Janessa Mackinnon
Janessa Mackinnon asked James Morcan:

Hi, do you have any specific strategies you use to write your novels, or any tips that helped you write your books? I was wondering aha just because your writing Is so profound!

James Morcan Hi Janessa,
Thanks and good to know you're resonating what's been written.

I think writing is like other artistic mediums in that it is never in the end about the artistic medium. The medium, in this case writing, is just a form of expression for the artist and it's more about how deeply the artist/author understands life itself.

Therefore, I tend not to subscribe to writing techniques, strategies etc, beyond the obvious like reading a lot and absorbing different writing styles. At the end of the day one can be a brilliant writer technically, but a woeful storyteller. The former (writing technique) can be learnt from others and is necessary, but the latter (storytelling) can only be discovered...And that discovery generally comes from life study rather than a study of literature.

In my opinion, it's the same in all other artforms including filmmaking, painting, music, etc.

So my advice is study life and try to understand human nature as deeply as you can!

Beyond that, I'll repeat some more specific advice I gave to a person who recently wrote me wanting to become an author:

The way you eat a whole elephant is not to concentrate on eating the entire elephant as then it seems too daunting and you'll never finish. It's like that with anything in life. And writing is no different. So don't concentrate on writing an entire book, but rather break it down into small manageable steps - first, look to write a one page summary of the story or book you want to write, then expand that to a 10 page summary. Then start expanding that story outline into actual chapters. And then before you know it, by concentrating on small things every day and writing say 1000-2000 words per day, you will surprise yourself and write a whole book.

The other thing is many people who call themselves "published authors" publish books that have only gone through one or two drafts and they think that is a finished product ready to be purchased by the public. It's not. Remember this: Good books aren't written, they are rewritten. Therefore, once you have a finished draft, you must be prepared to show it to others and get feedback and then keep honing it with lots of rewrites until it is absolutely perfect and can be read by book buyers. Most of my books have gone thru at least a dozen full rewrites of the entire manuscript and most other authors are the same.

Good luck in all that you do,
James

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