Best writing advice: Finish your book!

Over at the fantastic web site, Women’s Fiction Writers , debut novelist Kim Izzo, author of The Jane Austen Marriage Manual , offers some important, simple advice to aspiring authors – Finish your book !

Kim’s advice is to get it all down from start to finish, without getting too bogged down with perfect phrasing or structure on the first draft. She suggests allowing your imagination to flow and committing your ideas to the page.

You can go back to edit later, but in Kim’s opinion, too many authors agonize over the smaller aspects of the novel and never complete their work, when they should be fully concentrated on that initial creative outpouring.

In general, I’m good with this stage and the part I enjoy most is the first draft/creative phase – that always tends to go quickly. The part that consistently slows me down is (seemingly endless) revision stage,  when the romance I once felt for my novel starts to fade .

But I have also been guilty of setting aside perfectly good projects in the first draft stage, so I do find this wise advice for all aspiring writers.

Kim offers some other fantastic advice she learned along the way:  Even if you write only one hour a day, it adds up. Busy writers, take heart! Setting aside large stretches of time to devote to writing may simply not be possible for you, but we can all find an hour a day to commit to writing.

I love to have big blocks of time to write, but sometimes life just gets in the way. I completed my current manuscript with this hour-a –day approach and I can guarantee it does honestly add up quicker than you may believe.

So writers, what do you think? Do you like to get all your ideas down quickly? Or do you revise even as your story is taking place? Or is your approach a combination of the two?

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