Suzy Davies's Blog: Book News - Posts Tagged "a-writer-s-life"
How To Write Your First Book!
When you think about it, we always remember firsts! Our first early memories, our first childhood friend, our first school uniform, our first birthday party, our first pet, our first kiss, the first time we fell in love, our first wage packet, (and what we spent the money on,) our first independent holiday without parents or caregivers, our first flat or house, our first car, the first time we won an award or competition, and so on! Life is full of "first times." How could you ever know that you would be contemplating another first - your first book!
First books "happen" in different ways to different writers. There is a common misconception that, all of a sudden, you will be inspired, as if by divine intervention, to write a book, but misconception it is, since to write a good book you will have read a lot of books by well-respected writers, or at the very least, read widely and avidly - whatever your reading material.
If you write books without having read anything, how will you know, from an honest objective viewpoint, that your writing is good enough to publish? Friends and family, after all, are a sure win captive audience, and are likely to be biased, after all. The true test of any writer is whether they attract the attention of readers, and possibly whether, in the long haul, they grow to become a writers' writer as well.
Popularity, however, is not everything! Think of the "undiscovered" writers, whose work did not gain true recognition until after their death. And think of writers whose work was so visionary, that perhaps we could argue that the merits of their work are only fully seen, and appreciated, today.
This brings me to a question of ethics. Should a writer be instrumental, and do a cold analysis of what sells? I don't have to mention what sells; we all know that sex sells, violence sells, how to make a quick million sells, even death sells.
I believe that to succeed as a writer, you have to write from your authentic self, the self that is the same on the inside as the outside - the congruent self. Readers are not easily duped. They will know whether you believe in your book or not, and whether it comes from the heart.
So, you think you have a book inside you. If you trace back through your memories, you are likely to discover that the seed of an idea about being a writer has been germinating for some time. In my case, the story of becoming a storyteller goes something like this.
1) A schoolgirl always chooses a window-seat in class. Why? She finds what is going on outside the classroom more interesting than what is going on inside. She likes to observe what is going on out there in the world.
2) This schoolgirl is sometimes described thus in school reports: "....has a tendency to daydream."
3) The schoolgirl is at her happiest with the wind in her hair and sand between her toes. She misses the sights, sounds, and smells of her father's homeland - the cows coming down the lanes at the end of the day, the music of waterfalls, the silly, skittish lambs jumping for joy on the hills, Welsh women polishing the brass steps of their cottages, fishermen hauling in the day's catch at the docks. She misses Wales, the land of her father. She misses being an outsider, an observer, and a dreamer: "The English Girl."
4) The schoolgirl meets a mentor, someone who believes in her, who tells her she can write. Suddenly, this girl finds a reason to do English homework, and it is the one subject she can do. She has a poem published in a school magazine. Being a writer seems surreal; she sees her name in print, and it feels like watching a film.
5) The young woman does a string of dead-end jobs, and progresses to more interesting ones but is still not fulfilled. Eventually, luck, motivation, and opportunity coincide, and she realises her ambition to go to university.
6) A mature young woman enters university. She feels like an ant climbing a mountain, she is so intimidated at the prospect of the "great minds" she will encounter there. She reads and reads and reads. She stumbles across a book by a famous writer that impresses her. She reads another, and another, by the same author. The third book is not so great. She has a secret thought, that gathers strength the more she writes: "I can write as well as that writer!" She has some small successes with writing poems - and a publisher puts them in an anthology, with ninety-nine other poets' work. When she receives a royalties cheque for just over a pound, she is so poor, she banks it!
7) This young woman, with a tendency to procrastinate, has become a legend, who can turn out term papers, written last minute, overnight, and get respectable marks. She likes to delay up to the hand-in deadline of tomorrow. Sometimes, she misses the deadline, but most times she doesn't because she has spent weeks "writing it all in her head."
8) The young woman is not young anymore. She is now a teacher. She teaches the four English skills: Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening. There is nothing like teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages and Literacy as a way to know your language inside out and back to front.
9) The woman is middle-aged now. She vows she will write a book before her time runs out. She has lived enough to have material to draw on, she has survived, and imagined enough to put her dreams into words. Her first book, a Romance Novel, "Johari's Window," is her apprenticeship.
10) How to write your first book? Write your apprenticeship book first. Let it pour out! Put your heart into it! The second book may well be the one with which you are most satisfied, until you write your third.
First books "happen" in different ways to different writers. There is a common misconception that, all of a sudden, you will be inspired, as if by divine intervention, to write a book, but misconception it is, since to write a good book you will have read a lot of books by well-respected writers, or at the very least, read widely and avidly - whatever your reading material.
If you write books without having read anything, how will you know, from an honest objective viewpoint, that your writing is good enough to publish? Friends and family, after all, are a sure win captive audience, and are likely to be biased, after all. The true test of any writer is whether they attract the attention of readers, and possibly whether, in the long haul, they grow to become a writers' writer as well.
Popularity, however, is not everything! Think of the "undiscovered" writers, whose work did not gain true recognition until after their death. And think of writers whose work was so visionary, that perhaps we could argue that the merits of their work are only fully seen, and appreciated, today.
This brings me to a question of ethics. Should a writer be instrumental, and do a cold analysis of what sells? I don't have to mention what sells; we all know that sex sells, violence sells, how to make a quick million sells, even death sells.
I believe that to succeed as a writer, you have to write from your authentic self, the self that is the same on the inside as the outside - the congruent self. Readers are not easily duped. They will know whether you believe in your book or not, and whether it comes from the heart.
So, you think you have a book inside you. If you trace back through your memories, you are likely to discover that the seed of an idea about being a writer has been germinating for some time. In my case, the story of becoming a storyteller goes something like this.
1) A schoolgirl always chooses a window-seat in class. Why? She finds what is going on outside the classroom more interesting than what is going on inside. She likes to observe what is going on out there in the world.
2) This schoolgirl is sometimes described thus in school reports: "....has a tendency to daydream."
3) The schoolgirl is at her happiest with the wind in her hair and sand between her toes. She misses the sights, sounds, and smells of her father's homeland - the cows coming down the lanes at the end of the day, the music of waterfalls, the silly, skittish lambs jumping for joy on the hills, Welsh women polishing the brass steps of their cottages, fishermen hauling in the day's catch at the docks. She misses Wales, the land of her father. She misses being an outsider, an observer, and a dreamer: "The English Girl."
4) The schoolgirl meets a mentor, someone who believes in her, who tells her she can write. Suddenly, this girl finds a reason to do English homework, and it is the one subject she can do. She has a poem published in a school magazine. Being a writer seems surreal; she sees her name in print, and it feels like watching a film.
5) The young woman does a string of dead-end jobs, and progresses to more interesting ones but is still not fulfilled. Eventually, luck, motivation, and opportunity coincide, and she realises her ambition to go to university.
6) A mature young woman enters university. She feels like an ant climbing a mountain, she is so intimidated at the prospect of the "great minds" she will encounter there. She reads and reads and reads. She stumbles across a book by a famous writer that impresses her. She reads another, and another, by the same author. The third book is not so great. She has a secret thought, that gathers strength the more she writes: "I can write as well as that writer!" She has some small successes with writing poems - and a publisher puts them in an anthology, with ninety-nine other poets' work. When she receives a royalties cheque for just over a pound, she is so poor, she banks it!
7) This young woman, with a tendency to procrastinate, has become a legend, who can turn out term papers, written last minute, overnight, and get respectable marks. She likes to delay up to the hand-in deadline of tomorrow. Sometimes, she misses the deadline, but most times she doesn't because she has spent weeks "writing it all in her head."
8) The young woman is not young anymore. She is now a teacher. She teaches the four English skills: Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening. There is nothing like teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages and Literacy as a way to know your language inside out and back to front.
9) The woman is middle-aged now. She vows she will write a book before her time runs out. She has lived enough to have material to draw on, she has survived, and imagined enough to put her dreams into words. Her first book, a Romance Novel, "Johari's Window," is her apprenticeship.
10) How to write your first book? Write your apprenticeship book first. Let it pour out! Put your heart into it! The second book may well be the one with which you are most satisfied, until you write your third.
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"The Flamingos Who Painted The Sky," our new picture book is NOW fully available to bring in #Christmas #sunshine, #flamingo #sunsets, and #happiness #worldwide Illustrated by the talented Shirin Mass ...more
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