Abigail Bosanko is a funny, insightful writer whose first novel, Lazy Ways To Make a Living (was published in 2002. Her second novel, A Nice Girl Like Me, has just been published and will make you laugh just as much as her first one. She lives in Edinburgh with her husband, Peter. Abigail took time out from penning her third novel and updating her hilarious web diary to give us her top 5 writing tips and 5 essential reads.
Abigail Bosanko's top 5 writing tips
1. write in bed
Write from a place of safety, in your pyjamas. This is a tried and tested method favoured by successful writers as varied as Noel Coward and Marian Keyes.
2. feel free to fail
The first draft of a novel is a difficult thing to write and it's a mistake to try to get it perfect as you go along - unless you're Beryl Bainbridge who favours the hard path of sentence-by-sentence perfection. My advice to writers not called Beryl Bainbridge is: feel free to make mistakes and restrain yourself from deleting everything as you go along. There is absolutely no point in perfecting chapter 1 on the first draft because once you get to chapter 8, you'll find that chapter 1 is irrelevant. Similarly, once you get to chapter 15, you'll realise that the action of chapter 3 would be much better in the middle of the book. And so on. (Incidentally, Beryl Bainbridge writes screeds more than she actually uses in the final draft.) I would suggest that a writer's only aim after starting the first draft of a novel is to finish it. A first draft is not about style, it's about word count - never mind the quality, feel the width. Only when you've completed a first draft may you worry about the first rewrite.
3. never give up in the middle
Most people who try - and fail - to write a novel do so because they give up in the middle. It's the most popular place at which to give up. Perhaps this is because the book has grown big enough to be clumsy and confusing but it has not yet developed real strength of character or purpose.
The middle of a book should be regarded as its 'adolescence'. Your book's adolescence can drive you mad but it can be deeply rewarding to see your book through to full maturity. You must be prepared to jettison your old beliefs about character and plot and allow new ones to take their place. You must 'let go' and allow the story to grow up and take you where it will. This will be alarming but it can also be hugely enjoyable.
NB the 'middle' is not the middle of the first draft, but the middle of the whole writing process. It is unlikely to be chapter 10 out of 20, but it might well be the third draft of what turns out to be a six-draft novel written over two or three years. The 'middle' is the middle of the time period it takes to write a novel. Stick at it. Get to the end.
4. 'the time to write is the time which is available'
This is a direct quote from Bestseller: Secrets of Successful Writing by Celia Brayfield. It is the only book you need on the subject and it's written by someone who has written several bestsellers. To paraphrase Ms Brayfield: the time to write is not when Venus is residing in your seventh house, you've got childcare and the muse is with you and you've had a great idea; the time to write is the time available. If the only time available is half an hour before anyone else is up or ten minutes when you can lock yourself in the bathroom, then that's your time to write. Stories do get written this way.
5. if you write it, it will come
Writing is more in the hands than in the head. You can spend ages thinking about the story and plotting the chapters and then as soon as you start to write other things crop up that you hadn't planned. That's because the story develops in your subconsious - in your dreams - before you can access it with your conscious mind. Spend time allowing your subconscious to develop the story. It's important to go for a walk, listen to music - give yourself a break, but even when the words won't flow, go to the desk every day and write. Don't fret if it doesn't seem to be coming right, just keep going. If you write it, it will come - eventually.
1. the pursuit of love by nancy mitford
Sparklingly wit, Nancy Mitford achieves that trick of elegant writing that is both beautifully poised and achingly funny. An absolute tonic.
2. jane eyre by charlotte bronte
Rebel Plain Jane dares to live passionately.
3. oranges are not the only fruit by jeanette winterson
Brilliant first novel by a writer with prodigious comic talent who had it in her to make the masses laugh with her clever, beautiful wit but now she is only accessibly amusing to a small circle of literary folk. Ah, well, she chose the narrow path of perfection.
4. a far cry from kensington by muriel spark
My favourite writer. 'Love arises from the heart,' says narrator Mrs Hawkins, 'and hate from principle.' This is a book about love and about principles - literary principles in particular.
5. staying alive: real poems for unreal times edited by neil astley
I love poetry and this is my favourite collection. I usually read something from it when I go to bed. These poems tend to be the kind you would never have come across if Neil Astley hadn't collected them for you. It's all here: love, hope, life and death, the earth, the universe and the art of writing itself. I like to go to sleep feeling impressed.
Abigail Bosanko is a funny, insightful writer whose first novel, Lazy Ways To Make a Living (was published in 2002. Her second novel, A Nice Girl Like Me, has just been published and will make you laugh just as much as her first one. She lives in Edinburgh with her husband, Peter. Abigail took time out from penning her third novel and updating her hilarious web diary to give us her top 5 writing tips and 5 essential reads.
1. the pursuit of love by nancy mitford 
2. jane eyre by charlotte bronte 
3. oranges are not the only fruit by jeanette winterson 
4. a far cry from kensington by muriel spark 
5. staying alive: real poems for unreal times edited by neil astley