How To Start A Writing Project And Stick To It

January is a time for starting afresh, new resolutions… and writing that amazing novel you’ve wanted to! So you’ve got a brilliant idea floating around in your head, but what’s the one thing that’s preventing it from becoming a bestseller? You. And your lack of commitment to sit down and get it all on the page!

So, here are 9 practical steps in order for you to create the right atmosphere to achieve your writing goals for 2016.

1. Create a space where you can write comfortably in peace and quiet. Choose somewhere light and airy and with a view for inspiration. Make sure you have a good chair with back support.

2. Have access to a good supply of coffee/tea/water and snacks without having to move too far and to save interruptions.

3. Select your materials or tools to support your writing practice (be it electronic, or old fashioned pen and paper). A variety of post its, pens, highlighters, a notice board and pins or tack to plot your ideas, dictionary and thesaurus. Various software packages provide virtual versions of these.

4. A clock! Set yourself a protected writing time that you can commit to when you know you are free, and make it habitual.

5. Make sure email and messages and phones are switched off during this time and try not to miss your writing appointments you have set. Write for the full time and set yourself notes for what you need to do next each time you finish a session.

6. Now you are ready to get started. You already have that great idea. The one you’ve been putting off for ages… Start with a working title and a plot outline which sets out the initial context and the outcome. Know your end point. Even if it is very vague at the outset.

7. Fill in the spaces in the plot structure with key development points to consider. Do not be rigid about sticking to this, but equally do not drift off on a tangent so far that you cannot come back to your initial outcome. All ends need to tie back to the start.

8. Sketch out your characters; their relationships and profiles. Draw a pen sketch of them. Talk to them so they become real. Empathise with them.

9. Choose a narrative voice and apt verb tense for your text. Identify key words and phrases for themes and characters so they develop their own voices.