Where to begin

[Authorinwaiting]

Hello.
I've decided I really want to write. I have so many ideas one in particular I'd love to develop.

Can anyone advise on where to start? Or give me
Some advice on where to look for guidance.

Do I just open the laptop and start writing?

Are there groups to provide feedback?

Is there a good structured plan
Somewhere to help?

All advice really great fully received.

Hi! I'm relatively new to writing myself (have had some articles published online but not published a book yet, but have recently started to write a couple with the aim of self publishing)...anyway, I've joined a few facebook groups for my genre and read a lot of the posts to help learn the process. Other than that, I've simply opened my laptop, jotted down some ideas, spent time mulling them over, then focussed on one, wrote an outline for that, have written one chapter so far. Then because I have the attention span of a goldfish, I've started writing a different one, this one will be much shorter so will be easier for me to focus on and finish quicker, keeping the other one on the back burner.

From what I've learned, when self-publishing, it's better to publish a few in quick succession, so will try and do a trilogy or series of my shorter/quicker one, then release them in quick succession to get the ball rolling.

I've done a fair bit of reading online about how to approach my genre but find the advice can be contradictory, so I'm kinda just going with my own flow and hoping for the best.

Did you write anything ?

I attended few workshop run by local authors, who talked about what worked for them or not, how they organized their writing and much more. It was very inspiring.
The key take away for me was that you need to start. Just start writing. Don't spend too much time planning/organizing/thinking. Just do it. Everything else will fall in its place and it's a constant editing process anyway.

Write. Keep a notebook of things you read, people you meet etc., and possibly keep a diary - esp if you write in it every day (doesn't have to be world-shaking). Read. Read in the genre you feel you might write in and get a feel of its tropes and ideas, how worlds are built etc. Think about what you might write about and what you need to do in order to produce e.g. a novel or a short story. Probably do not start with short stories for they are difficult as a story has to be told in a very few words, novels are actually easier, more space. Be critical of yourself and perhaps find a writing group where others will give constructive criticism. Get yourself a rhyming dictionary if you are thinking in that direction, and become familiar with the forms poems can take. With novels, look at how they are constructed, how a writer moves from scene to scene and keeps subplots running along with the main plot.

I've written 7 novels and self-published 3 of them.

When I started my first, in Oct 2021, I had a rough idea what I was going to write and just wrote. The end result was so riddled with plot issues I ended up re-writing the whole thing this summer.

Now, where I write multi-POV stories, I develop a flow chart of key events for each character and work out when these events take place in relation to other characters. I build a kind of synchronisation matrix. From there I bundle key events into chapters and write a sentence or two about what I plan to include in each chapter.

Then I start to write.

It doesn't take too long to plot things out, I don't include loads of detail. The story very much evolves as I go along, too.

I read somewhere it takes a million words to learn to write - I'm on around 900,000. I think I'm finally starting to get it!

I'm currently re-waching a series of lectures by Brandon Sanderson (very famous fantasy author) from when he taught writing at a big American uni. Most of it is applicable to any genre though. It's a highly practical lesson on things like...

Making your characters more relatable and engaging, how to write a good opening chapter to hook your audience, communicating world building without too much exposition, plot structures, writing methods (discovery writing Vs outlining) lot and lots of tools you can use if you find that things aren't working. Etc etc. I could go on. It has convinced me I can write (I'm dyslexic among other things) and I'm about 40k into my novel off the back of watching it.

It's free on YouTube, just Google 'Brandon Sanderson lectures'

I'm reading 'Warbreaker' by Brandon Sanderson right now! It's a free novel on his website and its awesome because at the end of each chapter he provides notes on why he wrote things as he did.

I didn't know about the lectures, I'll check them out. I guess you never stop trying to improve your craft.

This kind of thing might suit you - www.arvon.org/writing-courses/courses-retreats/residential-writing-week-starting-to-write-fiction-5/#:~:text=Do%20you%20find%20it%20hard,need%20to%20make%20a%20start.

I’ve been listening to https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/essential-guide-to-writing-a-novel/id1612967885. It’s a bit repetitive in places but lots of really helpful tips.

Have a look at a book called save the cat. It's got a daft title, but it's a really good book for creative writing.

Don’t try to start at the beginning and write to the end. If you have an idea for a scene write that bit, then maybe the bit before or after. It’s easier to write what you know you want to include rather than get stuck just because you don’t know how to start.

Try to write every day, it’s like a muscle that you have to keep using for it to work. It doesn’t matter if it’s not exactly how you want to word it, a first draft is you, telling you, the story.

Remember, you can’t edit an empty page.

Good luck

Quick update - thanks for asking.

I was gifted a box of prompt cards at Christmas. So I'm trying to write a little every day for a couple of months. I've enrolled in a creative writing course however after seeing the content I'm not convinced it's the right thing to do.

Was wondering do you write with pen on paper or type into a word doc?

I use my laptop predominantly. I also use a Freewrite Traveler, but I prefer the laptop.

I’m disabled, mostly housebound and spend most of my time flat on my back. I write on my phone on Google docs