Four things you should know before writing a novel: tips from a writer

1. It requires a ton of discipline

I have never struggled so much to get myself to actually just sit down and write. When you are studying, you have to work each day because you have impending deadlines, if you are just starting to write your first novel and do not have an agent, you do not have set deadlines. You can try setting deadlines for yourself but I have found that I do not always write the same number of words in each setting and to push myself to meet word counts may mean that the quality of writing is not as good and I just scrap what I have written anyway. Instead, I now set myself to write on certain days and have a minimum word goal I would like to achieve in mind.

I joined a book club and why you should too

Book clubs are certainly not new, in fact the one that I joined has been running for a very long time indeed but I had never been a member of one before. I had thought about it but I wasn’t sure what to expect. Book clubs can be physical or virtual. I have a Goodreads account and there are book clubs in the groups section but I had never found it motivating enough to actually read the group read, there simply was not enough accountability. I have anxiety and it was suggested that I try some things outside of my comfort zone, such as joining a book club! So again, I looked into book clubs and decided that I was going to go to just one meeting and see what I find. Here are the positives that I have found:

           1. You get to read outside of your comfort zone:

I love books, I love reading and I love writing. To improve your writing skills it is always recommended to read more, and not just in one genre but across different genres and different topics. In joining a book club, I have found that the group picks are completely out of my usual choice of books and do you know what? It’s great! I started reading the first one, one I had never heard of and was not sure what to expect and I found that I actually enjoyed the writing style and the story intrigued me. If I had not joined the book club I would not have started to discover books that I ordinarily would not have picked up.