By someone who has
You’ve always wanted to write a book, and maybe you’ve thought about it for years, but…it’s still in your brain, rather than on a word document. And as you’re not Prince Harry, there’s no ghost-writer, so you’re going to have to do the hard work.
Here’s how to get going on a first draft and more importantly, keep going, by Chesterfield-born author Helen Whitaker (pictured).
Small and steady: Most novels are around 80,000 words long. Some longer, some shorter, but roughly, that’s the magic number for a completed manuscript that isn’t a seven-volume fantasy epic (Hi Game of Thrones!) It’s also an intimidatingly large number if your current word count is zero, right? So don’t think in terms of an entire book. Instead, think about how many words – realistically – you can manage per day. 500 words a day, five days a week, is 2500 per week (with two days off!), which means you’ll finish your first draft in around 8 months. Small milestones = large achievement.
Decide if you’re a ‘planner’ or a ‘pantser’: Some writers meticulously plot their novel before typing a word, others prefer to freestyle (by ‘the seat of their pants’). I’m a combination of the two. I write commercial fiction, which means the plot needs to be pacy, so I plan the main events and the timing of them (also important), but I leave room for my characters to evolve within that plot. The ‘beat sheet’ in Save the Cat! by Blake Snyder (it’s a screenwriting book but helpful for novels too) is very useful to illustrate when my twists and turns need to hit to keep things ticking along.
Don’t look back! (Yet): Yes, every word needs to earn its place – but not during this first draft stage. When you’re tempted to endlessly tinker with that first 500/ 1500/ 2500 words, don’t! Remember: you’re going to come back to it later. Even if that means leaving notes for yourself to ‘RESEARCH THIS MORE LATER’ (I do this) or ‘MAKE THIS FUNNIER/BETTER’ (also me). Get more words in the bank before you’re tempted to rewrite, or at least get to a point where you can’t continue without that research you’ve hollered at yourself about.
Your characters don’t have to be likeable…
...but they do have to behave in an authentic way: Bella Mackie’s How to Kill Your Family has been a bestseller pretty much since it came out in 2022. The main character is deeply unpleasant, and yet you still root for her. Why? Well, she’s very funny (you can be forgiven a lot if you’re entertaining), but she also remains true to herself throughout the book, so if you’re OK with the premise of a homicidal woman murdering her relatives, her spirit will keep you hooked for the duration. The point is: think about how your characters act. If for three quarters of the book, your main character is a detective that’s been scarred by an incident from her past, she can’t just ‘get over it’ at the end. Or if your love interest has organisational skills so efficient, they’re an in-joke amongst their friends, he can’t just conveniently forget something when you’re trying to wedge in a plot twist.
Your first draft will be bad: Like, cringe-inducingly bad in places. Why have you got two peripheral characters called John? Why, at one point, is it Thursday for four days? And why did you decide your main character should be a doctor when you know nothing about medicine? And this is before you get started on the plot holes and clunky dialogue. However, after months of writing, when you go back to the beginning, you should read it through and hold on to the good parts. (There are good parts, I promise!) Make copious notes about what needs to be done, and then move onto the second draft. Because that’s where the real work begins…
Helen Whitaker is the author of four novels, The School Run (Trapeze), I Give It A Year (Hodder), Single In The Snow (Hodder) and her latest, Flying Home for Christmas (Hodder & Stoughton) is out now as e-book and paperback.
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