“A bit disappointing. The story ambled along for ages, giving no indication of where it was going, with lots of rather pointless looks at the main character’s youth. There’s also the mysterious letters that have no purpose in the story until the very end, when the reason for them is revealed totally out of the blue.”

Is that true? Is my book disappointing and rather pointless?

“The Letters flings the reader up onto an edge of adrenaline fuelled frisson before dropping you into fur lined ruts where you could happily luxuriate forever.”

What about that? Which review is true?

I think both are.

Here’s what started me thinking about this. I found this short review of Michael Kimball’s How Much of Us There Was. “…possibly the dullest book ever written.” Horror! How could someone think that about such a moving, exquisitely written, profound book?

Then I remembered that for that reader, it WAS probably the dullest book ever written.

It’s very important for all of us to remember this. Maybe it’s especially important for us writerly types, who (if we’re very lucky) have to listen to a lot of praise. Here’s what the Buddha said…

“Praise and blame and loss, pleasure and sorrow come and go like the wind. To be happy, rest like a great tree in the midst of them all.”

And a great quote by Dereke Bruce, which also gave me the excuse for the photo for this post:

“In order to keep a true perspective of one’s importance, everyone should have a dog that will worship him and a cat that will ignore him.”

When writing yesterday, I couldn’t find the name of one of my characters. I was sure I had named her.

Whilst rummaging about in my Word folders, I came across a document titled ‘Reminder to self’. What could this be? I wondered.

The file was created in January last year. I have no memory of writing it, or the contents. But whoever it was who wrote it seemed to know what they were talking about.

I’m putting it here in the hope that it might help someone else who’s writing a first draft, or just about to redecorate the living room, or anything else that feels big and scary. I should listen to myself more often ; )

PS random photo of a lovely cow because I couldn’t think of anything appropriate.

Reminder to self

It’s not your job to decide whether or not the characters are believable, the plot is exciting, the speech sounds genuine, etc. etc. (obviously that is my job but NOT whilst writing the first draft – later!)

It is your job to write 1000 words a day about Joe and his aunt. Write the story, and if you get stuck then just write 1000 words on what kinds of clothes Joe wears, or what happened at his first day at school. That way you’ll eventually find your way into the story. You might not know what the story is until you’ve written the whole first draft and you can suddenly see what it is. That’s fine – that’s part of the writing.

Don’t forget the details.

Try and enjoy it – this can be fun! It’s less fun when you pretend you ‘have’ to do it, that your survival as a writer and as a person depends on you doing it, and doing it bloody well, that you only have one more chance to write a good novel or you’re doomed. All the stories you tell yourself about writing being hard, about first drafts being difficult – none of these really help. It’s self-congratulatory. (NB I don’t think that last sentence makes sense – I must have been thinking of a different phrase)

Be kind to yourself.

Just write your 1000 words, THEN you can add to this list/do the washing up/have a cup of tea. OK – just write 10 words – and then 10 more.