On Writing

Ok, I may not be nearly as much a success as Mr Topping or the other writers on here (yet) - to be fair, they do have over a decades headstart on me, in most cases two decades headstart! - but if I can get involved in the advice giving.

Writing is a difficult business. You are not going to get into on any level by merely "wanting to do Doctor Who" or the like and playing around with a script. Its a very long and ardous career path. Look at me. I've not been paid for anything I've ever written. Do I complain? No. This is a long term thing, its like a marriage to the pen if you like. Just like I shouldn't expect to be paid for anything at the moment, neither should anyone think they can get into writing without the practise.

See today for example. I'm very unwell, my asthma is playing up. Now, I could give up and call it a day. I have uni work to do, real life concerns to deal with. In the last hour I have written 1000 words of Vamp, and I plan to have written at least another 1000 before bed. Tommorow i shall be writing the same ammount for my uni stuff. The day after back to Vamp. 2000 words a day, on anything. Every day. Every single day.

Think about that. 2000 words a day, 365 days a year. That's 730 thousand words a year, and take that in to the three years I've focused on writing as a proffessional career (as opposed to the 15 previous years where it was mostly a hobby horse career) thats roughly 2.2 million words in three years. Thats the level you should be aiming at if your serious about getting into writing.

And I'm not kidding. See, everyone thinks they can write like a great, and have Dickensian prose flow from the pen to the page with the minimum of thought, if they ever gave it a try. Not going to happen. Writing is a upwardly task. What I have written today will be of a higher standard than what I wrote last year, last years output was greater than my writings in secondary school, those secondary school writings were better than my nursery ramblings. Its an ongoing process.

Look at Mr Topping. I can gaurantee you that he has written stuff in his writing youth that are the difference between night and day of what he writes at the moment. Career progression, improvement of writing.

And you must have that desire, that need to do well, that all-encompassing requirement to write. My day is incomplete unless I have written something. Its a drug addiction, the need to create characters, words, scenes, descriptions, it needs to happen. If I am prevented from writing I get agitated and unlikeable. I must write. Look at this! I'm taking a break from the book by writing on a forum!

There is one thing that should be clear though to any wannabe-writer though. The one piece of advice that Mr Topping gives, that Mr Cornell, Mr Davies, Mr Moran, Mr Sleznick, Ms Rowling and everyone else gives. Keep writing. Write everyday. Don't put it off to tommorow. Write today. Write now. Open up a word document right this second and start writing. Now. Not later today. This very second. Write something. It doesn't matter what it is. Describe the room you are in if you want to start basic. The important thing is you start. Everyone wants to be a writer deep down. What seperates the writers from the wannabes is the start. Start writing. Don't put it off. Thats the first hurdle to overcome.

And never stop taking in advice. Members of this forum may wish to stalk our residents writers (sorry, Keith, Joe and co in advance) - look at the forum posts they make. Topping can't go one day without giving advice, intentionally or otherwise, about writing. Listen to it. Same with the others. Read writers blogs. Hal Duncan's is a great one to look at, as is James Moran. Look at all the writing that goes into it. Counting Mr Duncan as one of my friends, look at the detail he can write up, and thats just for his blog. Now consider his output (2 books, 1 song, scripts, editings, shorts, another 3 books) he has written in the last 2 years and you can realise who much a proffessional can get through. And the advice continually flows.

I had the good fortune of meeting Mandy. Her ex is Gary Gibson, sci-fi author, and they introduced me to GSFWC, the Glasgow writers circle. At a pub meetup I met Duncan Lunan, the mad professor of Scottish sci-fi. People with decades of writing experience (Mr Lunan writing experience runs for over two times my entire life - sitting under the listening tree is a fundamental part of any career). But you don't need that sort of help. Look at the forum for starters! Go onto MySpace! Look at blogs! Writers, writers, everywhere. All with advice. Listen to it. Read it. Remember it.

I wish you luck.