So, I think that I need to share with you another tip for building motivation, which I personally find incredibly satisfying.
In fact, I love it.
Before I start my book, I clean my office. I make lots of fresh, empty space. It’s part of the ceremony of preparing my mind for the creation of something new. I start my book with a blank canvas and a blank office space!
On my floor beside my desk I have a special area.
Each day, as described in the last chapter, I print off my output from that day and then edit it.
Once I have edited the text by marking it up on the pages, I put those pages on the floor beside my desk. In my special book place.
On the first day, there are only a few pages.
Not much.
But I look at it and think, “I’ve started!”
I give myself a small pat on the back.
Then the next day, I add another chapter or two to the pile.
That’s between five and ten pages.
I smile at the pile of pages.
The book is now definitely underway!
Each day after that, I repeat the same ritual.
Each day the pile grows.
When I get to about fifty pages in the pile, I pick it up and feel how heavy it is.
Actually, it’s not very heavy at all, but it has substance. The pile is getting bigger.
What’s more, not only can I TOUCH my book as it begins to develop and grow, but I can also PICK IT UP.
It’s real!
The book which I have been thinking about for years, which I’ve been planning and playing with in my mind, is now growing every day!
Day by day, week by week, the pile grows bigger.
And bigger.
Soon it’s over a hundred pages!
Then weeks later two hundred!
Fantastic!
Over half-way there…
Now, soon, only a third to go.
What? Amazing… I’m almost there…!
And then one day, you ceremoniously put down the last few pages on top of the pile and then bend down and pick the whole book up!
Your FIRST DRAFT!
The FIRST DRAFT of YOUR BOOK is complete.
You pick the book up.
You feel how heavy it is!
You put it on the desk in front of you.
And stare at it!
Why not get your camera out and photograph it!
Tweet it to your friends or relatives!
Put it on Facebook?
Then slowly it dawns on you, that you are now a real, REAL writer!
You have finished the first draft of your book. Possibly your first book!
No one can ever take that away from you.
Visualise that moment.
That can be you too.
Very soon!
We’re not quite there yet…but almost.
There are just a few more things you need to do…
Chapter 17
Tying up loose ends
The end of your novel is now perilously close. Oh dear…it’s getting very exciting! Soon you will have achieved your dream and become a writer who can tell everyone that you have written a book!
Hopefully between you (your conscious self and your subconscious self) you will have conjured up an incredible story that will keep your readers enthralled from the first page to the last.
It is very likely, however, that during your story journey, you may have created several sub-plots to keep your readers entertained.
Your characters may have asked questions that need answers.
Action sequences may have been initiated in earlier chapters, but were they completed in later ones?
In other words, as we approach the end of the book, steaming through the last chapters, we do actually need to take stock of where we are.
Your conscious self needs to start checking what SC has created.
Has SC, or your conscious self, introduced threads into the storyline that need resolving?
Can you think of any actions that are outstanding and need to be completed or enacted?
Are there any loose threads that need tying up?
Are you on track to bring everything together in a wonderful, climactic last chapter where the readers go, “Wow!” and you do a fist-punch in the air and open a bottle of champagne?
If not, you need to scribble down some notes on what loose ends you think there are, and then you need to ask SC to plan to resolve these in the coming chapters.
Perhaps you already know what you need to do.
If not, you will need to consider how to deal with outstanding issues.
Here you have choices.
Either you can go back into the earlier chapters and edit those threads out…perhaps they are actually not necessary for the story after all?
Or you can simply address the outstanding threads very simply by introducing snippets of conversations between characters that talk to those points directly, and thus deal with them?
If the threads are more major, do they need to have their own chapters that address those points? Your characters may have to do extra things, or get involved in those plot areas again to resolve those points.
Perhaps you may suddenly realise that you had missed out something major, but now you have remembered it, everything will be much better and things will come together again more tightly?
In deciding how you are going to address these loose ends, you must protect the tension and excitement that you are hopefully building within your plotline as you near the end of the book.
What you DON’T want to do, is to suddenly go off on a tangent to fix something that actually steers the reader away from the main action.
e.g. The Hero is chasing after the serial killer and is JUST about to catch him, when he sees an old friend whom he borrowed ten pounds from earlier in the book, so he stops chasing the serial killer and goes and pays his friend the money he owes.
NO!
Obviously, this is a ridiculous example, but hopefully you get the point.
The reason I am raising the ‘loose end issue’ just now, is because readers have incredible memories. If you don’t tie up the loose ends, when they get to the last page, and read those incredible words ‘The End’, instead of going ‘Wow!’, they will shift uncomfortably in their seats and exclaim, ‘That’s not the end… what about….?’
Which is the last thing you want.
On the other hand, when all the loose ends are tied off and everything comes together nicely, your readers will comment on it and be amazed.
They will then recommend your book to their friends and post positive reviews on Amazon.
Which is what we all want.
But don’t worry too much. If you can’t remember what they are, then when you proof-read the book during the editing stages, you can take notes, and make sure you then fix any issues you spot later on.
Also, when you hand your book to your friends, relatives or professional editors, you can ask them to spot any issues that may need fixing.
So, all I’m suggesting you do at this stage, is to be cognisant of any commitments or sub-plots you may have made or initiated during earlier parts of the book, and do your best to deal with them in your first draft as you near the end of the book.
It’s easier, I think, to fix these things in the first draft than in future revisions.
So, good luck thinking about those loose ends.
Find them.
Then either cut out those threads, or tie them up!
Chapter 18
Two Magic Words: ‘The End’
Writing a book is all about visualisation and imagination.
At the start of the process it’s all about seeing in your mind’s eye, the finished product, which you have written.
We talk about it as if it has already happened.
We look backwards upon problems we may encounter along the journey and question how we got over the problems, not what we should do to
get over them.
We visualise the shape of the story, with a firm beginning, a defined ending, and a middle.
Then we imagine, visualise and create each chapter en route to that wonderful ending that we know we will reach.
For some people who become highly motivated, once they can so clearly see the end-product, and they know in their bones that it will be done, the actual writing of the book can almost become an annoyance. They can imagine and feel so strongly that the book has been written, that actually writing it is a chore. However, I caution you – even if you can see the book in your mind’s eye, and you can really, strongly imagine yourself holding your finished book aloft and waving it at the world, YOU STILL NEED TO WRITE THE BOOK!
Others, on the other hand, do not see the writing process as a chore.
They are very excited.
They enjoy every step of the process, and revel in the special time they get to spend sitting at their laptops or computers or smartphones writing the story.
They love the time they get to spend sitting, writing, creating new worlds with new characters, all doing their bidding, enacting actions and scenes that spring out of their imaginations…They create new virtual worlds that they design and make real.
Through the power of words, they manage to escape their own realities, and create new worlds for others, where the readers can be excited, be happy, and feel emotions they often can’t in their own lives.
Writers give of themselves, and just hope, nervously, that what they have to give will be warmly received by those who read their work.
Not everyone gets to do this.
If you do, you are special.
There are BILLIONS of people on the planet.
Few ever get the time to write a book.
Few know how.
But you do.
There is a book inside you just bursting to get out, and hopefully having read this book, you now feel more confident about the process of how you can let this happen and now write yours.
The last chapter and the last two words of the book, any book, are special.
It’s where you get to spring a last surprise on the reader and make them do the “wow!” thing.
It’s also when and where you get to transform from one type of human being to another.
From ‘One day, I’m going to write a book!’ and everyone sighs, smiles and humours you, to ‘I’m a writer. I’ve written a book!’ and everyone smiles, lifts their eyebrows and asks, ‘What’s it about? Can I read it?’
Writers are special people.
So, as you head towards the last chapter and ‘The End’, as the end of the first book looms into sight, you should and will start to feel a new and fresh bout of motivation.
You will find yourself finding extra time to sit down at your computer. You’ll find more excuses to ignore your family and the rest of the world and lock yourself away with …yourself …just you and SC. The perfect team!
While still paying attention to the last chapter about tying up loose ends - the excitement builds and builds.
However, don’t forget what I just said above.
In your rush to finish the book, don’t neglect the opportunity that exists for you and SC to come up with a brilliant ending.
Don’t just go for the ending that everyone expects you to write.
Try to come up with something better.
In fact, if you can predict how people think it will end, then take note of that, and then do something completely different.
If SC and yourself have been ‘canny’ – a brilliant Scottish word meaning clever and crafty – then you will have led your readers down the garden path to expect one ending, only to find that you give them another.
Most readers will love that.
The unexpected!
And when they write their reviews, they will tell the world!
“I never saw it coming!”
As I have gained more experience in writing, one of the things I now try to avoid is helping my readers guess the correct ending in advance.
The trick, I believe, and which I would like you to consider also, is to get your readers engaged by letting them think they are clever by telegraphing an ending, which then encourages them to read on just to see if they were correct. When they find out they were wrong, they initially feel a little disappointment but they then smile and laugh. If you’re lucky, at that point there follows an outpouring of respect for you.
Which then comes out in the reviews.
“The writer tricked me! I was sure I knew the ending, but I was wrong! I LOVE THIS WRITER!”
-----------------------
The words, ‘The End’, are two words that can also be hugely motivational, not just as you approach them in the final stages of your book, but at any point of writing the book when you find it hard going.
When this happens, you can either go back to the chapter on ‘motivating yourself to write’ and do the mental exercises again, or you can perform a short-cut, by closing your eyes and imagining yourself typing those two magic words ‘The End.’
Imagine yourself typing the words.
Imagine the feeling of satisfaction you will feel.
Picture that scene in your mind.
Ask SC to help you get there.
See it in your mind’s eye, and it will happen!
Let me share one more secret with you.
Something very exciting indeed.
You might not realise it, or even be thinking about it yet, but those two words can be hugely misleading.
The End?
Not at all.
For many of you, it will only be The Beginning.
Having written one book, you will find another one on the way.
Having woken up your inner SC, unless you tell him/her to shut up, you will find new ideas pouring into your head.
SC will soon be nagging you once more sit down at your writer’s desk, and start Book Number Two.
The wonderful thing is, most of you will do exactly just that.
Once a writer, ALWAYS a writer!
CONGRATULATIONS!
YOU ARE A WRITER!
Chapter 19
Editing (Part Two):
Editing what you’ve written using Enemies, Friends and an Electronic Partner
You’ve written your first draft!
Amazing.
Incredible!
Brilliant!
Do not underestimate this achievement.
Getting here has been no mean feat.
That’s all the good news.
Now here comes the bad news.
You’re only half-done.
Up until this point you have been heavily dependent upon SC doing most of your work for you. SC has done an outstanding job of helping you create the plot, conjure up the characters and get you through the beginning, middle and to the end. Now, however it is up to you to take over. At some point you probably suspected that your conscious self would have to pull its own weight somewhere.
From now on, the next part depends upon you.
It’s called editing.
The best analogy I can give you for this, is one where I compare what you now have to do with the job of a sculptor.
This is the part where you take a block of stone, look at and sense the intrinsic beauty hidden with the block of granite before you, and then chisel out of it a beautiful statue.
Editing is a bit like that.
Hidden within your first draft is almost definitely a thing of beauty. A wonderful story just hiding behind all the spelling mistakes, grammar mistakes, repetitions of overused words, repetitions of overused words, repetitions of overused words that readers really find very annoying, overuse of a good name – there are three people all called James! - and plot errors which you may not have spotted before. (‘I thought SC killed off Peter on Page 10, but in the third last chapter he walked back into a new scene completely unharmed!’)
Also, why do all my characters have names that begi
n with letters that are near the start of the alphabet? – there’s an Alice, an Anne, an Amelia, an Alexander and an Alec, but nobody beginning with M,N,O,P, Q,R,S,T,U etc…Don’t be Name-lazy!
Plus, there could be some chapters which are just rubbish. The writing is terrible, or the chapters lack punch and are very boring. Obviously, SC was not on the ball that day, or, just perhaps, maybe you were at a party the night before and you had a hangover the day you wrote those chapters? Or England lost the World Cup Rugby series and you, perhaps being English… were…just …fed up?
Maybe, also, a scene is set wrong, the descriptions are not great, and the plot simply doesn’t work. You tried your best, but some chapters just need to be better. Perhaps SC is not to blame…you may have to entertain the thought that actually, it’s your fault. SC tried, but on some days, you just didn’t deliver.
Don’t worry! During the Editing Phase you have a chance to put all that right. You have a second chance to demonstrate to SC that you can pull your weight in the relationship and that you will turn it all around.
From the fire, a Phoenix will still yet arise.
Actually, that last part was probably a little dramatic on my behalf. The chances are that your first draft is actually quite good, and not as awful as I just hinted at. I just wanted to emphasise the point.
I can, however, guarantee that there will be ‘a million’ mistakes in the book that need fixing. (By a million I mean a lot. Not literally a million. Or at least, I would hope not!)
Get Writing! How ANYONE can write a Novel! Page 7
