Hi all, and welcome to my July blog, just as we hit some strong heat waves in England. This time last year, I was in one of the most beautiful places I have ever been to in my life: Santorini, Greece. At this moment, I write this in a sunny Bath City. I have finished my latest book: My Unreal Real World and I am just awaiting the final design of the book covers before publishing it. I am really excited about this.
I have recently been learning more about different learning styles of writing and doing lots of fictional reading. Today though, I am going to discuss the research I have been doing on YouTube, where there are so many videos of other writers. Self-education is always key to self-improvement in any area of life and so reading fictional books and research helps me to understand what makes a good book. I find that I can learn many different things from writers. There are a couple of things in particular to mention that I have picked up from research.
The first thing to mention are the daily habits of writers and their routines. This differs of course from writer to writer: some prefer getting up early in the morning to start writing and some prefer writing in the evening. It can also depend if the writer has a day job as well. One key thing that they all have in common though, is the discipline to stick to their writing schedule as I am doing. One thing that I have picked up though, is to consider when is the best time for me to write; at the moment, I focus on writing in the morning when my brain is more awake and then later in the day (after work) on doing my research.
The second thing that I have found in research is the difference in how writers plan and outline a book. As mentioned in a previous blog, for my first book I went more on a “less planning and go with the flow approach” but for my last three books I did quite a lot of (but not too much) planning and then went about writing chapter by chapter. Some writers do less planning and some like to map out the story. One particular thing that I noted was that one writer highlighted how they created an outline and then worked backwards from the ending, for their books. This is a technique I may try in my next book. It’s all about learning that there are different approaches and testing what is best for you.
Overall, researching what other writers are doing, alongside finding good books to read in different genres of writing, will expose your brain to plenty of ideas. It certainly helps my creativity and to structure my day smartly for writing. The more information you pick up, the more that “light bulb” moment is going to happen on a regular basis.
For now, have a fantastic summer!
Jonny Pardoe
Jonny Pardoe © July 2018
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