3 Techniques That Can Make Your Fiction Shine
As a published novelist, these are the three techniques that have elevated my writing to the next level
My first novel was published in 2013, after many failed attempts to finish an extended piece of fiction. Infinite Sky was the first novel I had ever completed and it went onto become my first book. I had already been studying the craft of writing for about ten years then, but novel writing still felt mysterious to me. When my first book went onto get good reviews and win awards, I wondered if I had fluked it.
I was terrified that I wouldn’t be able to finish a book again.
My second novel, Nightwanderers, was published in 2016, but I wrote three or four first drafts of completely different novels before my editor was happy with what I’d produced. The truth is that even when I wrote my second book, I still found novel writing fairly mysterious. As a result, my first drafts were terrible.
And, yes, I know we say that first drafts are allowed to be terrible, but we mean compared to the final masterpiece you will produce, not absolutely. As a beginner, you need to give yourself permission to write terrible first drafts in order to get the practice at writing that you need to become better. Once you’re a professional, your…
