Tag: when should I start writing a novel

GB Ralph on Starting a First Draft

This month’s special guest GB Ralph reveals when he’s ready to start writing a draft…

TRANSCRIPT

MARK: What’s the thing that makes you think you’re ready to start writing on a project?

GB RALPH: When I back-calculate from my deadline and find that I’m already behind schedule. (laughs) I don’t know, where is even the start line? Is it jotting down ideas, sketching them out? Plotting? Is it start writing, ‘It was a dark and stormy night.’? I’m ready to start drafting my next book now. Like, as in, chapter one, scene one as of this week. I have a victim. I have a handful of suspects, each with their potential motives, and that’s about it. But I have I have about two novels’ worth of content and that I want to fit into one novel. So we’re bursting at the seams, and I need to start writing to see what ideas are actually smaller than I thought they were. Ones that don’t fit in at all. Ones that are maybe bigger than I had originally thought and will spark more ideas.

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MIKE SHACKLE on the Importance of Notebooks (and ambition)

This month’s special guest Mike Shackle reveals how he knows when to start working on a project…

TRANSCRIPT

MARK: What’s the thing that makes you think you’re ready to start writing on a project?
MIKE: I have lists of ideas that I want to write that go back years. I write a Witchfinder, I write a Michael Dylan book. Right now it’s the Witchfinder. I should be writing a fantasy
for the next couple of months. It’s like a little production line, but I have all these notebooks everywhere with different things that I’m working on, just so I can keep the ideas straight in my head. With the books that I write, my ambitions, and what I want to write. I they push me on and they’re the devil on my back, but they’re also the cheerleader saying, you can do it.

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When Do You Know When You’re Ready to Start Writing a Novel? Zoë Richards

This month’s special guest Zoë Richards reveals what she needs to know before she can start a writing project…

TRANSCRIPT

MARK: What’s the thing that makes you think you’re ready to start writing on a project?

ZOË: The thing that makes me say, just go for it: I’ve got to know what the ending’s going to be. Once I know where this is going. And I think, again, that goes back to reports that I used to write. So what do I want out of this report? I want the execs to give me 3 million pounds for autism services. I have to say, spoiler alert, I never got 3 million pounds for autism services for children. It never, never happened. Great report, Zoë, the best we’ve ever seen. No, we haven’t got any money for you. Yeah, that didn’t work. However, the process worked of knowing that’s my ultimate aim, that I need them to know that that’s what we need, what’s going to get me there. And so it’s the same thing when I’m ready to write. Once I know where I’m going,

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