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Yesterday I wrote about the importance of planning your writing. Without a plan, the story, novel, article or essay – whatever you are writing – could meander on with no real ending or purpose in mind. It will soon meander off into the desert, lost, lost, lost. And in the process, you will have lost most of your readers.

The second stage of writing:

Write.

That’s it.

Just write. Get the words down following your plan. Don’t stop for reflection. Don’t stop to edit. Don’t stop to rewrite. Don’t deviate from the task. Just get those words down, no matter how you feel about them. Keep writing, writing, writing. Let the words flow. Let the characters speak. Let the inspiration feed on itself. Get into a zone and just write.

Later stages

Once you have the words down, then the next stages kick in – rewriting and editing – but more of that in future articles.

Good writing.

Further reading:

• Writing hints – dozens more great hints in this series of articles.

I read a short article about writing yesterday. It was in one of the many newsletters I receive about writing. The author was suggesting that the best way to finish a novel is to write the first 30 pages. “You are only 30 pages away from writing that novel” the author claimed.

The sad truth for so many would be authors is that they want to have written. They do not realise the incredible effort it takes to finish a novel. I’ve written three and a host of articles and short stories (among many other things). I know what it takes – dedicated effort and persistence.

There is one way to trick the brain into continuing with a novel and for getting it finished. This author is suggesting just write the first 30 pages and see what happens. What I find is this; the characters take over. No longer are you a puppeteer pulling the strings of the events in the lives of your characters. They take on a life of their own and before you know it, the story is writing itself, the characters are speaking for themselves and your brain is tricked into thinking that writing is the most wonderful thing to do in the world. The writing flows, ideas feed upon ideas, events tumble into the story and away it goes. It can be an exhilarating feeling when this all happens.

Try it.

Try getting down those first 30 or so pages and see what happens. Step back a little and let the characters speak and act in their own way. You might be pleasantly surprised.

Warning: This method does not work very well in some genres. For example, writing crime fiction is an exact craft. You must know exactly what is going to happen and plan the plot extremely carefully. Otherwise your readers will be exasperated by dozens of unresolved loose-ends at the end of the novel.

Good writing.