Project December: A Book About Writing

By Louise Truscott

All about writing - a guide for writers and those thinking about writing to getting started, developing characters and plot, the writing process, editing and what to do when the book is finished. Inside you'll find:

* The writer's commandments
* The ideas generator
* Developing a genuinely scary and evil villain
* How long chapters should be
* Writing dialogue
* Writer's block
* How to be your own editor
* Tips on getting published
* The importance of writers who read

...and much, much more. Happy reading and happy writing!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Louise Truscott
• Release date: Feb 26, 2017
• ISBN: 9780994512147

Louise Truscott

Louise Truscott was born, brought up and still lives in Melbourne, Australia. She tried not being a writer and editor, then tried being a corporate writer and editor, but she’s only truly happy writing and editing when she chooses what to write and what to edit. With a blog called Single White Female Writer, there are lots of hints in the name about who she is. She published Enemies Closer, her debut novel, under the name LE Truscott in 2012. Project December: A Book About Writing, her second book, was initially published in 2015 and Project January: A Sequel About Writing was published in 2017. Black Spot, her upcoming novel, was shortlisted for the 2016 Text Prize.

Book preview

In early 2015, I started writing a blog that I called Single White Female Writer (against the advice of some who thought it was a stupid name for a blog). The idea was to create a place to house all my various pieces of writing so that whenever a potential employer or publisher asked to see samples, I could direct them to an easily accessible online location. That was nine months ago.

It gradually morphed into a combination of book reviews (also examples of my writing), advice on writing to other writers, guest posts showcasing good writing and creative pieces from others, articles about employment I originally posted on LinkedIn, as well as my poems, chapters from various novels at various stages (from started to half-finished to completed to published to abandoned before they ever got to any of those last four phases) and whatever else I thought was appropriate as long as it had something to do with writing.

I decided it was too self-indulgent to just post my own creative pieces so the focus became writing advice. I was writing posts well in advance and as I write this introduction, there are six months of future blog posts already written and scheduled.

I’d written so much, I realised, that I had enough to fill a book. So here it is.

Some of the chapters are freely available on my blog right now but many are brand new and I cover all stages of the writing process from getting started, character development, the writing itself, editing, what happens when the book is finished and, of course, reading because reading is one of the most integral parts of learning to be a good writer.

I don’t claim to know everything about writing (and anyone who does is either a fool or a liar). But I want to help others become better writers and hope a few of the suggestions, tips and tricks outlined in this book will certainly help you to do that.

A note on the title (which some also thought was a stupid name for the book): I’ve been reasonably vocal on my blog about a month-long intensive writing effort I call Project October, in which the object is to write as much as possible. Project November is what happens after you’ve finished the first draft – seeking reader’s feedback, cutting, rewriting – and so that makes Project December actually publishing the book.

Hopefully, that makes sense. If not, read the Project October, Project November and Project December chapters and it will all become clear. And then read the rest of the book and this writing caper will become even clearer.

Happy reading and happy writing!

Part 1 – Getting started

There’s no such thing as an aspiring writer

Every time I see someone describing themselves as an aspiring writer, I want to shout at them, There’s no such thing! Being a writer is like being pregnant – you either are or you aren’t. So are you writing or not? Because if you write, you’re a writer. And if you don’t, then you’re not.

Saying you are an aspiring writer has as much meaning as me saying I’m an aspiring rich person. Let’s read between the lines. It means I would like to be rich but I’m not. It also likely means I don’t have a clear plan of how I’m going to become a rich person. I’m also an aspiring piano player, an aspiring helicopter pilot and an aspiring hermit.

Some people seem to have trouble with this concept. They think of writing as something they might do one day, like retiring and travelling the world after they’ve finished working their real job, paying off their mortgage and raising their family. But just like retiring and travelling the world, it requires a lot of preparation. You can’t just decide you want to do it one day and the next day be doing it. At least, if you do, you won’t be doing it well.

Only a miniscule percentage of a miniscule percentage of writers write something perfect and publishable on their first go. The vast majority that comprises the rest of us have to practise and practise and practise. And while we’re practising, we’re writers. Whether or not anyone else reads it is irrelevant. Do you really want the first thing you write to be the one and only book you’ve got in you? Wouldn’t you rather it was the tenth book and have the knowledge and skill that comes with practising to help make it the best possible book it can be?

The great thing about writing is that you don’t require anyone else’s permission to do it. It doesn’t require study or training, although that helps sometimes. You don’t have to be a member of any group. If you write something you aren’t happy with, you don’t have to show it to anyone. You can write a little here and a little there in between working your real job, paying off your mortgage and raising your family. And anyone with a basic knowledge of the language they want to write in can do it.

So if you want to do it, then do it. But if you aren’t doing it, then stop telling me that you want to, that you might one day. People who want to, who might one day are unpredictable and, worse, unreliable. And every day they don’t write is another day of diminishing credibility.

So write. Or don’t. Just don’t call yourself an aspiring writer.

The writer’s commandments

Remember when you were a kid and a large part of the learning process was accomplished by doing? And then being screamed at by an adult to never do it again? Like putting your hand under the running hot tap. Like running out onto a road to collect a ball without checking for oncoming cars. Like riding a mini motorbike into a barbed wire fence (okay, so maybe this one was only me).

It would have been so much easier if someone had told me before I did any or all of these things not to do them instead of waiting until after I’d done them and then shouting at me. Maybe it wouldn’t have made any difference. But we’ll never know because nobody thought to try the learning process in a different order.

Even for older children these days, a common refrain is, But nobody told me not to do it. So here’s a few commandments for writers out there. You probably shouldn’t have to be and don’t need to be told these things. But just in case, here they are so that you can never say, But nobody told me not to do it.

1. Thou shalt not plagiarise.

This is the worst possible sin of any writer. Not to be a bad writer because we’re all bad writers at some point. But to steal the writing of another writer and claim it as your own. Writers are the only ones who know how hard other writers work and so it should go without saying that we don’t steal other writers’ writing. But here I am saying it anyway.

If you want to use the writing of another writer, then ask. Or at the very least use a pair of quotation marks and credit the writer who wrote it. Because I can’t think of a single good thing that ever came from plagiarising another writer’s work.

2. Thou shalt not embrace clichés, stereotypes and plot twists that make no sense.

Which would you rather have someone say about your writing? It reminded me a lot of these other books I’ve read. Or: I’ve never read anything like it before.

If you spend the majority of a book convincing the reader that the main character is too afraid to stand up to the villain, only to have them suddenly do it, then it makes no sense. In fact, it will seem like the only reason the main character stood up to the villain is because you wanted to finish writing the book.

Writing is like ballet in that respect. Readers want to see the movement, not the effort behind the movement. If they can see the effort behind the movement, if they can see plots straining under the weight of clichés and stereotypes and twists that there are no justification for, then it won’t be a satisfying reading experience. On the other hand, if they can see the lack of effort behind the movement, the laziness of poor writing and one-dimensional characters, then that won’t be a satisfying reading experience either. All they should see is movement. Cohesive, logical, original, surprising and worthy of both you and them.

3. Thou shalt not write only what you know.

Writing what you know is a great way to get started. But it’s limiting. Writing should expand the mind, not trap it between an ever-shrinking set of walls. And that includes yours as well as your readers. If you don’t know much, go out and get some life experience. Travel blogs are popular for a very good reason; because writers want to broaden their horizons and readers want to go along for the ride.

So while you can write about the suburban life, the wife, husband and 2.4 kids, it shouldn’t be all you write about. Write about flying helicopters and becoming a spy and travelling to the moon. And you don’t need to do any of these things before writing about them. You just need to be prepared to do a bit of research and let your imagination have free rein.

4. Thou shalt not write tomorrow what can be written today.

Writing is great because it can usually fit in around everything else you have to do in your life. But every time you find yourself with a gap in your schedule, potential writing time, and choose not to write is another day, week, month or year that you will remain undiscovered and unread.

Time is the most precious tool in a writer’s toolbox and taking advantage of it can be the difference between a book that is published next year and a book that is published next decade.

5. Thou shalt not claim to be too busy writing to read.

Reading is one of the best ways to learn how to write. By seeing what others are doing. By seeing how others are doing it. By seeing what they’re doing wrong and what they’re doing right. And then by removing the wrong from and applying the right to your own work.

Besides, if you don’t read the writing of others, how can you have any right to expect others to read yours? And if you don’t read, how can you know that the book you’re slaving over isn’t almost identical to something someone else has already written?

6. Thou shalt not submit first drafts to publishers.

Submitting first drafts to publishers is a sure-fire way of getting your manuscript sent straight to the recycling bin, whether that’s the electronic version on a computer’s desktop or the physical variety next to the office desk. And if you really piss them off, it could even be a black mark against your name every time you submit something in the future. It’s one thing not to be remembered but it’s another entirely to be remembered and rejected out of hand.

Anything worth submitting to a publisher, someone who reads and assesses books for a living, is worth being in at least its second or third iteration or, even better, in its fourth or fifth. Save yourself and the publisher the effort and the embarrassment.

7. Thou shalt not claim to know it all.

Nobody ever knows everything about writing. There is no longer journey than the writing journey. Not even life. And usually when you think you might be nearing a point where you might be close to knowing it all, that’s when you die. Thus ensuring the writing journey is longer even than the living journey.

And because you can’t know it all, when you work with an editor, you must give careful and impartial consideration to everything they say. They won’t know it all either but together you will know more than either of you can individually.

8. Thou shalt not have expectations.

Yes, it would be nice if a publisher read your book, declared it the best thing they’d ever read and offered you a ten-year contract for a book a year with guaranteed first print runs of a million copies. But that happens to so few writers I’m not sure I could even use all the fingers on my hands to count them.

Writing is something writers do because they don’t know how not to write. If you got into writing to become famous or to make a quick buck then, boy, are you in the wrong industry.

Write if you will. Write if you must. But have no expectation other than this: no matter how hard you work, it might still never happen.

9. Thou shalt not be humble.

Blow your own trumpet because you can guarantee nobody else will. They’re all too busy blowing their own. Writing is one of those rare talents that cannot simply be demonstrated. Somebody must be willing to believe you are talented before they ever read a word of what you have written.

Singers and musicians can busk. Actors and directors can make a short film and upload it to YouTube. Everybody seems willing to listen and watch for a few minutes without feeling like they’ve wasted their time, even when they have. (A guy eating wasabi? Seriously?) But apparently asking someone to read something is a real imposition.

So be confident. Campaign for your writing. Because unless they’re getting paid, no one else will.

10. Thou shalt not believe the hype.

Just because a thousand screaming girls tell you you’re wonderful does not make it true. Okay, I’m mostly talking to Justin Bieber here but there’s a cautionary tale in there for writers, too. Some people have a penchant for taking fandom way too far. If you’re lucky enough to have fans, people who genuinely, honestly believe you’re the best writer who ever lived, please remember that while it’s flattering, in all likelihood it’s also not true.

As the old, crude but very accurate saying goes, everybody’s shit stinks.

A million excuses not to write

I use the word excuses deliberately. A reason is a legitimate justification. An excuse, as defined by my dictionary, is an explanation, not necessarily true, given in order to make something appear more acceptable. And here are just a few of them.

My writing isn’t good enough

And it never will be if you don’t practise. I’ve been writing for twenty years and a lot of what I’ve written is, to be perfectly frank, absolute crap. That’s why it will never be published (except perhaps as an exercise in humility to demonstrate to beginner writers that we all have to start somewhere and it’s usually not a good place – see the 7 March 2015 blog post on Single White Female Writer entitled The embarrassment of early writing but only if you absolutely must). I have at least five practice novels gathering dust in drawers. I can’t bring myself to throw them away because just finishing each of them was an achievement. But they are trite, uninspiring affairs lacking in complex characters and plot and will never be published because they were merely the training ground on which I learned. They got me here and they show a clear path being travelled, but the path was rocky and not one I wish to travel again, certainly not in the company of others.

Enough of the waffle. Just write. And eventually your writing will be good enough. One day it might even be great. But giving up before you get there is just one more excuse.

I don’t have enough time

We all lead busy lives – partners, parents, children, grandchildren, friends, hobbies, work, social events – and there will always be plenty of opportunities for your valuable potential writing time to be eaten up by other things. Choosing to write is just that, a choice. When you make the choice, it will inevitably mean sacrificing other things in your life. For some, this will be social events (which contributes to the image of the lonely, isolated writer). For others, this will be sleep (which contributes to the image of the perpetually grumpy writer). For me, it means exercise (which means I’m lazy and will never achieve the Elle McPherson body I dream of). And for a determined few, we sacrifice the security of having a paying job (which ironically contributes to being lonely, isolated and grumpy as well as financially insecure). But I do it (periodically anyway) because the only (unacceptable) alternative is not to write.

I don’t know how to get published

Publishing is not the closed industry it once was. There are plenty of options to get your work out there from blogging (hello!), self-publishing (hello again!), literary agents to champion your work (no such luck for me) and direct approaches to publishers through their unsolicited manuscript submission procedures.

This last option is reasonably widespread nowadays. Off the top of my head I can think of Manuscript Monday through Pan Macmillan and their digital publishing arm, Momentum, the Wednesday Post through HarperCollins, the Friday Pitch through Allen & Unwin, the Monthly Catch through Penguin Australia, and Random House Australia and Text Publishing currently accept unsolicited manuscript submissions in hard copy any time. And these are just a few of the big Australian publishers. There are plenty more small publishing houses locally and a myriad of small to large publishers internationally.

It’s not hard to research the numerous options available. Perhaps the ones that end up being available to you aren’t what you were hoping for (big advance, huge print run, professional marketing team, copious bottles of champagne). But if all you are really looking for is to be published, there are plenty of ways to make it happen that don’t involve instantaneous wealth and fame.

Dodgy publishers everywhere, not a drop of ink

A writing friend raised this with me after being asked for $350 by a so-called, possibly self-proclaimed, publisher to gauge the market for her work. I called bullshit immediately. The entire job of a publisher is to gauge the market and they shouldn’t be asking for money from writers to finance it. In fact, it should be the other way around. A publisher should already know the market and be in the business of leading it, not following, and if they decide your writing is what they need, they should be giving you money.

Despite the dodgy publishers, there are many more genuine options out there. Do a bit of research to find out which are dodgy and which are genuine and don’t let a few charlatans chase you away.

I don’t know how to market myself or my work

I’m very much in this category. But when I think about it honestly, it’s not that I don’t know how, it’s that marketing myself is a huge amount of work in its own right – taking away from that valuable potential writing time I was talking about – but perhaps more importantly, it’s also way outside my comfort zone.

I like being unknown. I like not being the centre of attention. I used to Google my name to make sure it didn’t come up. But, unfortunately, that is now incongruent with what I am trying to achieve so I had to get over it.

The first step was an online profile. I resisted an online profile for a long time and I still refuse to have a Facebook page. But in 2012, when I published my debut novel, Enemies Closer, I had to accept that it is a necessary evil and seek out the middle ground. So I set up a Twitter account, a Goodreads account and a LinkedIn profile and started to slowly make connections. I did some paid online advertising. I begged everybody I knew to buy, read and post a review of the book (thanks, Mum).

It took a further three years but in 2015 I also set up my blog. I pumped my little sister for information on the best way to go about it since she already had her own blog (Sewn by Elizabeth – check it out) and followed her Gen Y advice.

None of these things individually are a ticket to overnight success but they’re all small steps in a very large and long process.

I don’t know how and/or don’t