Write On with Gillian Cross
Ever thought you could write your own bestseller? Or have you ever wondered how your favourite author got started with their first piece of writing? The chances are they started to at least think about it while they were still at school - toying around with poetry or writing short stories. Here's your chance to get a few tips from one of the best writers in the business.
Gillian Cross has been writing books since she was seven, 'but,' she says, 'I didn't get to the end of one until I was twenty-eight.' As well as her best-known work, The Demon Headmaster, Gillian has written a whole range of children's books, including thrillers, comedies, science fiction and adventure. Such variety, in addition to her obvious success, means Gillian is ideally suited to giving hints and tips on creative writing skills. Read on to gain some of her writing wisdom.
' Writers are all different. They write about different things in different ways. That makes it difficult for one person to give useful tips to another. All I can say is that these are some of the things that I find helpful:
- Don't just think about how great your idea is. WRITE it.
- ENJOY doing it - even if you're writing something sad. If you don't enjoy yourself, no one will enjoy reading what you've written.
- You haven't got to stick to things you know. You can write whatever you like. But FIND OUT ABOUT IT. Getting the details right will make your story (or play or poem) more convincing and it will probably give you new ideas as well.
- Don't settle for second best. If there's something wrong and you can see how to fix it, then WRITE THAT BIT AGAIN. (But never rewrite just for the sake of it.)
- Remember that readers can only read what's on the page, not what's in your mind. If you don't tell them (or give them a way of guessing), they won't know.
- Other people can offer suggestions, but YOU are the writer. You make the decisions.
- Keep going. If you keep going long enough, you'll always get to the end.
