Top Ten Writing Tips by Rhen Garland
Welcome to week 24 of our Top 10 Writing Tips feature. If you’ve missed any of the other top tip posts you can find them all HERE. Please feel free to pop over and connect with the wonderful authors who have taken part.
Next up for the challenge is author of the Versipellis Mysteries, Rhen Garland.
Rhen Garland lives in Somerset, England with her music writing, folk-singing husband, approximately 4000 books, an equal number of ancient movies, and a large collection of passive-aggressive Tomtes.
She enjoys the countryside, peace, and Prosecco, and the works of Ngaio Marsh, Glady Mitchell, John Dickson Carr/Carter Dickson, Agatha Christie, Terry Pratchett, Simon R Green, and David and Leigh Eddings.
Top 10 Writing Tips:
1 – Never give up.
2 – Write when you can; before going to school/work, after you come home, around the school run, just get your words down on paper or a word doc as and when you can…it doesn’t matter how few/many you get down as long as you get them down.
3 – Don’t let someone else tell you how to tell your story…these are your words, not theirs.
4 – Enjoy the process; the instant it seems like hard work, put it down and do something else.
5 – If your characters want to change the story, work with them…this is when you can ignore Tip 3 and accept input, if they are talking to you…listen!
6 – Don’t forget to have a life away from the laptop…all work etc…
7 – Eat!
8 – If you have the room, make sure you have a little place where you can leave your writing set-up where it won’t be moved or squashed by other people’s stuff/laundry/kids/dogs/cats etc…
9 – Breath…
10 – Back to Tip 4, write your words and enjoy the journey.
Huge thanks to Rhen for sharing her top tips with us. If you want to check out her latest novel Death in the Sound, then click HERE. To find out more about Rhen you can follow her on Twitter @RhenWitch or on Amazon.
Shelley Wilson Author 
These are my kind of tips! And… I wish I had a space I could leave, all set up…!
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It makes a big difference if you can x
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I have it all in a box and bag ready to open up and set out when I can!
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As long as it’s all together then that works too! Writer on the road lol 😆
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That’s me!
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Good tips! Hard core plotters (like me) have trouble with number 5, letting the characters change the story, but free writing little scenes or character interviews before actually starting a book helps. It lets me know if I need to tweak the outline.
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Totally agree with you, Priscilla!
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