A facebook friend struggling with their first novel was asking for advice or more accurately was bemoaning the struggle they are having getting words on paper. So after telling them not to be so hard on themselves. I wrote out a quick set of tidbit advice for those aspiring to write in the hope, vain though it may be, that it would help them a little. So I thought I would share it here, as I had written it anyway. There is probably nothing new in this I have not mentioned before, and as ever I don’t always follow my own advice, but for what it’s worth …

1. Change your writing routine, if you write on an evening, get up early and write, if you write on a morning try a late night writing
2. If you normally write with music on, turn off the music
3. Turn off all social media, just close down your browser and stop all alerts coming through
4. Change where you write. Its a laptop, you can move to another room, sit on the bed, slouch on the sofa, writing at the kitchen table
5. Avoid distractions by not let the distractions access to you (leave your phone in another room)
6. Change your chair (this actually works really well for me,)
7. If you normally write in silence, turn on some music, but something that can sit in the background
8. Pick a time to be your writing time and stick to it
9. If you edit as you go, stop, no first draft is perfect, Hemingway was right on that score
10. If you never edit as you go, read back the last two chapters and edit them
11. Write, just write,, don’t worry about it being good, or right, or perfect, just write,
12. Set your self a target, remember 300 words a day every day for a year is 109200 words, that’s a novel, just 300 words, make yourself write that many because really 300 words a day, of course, you can do that, and if you do more some days… Well then…
13. Did I mention write?