A round-up of writing tips from top authors
Over the past week, I’ve collected some brilliant tips on how to write from novelists at the top of their game.
Jill Mansell says she doesn’t write in chapters. She writes her novels first, then goes back and looks for natural breaks afterwards. Veronica Henry declares all writers get writer’s block at some point and if it happens to her, she goes for a walk along the beach or takes a nap. And Rachel Joyce says that if a brilliant idea strikes her when she’s driving she asks one of her children to write it down for her – she never simply assumes she’ll remember it.
If you’d like to read more of their tips, here are my three writing posts from this week – and good luck!
Katie Fforde, Jill Mansell, Veronica Henry and Fiona Walker at the Chipping Norton Literary Festival
Veronica Henry on Discipline, Displacement and Dipsomania
Rachel Joyce in conversation about The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry
PS. My absolute favourite comes from a Robert McCrum piece in The Observer I stumbled across this morning. “Put a body on page 1,” is his advice.
Does that mean your next novel will have a body on page 1? Interested to know.
Thanks, Katie. I think I might give it a go.