Tips for Budding Writers from Anna Cartwright

There are so many wonderful creative people living in the Shire and we are so lucky that they so generously share their skills and time with us all. ANNA CARTWRIGHT has kindly taken time out of writing her second novel, Faerie, to give some tips to the writers among us who have an article, a story or a novel that needs to see the light of day. Thank you, Anna...

Writing is a process and not an easy one. I have been writing for almost six years, and no matter what you want to write, you need to have things laid out ready to go.

1.  Set up your own writing space.  Somewhere quiet and warm with no bright lights or televisions.
2. Think about what you want to write about.  I find that when writing a book, characters and plot start to form in your mind at random times. Keep a notebook handy so that you can jot down ideas as they come to you.
3. Try not to set yourself time limits.  I find when you are under pressure to write, that’s when you lose control of your ideas. 
4. A book is a multiple of parts, all sandwiched together to make the finished article. Different parts develop at different times from the rest. That notebook will come in handy in case your ending appears to you way before you have even got there.
5. Don’t be surprised if random items appear, or different characters arrive. This is quite normal. Very few of my ideas have been planned.
6. Writing is not glamorous. Don’t be fooled into thinking you are going sit there, perfectly dressed, hair sleek, at your desk and pump out a bestseller. I spend most of my time sitting on my sofa, laptop on my lap, hair all over the place, starving because I forgot to eat. I then end up deleting the last two pages because they’re utter rubbish.
7. One of the hardest things to do when writing is remembering your continuity. It’s your timeline. That’s where your notebook comes in handy. Every time a character enters, write them down and any information that you need to know about them. Each time something important happens, write it down.  All these notes will save you hunting back through thousands of words to remember where you met them or what they last did.
8. When you finish writing for the day, don’t forget to save your work. Also, when you start writing next, read through the last few pages, this will help with our continuity. It will help you remember what day it is, what time it is, where you are and what you need to do next.
9. The worst part of writing a book is if you choose to self-edit. Editing your own book is the hardest thing I have ever done. You read and re-read your own work until you’re sick to death of it. You check your grammar, your paragraphs, your spelling, your context and your continuity. Then you realise how many mistakes you have made. By the time you get to the end, you will thoroughly hate your own work. But don’t give up!

Once you have written your novel and edited it, get someone to read the whole thing from start to finish. And never lose heart. Writer’s block can and will happen, don’t push yourself too hard. And don’t forget to eat!

Anna Cartwright is a Pembrokeshire person who needs magic to spice up the everyday. Her first novel, The Darkness Within, is available on Amazon. Her second novel, Faerie, is currently a work in progress that has long been awaited by her loyal fans. Anna says that she wishes she could meet elementals at the bottom of the garden, but until that happens, she will write about them in all their alarming ‘otherness’. The other thing she says is: “Dont expect happy endings.” You have been warned!