Blog

This week, it's The Black Lotus author Kieran Fanning's turn to share his top writing tips! 

What would be your five top tips to budding writers?

1. Read, read, read.

2. Believe in yourself.

3. Show your work to people whose opinion you trust. Preferably, these people should not be friends or family but people who know your genre and will be brutally honest with you, if needs be.

4. Cliché, I know, but – kill your darlings.

5. Don’t give up. It’s not going to be easy, but if you persist you will eventually make it.

What would your five top tips to NOT DO when writing a book?

1. Don’t write what’s in fashion because it’ll be out of fashion by the time your book is finished/published.

2. Don’t submit your work too early. You get one shot to impress an agent/publisher. Make that shot count.

3. Don’t take rejection badly – learn from it.

4. Never eat tuna sandwiches on the night of a full moon.

5. Learn which writing advice to listen to, because some of it is just rubbish.

What would your best tip be to encourage budding writers to write something every day?

During your spare time (lying in bed, driving etc), think about what you’re going to write later, so that when you sit down to write, the words will just flow.

Read the first chapter of The Black Lotus or follow Kieran Fanning on Twitter!