Blog

We're halfway through NaNoWriMo November! Today it's the turn of Louise Gornall, author of the fantastic Under Rose-Tainted Skies, to share her top writing tips! 

What would be your five top tips to budding writers?

1. Read your work out loud. This helps to spot mistakes, assess pacing, and create authentic dialogue.

2. Join a writing community. Trust me, you need folks around you who can empathise with how hard this journey is.

3. Advice is great, but be sure not to absorb so much it kills your creativity.

4. Don't write what you think will sell. Write what you want to read. Chasing trends nearly never works out.

5. Little details matter when it comes to character building. For example, I can learn so much more about a character who drinks a glass of Sunny D, the stuff with a lime twist, because they like the way it makes their tongue tingle, than I can from a character who drinks a glass of juice.

For those hoping to take part in NaNoWriMo or enter the Times/Chicken House Children's Fiction Competition, what would be your best tip for writing something every day?

If you get stuck, like, if you can't get the words to go beyond a certain point, try looking back over your last paragraph to see if, maybe, there is a different approach. I nearly always find that a block happens when I'm trying to force my story in the wrong direction. I usually have to repeat this process 20/30 times in a manuscript.

Enter the Times/Chicken House Children's Fiction Competition to be in with a chance of winning a £10,000 publishing contract!