Some Starting Advice

Advice for writers.

Specifically, for writers attempting to complete the National Novel Writing Month challenge.
First, jump over to Writer’s Digest and check out their 30 Tips for Writing a Book in 30 Days.  And, also, keep in mind that you’ll have 31 days to do it, but, if you haven’t started already, you’ve wasted at least five days.   (But, it’s still not too late!)  But, I’m going to assume you have started and maybe just need a distraction from all the work.  If that’s the case, jump over to that link and check out what the experts from Writer’s Digest suggest might help.  Out of the 30 tips, surely one of them will.  One thing, though, they recommend buying a bunch of books from their site.  I don’t at this point.  If you don’t have them or haven’t read them, there’s no time.  You should be writing now!   And, hopefully, you have already read No Plot, No Problem, by Chris Baty, the founder of NaNoWriMo.  It’s specifically geared toward this writing adventure and would be a great help.

And, since you’re still in the early stages of your work, and maybe need a break from writing for a bit, you might go back and check your work so far to see if you’ve done one of the many things that literary agents suggest you NOT do when writing your novel.  The list of what NOT to do when beginning your novel was collected by Chuck Sambuchino at Writer Unboxed and is a great list of the worst ways to start a novel.  So, if you’ve done any of those, fix it quick!  Especially if you’re stuck and need to rework something anyway.  Best to do it now, before you get too much further.

Above all else, keep writing!  And check back for more writing advice later in the month!