Hello again! Yesterday in my post with my giveaway winner I mentioned I had lots of exciting posts coming up this month, and although it isn't technically November yet I still thought I would treat you! Today I have the wonderful Marcus Sedgwick on my blog, giving his top tips for young writers: from how to survive at creative writing courses, to how and what to read, to how you should never be worried if your work doesn't make sense...
But first, let's take a look at the blurb from Marcus Sedgwick's brand new book, Ghosts of Heaven. I am currently half-way through and LOVING it, so a review will be coming soon! In the meantime, take a look at this...
The spiral has existed as long as time has
existed.
It's there when a girl walks through the forest, the green air clinging to her
skin.
There centuries later in a pleasant green dale, hiding the treacherous waters
of Golden Beck that take Anna, who they call a witch.
There on the other side of the world, where a mad poet watches the waves and
knows the horrors they hide, and far into the future as Keir Bowman realises
his destiny.
Each takes their next step in life.
None will ever go back to the same place.
And so their journeys begin...
Does that intrigue you? If so, read on for Marcus' 'non-tip' tips for young writers, which gives invaluable and vital advice for those wishing to embark on a literary journey of their own:
I hate giving tip for writers. I really do. Not because I don’t want to help other people with their writing, but because there really are no rules for writing. But, as a writer, you frequently get asked to compile lists of tips, or even just a top three, and to be honest, I cringe every time I do it. But here are three (non) tips.I’m not saying there aren’t some things that it might be helpful to think about. It’s just that they are probably different for everyone – one of the key joys about being a writer is that everyone seems to do it slightly differently. Not only that, but becoming a writer is to set out on a life-long journey of learning – anyone who thinks ‘that’s it, I’m a writer now and I know what I’m doing’ is a) probably fooling themselves, and b) probably a very bad writer. It’s much more common to feel out of your depth, unsure of yourself at times (if not all the time), and wonder why you ever started to try to write in the first place.
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But this is normal, so there’s my first (non) tip; get used to not knowing what you’re doing. Writing is hard enough without adding to your woes by worrying incessantly about it. And yes, of course, you’re going to worry about it; that’s normal. Just don’t worry about worrying about it. That’s not going to help.
Here’s my second (non) tip – be very suspicious of anyone writing lists of tips (including these ‘non’ tips). I teach on creative writing courses from time to time, so you might say, ‘well, what do you tell your students then?’ and what I tell them is that I’m going to mention lots of ideas and concepts and suggestions as to how to write, but that it’s up to each of them to take away the things that mean something to them, that resonate, that might work in their own writing practice. Writing is unusual in that it’s one of the very few jobs in the world that you teach yourself to do.
Even if you do go on a creative writing course, I believe it’s up to you to navigate your way through the ocean of (frequently conflicting) ideas that you will come across. Should you plan your book, or not? Should you know how it ends before you start, or not? Should you write every day, or not? Should you set times to write, or word counts, or leave it all free? All of that is up to you.
What I can say though, is to read as much as you can. If you (seriously) want to be a writer, you probably read a lot anyway. You can add to that reading everything I’m telling you to ignore – all the ‘how tos’ and ‘top tips’ and essays and books and blogs on writing. But remain suspicious. If you think (as I do) that writing a book by writing a part in the middle and then a bit near the start and then the end and then a bit three quarters of the way through sounds like a ridiculously complicated way of making a hard job harder (and you’d be right, of course) then don’t do it. Just because your favourite author imports especially sticky post-it notes form Germany (yes, I do know someone who does that) in order to plan their novels, doesn’t mean you have to.
My final (non) tip is this: get used to paradoxes. Writing is full of things that don’t make sense. It is often a question of having to do contradictory things; I believe you need to ignore the question of who you’re writing ‘for’, and yet, at the same time, you cannot help but think about how ‘your reader’ is going to interpret something. You want to be original and new and yet you have to be familiar at the same time. You have to forget that every story has already been told a thousand times, and then show us how you can do something new with that story.
Writing is full of contradictions. It is hard and it is challenging, and yet, when you succeed in achieving a small part of what you set out to achieve, the feeling of contentment is deep and powerful. That’s the drug that keeps us all going, and like anything in life that’s worthwhile, the journey to achieve can be a hard one. But that’s normal, so don’t be afraid.
Thank you Marcus for being on my blog, and for providing such interesting and insightful 'non-tip' tips for young writers like myself! If you would like to check out Marcus and his many books, here's a link to his website.
If you would like to buy Marcus' latest novel Ghosts of Heaven, click here
Until next time :)
Anyway, here are some pictures from my trip- I hope you enjoy them! If you don’t know much about the Brontës it really is worth checking them out; the story of their life is extraordinary, and all of their books are simply beautiful.
