Unleashing Your Imagination: Diving into Fiction

This is about my journey in learning how to write a romance, which means you can expect to hear me giving advice and talking like I'm an expert.

If you’re one of those competitive people who like to say, “Tsk, tsk – that’s not the way it should be done”, you have failed the memory test, and will definitely need to re-read the first sentence of this paragraph, paying particular attention to the fourth word.

Unfinished Business

Like most writers, my journey is an unfinished one. You won’t find everything about writing here: that would require hundreds of books. There are no hastily concocted bibliographies at the end. No footnotes, headnotes, asterisks and no lists of other writers or agencies. You’ll find shed-loads of these already available on the internet. Also see the section on doing your own research. These are habits that other writers cannot teach you because they don't know your personality.

Are you a midnight oil burner? Or a won't do research for less than £10,000? Ok, I'm mixing metaphors and supermodels here but I hope you get my drift. It's a good idea to learn to do your own research; it will save you from much ignominy. The first time I paid someone to do research on a very important piece of work, I found that they'd copied virtually all of another source's information—word for word—to do it.

Finding Typos

Not as much fun as Finding Nemo, but equally rewarding. You will undoubtedly find typos, and no—I don’t mean the cute see what I did there just to show you kind. I mean the real ones that will inevitably disappear, making your work look as smooth as the proverbial baby’s bottom.

That is, until you’re a microsecond away from presenting your paper on PowerPoint to an eminent group of language awareness specialists. Take note: In a large body of work, it is physically impossible to spot all your typos in one sitting.

Your journey may be quite different to mine. It might include having your first manuscript made into a Hollywood blockbuster movie with a major film-star. Or shooting straight to the top of the New York Best Seller List. It might even be the first in its genre to top that list and enter the common language as part of a paint palette. A top influential celebrity may recommend it. In which case, congratulations: job done!

Don't worry about perfection. Start writing now!

But whether you're writing to make money, writing for self-expression, or writing to sell and for self-expression and also as part of an expose on all those $%*$# at the office, I believe you should put your best book forward.

Three points before we start.

Point One: Don't worry about perfection. Unless you are a freak of nature, your first draft will be just that—a draft. Just get the words out and worry about content later. Start writing now!

Point Two: You will need at least a basic understanding of spelling and grammar. If you don't have that, I strongly recommend that you do some research on the subject and study it, before even thinking about writing for publication. Alternatively, pay someone who understands grammar to look over your work.

Point Three: Check your work. Or, again, pay someone to do it. If you can't afford that, don't publish it when it's completed. Put it down for a few weeks then have another read through. Do this a few times. Let's say three readings in the twelve weeks following your book's 'completion'. You'll be surprised at what you see. Unfortunately.