Our new segment for 2022 is for new authors/writers and written by published authors, titled – Writing Tips. These posts will be shared with you every Wednesday. Our latest post is from author SC Gowland on the subject ‘Writing Lessons I’ve learnt’. This post contains affiliate links.

Writing Lessons I’ve learnt

Let’s get one thing straight. Writing a book is hard, really, really hard. People will often say I fancy writing a book, but will they actually do it? Few do. I’ve spent the last seven years trying to write my books and I want to share with you some lessons I’ve learnt.

I’m approaching the end of my fourth book, having written the first trilogy of The Souls’ Abyss fantasy series. In total, this amounts to nearly half a million words. So I like to think I’ve discovered a thing or two.

There is no one best approach to writing a book. Anybody who suggests so either has something to sell or is too inflexible in their ways that they’re not willing – perhaps through fear – to consider any other way of doing things.

Writing a book is a lot like picking your own perfect pizza topping. Everybody has slightly different preferences. I, for example, hate pineapple. Pineapple does not belong on a pizza, but some people would suggest it does.

The three themes I’ve identified below work for me, they may not work for you, but you lose nothing by spending 4 minutes reading this to see if they do.

Light Planning.

There is nothing more dispiriting to a writer than a blank page. The blinking of the cursor waiting for you to write great things. I tried planning my books in extensive detail – pages and pages of notes about what should happen within my books – but I think I actually ended up spending more time planning the book than writing it.

I then moved to the other end of the spectrum, providing minimal detail, and the result was still the same. I spent hours staring at a blank screen because I had too many choices as there was little direction and no boundaries. The happy medium I found was to create a structure, a skeleton, a list of chapters with headings to flesh out the book in my mind.

Within each chapter, I then add three or four small bullet points showing what must happen within this particular piece of the book. This doesn’t restrict me to a course of writing or actions which are irreversible. But it gives me an opportunity to play and have fun, but whilst continuing in the direction that I need to.

I also went to great lengths in preparing visuals. I’m a very visual person. I see my scenes; I see my characters in my head when I’m writing, what they’re doing and what they’re saying. I’ve created 20 to 30 page PowerPoint presentations with a page per character. Attaching images from mood boards that I’ve created on Pinterest. This really helps me see the characters and to understand them. It’s an investment, but also fun and it helps me get the words on the page more easily.

I list their motivations, their weaknesses, their flaws, their strengths, what they’re good at and what they’re not, but nothing too heavy. Not like an online dating profile, but small little things that helped me to understand why a person is who they are and why they react to things in a certain way. I also like to include pictures of actors that I would like to cast in the roles within my book. This may be a slight flight of fancy, but it helps to get me into the process, to visualise the book and therefore write it much more easily.

Be Accountable.

Writing a book can be a thing that you tell the world about whether it’s on Twitter or face to face with friends and family, or it can be the deepest, darkest secrets that you share with nobody. I firmly believe that by being accountable, you raise an expectation. You add a little pressure to yourself to actually deliver on what you want to do.

Everybody makes promises to themselves that they break. I will join the gym. I will paint that fence. I will sort out that pile of papers. By being accountable, people will ask how you are doing, how it is going. Are you really doing what you said you would do?

Being accountable helps with my productivity, it helps drive me forward because I know people will be interested in what I’m doing, who you tell and how you tell them is entirely up to you.

I speak to my wife. I’m accountable to her. She asks how things are going and this drives me on because I don’t want to disappoint myself and also her. I found an amazing community of supporters within the Bestseller Experiment. For the last five years, I’ve been listening to their podcasts. I find they helped me to believe that I am a writer. Joanne Harris said, “You’re not an aspiring writer. You’re just a writer.” And I completely believe this is true.

I’ve made fantastic friends online that I’ve never met, but who I’m accountable to. Who each week asked me how things are going, not just from the simple point of view of word counts, but how other things are? And this has really, really helped me to produce the work that I have done so far.

Get yourself out there to the extent of your comfort zone, but maybe just a little bit further. Because all of this is about pushing your boundaries slightly to get what you want. A finished book at the end of this process.

Consistency.

You don’t have to write every day. You do not have to write 1000s of words today. Some people do and good for them. That’s brilliant, but that’s not me. And it may not be you either.

Think about your work every day. Even if you don’t write, it helps maintain momentum and it can be easily lost if you’re unable to produce something that helps move you forwards towards your ultimate goal.

Even 200 words a day will result in a completed novel within a year. 200 words can be written on the train to work, waiting for a bus and can take as little as 5 to 10 minutes. Little and often is better than large chunks with huge gaps in between. I found it much easier to write my books consistently to a quality I’m happy with by doing it small and often rather than via binges.

The last pearl of wisdom, if it is one, is to believe in yourself. You have the ability to do great things, to write works of fiction or nonfiction that nobody has ever written before. And you can do it – the key to all of it is doing it, not just talking or thinking about it.

SC Gowland is an international selling author and double self-finalist of the Self Publishing Fantasy Blog Off (SPFBO6) and Book Blogger Novel of the Year Award (BBNYA – 2021) with his debut novel, THE DARK CROWN – first book in THE SOULS’ ABYSS fantasy series. It was followed in spring 2021 by book 2 – COVEN OF SHADOWS and book 3 – DARKNESS FALLS, released in February 2022. His first standalone novel, IMAGINE THE FIRE, will be released in May 2022.

His first memory is of holding a light sabre. He misspent much of his youth playing video-games and daydreaming that he was a Jedi or Buck Rogers. Always an enormous fan of fantasy novels, his favourite authors include Joe Abercrombie, David Eddings, George RR Martin and David Gemmell.

He lives by the sea with his family, still daydreaming about imaginary worlds, doing limited housework, and reading far less that he should.

THE WORLD IS SHROUDED IN DARKNESS.

The end is near. Souls and kingdoms fall into darkness. Three heroes must fight off the shadows and restore light to the world.

Within the walls of Zapomniane prison, Kaoldan schemes to escape. He has a promise to fulfil, and nothing will stop him.

Meanwhile, Romina battles to survive against Otan forces. When a stranger offers her a way out, she must decide whether to save herself or stand against the evil that threatens the world.

Zahara has left her loved ones behind. She bears a secret that might destroy her – and the realm. The enemy relentlessly hunts her, determined to take back what she stole. If they succeed, all is lost.

Fates collide and the light shines anew in the epic conclusion to the first SOULS’ ABYSS trilogy.