Just Write

Andrew and I get asked one question in particular all the time … Here are our responses to the question: Where do I start?

Andrew

“I'm writing my first novel” is a response I often get when people find out I've written a seven book thriller series. That's when my heart sinks. Not because I don't want to hear about a fellow writer's work, but because more often than not, I know exactly what's coming. So, I ask the obligatory question, “How's it going?” That's when I invariably hear the same stock answers. “I haven't actually started yet,” “Well, I'm still at the planning stage,” “I've got an idea of some of the characters,” and recently I was even told, “I've spent three months creating a 'mood board.”

The truth is there is only one way to write a book and that's to think of a story, sit down and write it. There's no airy-fairy mystical solution to writing. You just have to churn it out. Nobody said it was going to be easy, because it's not. Creating something from nothing that's worth reading is hard, really hard. It takes time, effort and more often than not it's nothing more than an utter slog. That said, when you write something so good it makes your heart leap and your spirits soar, all the hours sitting at the keyboard or staring at an empty page with pen in hand suddenly become worth it and you remember why you started writing in the first place.

So if you want to write, be it a novel, short story, poem or even dirty limerick, my advice to you is simple. Go and write it, because it's not going to write itself.

Mandy

As a writer a question I get a lot is: where do you start? People have these ideas for books and they want you to give them some magical way to do so. The reality is, you just start. One day you sit down in front of your computer and you write. And you keep writing until the story is finished. There is no big secret to it. It is something you just do.

If you want to write a book, then write one. Stop thinking and planning, and write! That is the key to the whole thing -- writing.

So, get out there and do some writing!