Can You Write 50,000 Words?

Help! I need someone…or do I? I am writing a book for the first time. I am not going to write one, I have not written one, I am actually in the middle of writing a book NOW. In fact, I think I may be exactly at the half way point. But the question is do I need help to finish?

 

I had an idea about writing a non-fiction book twenty-five years ago, in fact I was approached by an already established author to write one with her on a subject, I suppose, I was somewhat an expert on. I started it but to be honest, we both were dragged off into different projects, into living life and nothing ever came of it. I suppose since then, I have always hankered after writing something more substantial than the articles and columns I penned but never really managed to get there.

 

 

Over the years, I have occasionally pushed myself towards doing something, I attended a Writing Class for a couple of years with WEA, for example. I really, really loved this group but looking back, it was only really provided a distraction from the rest of my life. I didn’t actually believe a book would come from it.

 

 

No surprises then, when I tell you nothing did ever come of it other than it helped my mental health hugely even though at that time, I didn’t realise it was dodgy. It was mental health that really brought me back to the page and that happened during the first lockdown in the UK. Unlike many, the lockdown itself wasn’t what gave me the time to write. It was again, my failing mental health (this time I knew it was dodgy) that got me back here.

 

 

In fact, I didn’t really have time to do anything. I was working full time, all be it remotely, in a job which I loved but was being bullied. I was also having to support the family business in which we had had to take the decision to furlough everyone. Because of the furlough rules, as I wasn’t a member of staff at that point, I was ‘it’ in terms of keeping the flames alive. With all of this going on, I knew I had to do something to get ‘me’ back, to give me some time to be away from the misery that seemed to surround me. I couldn’t go out and do something with people – we were locked down – so it had to be something I could do with people online, in my own house.

 

 

 

 

 

I came across an online course about Memoir Writing. It was to be delivered by an author who had written two memoires ‘Bella Figura’ and ‘The Cypress Tree’, Kamin Mohammadi, so I decided to give it a go. As you can imagine (or maybe not?), I didn’t believe anyone would want to know about my life, I was a nobody (still am – please see ‘Diary of a Fifty Something Nobody’), I was worth nothing (years of bullying in various workplace settings had seen to this), I didn’t think I had anything interesting to say but it would get me doing something, wouldn’t it?

Well, the answer is, yes it did. Was it the right course for me at the time? Absolutely, but I have only just realised this fact. One of the best things it did for me was get me back to journaling. Kamin is a great believer of the Morning Pages (see The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron) and encouraged us to write about whatever came to mind every morning. The journaling did two things for me a. it became my counsellor and b. it got me back to writing regularly. As an aside, my GP had sent me for counselling during this period. It could only be done over the phone (back to the lockdown) and I think I was given the winner of the ‘Worst Counsellor of the Year Award’ as my guide back to good health. Luckily, the journaling allowed me to analyse this experience and helped me see the farcicality of these sessions in which I was trying to analyse how to deal with a bully by this counsellor bullying me into what I HAD to do or I would NEVER get better. My journal ramblings made me laugh about the situation I was in and it became the safe place I could go to let my feelings out from where I could then counsel myself.

 

 

 

“Never mind your mental health” I hear you say, “did the course help you with writing skills?” you are asking. Yes, I suppose it did but it still hasn’t convinced me that memoir is my thing, although, I am definitely not saying never. I still meet up with Kamin and other alumni from her sessions online. It brings me the opportunity to mix with others who are writing and for us to share our ups and downs in whatever situation we find ourselves in.

This brings me on to the advice we get or don’t get about writing. I love listening to podcasts about books and with writers but the advice we can get from courses, podcasts, books about writing, magazines can also become overwhelming. Some writers, who clearly aren’t teachers, say:

“You just have to get out there and write, no one can teach you.”

 

Others, who are clearly teachers, tell us that we need to go on courses or we will never learn the vital stuff we need – it is a mysterious art and without guidance we will never succeed. Well, I think I am here to tell you that both are right, to some degree.

 

 

As you will know (because you have all read my previous ramblings about NaNoWriMo), I am currently twenty-two days into writing a fiction book. I am incredibly proud to announce that I am ahead of my word count and I am on 40,000 words. Woo, hoooo, I cry. I have no doubt in myself that I will reach 50,000 words by the end of the month (this is the challenge of NaNoWriMo for those of you who haven’t heard about it before). This is a big thing for me to say – I HAVE NO DOUBT IN MYSELF 😊

 

What am I learning? Well, guess what, you just need to get out there and write. No one else will read the absolute gold/drivel (please delete accordingly) coming out of the end of your fingers unless you share it with them, so just write. But one thing I am happy to share with you is that I wouldn’t have had this confidence without the learning I have done, particularly over the past couple of years. I tried to do this challenge in 2004 (12,476) and 2021 (zero). As you can see, I was nowhere near. The first one was my best attempt (this was during my first writing classes) but I just didn’t have the confidence or skills to keep going once I had got over the initial few chapters. Last year, I clearly just didn’t have enough in the bank to even get beyond Day One!

 

So what have I learned that might help you. Firstly, I don’t need to pay to do a Master Degree in Creative Writing (they look fun but are eye wateringly expensive for those of us that have used up our education funding in a previous life). However, doing things which do the following can really help:

• Find your genre, at least one that fits you now. This might mean you going on several short courses which look at a particular genre, listening to podcasts about different genres and reading books about writing in different styles e.g. short stories, screen writing, poetry (not for me but am still using some in my book), literary fiction, romance, crime, Sci-Fi etc, etc
• Analyse what is your go to genre as a reader. I like to go to my book clubs because it gets me reading things I wouldn’t normally read but what it has also done, is make me realise what I really like and what I really don’t like (mushy romance novels about Christmas, if anyone is interested).
• Find a practical course to go on that is specific to your chosen genre. I have just done a fabulous little course on Crime Writing which was organised through Nottinghamshire County Council’s Inspire Programme and delivered by John Smith (or Baird if you are hunting him down as an author) which cost less than a week of having coffee at Costa. I also attended Creative Thursday at the Theakston Old Peculiar Crime Writing Festival in Harrogate this year and attended several practical sessions which were all excellent.
• Once you admit to yourself what your favourite genre is, then read like crazy and define further what sort of thing do you really like because each genre has many incarnations – especially if like me, you have picked crime.
• Whilst reading like crazy, start to analyse how the author has structured what they do and then…..

 

PING! You will see the formula and you will soon be on your way to 80,000 words. Easy, peasy eh! This is what ‘write what you know really means’. You often hear this advice and it has always made me scratch my head in confusion. If I only wrote about what I know then my sleuth would be sat watching paint dry most of the time (the family business makes paint so I really mean that). Writing what you know, for me anyway, is writing in the genre I know not knowing everything about all the subjects I might be writing about.

 

I know I will have to do a lot more learning in the next draft of my book as I have big holes in a lot of stuff but I am writing something in a familiar pattern and once I accepted that this was the way to go, I became a very happy bunny as opposed to a bunny boiler – ha, ha!

 

 

 

 

Conclusions then, never stop seeking new knowledge but know what you like and keep focused on that. This means you won’t spend too much time, or money on things which don’t help. You also need to identify what success looks like for you.

To finish with, I will leave you with what my idea of success is at the moment – 50,000 words in the bag because, and I thank you Jodi Piccoult for your quote:

“You can always edit a bad page. You can’t edit a blank page.”