Seven top tips from a published novelist

Beth Miller is the author of six novels, including the bestselling The Missing Letters of Mrs Bright (2020). Her most recent novel, The Woman Who Came Back to Life (2022), will be published in seven languages. She has also published two non-fiction books: one about Shakespeare and one about The Archers. Beth is a Royal Literary Fund Fellow at Brighton University, and teaches creative writing at various places, including for Arvon. 

1. ‘Don’t get it right, get it written’ 
   I have this as a mantra in my head the whole time I’m writing the first draft. It means: don’t go back endlessly over your work rewriting; don’t sit there pointlessly worrying that it doesn’t say exactly what you want; don’t waste time moving commas about; don’t be neurotic. Churn out the words, and trust that you can make them better later – you can.
   

2. Raise the stakes
   If your character’s not super-invested in something, why would your reader be? Increase the personal stakes for a character and watch the tension rise exponentially. 
   

3. Begin late
   Start the story as late as you can, and at a point of interest.
   

4. Suit your style
   If you’re a ‘pantser’, write without worrying too much, then when you get into the classic pantser pickle at about the 30,000 word mark, write a long synopsis about everything that’s happened so far, and what might happen next.
   

5. Stay cool 
   Top editing tip number one: put the novel away for a few weeks and come back to it with the detached, cold eye of the assassin. 
   

6. Share!
   Top editing tip number two: share your work with a couple of writing buddies who will tell you what they love about your writing as well as what doesn’t work. Writing a book is a big project, and hard to do completely alone; I’ve found that it takes a village.
   

7. Read this article
   I’m always referring writers to this superb article by Chuck Wendig called, ‘In which I critique your story (that I haven’t read).’ It covers a lot of the mistakes the rookie (and sometimes not so rookie) novelist makes.

++ You can read more about Beth’s career, work and writing mentoring services here.