit down at 9 o’clock and see to it that you are inspired.

No Comments by RachelPattisson on April 21, 2010
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Don’t You Just Hate It When…

…You arrive at a site and it’s clearly not finished?!

Which is what has happened to you now.

I know, you can hardly bring yourself to believe me when I say that ‘this site is under construction’ and I’ll be making it bright and beautiful soon, but I will!

I’m moving my little home-made (and not very impressive, it has to be said!) site to WordPress, which I think is going to be Much Better, but this does entail some unsightly construction work, which is what you see now.

You can still find my business information by following the links at the top of the page.   You can still contact me.  You can still ask me to do your writing.  I’m around here somewhere, probably behind the scenes, typing away…

Proper blogging commences soon!

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No Comments by RachelPattisson on April 6, 2010
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