Writing;the planning stage

What’s the next thing you’re planning to write?

This question came from my niece who is not a writer by profession but writes articles and plays in whatever minutes she can squeeze out of her life as working mum.

Have you ever felt that tug in your gut when someone asked you the question?

Ridiculous but I didn’t want to tell her so compromised with, ‘It’s only in the planning stage, not the writing stage at the moment’.

Which is true but an incomplete answer.

I referred in a previous blog to Neil Gaiman’s Fragile Things and I think it’s such a good phrase to apply to our writing when we’re uncertain about it.

I’ve written in the past about finding support for your state of being a writer, and I’m sure I’ll return to it again because it’s such an important topic but from what I’ve read it’s something that strikes at the root of all writers’ confidence.

It doesn’t matter if it’s fiction or factual material; there is still this sharp intake of breath that we feel. This instinct of ‘what if I tell someone what I’m doing, they’ll think it’s boring, useless, unpublishable (insert your own favourite put down here).

That’s why I think the planning stage is vital and it underpins everything I try to pass on to you for your writing career. Whatever else you do don’t just launch into writing a book. Yes the onrush of creativity is wonderful and you need that to get started. But what you don’t want is a very quick follow up of an equivalent downer because you suddenly don’t know what to do next.

So what am I planning for 2010? Ah that would be telling because I have a couple of grand designs in the pipeline. But I’ll let you into a small secret. There will be a new ‘How to plan your writing’ guide for the spring to add to the growing stable I have.

Check out what’s currently available here www.writerslittlebook.co.uk/newbooks.html

All my books are realistic because that’s what I am, easy to digest because we’re all busy people and practical because you need things you can apply with ease to your own writing.

If you’re currently looking to write, are not sure where to begin then email me at Eileen@writerslittlebook.co.uk with your top 3 questions. You have the chance to have your question answered in depth in the book.