THE TOP FIVE...tips for writing a book (from someone who's done it)

1. Do the thing

   Many people have ideas for books but only a small percentage actually have the discipline to get the words on to the page. This is partly because our imagined books are always so much better than the real ones – we get frustrated when we realise that our sentences are never going to live up to our lyrical projections of them. Rest assured that every single writer feels this. A huge part of writing a book is simply showing up. Set yourself a word count each time you sit down to write. For me, it’s 1,000. They can be the worst words imaginable but at least I can edit them the next time. If you have no words, you can’t do the editing at all. No words, no book.

Illustration by Storyset

2. Don’t get too hung up on originality

   There are no original ideas, only unique ways of expressing them. Your originality will stem from your set of experiences, your perspective on the world and the way you decide to tell your story. Don’t set out to reinvent the form. If you find the best way of telling your story is to experiment with prose technique, then that’s great, but the story should come first. Also, don’t panic that you will never write like your heroes. By the same token, they will never write like you.

3. Try and love the process - even when it’s hard

   Writing is the thing that makes me feel most myself and that’s why I do it. That and a desire to reach out to the reader and say “this is what it feels like to me - what about you?” There’s always a point with every single book I write where I think I’m the most embarrassingly awful author in the world. That’s also part of the process. But in those moments when I’m in the flow of each overlapping sentence, I feel untangled and at peace. That’s the feeling I keep returning to. Remind yourself of that feeling as often as you can.